`Amr b. `Uthmán Makkí says in the Kitáb-i Maḥabbat[[156]] that God created the souls (dilhá) seven thousand years before the bodies and kept them in the station of proximity (qurb), and that he created the spirits (jánhá) seven thousand years before the souls and kept them in the degree of intimacy (uns), and that he created the hearts (sirrhá) seven thousand years before the spirits and kept them in the degree of union (waṣl), and revealed the epiphany of His beauty to the heart three hundred and sixty times every day and bestowed on it three hundred and sixty looks of grace, and He caused the spirits to hear the word of love and manifested three hundred and sixty exquisite favours of intimacy to the soul, so that they all surveyed the phenomenal universe and saw nothing more precious than themselves and were filled with vanity and pride. Therefore God subjected them to probation: He imprisoned the heart in the spirit and the spirit in the soul and the soul in the body; then He mingled reason (`aql) with them, and sent prophets and gave commands; then each of them began to seek its original station. God ordered them to pray. The body betook itself to prayer, the soul attained to love, the spirit arrived at proximity to God, and the heart found rest in union with Him. The explanation of love is not love, because love is a feeling (ḥál), and feelings are never mere words (qál). If the whole world wished to attract love, they could not; and if they made the utmost efforts to repel it, they could not. Love is a Divine gift, not anything that can be acquired.
Section.
Concerning excessive love (`ishq) there is much controversy among the Shaykhs. Some Ṣúfís hold that excessive love towards God is allowable, but that it does not proceed from God. Such love, they say, is the attribute of one who is debarred from his beloved, and Man is debarred from God, but God is not debarred from Man: therefore Man may love God excessively, but the term is not applicable to God. Others, again, take the view that God cannot be the object of Man’s excessive love, because such love involves a passing beyond limits, whereas God is not limited. The moderns assert that excessive love, in this world and the next, is properly applied only to the desire of attaining the essence, and inasmuch as the essence of God is not attainable, the term (`ishq) is not rightly used in reference to Man’s love towards God, although the terms “love” (maḥabbat) and “pure love” (ṣafwat) are correct. They say, moreover, that while love (maḥabbat) may be produced by hearing, excessive love (`ishq) cannot possibly arise without actual vision: therefore it cannot be felt towards God, who is not seen in this world. The essence of God is not attainable or perceptible, that Man should be able to feel excessive love towards Him; but Man feels love (maḥabbat) towards God, because God, through His attributes and actions, is a gracious benefactor to His friends. Since Jacob was absorbed in love (maḥabbat) for Joseph, from whom he was separated, his eyes became bright and clear as soon as he smelt Joseph’s shirt; but since Zulaykhá was ready to die on account of her excessive love (`ishq) for Joseph, her eyes were not opened until she was united with him. It has also been said that excessive love is applicable to God, on the ground that neither God nor excessive love has any opposite.
Section.
I will now mention a few of the innumerable indications which the Ṣúfí Shaykhs have given as to the true nature of love. Master Abu ´l-Qásim Qushayrí says: “Love is the effacement of the lover’s attributes and the establishment of the Beloved’s essence,” i.e. since the Beloved is subsistent (báqí) and the lover is annihilated (fání) the jealousy of love requires that the lover should make the subsistence of the Beloved absolute by negating himself, and he cannot negate his own attributes except by affirming the essence of the Beloved. No lover can stand by his own attributes, for in that case he would not need the Beloved’s beauty; but when he knows that his life depends on the Beloved’s beauty, he necessarily seeks to annihilate his own attributes, which veil him from his Beloved; and thus in love for his Friend he becomes an enemy to himself. It is well known that the last words of Ḥusayn b. Manṣúr (al-Ḥalláj) on the scaffold were Ḥasb al-wájid ifrád al-wáḥid, “It is enough for the lover that he should make the One single,” i.e. that his existence should be cleared away from the path of love and that the dominion of his lower soul should be utterly destroyed. Abú Yazíd Bisṭámí says: “Love consists in regarding your own much as little and your Beloved’s little as much.” This is how God Himself deals with His servants, for He calls “little” that which He has given to them in this world (Kor. iv, 79), but calls their praise of Him “much”—“the men and women who praise God much” (Kor. xxxiii, 35)—in order that all His creatures may know that He is the real Beloved, because nothing is little that God bestows on Man, and all is little that Man offers to God. Sahl b. `Abdalláh al-Tustarí says: “Love consists in embracing acts of obedience (mu`ánaqat al-ṭá`át) and in avoiding acts of disobedience,” because a man performs the command of his beloved more easily in proportion to the strength of love in his heart. This is a refutation of those heretics who declare that a man may attain to such a degree of love that obedience is no longer required of him, a doctrine which is sheer heresy. It is impossible that any person, while his understanding is sound, should be relieved of his religious obligations, because the law of Muḥammad will never be abrogated, and if one such person may be thus relieved why not all? The case of persons overcome with rapture (maghlúb) and idiots (ma`túh) is different. It is possible, however, that God in His love should bring a man to such a degree that it costs him no trouble to perform his religious duties, because the more one loves Him who gives the command the less trouble will he have in executing it. When the Apostle abandoned himself entirely to devotion both by day and night, so that his blessed feet became swollen, God said: “We have not sent down the Koran to thee in order that thou shouldst be miserable” (Kor. xx, 1). And it is also possible that one should be relieved of the consciousness of performing the Divine command, as the Apostle said: “Verily, a veil is drawn over my heart, and I ask forgiveness of God seventy times daily,” i.e. he asked to be forgiven for his actions, because he was not regarding himself and his actions, that he should be pleased with his obedience, but was paying regard to the majesty of God’s command and was thinking that his actions were not worthy of God’s acceptance. Sumnún Muḥibb says: “The lovers of God have borne away the glory of this world and the next, for the Prophet said, ‘A man is with the object of his love.’” Therefore they are with God in both worlds, and those who are with God can do no wrong. The glory of this world is God’s being with them, and the glory of the next world is their being with God. Yaḥyá b. Mu`ádh al-Rází says: “Real love is neither diminished by unkindness nor increased by kindness and bounty,” because in love both kindness and unkindness are causes, and the cause of a thing is reduced to nothing when the thing itself actually exists. A lover delights in the affliction that his beloved makes him suffer, and having love he regards kindness and unkindness with the same indifference. The story is well known how Shiblí was supposed to be insane and was confined in a madhouse. Some persons came to visit him. “Who are you?” he asked. They answered: “Thy friends,” whereupon he pelted them with stones and put them to flight. Then he said: “Had you been my friends, you would not have fled from my affliction.”
[152]. Here the author cites a description given by Ḥátim al-Aṣamm of his manner of praying.
[153]. Nafaḥát, No. 259.
[154]. Here follows a story, already related in the notice of Abú Bakr (p. 70), concerning the different manner in which Abú Bakr and `Umar recited the Koran when they performed their prayers.
[155]. Cf. Qushayrí (Cairo, 1318 A.H.), 170, 14 sqq.