Original content

English translation

In sum, love is well-known among all classes of creatures, famous in all tongues and current in all languages, and no class of rational beings is able to conceal it from themselves.

Among the masters of this group, Samnun al-Muhibb (may God be pleased with him) holds a special doctrine and way concerning love, and he says: 'Love is the foundation and principle of the path to God the Exalted, while the states (ahwal) and stations (maqamat) are subordinate; and in every station in which the seeker resides, decline may befall it—except in the station of love, upon which no decline can befall in any state, so long as the path exists.'

All the other masters agreed with him in this meaning; but because this was a common, outward name, they wished to veil its ruling among the people and to change the name while verifying the reality of its meaning. They named the purity (safa) of love 'safwat' and called the lover 'Sufi'; and one group called the lover's abandonment of his own choice, in affirming the choice of the Beloved, 'poverty' (faqr), and named the lover 'faqir'—because the least degree in love is agreement (muwafaqat), and agreement with the Beloved is non-opposition.

At the beginning of the book I have unveiled the ruling on poverty and purity, and concerning this meaning that venerable elder says: 'Love among the ascetics is more manifest than striving'—love, among ascetics, is more evident in renown than exertion; 'and among the penitents it is more present than moaning and groaning'—among the penitents it is more easily found than lament and wailing; 'and among the Turks it is more famous than their riding-saddle-gear'—among the Turks it is more renowned than their riding equipment; 'and the captivation of love among the Indians is more manifest than the captivity taken by Mahmud'—the wound and flame of love among the Indians is, in renown, like the wounding of Mahmud in India; 'and the tale of love and the beloved among the Byzantines (Rum) is more famous than the cross'—the tale of love and beloved in Rum is more manifest than the cross; 'and among the Arabs, in every tribe there is from it joy, woe, and sorrow'—from love, among the Arabs, in every clan there is a joy, or a sorrow, or an attainment, or a woe.

The purpose of all this is that there is no kind of people who, in the hidden depths, does not have some concern befalling them—such that in the heart they either hold a joy from love, or their heart is intoxicated by its wine, or they remain languid from its overpowering force; because the composition of the heart is of agitation and turmoil, and apart from the bond of love within it, everything within it stands in place of a mirage. Love is to the heart as food and drink, and every heart empty of it is a ruined heart; affectation has no path to repelling or attracting it, and the ego is not aware of the subtleties of what passes over the heart.

Amr ibn Uthman al-Makki (may God's mercy be upon him) says in the Book of Love: God the Exalted created the hearts before the bodies by seven thousand years and kept them in the station of nearness; and He created the spirits before the hearts by seven thousand years and kept them in the garden of intimacy; and He created the inmost secrets (sirr) before the spirits by seven thousand years and kept them in the degree of union. Every day, three hundred and sixty times, He manifested Himself to the secret through the unveiling of Beauty, and bestowed three hundred and sixty glances of grace, and made the spirit hear the word of love, and revealed to the heart three hundred and sixty subtleties of intimacy—until, when they all looked upon existence, they saw no one more honored than themselves. Pride and exultation appeared among them. The Truth (glorified be His majesty) tested them by this: He imprisoned the secret within the spirit, confined the spirit within the heart, and held the heart within the body. Then He made the intellect a mount within them, sent the prophets (God's blessings upon them), and gave commands. Then each of these seekers set out seeking its own station. The Truth commanded them to pray; so that when the body entered prayer, the heart joined love, the spirit reached nearness, and the secret settled into union.

In sum, the expression of love is not love; because love is a state (hal), and a state can never be [mere] speech (qal). If a whole world should wish to attract love, they could not; and if they should exert themselves to repel it, they could not—for it is among the gifts (mawahib), not among the acquisitions (makasib). If all the world gathered to draw love toward someone who is not its seeker, they could not; and if they wished to repel it from someone who is worthy of it, they could not, and would be rendered powerless—for it is divine, and man is heedless, and the heedless cannot comprehend the divine. And peace.