Chapter VI: Love, Longing, Contentment
The saint Shaqiq Balakhi said : He who sees the rewards of sorrows and difficulties, does not wish to get out of them. Junaid said : I asked Sarri Sakti : Does a lover feel the pangs of dangers ? He said : He does not feel. I asked : If he wounded by a sword ? He said : He will not feel pangs even if he is wounded several times one after another. A lover said : Every thing has been made dear to me on account of my love for God. Even if He loves Hell, I will love to enter Hell. Bashar bin Hares said : I was passing by a man, who was inflicted one thousand whips in the eastern suburb of Bagdad, He did not utter even word. Then he was carried to prison. I followed him. I asked him : Why have you been whipped ? He said : I am a lover, I asked him : Why have you remained silent ? He said : My beloved came to me and was seeing it. I said : What will you do if you have looked to the supreme Beloved ? Hardly had he heard this , he raised a loud shriek and breathed his last.
Ihya-bin-Mu'az said: When the inmates of Paradise will look to God, their eyes will enter their hearts owing to the taste of His sight and their sight will not return to them for 800 years.
Basher Hafi said: At the beginning of my religious life, I wished to go to Abadan and on the way I found one blind mad man lying on the ground. Numerous ants were eating his flesh. I raised up his head and took it in my lap and was about to talk with him. He recovered his senses and said: Who is this man? Such unlawful entry between me and my Lord? Had He cut me to pieces, it would have added to my love. Abu Amer and Muhammad -bin-Ash'as said: The Egyptians stayed without food for four months only looking at the beauty of Joseph. Whenever they were hungry, they used to look to the beautiful appearance of Joseph and it made them forget their hunger: In
300 LOVE AND ATTACHMENT Vol-IV
the Quran, there is a still more fascinating story. That is this: When the women saw the unparallel beauty of Joseph, they cut off their hands. Sayeed-bin-Ihya said: In Basra, one young man with a knife in his hand was saying with his topmost voice in the restaurant of Ata-bin-Muslim and the people stood surrounding him.
Resurrection day of separation is for off, Death is sweeter than pangs of separation. People say: You must go, I say; I shall not go, But my life-blood shall have to go soon.
Then he cut off his stomach with his knife and breathed his last. I was told when I asked about his condition that this man was a lover for a slave of the king. One day he was absent from him and for this, he committed suicide.