The Creator, the Almighty One who is the only Being (wujud) is alone the source of Love Himself. He loves Himself. He embraces Himself. He adores Himself. He is the one who loves and is loved among the whole of creation. Love is He alone. The lover who has already perfected in his love in the end understands he loves the only Being, the Creator; what he loves is indeed the Almighty One, God, in every existent thing. In the initial stages the lover finds Him within himself. He loves Him within himself; while loving himself, the lover at the same time loves Him. He is the one who has created every thing out of love. Therefore, every creature carries traces of love within themselves. If someone finds love within creation, then he finds Truth (Haqq) who has created all things out of His love, as the aim of Truth’s creation is only Love.
Truth is the only craving of lovers’ hearts and is Divine Light (Nur). When compared to the physical light in this world, Truth or Divine Light can be understood easily because both have some common attributes. Lovers who contemplate these attributes become more aware of the Being of Truth, and thus they realize Truth more readily. Light is the single entity that is perceived within all colors, forms, and things in this world. Yet, it cannot be seen. Light can only be perceived within the existent things through colors that are in truth the attributes of light itself. When we understand the reason of all colors perceived within the existent things is light itself, we also realize that what we see as colors in this world is only light itself.
Just as light cannot be seen, Truth also cannot be seen. However, His attributes (sifat) are perceived within the existent things. Truth can only be seen through His attributes. Therefore, lovers recognize the attributes of Truth and they witness and see Haqq within His attributes. As mentioned above, we can see the things in this world only when light exists. We cannot see when there is no light or when we are in darkness. In truth, the things we perceive around us are just light. Like this, whatever we see within the existent things is only this manifested light or Nur, which is the Being of Truth. This wisdom of lovers is that which can see Haqq within all existent things.
If we turn back to our example of the physical light, it will be wrong to believe that each color is different and distinct because they are indebted for their existence only to light itself. They cannot exist if light does not exist. The sole reason of their existence is light itself. Similar to this example, the things exist because of the Being of God. The reason and aim of their existence is God Himself. Only God is seen within the existent things. Therefore, lovers see only God within the existent things because they know the reason of their existence is God Himself alone. The multiplicity or multitude of colors cannot destroy the oneness of light. Like this, the multiplicity of the existent things cannot change the oneness of God. He is the oneness within multiplicity. In truth, what lovers see is only the Being of God both in terms of His manifested and non-manifested forms. Therefore, lovers know the source of life for the existent things is the breath of God. The breath of God has uttered infinite words with His command of “Be!” (“Qun!”). The words uttered by the breath have been created as the innumerable existent things in the cosmos. In other words, the existent things are only the words of God or the breath of God that has uttered these words. Lovers see the existent things as the words of Truth and they perceive the breath of Truth wherever they look. They witness that all words are indebted for their existence to the breath whereas the breath does not need them. Just as any manifested color cannot alone encompass light, words cannot also embrace the one who has uttered them. One must understand the breath before further understanding the source of Love. The following question must be asked here to understand the breath. Is the breath of a human being the same as that person? His breath is not himself; He is himself. Man without breath is just a corpse and a breath without man is only air. Therefore, his breath is both himself and not-himself. Like this, the breath of God is both He and not-He. There is neither certain difference nor certain sameness between the Creator and an existent thing that is His word. But lovers witness God within words. They perceive God wherever they look because the Creator says, “I am apparent and manifest everywhere.” On the other hand, the Essence (dhat) of God, the Almighty One who is the only Being and the source of Love cannot be known and understood by reason. The mind cannot perceive Him. He alone knows Himself. He alone sees Himself. He sees with the eyes of the lover and He speaks from the mouth of the lover because the lover is the one who carries Him within his heart. The Creator who cannot be embraced by the cosmos is carried within the heart of the lover who loves Him. The lover who realizes the divine attributes of the Creator begins to understand His Oneness. No one can grasp knowledge of God if he cannot understand the divine names and attributes of God. The names and attributes of the one and only Beloved are infinite. Every existent thing in the cosmos manifests one of His attributes and names and each thing is given a name according to the attribute that it carries. Accordingly, every existent thing is assumed to be one of the divine names and attributes of God. For this reason Yunus, one of the great lovers says, “I will call You, my God, with the stones and mountains.” Every created thing carries one or more of the divine attributes of God. Each manifests some of His attributes and the perfection of the existent things depends on the degree of their capacity to manifest the attributes of God. Thus perfection is closely related to the capacity and to the extent that the existent things are able to realize and manifest His attributes. Only man, the noblest of the creatures, has this capacity and power to carry and manifest all of the Divine attributes of God. There is no one similar