The Longing of
the Sufis in Pages Smuggled from Forgotten Memory
One day a Sufi was passing by a man weeping near a tomb. “Why are
you weeping?” he asked. “I have a love who has passed away,” he replied. “O sir,
you have wronged yourself by loving a lover who dies,” said the Sufi to the man.
“If you love a lover that doesn’t die, you will never be agonized by your
separation from him.”
Abu Abdullah al-Qurayshi once said, “The reality of love is that you
give all of yourself to the one you love so nothing of you remains.”
When Imam al-Junayd was asked about love, he said, “The lover
exchanges his own attributes with the attributes of his beloved.” Its meaning is
found in the hadith qudsi in which Allah says: “If I love him I will be his
hearing and his seeing.” Thus, when love is proclaimed openly, it continues to
attract the beloved by its description of the beloved until, if the expression
of love reaches its utmost effort beyond which there is no going, the bond
between the lover and the beloved remains.
As for the reason for naming or calling love, love, al-Shibli said:
“Love is so named because it erases from the heart everything except the
beloved.”
Anyone who has followed the life of Shaykh al-Islam, Shaykh Muhammad
Ali Mas’ud, finds that he loved a beloved that doesn’t die. Being that the
transience of the ephemeral is unworthy of being loved, the love that is the
light of life and the value of humanity cannot be attributed to anything except
the Eternal. The Shaykh completely gave himself to his beloved, Allah, until
nothing remained of him; and the love completely controlled him and didn’t leave
in his heart any beloved except Him. Yes, being an enemy to his senses and
isolating himself from his own existence, he lived a life of passionate love,
longing and desire for Allah. Being firm in his love, he became one of those
loved by Allah.
What is intended here is that the Sufis have allusions of love,
precision of thought, subtlety of observation, signs which indicate divine
inspiration, deep humility, and knowledge of Allah. Their speech and experience
are completely different from the speech and experience of others. The one who
cries without reason is not the same as the one who cries out of loss; nor is
the one who only speaks as the one who not only speaks but speaks from
experience. Their states set them apart from the rest of humanity.
These states issue from utmost generosity, are arrived at through
struggle, and result in the passion and ecstasy of love. It is as if the Sufis
wander through open fields to arrive at pure springs without turbidity, or seas
without a shore, or lights without darkness. Love is the most essential element
of their way. I know of no word that keeps the Sufi busier than the word, love.
Go back and check the expressions they use, their poems, their hymns and you
will see the truth of this. Tasawwuf could not exist without love. One of them
has even said, “If not for love, Allah would not have created life within man.”
Therefore, the Sufi pauses before love and dives deeply into it so that it
becomes a central pillar of his tasawwuf through which he will reach everything.
One cannot mention the scholars of Sufism without mentioning the love which they
talk about. For example, Abu al-Hasan Samnun ibn Hamza al-Khawas, who
specialized in love, was given the name of Samnun, the Lover. Their talk and
their poetry are only about love.
For the Sufis, love’s foundation is divine giving with two parts,
nearness to Allah and knowing Him. This spiritual majesty makes them
distinguishable from the rest of the righteous followers. The righteous
believers love Allah, but most of this love contains an element of
self-interest. For example, one obeys Allah to gain entrance into Heaven and to
avoid the Hell-Fire. The Sufis forego this benefit from love and love only for
the sake of Allah himself, without regard for the hope of reward or the fear of
punishment. This is asserted by Ibn Ata Allah al-Iskandary in his book, The
Hikam. He says, “The lover is not the one who hopes for benefit from his
lover or who asks something from him; rather, the lover is the one who gives to
you, not the one to whom you give.”
Love necessitates that the lover offer all his body and soul to
please his beloved. This he must do with the utmost joy and without asking for
any good for himself. Abu Hafsa Umar ibn al-Farid said the following:
I have nothing other than my spirit; and the one who gives his life
In love of the one he loves is not extravagant.
If you are pleased with it (my soul) you have come to my aid.
O the loss of all that I have done, if you don’t help me.
Our shaykh, Muhammad al-Hajjar (may Allah protect him), said, “They
meant (may Allah benefit us by them) by this the preference of the pleasure of
the heart in the knowledge of Allah and his love, over the pleasure of food,
drink, marriage and the rest of the physical pleasures. For surely, Heaven is
the place pleasing the senses while the heart’s pleasure is in the love of
meeting Allah only.”
A group of people were sitting at the Ka’bah talking about love and
al-Junayd, the youngest of them, was asked to talk. He lowered his head and
eyes, and wept. Then he said, “A slave unaware of himself, continually
remembering his master carrying out the rights of his master, looking at him
with his heart, the lights of his love burning his heart, drank from the cup of
his master’s love. Allah removed the veil of the unseen for him, so when he
speaks it is by Allah, when he expresses himself it is only about Allah, when he
moves it is by the order of Allah, and when he remains still he is with Allah.
He is for Allah, by Allah, with Allah.” The people wept and said, “We cannot say
more than this. May Allah protect you, O crown of the ‘arifīn.”
Didn’t I tell you that they have allusions and indications that
demonstrate divine inspiration?