Creation is Love – Part 3

The Words: The 24^th Word (continuation)

Thus, only one possessing infinite perfection may be worthy of an infinite love.

O soul and O friend! Two faculties, through which one may experience fear and love, have been included in man’s nature. This love and fear are bound to be turned towards either creatures or Creator. However, fear of creature is a grievous affliction, while love for them is a calamitous tribulation. For you will fear people who will neither pity you nor accept your pleas for mercy. So fear is a grievous calamity. As for love, the one you love will either not recognize you or will depart without bidding you farewell. Like your youth and property. Or else he will despise you because of your love. Have you not noticed that in ninety-nine out of a hundred cases of metaphorical love, the lover complains about the beloved. For to love and idolize worldly beloveds with the inner heart, which is the mirror of the Eternally Besought One, oppresses the beloved, and he finds it disagreeable and rejects it. Because man’s nature rejects and casts away things that are contrary to it and unworthy of it. (Physical loves are outside our discussion.)

Recap: Every human heart has the potentiality to communicate with all the qualities manifested in the universe. If love is manifested in the universe, then I have the potentiality to experience it and conclude that my Maker is the Beloved One. Analogy: A tree has fruits and the fruit has seeds. The tree is the universe, fruit is the human being and the seed is the human heart. The seed of the fruit represents the spiritual side of the human being. Since the seed has all the qualities of the whole tree (i.e. if you sow the seed, you get a tree), similarly the human heart has the potentiality to acknowledge all the qualities manifested in the universe. One seed = the whole universe.

• Human beings are precious creatures since we are at the center of the universe. Your existence, i.e. the universe’s existence is for me (as far as I am concerned): “I speak to you and I share with you”. My existence is for you (as far as you are concerned):” you speak to me and you share with me”. I am given a wonderful universe in which people exist!

What can satisfy the heart? We are made to love everything that attracts us and communicates with our human faculties. However I need to pay attention that if I love an object or an event, then my heart can never be satisfied with that object or event because objects/events are finite. They are temporal and bid us farewell. The human heart can only be satisfied with a Source which is not finite i.e. a Source which is infinite or Absolute. Since the heart has the potentiality to acknowledge all the infinite qualities manifested in the universe, the heart can only be satisfied with the Source of these infinite qualities i.e. the Absolute Source. If we do not attach our heart to the Absolute Source (Owner of the universe), we are bound to be disappointed.

• When I obtain the object, I cannot say that I am done now. We have to stop this obsession with objects/events that has plagued our minds.

How to solve our psychological problems practically? Know that this universe is the manifestation of its Creator’s qualities to conscious human beings. You may be attracted to something or someone; you love to have it in this universe (such as marriage, companion, job or property just to name a few). Do not attach your heart to the events/objects. INSTEAD, attach your heart to the Creator of that object/event. Communicate with the Creator because everything in the universe manifests the qualities of its Creator equally.

All Praise is due to God, Lord of the universe (Fatiha 1:2)

Who is “God”?

• The Sustainer of the whole universe. That is, if someone cannot sustain the whole universe, then it cannot be God. Furthermore, if someone cannot be God, you cannot praise Him. This implies that the human heart can only praise the One who sustains the whole universe. Only that One can be the Source of existence of the object I want. Love the object in the name of its Creator not the object itself because the object itself cannot sustain itself, neither can it satisfy you eternally. It is an evidence to the manifestation of the qualities of the Creator of the universe. Look at the object from an existential point of view, not as a mass happened to be out there: How does it exist? How does the matter exist? You will understand that only the One who is the Source of existence of the whole universe can be the Source of existence of the object, including the existence of human capacity to make the object. We humans find out and discover the rules established in the universe by the Creator of the universe.

In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful. (Fatiha 1:1)

Who is “God”?

