Ashq, love, and passion

Question: Can we call ‘ashq ephemeral passion and love true emotion?

ANSWER
Love and ‘ashq are the same thing. Love is the heart’s inclination towards what it derives pleasure from. It is called love to desire to be all the time together and to get pleasure from being together. The love which is intense is called ‘ashq. The meaning of love in Islamic context is as follows:

Love is to subordinate oneself to the Beloved without expecting anything in return, to obey Him, to consider all His deeds beautiful, to deem every sorrow and trouble sent by Him to be sweeter than any favor, and to think of His friends as friends and His enemies as enemies. The last one is also called hubb-i fillah and bughd-i fillah. The word the Beloved herein refers to Allahu ta’âlâ. The love which is for the sake of Allah is valuable, but there is no goodness in the love which is not for the sake of Allah.

Today, the word ‘ashq is wrongly applied to the sensual, bestial desires of the nafs and to ephemeral passions. It is incorrect. It causes confusion in concepts and terms. If we call the sensual desire of the nafs passion, then passion is abominable:

Passion is a disgrace, but love is virtue.
Passion keeps you from sleeping, but love keeps in mind.
Passion disrupts the process of thinking and reasoning, but love advances towards its goal in company with the mind.
There are pitfalls in passion, but nothing is concealed in love.
Passion sets to nonsensical actions, but love reaches higher ranges.
Passion is quick to change lovers, but love does not keep [people] apart. Instead, it brings [them] together.
Passion removes chastity, but love melts in chastity.
Passion makes you insensitive and makes you meet the beloved in secret, but love alleviates lust.
Passion shakes the confidence and is deceitful, but love inspires confidence.
Passion smells a flower, becomes satisfied, and looks for a new one. But love waters the flower, grows it, and knocks it into shape.
Passion ends and becomes a lie. It bites you like a snake. But love comes true, seeks you, finds you, and protects you against dangers.
Passion continues for a short time only, but love continues all through your life.
Passion deceives you, distresses you, but love does not deceive you. Nor does it deviate from veracity.
Passion is jealous, but love is trustful.
Passion breaks something into pieces, but love pieces them together.
Passion is like hungry beasts with rabies, but love is like health-giving medicines.
Passion is two-faced, insincere. But love is sincere. It shines like the sun and warms you up.
Passion tramples you underfoot and chooses a new prey, but love protects you and goes on with you.
Passion prefers short-term investments, but love’s investment is for eternity.
Passion is temporal and selective, but love is permanent and conciliatory.
Passion makes a ruler a slave, but ashq (intense love) makes a slave a ruler.

Hadrat Zulaikhâ sacrificed all her property, possessions, beauty, moreover, all her riches in the way of Hadrat Yûsuf initially for her passion for him and subsequently for her love of him. She would give gold jewelry to people who said that they had seen Yûsuf. However, when she married Yûsuf ‘alaihis-salâm, she did not go near to him, saying, “The love of Allahu ta’âlâ, alone, suffices for me.” So it was understood that she attained to true love.

We have mentioned above that the love which is intense is termed ‘ashq. Allahu ta’âlâ loves our Prophet much; that is, He has fallen in love (‘ashq) with him. It is stated in a hadîth-i qudsî:
(O My Messenger! I made the Prophet Ibrâhîm My khalîl [friend], but I have made you My habîb [the beloved one, darling].) [Mawâhib-i Ladunniya]
In (the celebrated eulogy called) Mawlid, Allahu ta’âlâ says, “My Habîb, I fell in love with you.” Those who view ‘ashq as the sensual desire of the nafs have fallen into the misfortune of criticizing this statement.
A quatrain is as follows:

What is ashq like?
It is shiny, sunlike
A heart devoid of ashq
is like stones and rock.

How should Allah be loved and feared?

Question: How should Allah be loved and feared?

ANSWERJust as love is of different kinds, so is fear. The love of Allah is different from the love of parents, children, a wife, and the nature. Likewise, the fear of Allah is a far cry from the fear of enemies. It is declared in the Qur’ân al-karîm, “Fear Allah as He should be feared” (Sûrat-u Âl-i ‘Imrân, 102).
The fear felt for Allah the way He wants is termed taqwâ. Taqwâ is to believe in Allah, to love Him, to be a servant to Him, that is, to observe His commandments and prohibitions. It is not taqwâ to fear enemies, for enemies are not believed in. Nor do they have the authority to put people in Hell or Paradise. One fears enemies only because they may do harm. Then there is a world of difference between these two types of fear. Again, it is declared, “If you have believed, do not fear them [enemies], but fear Me” (Sûrat-u Âl-i ‘Imrân, 175).
A lover is afraid of upsetting his or her beloved in any way. Not only we must love our Rabb much, who has created us from nothing and has conferred various favors upon us, but also we must be very much afraid of losing this love. As a matter of fact, the Qur’ân al-karîm purports:
(Fear Allah! Know that Allah’s torment is extremely severe.) [Sûrat-ul-Baqara, 196]

(Fear Allah, so that you can attain to salvation.) [Sûrat-ul-Mâ’ida, 100]

Fearing Allah should not be supposed like fearing a cruel person. It is the fear combined with reverence and love. In poems which lovers wrote to their darlings there are many couplets telling about similar fear in them. A lover who regards his darling much higher than himself does not deem himself worthy of this love and explains his feelings in such a fear.

