9. Envy II
There are no doors for kings and knaves to reach Me,
All shall come to Me as servants, beggars and slaves,
But yea, How loved is the beggar,
When the Lover is Me!
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Lovers are fond of making the sweetest promises, and promising the most impossible of things to their beloved. And I don’t blame them. For if they are motivated by true love, everything suddenly appears possible, and nothing is impossible. They have inadvertently tapped into the Vein of Love that courses through every man, woman and child on this planet. It is a powerful stuff, this love. God made us all this way. Thank You, God.
But love, like all forms of energy, must be cultivated and nurtured. Love is not without its pre-conditions and post-conditions. Who was it that once said that there is a thin line drawn between love and hate? He (or she) is not far from the truth because Love is like a nuclear reactor. If planned and carefully prepared, love can energise entire nations. But if it is treated disrespectfully and callously, it can destroy whole cities. And this happens when the human ego seeps into love, tainting its sweet, generous and selfless nature – love is overthrown and something mimicking love is in place – the ego-driven need for validation, praise and security. This thing fools the smartest of doctors and the most beautiful of beauty queens… It has uprooted the reasoning of Kings and the modesty of Queens. It is a bad thing.
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| How Shaykh Raja Ashman adored his Maulana! But that seemed to augment and not lessen his ability to love everyone else, leaving each person who crossed his path feeling special and hopeful. al fatihah. |
That is where God comes in. In particular, our servanthood and adab (courtly courtesies and manners) towards God. Because from this very basic divine formula of love for the One God, flows all our love for other human beings and other creatures, and all sentient and non-sentient matters in this Universe. A selfish insular love for another person, be it a woman or man, is no love at all. Because everything is weighed and measured in totality, and that includes our friends, family, neighbours, workmates and acquaintances. To ignore or exclude anyone else but your boyfriend / girlfriend or husband / wife is a strange and lonely facsimile of love.
Of course there is a certain balance that you must seek to attain. After all, you have specific obligations and rights over your spouse that you do not have over anyone else (the unfortunate breach of this basic rule has led to many a broken marriage). And you owe a greater duty to your parents than to your friends. And this is the tricky bit, to find the perfect balance and equilibrium. I do not think it is easy, and I always hope to be rightly guided.
Hehehe. The fact is that we often are rightly guided. But our egos are also good at persuading us that it is in our best interest to follow its advice and take the opposite path. And there lies the road to trouble. So conclusion for today… Don’t let our ego into the nuclear reactor of love. It can start a chain reaction that will annihilate our most cherished hopes…
But don't worry (too much) about my nuclear euphemism, sunshine. After all, God is on the side of lovers and the broken-hearted. I bid you a lovely, lovely Sunday.
wa min Allah at-taufiq
Hate has no place in Islam
Love will show the Way
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