• The one who creates the whole universe with its constituents. That is, if someone cannot be the Creator of the whole universe, then it cannot be the Creator of any object. This is great guidance on how to live in this world, it makes one think: praise be to “God” who must be the Lord of the universe, then this Lord must be what is referred to as God. If an object cannot be the Lord of the universe, then it cannot be worthy of praise because the object cannot be the Creator of the smallest particle of matter. To be the Creator of an atom, one must be able to create the whole universe. Hence, only the One who creates the whole universe in its entirety can be God. The heart must be attached to God, the Creator of the universe.

Let’s say you like a daffodil. If you attach your heart to the daffodil itself and forget about the Creator of the daffodil, then you are setting yourself up for trouble. Although when your hand holds the daffodil (physical connection), the human heart is made in a way not to love the daffodil itself but the Creator of the daffodil because the heart cannot be satisfied with a temporary pleasure, it years for eternal pleasure. Therefore, we should train ourselves to evaluate the daffodil in terms of its existence not the material object itself.

When daffodil withers away and you lose it, what happens?

• Since my heart was attached to the Creator of the daffodil (not the daffodil itself), my heart still loves the Creator of the daffodil (who is the Creator of the whole universe) even though the daffodil is not in my hands.
• This pattern of thinking must be established in our lives. Otherwise, there is no way for us to get out of depression/stress.
• Some say: at least I got to experience the daffodil. If through your experience of holding the daffodil you get to know its Creator, Who is also your Lord, then that is success otherwise it leads to a dead end with no permanent happiness.
• Human beings only have one heart which needs to be attached to the “right” Source. Quran mentions as guidance to me that you cannot have two hearts, one attached to God and one attached to a created object.
• I have one heart which needs to be attached only to the Creator of the universe and then everything will be Its way of communicating with me in practical terms through the physical side.

Those looking to get married or attaining something particular like that “dream job” or the next big thing in their life, you may think that as soon as you get to wed Jack Sparrow, for instance, you will be happy. (Sorry to break this to you but it ain’t like that!) Please bear in mind that nothing makes your life perfect unless your heart is attached to the Creator of Jack Sparrow. Although marriage or commitment comes with pros and cons, know that you cannot solve any of your problems if they are not oriented towards connecting with the Source of your existence. Otherwise, you will keep acting like a child who gets the toy and after sometime, the toy loses its value. Here is a common behavior found in the society: when you get something, you are happy. When you lose it, you are unhappy. Yes, at the very end you will lose it for sure. So the life ends with unhappiness! You think that this is such a horrible life!!!

How can you deal with such foolishness? Don’t lose yourself in the object. Your heart should want to get that “big thing” only as a means to experience the manifestations of the Creator’s qualities, so attach your heart to God. Say: “thank you, you gave me the daffodil; thank you, I am NOT pleased with the daffodil itself but I am pleased with you as the Creator of the daffodil, as the object of worship of my heart. My heart cannot accept the daffodil as its object of worship because the object will perish away, it is not worth it. When an object perishes away, I am not affected much because my heart still loves the Creator of the whole wide universe. The object may break or disappear but the Creator is Omnipresent. The author says it well: “Only the One possessing infinite perfection may be worthy of such an infinite love.” Let us do the following exercises to help apply the message conveyed by the author.

EXERCISE: Replace “daffodil” with all the items on your wish list.

• Example 1: My villa in South of France cannot be the object of my worship.
• Example 2: I am pleased with you my Lord as the Creator of my cute little nephew. By playing with him, I see the qualities of Lordship manifested in him.
• Example 3: F and I feel compatible with each other. The acceptance to wed each other is because the hearts are connected to the Creator of the universe only. F and I want to use marriage in the Creator’s name as a means to acknowledge the Creator’s manifestations in each other’s being (including the whole universe).

PRACTICE further with more practical examples pertaining to your life conditions as it is the only way to turn capacity of love into worship.

As long as I attach my heart to the Source of existence of the object, then I am set on the “right” track. Main aim of life is not to get the object. Main aim is to know the Absolute Creator of the object/event and be with It. That is, attaching your heart to the Source of existence of the object only, that which you refer to as “God” or “Allah” or “Dieu” or however you name it in your language.

