LETTER 47: THE SIGNS OF LOVE

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate!

Brother Shamsuddin, the friendship of the Lord Most High for a servant is something hidden. When a servant wants to know whether he is one of God's friends or not, let him seek the confirmation of some signs of this love. The Prophet has said: When God Almighty be friends someone, He rains calamities upon him, and when someone displays diligence in his love for Him, He puts him to the test. The Prophet, when asked what this testing might be, replied. He does not spare a man's property, wife, or children. A sign of God's love for His servant is that He makes him shy away from anything other than God. The Prophet Jesus was asked: Why do you not buy an ass for your journeys? He replied: I am more precious to God Al- mighty than to vex my soul over an ass!

If you say that the Prophet had no cell, while many prophets and saints did have families and possessions without being cut off from the divine love, then it should be known that here it is a question of some but not all objects being desirable, as has been said: In truth, My saints are under My domes, and only I know them. This description applies to all the saints, while there are some who have been more intently desired, as this tradition attests: When God Almighty loves someone in a special way, He rains calamities upon his head. If the person bears this patiently, then God grants him the grace of 'se lection. If he pleases God, then he is raised to purity. The meaning of selection is that God Almighty makes His servant specially favored so that he acquires many kinds of qualities effortlessly. His purity would mean that he is cleansed of his faults. A religious scholar has said: When you yourself observe that you love and see Him, and note that He has ordered calamities for you, then know that He de sires your purification. That very process of purification is a form of mutual friendship, as has been said:

Night and day I are engaged in Your work, no matter what You do, I remain a wrinkle on your beauty!

A disciple said to his spiritual guide: He gave me an indication of His love. Son, he replied, for you the Friend is to be found in calamities, and yet you prefer love to the Beloved! The disciple denied this charge. Do not desire friendship, replied the guide, for He does not confer His friendship on a servant until such time as He also ordains calamities for him!

It is related that the Prophet said: When God Almighty takes a servant as His special friend, He makes him preach to himself and gives him divine knowledge from his own heart so that he might give himself orders with regard to what is commanded and prohibited. He also said: When God Almighty wants to grant goodness to a servant, He grants him an insight into the faults of his own soul. And also: Would not the very special nature of the signs of the servant's love for God be an indication of God's friendship toward him, just as the fruit signifies the tree, and smoke indicates that there must be fire? The Messenger said: When God loves one of His servants in a special way, his sins de no real damage. That is to say, when God loves His servant, He grants him the gift of repentance before he dies. His past sin holds no dangers for him, just as past infidelity, before embracing Islam, does no damage.

Zayd Aslam said: Whenever God Almighty loves a servant, He loves him to the utmost, till His friendship attains the degree at which He says to him: 'Do whatever you want! I have forgiven you! If you ask, Is not sin opposed to the very root of love? the answer would be that it is against the perfection of love, but it is not opposed to its very foundation! Do you not see that there are many men who love their own lives and yet, when they fall sick and want to get better again, still eat things that are harmful to them? They know that something is harmful, and even though their knowledge may be defective, and sensuality gets the better of them, that still does not mean that they do not love their own lives: They simply cannot stand firmly rooted in the love of God! A Sufi has said: As long as one's faith does not penetrate the heart, one's love for God remains middling: but when it penetrates to the deepest recesses of the heart, then he does receive perfect love! He also abandons sin.

It is a risky business to claim that one loves God! The reason for this has been well put by Khwaja Fuzail: If someone asks, 'Do you love God remain silent. For if you reply in the negative, that would be infidelity, while if you reply that you do, you would be lacking a quality of lovers, and your love would be in danger! Understand that anyone who claims that he loves does about the easiest thing in the world, but actual loving, ah! that is extremely difficult!

