Chapter VI: Love, Longing, Contentment
(1) First sign -Love meeting with God, The first sign of love for God is love for meeting with God by way of Kashf and direct sight of Paradise. It is natural to be eager to meet with a person and to see him if one loves him in mind. When a lover can know that if he does not depart from the world and be separate from it by death, he cannot reach Him he should then love death. A lover does not feel difficulty in going from his house to the house of his Beloved to meet Him. Death is the key to this meeting and opening its door. The Prophet said: God loves one who loves to meet with Him. The saint Huzaifah said at the time of his death: The Beloved has come at the time of necessity. I will not gain success by repentance. An ancient sage said: God has got no such
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conduct as is dearer to Him than prostration except meeting with God. God made fighting in His way as a condition of His love. They say: He loves God. To fight in the way of God and search for martyrdom are its signs. God says: God loves those who fight standing in rows. God says: Those who fight in the way of God, kill and are killed. Hazrat Abu Bakr left some death instructions to Omar of which there is the following: Truth is heavy but inspite of its heaviness it is benefiting. Falsehood is light but inspite of its lightness it is injurious. If you preserve my instructions, the absent things will not be dearer to you than the inevitable death. If you spoil my instructions, the absent things will be more hateful to you than death, yet you will not be able to baffle it.
Ishaq, son of Sa'ad bin-Abi Waqqas said: My father said that Abdullah-bin-Jahash said to him at the time of the Battle of Uhud: Shall we not invoke God? He went to a side and said: O Lord, I swear by Thee that if I am to meet tomorrow with the enemies, Thou wilt cause me to meet a strong man. I will fight with him in Thy way and he will also fight with me. Thereafter he may catch me and cut my nose and ears and pierce my stomach. When I will meet you tomorrow on the Resurrection Day, you will ask me: O servant of God, who has cut off your nose and ears? I will say O Lord, this is my condition for Thee and Thy Prophet. Then Thou wilt say: You have spoken the truth. Sa'ad said: I saw at the end of the day that his noses and ears were tied with a thread to save hanging. Sayeed-bin-Mosayeb said: I hope that God will prove His last oath true as He has proved his first oath true.