Relationships must be established on an existential level. When you smell the daffodil while holding it in your hand, the fragrance is produced by the Creator of the universe. When the flower withers away, the fresh fragrance disappears. But since my heart (spiritual side) is attached to the Creator of the daffodil, I do not encounter any problem when the flower withers away. Why? Although my physical side has been in connection with the daffodil i.e. my hand has been holding it, I have established the vertical relation (i.e. with the Source) while the flower was lively i.e. my spiritual side is connected to the Source of existence of the daffodil.

• Most of our problems are unsolved because the object/event is the focus of our attention.
• Our practice of cultural religion has nothing to do with this worldview.
• We have not trained ourselves on how to live in this world under direct connection with our Lord. The Lord keeps saying to get in contact with It directly.

REMEMBER: Heart can only be satisfied by remembering God. The owner of the daffodil to which my heart is attached to is the Creator of all my feelings, emotions and senses and the whole universe. Even though you may think that the daffodil is the means to connect you to the Source of your existence and that if you lose it then you will lose that connection. Please be assured that it is impossible to lose that connection because proof of a Creator cannot be based on experiencing one single object/event only. One’s belief is based on many practical examples. Although, every moment you are concluding something (i.e. belief is your own personal conclusion), it does not mean that you can void all previous conclusions. Utilize the previous conclusions to consolidate your belief. Each sequence of conclusion leads to a confirmation within you that there must be a Source that gives Eternal satisfaction.

In order for the daffodil to come into existence, the whole universe must come into existence. If something cannot be the Creator of the universe, it cannot be the Creator of the atom.

There is a verse in the Quran that goes along as follows: “Perhaps you love a thing which is bad for you and perhaps you hate a thing which is good for you.”

• Question the existence of this sense of liking an object and you will realize that if your heart is attached to the object itself, then that is bad for you.
• Similarly, question the existence of the sense of disliking an object and you will realize that when you connect yourself to the Source of existence of the object, you will actually find Eternal happiness. The object is just a means of coming to the realization of the Absolute Source of existence.

All unsolved problems in our being are the result of ignoring existential questions which extend to the existence of the order of the universe. Atheists solve problems by finding the order but are not able to refer the order to the Source of its existence. ASK: What is the Source of existence of the order that I observe in the universe?

The order in creation is so perfect that when I am depressed (let’s say after mourning over the loss of a loved one), the order teaches me that I am contradicting my innate nature, the way I am created. It is a Mercy from my Creator that I am not satisfied in my life right now. Let me re-evaluate my case. It is a blessing to be aware that you are suffering with a psychological distress as it prompts you to solve your problems from an existential dimension. The order is such that it calls me to attach my heart to the Creator of the object who is the Creator of the whole universe i.e. acknowledgment. If one does not evaluate their conditions, then they are at a great loss.

• Focus on the existence of the object and so if you lose it then you do not collapse.
• We are not given existence to hold the daffodil in our hands but to acknowledge the Creator of the daffodil
• Whether you get the daffodil or do not get the daffodil is not the point because the daffodil is not the Source of your satisfaction.

Finally, one can get out of their desperate situation which is hindering the development of all aspects of their lives.

• Noah’s ark is a reminder that the Source that sends the flood is the only one that can save me from the flood. Now the flood becomes the carrier of the ark (daffodil becomes the source of hope calling me to connect to its Eternal Creator.) Just know the Source who has created conditions for you (your flood) and attach yourself to It (the ark indeed). Noah’s ark is a reminder to be hopeful!

Human heart is the mirror of the Eternally Besought One means that my heart is set for Eternity. Love and Fear are qualities given to human beings to be utilized. Through these qualities, the heart journeys to the Creator. When you feel any psychological distress, your Creator reminds you that you should not condition yourself to one specific context only but extend your vision within the context of the whole wide universe.