A man should be careful not to be deceived by the trickery of Sa-tan or the duplicity of his own soul. We are entitled to our reservations every time someone claims to love God, until such time as he has been tested by signs and confirmed by indications and proofs. One of the signs of perfect love is intimacy in prayer with the Be-loved and perfect happiness when alone with Him. In the story of Baruch it is related that Moses, with all his glory, requested Baruch to pray for rain. God Almighty said to Moses: Baruch is a good servant, but he has one fault. Moses answered, My Lord, what is his fault? He enjoys the gentle morning breeze, came the reply, and rests while it is blowing. Anyone who loves Me cannot be at peace with any other!

It is also related that a devoted person was engaged in devotion toward God in a forest for an extended period. He saw a bird that had made a nest. It had a very pleasant voice. He thought that he would make his cell under that tree so that he might be cheered by its singing. He put his plan into execution. In the meantime, a revelation came to the Prophet Tell that dervish: You have affection for a particular creature. Hence, I shall cast you down from the rank you have acquired, and by no means will you be able to reach it again, no matter how much you try!

O brother, the delight of the intimacy experienced by some during invocatory prayer reaches such an intensity that even if their house were to burn down, they would have no knowledge of it! Others at prayer can have their foot operated on, as did Ali, and be oblivious of it! Wherever love and affection gain the ascendency, then in the privacy of invocatory prayer a person finds refreshment of soul He ceases thinking about things and sets a limit to the intrusions of worldly affairs, for he does not want things repeated over and over again. Whenever one who loves God engages in conversation with men, it is with his tongue only, his affection has been inwardly given over to remembering his Friend! Love for Him should be such that a person never rests except in his Beloved. It is also said that whoever does not possess three special qualities is not a friend of God: (1) He prefers to converse with God rather than with men; (2) he prefers the sight of God to that of men; (3) he prefers to devote himself to God rather than to be engaged in serving men. From all this it can be surmised that he shows no distress of mind at the loss of anything-except God Almighty!

Even if I were to have nothing in this world or the next, by having You, I do have everything! There is no need for anything else!

Khwaja Junaid says that one of the signs of love is that a person derives satisfaction from his devotion to God and that such devotion is in no way burdensome, while any pain that might accrue from it is assuaged, as has been said: Any labor undertaken for the sake of love has no trace of laziness about it: Although a person's body might grow tired, still his heart never flags. Religious scholars say that any one in love with God is never sated with worshiping Him, even if he enjoys great favors, since the lover, in worshiping the Beloved, re- mains submissive, without being obsequious! There is an example of this in contemplating carefully what lies before our eyes. Where is the lover who counts any effort made on behalf of his own beloved as burdensome? Or who considers service to the beloved anything but delightful, even though it be troublesome for his body? And if he is privileged to be near God, then he would be contemplating the very states of the angels and would know that even they show no slackening in their praise of God, nor do they give any hint of committing sins. Every lover who, like a mirror, considers his own love will feel ashamed, He will consider himself as one cut off and the meanest of lovers

For thirty years I worshiped the Lord in heart and limb, so thinking I had gained some influence with Him, remarked a lover. In my ecstatic contemplation I reached the rank of the angels. I asked them who they were. They replied: We are lovers of God and have been engaged in worshiping Him for three hundred thousand years. Never have our minds failed to be preoccupied with Him. Except for Him, we have remembered nothing at all. I became ashamed of my own efforts and presented them to an assembly of those for whom expiatory pain was required. From this it is clear that every- one who knows himself not only knows his Provider, but also to a fit- ting degree feels a certain sense of shame in relation to God. He becomes tongue-tied because he has taken steps to push his claims, he himself has come forward to reveal them. Rather, the way he carries himself, the moral tone of his actions, and his various qualities should all bear witness to his friendship and love, just as Khwaja Junaid said: My master, Khwaja Sari Saqati, fell sick. We had no remedy to treat the cause of the ailment. We sought the services of a very famous physician We showed him the bottle with a urine specimen. He looked at it for a while and finally said This indicates that he is a lover of God Khwaja Junaid continues: I fell unconscious! The bottle dropped from my hands. When I returned to consciousness, I hurried back to be of service to Khwaja Sari. I told him about the diagnosis, and he smiled. O Master, I exclaimed, 'can signs of love be discerned from such a specimen? Yes

The tale of the scorched breast refers to me. O heavenly

creature! Do not ask questions, lest the fire of hell erupt from my mouth!

