True Love is for Allah ﷻ
True Love is for Allah ﷻ![]()
Ḥaḍrat Mawlānā Ashraf ʿAlī Thānawī (rahimahullāh)
The Possessor of Excellence ﷻ is so great that complete knowledge belongs only to Him. Rather, every attribute of excellence in its perfect form is found only in Him. That is to say, every favour, all forms of beauty and every form of excellence, in every way, rationally and traditionally, are found only in Him. Hence, He alone is deserving of love.
Now, listen closely to your heart to see if you have love for Allah ﷻ. If not, then you must form a plan of action to attain it; I will lay out for you this plan of action and conclude my speech with it, Allah willing.
Do not mistakenly assume that we cannot actively attain this love, reasoning that it is an involuntary matter and that its nurturing is not within our control. This is a flawed assumption. Love, though involuntary itself, has voluntary causes which will help it manifest as a natural consequence. Allah ﷻ has disclosed a method for every command He gives, and attaining love for Him is no exception.
METHOD OF ATTAINING LOVE
This method consists of making the following commitments:
1) Solitude & Dhikr – To sit in solitude for a while and chant Allāh Allāh, even though it may be for fifteen minutes. This should be done with the intention of creating the love of Allah ﷻ in your heart.
2) Reflect on Blessings – To sit in solitude and ponder over the blessings of Allah ﷻ, reflecting on our unappreciative attitude despite His many blessings and Allah’s ﷻ infinite mercy despite our behaviour.
3) Keep Company with the Lovers of Allah – To cultivate a relationship with those who love Allah ﷻ. If it is difficult to physically sit in their company, we should, at the very least, maintain correspondence with them. It is essential, however, not to present our worldly grievances to the people of Allah ﷻ nor meet them with the intention of the fulfilment of worldly aspirations. Our intention, through this relationship, should only be to seek a path to Allah ﷻ through them, seek treatment for our inner diseases and to ask them to pray for us.
4) Obey Allah’s Commands – To completely obey the commands of Allah ﷻ, because obeying someone increases love for them. Time constraints prevent me from elaborating this principle further.
5)Pray for His Love – To pray to Allah ﷻ to grant us His love..
Try this prescription of five simple steps, and Allah willing, in a very short time, you will attain the love of Allah ﷻ, you will be free from all inner diseases and you become a true embodiment of:
KNOWLEDGE
One of these five commitments, namely obedience, can only truly be practiced with the knowledge of His commandments, and you can only attain that knowledge through the process of learning. Realistically, only those whom Allah ﷻ has given the leisure and time can do this to the fullest extent, but [that is not necessary, since] you can find and read brief literature of dīn in Urdu written for this purpose, and if you do not even have the time for that or if you struggle to read due to old age, then sit in the company of a scholar and listen to him. Seeking the knowledge of dīn is absolutely necessary, but this does not mean everyone must become a scholar of the dīn.
SCHOLARS OF THE DĪN
[Although it is not necessary for everyone to become a scholar,] it is, however, necessary for some individuals. This is to ensure that there are at least, in every city, one or two scholars that the laity can learn (read) from and listen to.
Scholars must do four things to help educate the people:
1. If someone goes to him to learn, he should not refuse to teach them.
2. If someone asks him a question, he should be able to answer his queries.
3. He should set aside one day a week to gather people and personally read a book of jurisprudential issues to them. In these study circles, he should teach the people about the prayer, how to fast, the method of Hajj, the responsibility of Zakat, the importance of social etiquette and about transactions, etc.
4. He should deliver a sermon, to inspire hope and instil fear, once a week or every fortnight. This sermon should be kept separate from the study circles mentioned above; experience has shown that jurisprudential matters cannot be extensively discussed in brief sermons, because it can often lead to mistakes [and misunderstandings]. Furthermore, people often come to sermons to hear captivating and heart-touching topics, therefore sermons should primarily consist of encouragements and warnings.
These four tasks should be entrusted to the scholars, and the people of the city should take responsibility for their salary, which is not difficult. Citizens of any city that has no doctor will actively search for one and collect funds in order pay him. So, is the removal of internal maladies not as necessary as the removal of physical sicknesses?
RECOMMENDED READING
The following list of Books were recommended by Ḥaḍrat Mawlānā Masīḥullāh (rahimahullāh), senior Khalīfah of Ḥaḍrat Mawlānā Ashraf ʿAlī Thānawī (rahimahullāh). Many of these books have been translated to English.
Qaṣd as-Sabīl – Thānawī (rahimahullāh)
Ādāb ash-Shaykh wa’l-Murīd – Ibn ʿArabī (rahimahullāh) (translated
by Muftī Shafīʿ Ṣāḥib (rahimahullāh))
Uṣūl al-Wuṣūl – Shāh ʿAbd al-Ghanī Phūlpūrī (rahimahullāh)
Ḥuqūq al-Islām – Ḥaḍrat Thānawī (rahimahullāh)
Furūʿ al-Īmān – Ḥaḍrat Thānawī (rahimahullāh)
Ṣafā-e-Muʿāmalāt – Ḥaḍrat Thānawī (rahimahullāh)
Ḥayāt al-Muslimīn – Ḥaḍrat Thānawī (rahimahullāh)
Ādāb al-Muʿāsharāt – Ḥaḍrat Thānawī (rahimahullāh)
Shawq-e-Waṭan – Ḥaḍrat Thānawī (rahimahullāh)
Jazāʾ al-Aʿmāl – Ḥaḍrat Thānawī (rahimahullāh)
Tablīgh-e-Dīn – Imām Ghazālī (tr. Mawlānā ʿĀshiq Ilāhī (rahimahullāh))
Bahishtī Zewar (incl. Bahishtī Gohar) – Ḥaḍrat Thānawī (rahimahullāh)
Ḥusn al-Aʿzīz (Malfūẓāt of Ḥaḍrat Thānawī (rahimahullāh), compiled by Ḥaḍrat Khwājah ʿAzīz al-Ḥasan Majzūb (rahimahullāh)). This compilation contains 100 malfūẓāt that contain the essence of Sulūk.
Nashr aṭ-Ṭīb – Ḥaḍrat Thānawī (rahimahullāh)
Sharīʿat and Taṣawwuf (part 1 compiled under thesupervision of Ḥaḍrat Mawlānā Masīḥullāh (rahimahullāh))
Sharīʿat and Ṭarīqat – Ḥaḍrat Thānawī (rahimahullāh)
Bayān al-Qurʾān – Ḥaḍrat Thānawī (rahimahullāh) (for scholars)