Certainly, the fear of Allah is out of the question for disbelievers. As for the Believers, they must love Allah greatly and be very much afraid of becoming a disbeliever so that they can get the taste of îmân. A hadîth-i sharîf declares:
(A person who loves Allah and His Messenger more than everything else, who loves only those whom Allah loves, and who is afraid of becoming a disbeliever more than he is afraid of being burnt in fire relishes îmân.) [Bukhârî]

Most of the scandals and crimes arise mainly from lack of chastity. Most people cannot refrain themselves from indulging in the things of the wrong path even though they may know the result of being unchaste. The remedy that can lead them to right path in the face of this strong feeling is an educational and ethical matter. Religion means ethics. A person who fears Allah cannot be unchaste. Consequently, it must be our primary duty to try to teach our children the fear of Allah.

In order to fear Allahu ta’âlâ, one should know Him very well. To know Allahu ta’âlâ well, we must learn His grandness and attributes. To fear Allah is a matter of knowledge, work, and effort. It will not emanate from a vacuum.

The wings taking people to happinessFear of Allah and love of Allah are like two wings taking people to salvation and happiness. Our master the Prophet said:
(If a person fears Allah, everything fears him. If he does not fear Allah, he fears everything.) [Abushshaikh]

(The wisest of you is the one who fears Allah most and who observes commandments and prohibitions best.) [Ibni Muhbar]

(The extent of a person’s intellect will be evident in the extent of his fear of Allah.) [I. Mâwardî]

A Believer who obeys Allahu ta’âlâ’s commandments loves his Rabb immensely. It is purported in the Qur’ân al-karîm:

(The Believers’ love of Allah is very strong.) [Sûrat-ul-Baqara, 165]

(A Believer is such that his heart feels fear when the name of Allah is mentioned.) [Sûrat-ul-Anfal, 2; Sûrat-ul-Hajj, 35]

It is not possible for people to love or fear what they do not know. Those who love Allah much and know Him well fear Him very much. Since the one who knows Him best is our master the Prophet, he is certainly the one who fears Him most. As a matter of fact, he stated:
(It is I who, among you, fear Allah most.) [Bukhârî]

After prophets, people who know Allahu ta’âlâ best are savants, who are prophets’ inheritors, and those who are close to them. It is purported in the Qur’ân al-karîm:
(Only ‘ulamâ’ fear Allah among His servants.) [Sûrat-u Fâtir, 28]

(Those who obey Allah and His Messenger and those who fear Allah and guard themselves against violating His commands are the ones that will be saved on the Day of Judgement.) [Sûrat-un-Nûr, 52]

When our master the Prophet was asked concerning the people mentioned in the sixtieth verse of Mu’minun Sûra that reads (in English) “Their hearts beat with fear as they will return to their Rabb” whether they are thieves or fornicators, he answered:
(They are the ones who perform namâz, who fast, and who give zakât. And they fear whether their acts of worship have been accepted.) [Tirmudhî]

The fear of Allah is highly useful for sustenance as well. Our master the Prophet declared, “The sustenance of a person whose capital is the fear of Allah comes to him without trading or capital,” and then recited [the second and third verses of Talaq Sûra, which purport] “Whoever fears Allah, He grants a way out for him and sends him sustenance from places which he does not expect.” (Tabarânî)

The fear of Allah is a great blessing that makes people attain endless bliss. It is purported in âyât (verses):
(There are two Paradises for the person who fears his Rabb.) [Sûrat-ur-Rahman, 46]

(He who fears Allah receives warning.) [Sûrat-ul-A’lâ, 10]

(Fear only Me.) [Sûrat-ul-Baqara, 40]

(Do not fear human beings but fear Me.) [Sûrat-ul-Mâ’ida, 44]

Furthermore, it is declared in ahâdîth:
(The sins of a person whose heart shivers with the fear of Allah fall off just like leaves falling off a tree.) [Bayhaqî]

(He who remembers his sins and cries over them will enter Paradise without any questioning.) [I. Ghazâlî]

(He who weeps out of the fear of Allah will not enter Hell.) [Nasâî]

(If you feared Allah thoroughly, you would attain knowledge that does not contain ignorance.) [Ibni Sunnî]

The love of Allah is one of the conditions of îmân. The following ahâdîth declare:
(Îmân is to love Allah and His Messenger more than everything else.) [I. Ahmad]

(You will not be considered to have îmân unless Allah and His Messenger are more beloved to you than everything else.) [Bukhârî]

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.