Know now that there could be someone who, out of his own ignorance and self-seeking, might really love the enemy of God, and yet be proud of himself, thinking that it is God Whom he loves! None of the signs of genuine love would be found in such a person.

Khwaja Suhail, when engaged in conversation with anybody, used to say, O friend! People said it is possible that the man might not be his friend. How then could he address him as friend? He spoke softly into the ear of the questioner: There are only two possibilities Either he is a believer or a hypocrite. If he is a believer, he is a friend of God. If he is a hypocrite, he is a friend of Satan.

O brother, in friendship things occur that, outside its bonds, would be impossible but that, under the protection of love, become supportable. The difficulties and insults of love, by the command of love, are lifted up and borne away.

A novice was speaking with Khwaja Ibrahim Adham. When the time came for him to go, he began to excuse himself. The Khwaja cut him off, saying: Put your heart at ease! We were having a conversa Tion inspired by love, and a friend sees no badness in a friend. The love of anything renders a man both blind and dumb! The secret meaning of this dictum is given by Khwaja Bayazid Bistami: It is no matter for surprise that I love You, for there is no shortage of lovers of One so beautiful and perfect in every way! The astonishing thing is that You love me, full of helplessness and defects from head to toe, a mere child of dust! Hence you should know how it is that the tree of love could sprout from your dust, and that the cupbearer of the de- light of this wine could be so generous with His gift of 'He loves them, and they love Him! (Q5:54)

Who am I along Your Way that in my abode Flowers should sprout in my soil from Your glance? And beyond even this, I have received, from Your bounty. The adornment of Your love upon my heart!

Peace

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate!

Brother Shamsuddin, the friendship of the Lord Most High for a servant is something hidden. When a servant wants to know whether he is one of God's friends or not, let him seek the confirmation of some signs of this love. The Prophet has said: When God Almighty be friends someone, He rains calamities upon him, and when someone displays diligence in his love for Him, He puts him to the test. The Prophet, when asked what this testing might be, replied. He does not spare a man's property, wife, or children. A sign of God's love for His servant is that He makes him shy away from anything other than God. The Prophet Jesus was asked: Why do you not buy an ass for your journeys? He replied: I am more precious to God Al- mighty than to vex my soul over an ass!

If you say that the Prophet had no cell, while many prophets and saints did have families and possessions without being cut off from the divine love, then it should be known that here it is a question of some but not all objects being desirable, as has been said: In truth, My saints are under My domes, and only I know them. This description applies to all the saints, while there are some who have been more intently desired, as this tradition attests: When God Almighty loves someone in a special way, He rains calamities upon his head. If the person bears this patiently, then God grants him the grace of 'se lection. If he pleases God, then he is raised to purity. The meaning of selection is that God Almighty makes His servant specially favored so that he acquires many kinds of qualities effortlessly. His purity would mean that he is cleansed of his faults. A religious scholar has said: When you yourself observe that you love and see Him, and note that He has ordered calamities for you, then know that He de sires your purification. That very process of purification is a form of mutual friendship, as has been said:

Night and day I are engaged in Your work, no matter what You do, I remain a wrinkle on your beauty!

A disciple said to his spiritual guide: He gave me an indication of His love. Son, he replied, for you the Friend is to be found in calamities, and yet you prefer love to the Beloved! The disciple denied this charge. Do not desire friendship, replied the guide, for He does not confer His friendship on a servant until such time as He also ordains calamities for him!

