Chapter VI: Love, Longing, Contentment
fully. In short, there is danger in the claim of love. The saint Fazil said: If you are asked, "Do you love God?" keep silent, because if you say "I don't love God," you will become an infidel. If you say, "I love God," the attributes of those who love God are not found in you. So be careful of hatred. A certain learned man said: There is no happiness more than that of the man of love and Marfat. There will be no greater punishment in Hell than the punishment of those who claim love and Marfat, as nothing of love will be found in them.
(3) Third sign. The third sign of the love of God is the predominance of Zikr of God in mind and in tongue. He who loves a thing remembers it or the things in connection with that thing. So the sign of love for God is to love His remembrance, to love His word Quran, to love His Prophet and to love those things that are connected with Him, because he who loves a man, loves all the dogs of that locality. When love becomes strong, he loves all the things connected with his beloved. This is not setting partnership in the love of his beloved as he loves the messengers of the beloved. Similarly, he whose love for God is strong, loves the creation of God, as it is the creation of his Beloved. So how can he not love the Quran, Prophet and good people? For this reason, God says: Say, if you love God, follow me. God will love you. The Prophet said: Love God, because He supplies you provision and love me for Him. Sufyan Saori said: He who loves one whom God loves, loves God. He who honours one whom God honours, honours God.
Some religious man said: I got pleasure of invocation at the preliminary stage of my walk in the spiritual field and read the Quran day and night. Thereafter idleness overtook me and I stopped Quran reading. Then I dreamt that some one said: You think that you love me, then why have you opposed the Quran? Why have you not pondered over My subtle rebuke therein? When I awoke, love of the Quran entered my mind and I returned to my previous condition. Hazrat-Ibn-Masud said: Let some of you not ask anything except about the Quran. If he loves the Quran, loves God. It he does not love the Quran, he does not love God. Sahal Tastari said: The sign of love for God is to love the Quran and the sign of the love for God and the Quran is love for His Prophet. The sign of the love for His Prophet is to love his ways of life. The sign of the love of his ways of life is love for the
282 LOVE AND ATTACHMENT Vol-IV
next world. The sign of the love of the next world is dislike for the world. The sign of dislike for the world is not to take anything from the world except the weal th of the next world .