Love is Generated by the Knowledge of the Attributes
If the Qur’aan has dwelt at length on
the Attributes, Functions and Bounties of the Lord it is
mainly because of the knowledge of the Divine Attributes and
devotion. Scholars like Ibn Taymiya have defined the Qur’aanic
method of explaining the Essential and Permanent Qualities of
the Almighty Creator as ‘conciseness of the negative' and
'diffuseness of the positive'. It is the detailed description
of the Benevolent Attributes of God and their signs and
portents that feeds the flame of love within the human breast
and fills it up with fervour and enthusiasm. If the negative
Attributes are the mentors of the mind, the positive
Attributes are the mentors of the heart. Without the knowledge
of the Beautiful Names of God and His Immaculate Qualities,
with which the holy Quran and the Traditions are replete and
which have been a constant source of joy and inspiration to
His devoted servants, faith would have got reduced to a dogma
and lost its capacity to stir the innermost recesses of the
heart and move it to its depths with sincerity and humbleness
during prayer and repentance. Without it the relationship
between God and man would have been a mechanical, qualified
and restrained relationship in which there was neither breadth
nor flexibility nor vitality nor enthusiasm, and life, a dull,
dry and narrow affair, bereft of the sweet madness of love and
the delightfully poignant bite of desire.
Were this celestial wealth to be taken
away from man what would there be to distinguish between life
and death, between humanity and the vegetable kingdom?
Worthless is the Cup that Never Overflows
To quench the thirst of the spirit and
to calm down the flame of love it was needed that the heart
and the eyes of a Muslim should overflow from time to time,
and, thus, provide an outlet for the agonizing feelings of
loneliness and separation that are rising within the depths of
his being. Of what use is the cup that gets filled to the
brink but never overflows?
The Hajj
Imam Ghazali was alive to the fact
that love was the genuine need of a sensitive human being
which he was always seeking to satisfy. The House of Ka'aba
(at Mecca) and all the Landmarks of Allah that are associated
with it and the Hajj with the rites and formalities which go
to make it contain an ideal provision for the gratification of
this basic human urge and necessity.
And remember when We prepared for
Ibrahim the place of the holy House, saying: Ascribe thou
nothing as partner unto Me, and purify My House for those who
make the round thereof and those who stand and those who bow
and make prostration. And proclaim unto mankind the
Pilgrimage. They will come unto thee on foot and on every lean
camel; they will come from every deep ravine. That they may
witness things that are of benefit to them, and mention the
name of Allah on appointed days over the beast of cattle that
He hath bestowed upon them. Then eat thereof and feed
therewith the poor and the distressed. Then let them make an
end of their unkemptness and pay their vows and go around the
ancient House.(-xxii 26-29)
Imaam Ghazali writes, "If there is an
earnest desire for nearness to God a Muslim will be compelled
to strive for it. A lover is passionately attached to
everything that bears an association with the beloved. The
House of Ka’aba is associated with God and a Muslim should,
therefore, instinctively feel drawn to it, to speak nothing of
the attraction of the Recompense promised on it."
Writing in the same vein, Hazrat Shah
Waliullah remarks, "Sometimes when a man is overcome with the
desire for his Lord and love surges powerfully in his breast
and he looks around for the satisfaction of his inner urge it
appears to him that the Hajj alone is the means to it".
The Salaat a man offers up a several
times a day could be regarded as sufficient to fulfil the need
of soothing and gratifying his emotions. It could have
provided him with an opportunity to give a vent to his
feelings and to alleviate the agony of separation by shedding
a fate tears during it. But then tears could not quench his
thirst. They could only suppress it for the time being for
they did not possesses the power to put down the all-consuming
fire of love which, sometimes, turned the heart into a blazing
furnace.
Golden Cage of Materialism
Likewise, fasting could be helpful in
slaking the thirst of the soul and curbing the intensity of
animal appetites for hunger and abstinence do possess a
purificatory quality. But the hours of fasting are limited and
they are also often surrounded by things that do not go well
with it. An atmosphere of slothfulness and gormandising gets
created around the person who fasts and the society in which
he lives has itself become so permissive of sensuality and
godlessness that he feels isolated like an island in a sea.
A Muslim, therefore, had to be
furnished with an opportunity to take a bold and adventurous
plunge which could break his chains and release him from the
old and dingy prison-house of everyday existence. It was to be
in the nature of a leap which could, in one stride, carry him
from this rotten, hide bound, calculating and artificial life
to a new, fascinating and boundless world where love reigned
supreme and the heart held sway over everything, where he was
delivered from every kind of servitude and deification, and
the man-made limitations of race, geography and politics died
away and melted into nothingness, and where the creed of pure
and unalloyed Monotheism - of the unity of Godhead,
Providence, humanity, faith and purpose - became the bedrock
of his way of living and he, along with his brethren, sang
enthusiastically the praises of the Lord and raised the
heartwarming cry of;
‘O God, here I am ! Here I am in Thy Presence! Thou art
without a partner! Here I am! All praise is for Thee and from
Thee are all Blessings! To Thee alone belongs Power and Rule !
Thou art without a Partner !
Even after the
prayer-service a Muslim celebrates regularly every day, the
fasting he observes yearly in the month of Ramdhaan and the
poor-due he pays, provided that he possesses taxable minimum
of wealth, at the end of each year there was the need for him
of a special period of time, of a season of enchantment and
adoration, accentricity and infatuation.