It is related that the Prophet said: When God Almighty takes a servant as His special friend, He makes him preach to himself and gives him divine knowledge from his own heart so that he might give himself orders with regard to what is commanded and prohibited. He also said: When God Almighty wants to grant goodness to a servant, He grants him an insight into the faults of his own soul. And also: Would not the very special nature of the signs of the servant's love for God be an indication of God's friendship toward him, just as the fruit signifies the tree, and smoke indicates that there must be fire? The Messenger said: When God loves one of His servants in a special way, his sins de no real damage. That is to say, when God loves His servant, He grants him the gift of repentance before he dies. His past sin holds no dangers for him, just as past infidelity, before embracing Islam, does no damage.

Zayd Aslam said: Whenever God Almighty loves a servant, He loves him to the utmost, till His friendship attains the degree at which He says to him: 'Do whatever you want! I have forgiven you! If you ask, Is not sin opposed to the very root of love? the answer would be that it is against the perfection of love, but it is not opposed to its very foundation! Do you not see that there are many men who love their own lives and yet, when they fall sick and want to get better again, still eat things that are harmful to them? They know that something is harmful, and even though their knowledge may be defective, and sensuality gets the better of them, that still does not mean that they do not love their own lives: They simply cannot stand firmly rooted in the love of God! A Sufi has said: As long as one's faith does not penetrate the heart, one's love for God remains middling: but when it penetrates to the deepest recesses of the heart, then he does receive perfect love! He also abandons sin.

It is a risky business to claim that one loves God! The reason for this has been well put by Khwaja Fuzail: If someone asks, 'Do you love God remain silent. For if you reply in the negative, that would be infidelity, while if you reply that you do, you would be lacking a quality of lovers, and your love would be in danger! Understand that anyone who claims that he loves does about the easiest thing in the world, but actual loving, ah! that is extremely difficult!

A man should be careful not to be deceived by the trickery of Sa-tan or the duplicity of his own soul. We are entitled to our reservations every time someone claims to love God, until such time as he has been tested by signs and confirmed by indications and proofs. One of the signs of perfect love is intimacy in prayer with the Be-loved and perfect happiness when alone with Him. In the story of Baruch it is related that Moses, with all his glory, requested Baruch to pray for rain. God Almighty said to Moses: Baruch is a good servant, but he has one fault. Moses answered, My Lord, what is his fault? He enjoys the gentle morning breeze, came the reply, and rests while it is blowing. Anyone who loves Me cannot be at peace with any other!

It is also related that a devoted person was engaged in devotion toward God in a forest for an extended period. He saw a bird that had made a nest. It had a very pleasant voice. He thought that he would make his cell under that tree so that he might be cheered by its singing. He put his plan into execution. In the meantime, a revelation came to the Prophet Tell that dervish: You have affection for a particular creature. Hence, I shall cast you down from the rank you have acquired, and by no means will you be able to reach it again, no matter how much you try!

O brother, the delight of the intimacy experienced by some during invocatory prayer reaches such an intensity that even if their house were to burn down, they would have no knowledge of it! Others at prayer can have their foot operated on, as did Ali, and be oblivious of it! Wherever love and affection gain the ascendency, then in the privacy of invocatory prayer a person finds refreshment of soul He ceases thinking about things and sets a limit to the intrusions of worldly affairs, for he does not want things repeated over and over again. Whenever one who loves God engages in conversation with men, it is with his tongue only, his affection has been inwardly given over to remembering his Friend! Love for Him should be such that a person never rests except in his Beloved. It is also said that whoever does not possess three special qualities is not a friend of God: (1) He prefers to converse with God rather than with men; (2) he prefers the sight of God to that of men; (3) he prefers to devote himself to God rather than to be engaged in serving men. From all this it can be surmised that he shows no distress of mind at the loss of anything-except God Almighty!

Even if I were to have nothing in this world or the next, by having You, I do have everything! There is no need for anything else!

