On Love: In the Muslim Tradition

Debt and Love

Debt and Love The relationship of man and God, in which they love one another, is the way of human existence in which his totality is included. Repentance and purification are maintained through the will or enduring remembrance of God. This is how the original connection between phenomena and their names is maintained: man knows them in his response to God’s commandments. But reaching that is always also dependence on the Independent. Loss is the constant potential that confirms the accepted offer of belief that man will repay his debt for what he has received. The Confider speaks of the preservation of that relationship: ‘‘Believers, if any among you renounce the Faith, God will replace them by others who love Him and are loved by Him, who are humble toward the faithful and stern toward the unbelievers, zealous for God’s cause and fearless of man’s censure.’’14 That debt [faith, Trans.] has two essential contents—verticality, as the connection with God through the totality of existence, and humility , as being on one level of the multiplicity of revelation of oneness. Man’s connection with the phenomena of one level of existence can also entail forgetfulness of the vertical. Then the attraction between details is revealed as the acceptance of a god other than God. That is no longer love as the relationship between the lover and the Beloved Who Is Oneness. Toward Peace / 83 The rupture of the alliance or nonfulfilment of the debt turns man toward the love of phenomena that have ceased to be signs of perfection : such people love this life more than the world to come;15 they worship idols, bestowing on them the adoration due to God;16 they love riches with all their hearts.17 That is choosing idols instead of God as a mark of mutual love in a life that is enclosed in the space and time of one level of existence.18 Names and phenomena are no longer connected through God’s commandments. Phenomena can be given false names, and they associate with one another independently of their Origin and Purpose. Whenever those relations and connections are returned to the Ultimate , these alliances, the attribution of false names to phenomena for the sake of their association, will deny one another and fall apart in the repayment of their original debt: ‘‘On the Day of Resurrection you shall disown one another, and you shall curse one another.’’19 But that attraction is general. It includes also relations of individuality . Since man has accepted ‘‘the trust offered,’’ his relation toward oneness includes also free will. The Face of God, which is in the veil of creation, both behind and before him, may be identical to phenomena that are attractive. This is revealed as the denial of the Face or as association with Him. Through these signs in the horizons and selves their nature is taken away and illusion adopted. Every phenomenon individually, as all of them together, has a visible and an invisible side. The invisible side is turned toward the higher level of existence, while the visible one is turned toward the lower. That division in the turning toward the spiritual and the material is never complete, because phenomena, through their duality, reveal oneness. To differentiate in this, as in every other duality, the higher from the lower and the Real from the unreal means to recognize that every phenomenon is a stage that shows descent and ascent. The active principle descends from the sky in order to be accepted by the earth. But, every acceptance is at the same time also the aspiration of 84 / On Love return to the Real. Return is the realization of original closeness to the Creator’s command. Love is the reason for creation. And knowledge is its aim. Therefore , love and knowledge are one and the same in the Creator’s commandment . Division in creation is the precondition for understanding oneness through its revelation in multiplicity. The created submits to the Creator’s will. Every duality in the totality of existence bears witness to the division that is the proclamation of the Creator and the created. That proclamation reflects and confirms the Creator’s love. The heavens and the earth are, also, the image of that relationship. Given its beauty and virtue, the earth is lovable. Heaven marries it not only for the sake...