Our world, our experience of the Divine, and our attitude to creation revolve around a four letter word fulcrum that bears the imprint of existence.
This word is the greatest force on earth, the strongest source of life and the most basic essence of being: LOVE.
It is polysemous. It’s not simply a word. It’s a phenomenon.
Every beautiful feeling, every lofty thought, every noble deed and indeed, every pious action, is a manifestation of that semantic complex and an attestation to its cosmopolitan many-sidedness.
Its significance is not just in the expression: I love you, it is in the support and peace that naturally follow the experience.
It is not just being fascinated or drawn to someone, it is in the feeling of being cherished and respected;
it is not in the poetry or elegant prose you are showered with, it is in the thoughts behind the words spoken and the value it places on you;
it is not in the bouquet brought to your door, but in the mind that reads your silence, sees the pain behind your smile, feels your agony at a glance, soothes your pain, and drives away your fear and worry;
it is not just in liking you as you are despite your mountains of flaws and shortcomings, it is in filling your soul with tranquility and the security of being in a safe space with you at all times.
Love is a light that dwells within bosoms and lights up souls and it grows only in pure, generous and genuine hearts.
A life without love indeed has no value.
Translated into interpersonal relationships beyond low desires, it is the noblest of emotions, the alchemy of wellbeing, and the spring of communal, national, and global peace and harmony.
Though several emotions disguise as love, it does not take long before their true colours are revealed. Only One True Love exists in reality.
All other emotions that claim to be forms of love can only derive their legitimacy from it. You should therefore not ask questions about what kind of love you should seek, strive only for the one true love which has no labels, no definitions.
It is what it is, pure and simple-submission at the threshold of the Divine; ecstasy at the mention of His names; empathy and sympathy for His creation, obeying all of His laws and disobeying none.
This is Love. All other true emotions are synonyms for it or emanations from it.
It is what operates in the heart of the kind-hearted; what flutters in the mind of the noble, and what vibrates in the consciousness of the philanthropic.
A wise woman once travelled in the wilderness and found a precious stone. She took it and kept it carefully.
The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food.
The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation.
The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew that the stone, if sold, could give him financial security for a lifetime.
But a few days later he came back to return the stone to the wise woman. “I’ve been thinking,” he said, “I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious.
Give me that thing that you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone.
That thing is LOVE. It is a state of being – a mindset, a thought pattern, and a worldview.
The basis of our faith in Allah is to embrace that mindset towards humanity, loving all and hating none.
Hadrat Mu’een ud Din Chisti, the founder of the Chistiyyah Sufi brotherhood was once asked: *what is Paradise and what is Hell? He replied, ‘ a heart that has love is Paradise, and a heart devoid of it is Hell.
This is the summary of the teachings of the Holy Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), and the basis of the slogan: Love for all; hatred for none.
If you don’t have the will to gladden someone’s heart, then at least, do nothing that can hurt anyone.
An Indian proverb says that every man is a house with four rooms: a physical room, mental room, emotional room and spiritual room.
Most people tend to live in one room most of the time because they feel they need nothing from the other rooms.
Unless they go into every room every day, even if only to clean it, keep it aired, or just inspect it, they’ll never be capable of the selflessness that grows into love.
This is why you see so-called religious people with wicked hearts or selfish attitudes.
They dwell in the proverbial cage of single perception, single interpretation, and single story.
Love is the light of Allah, the power of Life and the essence of man’s existence.
Its most faithful lieutenant is forgiveness. It is the economy of the heart. It saves the expenses of anger, the cost of hatred and the waste of conscience.
It binds humanity together and insists that there is only one country: Earth; only one people: Humanity, and only one religion: Love.
May Allah grant you a heart filled with His love, a mind illuminated by His love, a home engulfed by His Love and deeds that attract His Love.
