Many claim to love God, but each should examine himself as to the genuineness of the love which he professes. The first test is this. He should not dislike the thought of death, for no lover shrinks from going to see his own beloved. The Prophet said, “ Who ever wishes to see God, God wishes to see him.” It is true a sincere lover of God may shrink from the thought of death coming before he has finished his preparation for the next world, but if he is really sincere, he will be diligent in making such preparation.
The second test of sincerity is that a man should be willing to sacrifice his will to God’s, should cleave to what brings him nearer to God and should shun what places him at a distance from God. The fact of a man’ sinning is no proof that he does not love Him with his whole heart. A saint said to a certain man “ If any one asks you whether you love God, keep silent, for if you say, I do not love Him,” you are an infidel, and if you say, “ I do,” your evil deeds contradict you.”
A third test is that the remembrance of God should always remain fresh in a man’s heart without effort; for what a man loves he constantly remembers, and if his love is perfect he never forgets it. It is possible, however, that while the love of God does not take the first place in man’s heart, the love of the love of God may, of love is one thing and the love of the love another.
A fourth test is that he will love all men who love God and who obey Him; if his love is really too strong; he will be merciful and kind to every human being without distinction, nay his love will embrace the whole creation, it being the direct work of his Beloved. With regard to the unjust, the sinners, the unbelievers, who are non the less the creation of God, the lover of Him will ever be anxious to see them turn righteous, just, obedient and faithful. Although he may dislike them, such dislikeness will not extend to their persons but will be consecrated to their evil actions and irreligious deeds. Because among the tests of the love of God is that the lovers of God will love those who obey Him.
Now let us our illustrations of the spiritual guide’s views of the treasures of happiness by quoting my own saint guide.
“ The next world is the world of spirit and of the manifestation of the beauty of God, happy is that man who has aimed at and acquired affinity with it. All abstinence, devotions, worship, and true knowledge have the acquirement of that affinity for their aim, and that affinity is love, while sins and lusts oppose that affinity. In the Koran, the saints main Scripture of God, one reads:
ÞÏ ÇÝáÍ ãä ÒßÇåÇ æ ÞÏ ÎÇÈ ãä ÏÓÇåÇ . (91:9-10)
that is: “He who has purified his soul is happy and he who has corrupted it is miserable.”
Those who are gifted with spiritual insight have really grasped this truth as a fact of experience, and not a merely traditional maxim. Their clear perception of it leads them to the conviction that he by whom it was revealed was a Prophet indeed, just as a man who has studied medicine knows when he is listening to a physician. This is a kind of certainty which requires no support from miracles such as the conversion of a rod into a snake, the credit of which may be shaken by apparently equally extraordinary miracles performed by magicians.
I hope in my humble endeavour to acquaint my readers with a specimen of the Islamic Spiritual culture I have done something which they would really enjoy.
