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Meaning of Love
[and he who surf the
waves of the sea of my loving
Then I am
the ship and the love is the
sail] 23/6
We try here to go deep in some meanings of this verse and its intrinsic
essence, hoping to get an ornament from this deep sea. We will not
be able to reckon all its details in a finite time, place, or
resources.
The question is: Are
the loving and love meaning the same thing?
We say: that the source
of the word love is a verb (to love) with the same letters for the
name (love) which means the feeling that results in the heart from
being attached to someone or something out of intimacy and
satisfaction in the area of matter and imagination. Whereas loving
moves this feeling to the stage of willing where the one who is
sought, the seeker, the beloved, and the lover. The example for that
are the electric energy and the potential difference.
The stages and ranks of
loving are: inclination, loving, adoring, ardent love, passion,
infatuation, madness in love, captivation. The question is: Is love
or loving easy? The answer is definitely: No. Otherwise, it would
have been attained by everyone without effort or sleeplessness. It
was said:
[he does not know
love unless he suffers it
nor does he know
ardent love except he who endures it]
It was also said:
[a covenant has
forbidden her, not to be derived
unless by someone
who spends in its love the highest of the dowry]
 our
sheikhs the people of Allah [AAT] said many thing in this context which is beyond counting,
because their whole thing is built on love. That is where the term [he
who surf] [the waves] [of the sea] [of my
loving] each word here expresses the gravity and the greatness
of this matter.
In the Arabic
dictionary: to surf is to come over something which means that: he
who enters the sea of love is like the one who gets on top of a high
place or horseback. So he will need a driving will to urge him to
ride the risk of the high chopping waves.
The sea of loving:
loving is a sea. It was said:
[a sea of love, in
which we are ships
he who wants it,
should be ready for trials]
Loving is that great
secret and that wonderful elixir which connects between the atoms
and distances. It is also the home of confusion. That is why Imam
Fakhreddin expressed the place of confusion as:
[we got down in the
sea of "hoo" as swimmers
and we were sure
that connection is coming]
39/1
The people who seek
Allah need this loving to be able to cross the obstacles of the
path. They associate with it and do not feel strange. Sd. Omar ibn
al-Farid said:
[I did not know
estrangement from home, while He is with me
and my mind,
wherever we were, was not disturbed]
[the house is my
house and my love is present, and whenever
He shows up, them
the way of the Jiraa - a far away deserted place - is my way]
Sd.
Abdel-Ghany an-Nabulsy [AAH]
explained that saying: Home starts with anyone from where lives in
some country or town, but the real home we all came from is the
first creation. So souls will never settle unless it reaches that
home from which it came. So this thing need the motivated soul, the
one with aspiration, and which responds to the call of the caller to
Allah, and rises up to walk through the sea of loving. It was also
said:
[in love, I
sacrificed souls and selves]
In the interpretation
of the Surrounding Sea, sheikh Aboel-Abbas at-Tigani [AAH] said: the seas are a metaphor for hearts of the great saints.
For ibn Arabi, the term "sea" leads to a group of term: the sea of
damage, the sea of the tiny particles, the sea of souls, the sea of
speech, the sea of thanking, the sea of love, the sea of beginning,
the sea of Qur'an, the sea of no beginnings, the sea of everlasting,
the bitter sea, the sea of truth, the sea of essence, the sea of the
land of truth… he said that it is difficult to count the terms to
which ibn Arabi added the word sea.
We go back to the
verse:
[and he who surf the
waves of the sea of my loving
Then I am the ship
and the love is the sail] 23/6
 This verse talks about
the love of the sheikh and his care for his seekers through out
their stages. As it has a huge gravity, while the sheikh has paved
the way for seeker and took his hands to cross its grossness. So
that rough ocean needs a ship to take the seekers to the sought. The
loving, care, and guidance of the sheikh are that ship. This ship
sails with the wind of love, so it has to have a sail and the wind
blows up this sail. The sailing of the ship depends on the
efficiency and strength of the sail. So as we showed this sail was
the love. Allah said [and the ships which run upon the sea
with that which is of use to men]
al-Baqarah 164.
As for the passion: the
dictionary of "Arab's Tongue" said: passion is the continuous
agony, trail, love, adoring and what cannot be avoided. Of that what
was described about hell that "its agony is passion". They said:
[Lo! Passion is the
life, so live with it
adoring, as it is
your right to die and be buried]
So this passion is that
burning fire and the intrinsic energy that give the love to life.
Imam Fakhreddin said:
[He dies as a
martyr, he who loved Muhammad,
his family and
companions so what a happy dead one]
1/135
The sail of the ship:
represents the Shari'a [in Arabic it is derived from the same word]
it is also the place of drinking water. Allah said [For each
We have appointed Sher'a (divine law) and a traced-out way]
al-Ma'ida 48.
Allah also said [And then have We set you on a clear Sher'a
(divine law) of commandment]
al-Gathiya 18.
May Allah connect us to
them while surfing the waves of their love to the witnessing of His
Hadra and may He make Sd. Muhammad [PPBUH], His
Beloved Chosen One, accepts us, our brothers, sisters, and every
seeker for you on Your Shari'a that You accepted.
Written by Abdel-Hamid
Babekr
Translated by Sameh
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