TWO REQUIERMENTS OF LOVE

Love necessitates that you love the friends of your darling and disklike the enemies of the darling. This love and this enmity are not within the power of faithful lovers; they cannot help themselves. This happens by itself without striving, without taking pains. The friend’s beloved ones seem beautiful, and His enemies seem ugly and evil. Also, the love that occurs within those who are seized by the pretty appearance of the world entails the same requirements. Unless the person who says that he loves keeps away from the enemies of his darling, he is not regarded as a man of his word. He is called a hypocrite, that is, a liar.

Shaikh-ul-Islam Abdullah Ansari ‘quddisa sirruh’ says, “One day Abul Huseyn bin Sam’un offended my teacher Husri. Since that day my heart has been feeling unfriendly towards him.” It will be appropriate here to mention a famous saying of the great, “If you are not offended by the one who offends your master, a dog is better than you are.” These two principles of love are declared in the Qur’an and hadiths ^[1]. As is understood from these ayat-i-kerimas ^[2], it causes a man to be away from Allahu ta’ala to feel sympathy for the enemies of Allahu ta’ala.

Unless there is enmity, there will be no love. Yet one should not let this enmity be perverted into hostility towards the Ashab-i-kiram ^[3], for it would mean to pander to the enemies of those great people . Enmity is to be felt towards the enemies. Hostility felt towards friends, as in the example of Rafidis and Shiites, is rejected. Because all the Ashab-i kiram were honoured with attaining our Prophet’s presence and company and his blessed looks, which were nourishment for the heart and soul, they loved one another and felt hostility towards disbelievers.

[1] hadith: a saying of the Prophet (‘alaihi ‘s-salam).
[2] Ayat al-karima: a verse of al-Qur’an al-kerim.
[3] As’hab-i kiram: the Companions of Rasulullah.