Khwaja Junaid says that one of the signs of love is that a person derives satisfaction from his devotion to God and that such devotion is in no way burdensome, while any pain that might accrue from it is assuaged, as has been said: Any labor undertaken for the sake of love has no trace of laziness about it: Although a person's body might grow tired, still his heart never flags. Religious scholars say that any one in love with God is never sated with worshiping Him, even if he enjoys great favors, since the lover, in worshiping the Beloved, re- mains submissive, without being obsequious! There is an example of this in contemplating carefully what lies before our eyes. Where is the lover who counts any effort made on behalf of his own beloved as burdensome? Or who considers service to the beloved anything but delightful, even though it be troublesome for his body? And if he is privileged to be near God, then he would be contemplating the very states of the angels and would know that even they show no slackening in their praise of God, nor do they give any hint of committing sins. Every lover who, like a mirror, considers his own love will feel ashamed, He will consider himself as one cut off and the meanest of lovers

For thirty years I worshiped the Lord in heart and limb, so thinking I had gained some influence with Him, remarked a lover. In my ecstatic contemplation I reached the rank of the angels. I asked them who they were. They replied: We are lovers of God and have been engaged in worshiping Him for three hundred thousand years. Never have our minds failed to be preoccupied with Him. Except for Him, we have remembered nothing at all. I became ashamed of my own efforts and presented them to an assembly of those for whom expiatory pain was required. From this it is clear that every- one who knows himself not only knows his Provider, but also to a fit- ting degree feels a certain sense of shame in relation to God. He becomes tongue-tied because he has taken steps to push his claims, he himself has come forward to reveal them. Rather, the way he carries himself, the moral tone of his actions, and his various qualities should all bear witness to his friendship and love, just as Khwaja Junaid said: My master, Khwaja Sari Saqati, fell sick. We had no remedy to treat the cause of the ailment. We sought the services of a very famous physician We showed him the bottle with a urine specimen. He looked at it for a while and finally said This indicates that he is a lover of God Khwaja Junaid continues: I fell unconscious! The bottle dropped from my hands. When I returned to consciousness, I hurried back to be of service to Khwaja Sari. I told him about the diagnosis, and he smiled. O Master, I exclaimed, 'can signs of love be discerned from such a specimen? Yes

The tale of the scorched breast refers to me. O heavenly

creature! Do not ask questions, lest the fire of hell erupt from my mouth!

Know now that there could be someone who, out of his own ignorance and self-seeking, might really love the enemy of God, and yet be proud of himself, thinking that it is God Whom he loves! None of the signs of genuine love would be found in such a person.

Khwaja Suhail, when engaged in conversation with anybody, used to say, O friend! People said it is possible that the man might not be his friend. How then could he address him as friend? He spoke softly into the ear of the questioner: There are only two possibilities Either he is a believer or a hypocrite. If he is a believer, he is a friend of God. If he is a hypocrite, he is a friend of Satan.

O brother, in friendship things occur that, outside its bonds, would be impossible but that, under the protection of love, become supportable. The difficulties and insults of love, by the command of love, are lifted up and borne away.

A novice was speaking with Khwaja Ibrahim Adham. When the time came for him to go, he began to excuse himself. The Khwaja cut him off, saying: Put your heart at ease! We were having a conversa Tion inspired by love, and a friend sees no badness in a friend. The love of anything renders a man both blind and dumb! The secret meaning of this dictum is given by Khwaja Bayazid Bistami: It is no matter for surprise that I love You, for there is no shortage of lovers of One so beautiful and perfect in every way! The astonishing thing is that You love me, full of helplessness and defects from head to toe, a mere child of dust! Hence you should know how it is that the tree of love could sprout from your dust, and that the cupbearer of the de- light of this wine could be so generous with His gift of 'He loves them, and they love Him! (Q5:54)

Who am I along Your Way that in my abode Flowers should sprout in my soil from Your glance? And beyond even this, I have received, from Your bounty. The adornment of Your love upon my heart!

Peace