to man in the cosmos in terms of his comprehensiveness in realizing and manifesting the whole of the divine attributes of God because other existent things only manifest a certain and limited number of the divine attributes within themselves. The perfection of lovers is dependent on how far they are able to realize and manifest these divine attributes hidden within them. In truth, these attributes are the attributes of God and the lover who realizes and manifests them within himself is also a representative of God. Furthermore, such a lover has already assumed the divine traits of the Creator. The one who realizes all of the attributes of God and thus assumes the noble charter traits is known as the true Friend of Truth (Haqq Dost). The true Friends of Truth are also the lovers of Truth. The one who loves them also loves Truth. They are guides for human beings to be in a harmony and commune with Truth– the source of Love, Beauty, and Goodness. They are worthy of being loved because they are only “Divine Beloved Ones.” The Divine Beloved One who meets human begins with Love acts as a representative of God among people. From another perspective, they are the sole reason and aim of God’s creating the cosmos and man because the Almighty One has created man and the cosmos to become known and all of His Divine attributes and names are to be manifested. Therefore, His attributes are dispersed among the existent things within the cosmos and only man in his comprehensiveness realizes and manifests every attribute of God. No existent thing but the true friend of God, the lover of God, has this capacity and power to manifest all of the divine attributes of God. Despite the fact that the Essence of God cannot be seen, He is manifested (tajalli) within the true friend of Truth who are the lovers of Truth and He is witnessed as Truth. The beauty of the countenance of Truth (Haqq cemal) that lovers yearn for in their lifetime is manifested on the face of the Divine Beloved One. Therefore, lovers witness the beauty of the countenance (cemal) on the face of their Divine Beloved One. The true Friends of Truth, and the true lovers of Truth are one and the same even though they are called by different names and they appear differently and live in different countries. The Creator, the Almighty One, has created every creature and decreed that it is their duty to serve human beings– the noblest of the creatures. He has created man in His form. He has taught man the totality of His Divine names. Therefore, man alone manifests the infinite diversity of the Divine “faces” in the cosmos. Such a human being who is the true friend of Truth shows a different “beauty of countenance” (cemal) to His lovers within each gaze; He attracts and intoxicates them. The station (maqam) of lovers is defined and delimited by their capacity to realize and manifest the divine attributes of God. On the other hand, this spiritual station is continuously changing until the last breath of their life. When they walk to God, leaving this world, their station becomes fixed. Apart from man, the cosmos itself has been created in the form of God because with the whole of the existent things the cosmos also manifests the entire Divine attributes and names. It is the locus of manifestation of God’s names and attributes. In this respect, the cosmos resembles man. However, the cosmos manifests the whole of the Divine names and attributes within a diverse configuration in which each existent thing displays the divine names and attributes only in a limited and imperfect manner. Only the true friend and lover of Truth, realizes and displays the entire divine names and attributes within his comprehensiveness and perfection. Human beings can conduct research into the cosmos; they can know and understand it. Furthermore, they can give forms to the cosmos within their hearts and imagination. However, the cosmos does not have this ability to understand or analyze itself. In this respect, man is the soul (ruh) of the cosmos. The cosmos without man is just like a man without Love or a corpse without soul. As far as the cosmos contains the human being within it, it is the “macroman” or “Great Man.” It must be noted that it is not the common man we are talking about here. What is meant by the human being is the true Friend of Truth (Haqq Dost), the True Human Being or the Perfect Human Being. Therefore, the cosmos without “the true friend of Truth” or “the True Human Being” collapses in ruins; it eventually dies. This will happen when the last “True Human Being” leaves this world. It is unfortunate for us now the number of such human beings living in our world decreases day by day. They are the only beings that have the true capacity to manifest the Divine names and attributes of God and only through them does He become known. If they did not exist in this world, the reason and aim of creation itself also disappears. Since there would be no reason for the cosmos to exist, it also collapses and dies. The lover who has realized the Divine names and attributes cannot have his own will. He has already surrendered himself to Truth. He acts in accordance with the will of Truth. He lives for it only; He and the people around him undergo many things in life for Truth only. They are the true friends and lovers of Truth. The one who sees them sees Truth only. They love for Truth only; they are loved for Truth only. The mind cannot conceive their acts and secrets (sir). The one who criticizes the actions and behaviors of such human beings actually criticizes himself because they carry the Light of Truth within; they are the mirror of Truth. The one who looks at them sees his self only. They are the purified ones who are the true friends of souls. The true friends of God in their perfection speak to God; they hear the resonance of God addressed to them at the moment of the manifestation of God (tajalli). No spatial direction can be defined for God’s resonance. It comes WITHOUT any direction. For example, the Almighty God addressed The Pole (Qutb) Abdulkadir Geylani, The Supreme Helper, Gavs Al-Azam, one of the Great Lovers of God, in the following manner, “You are My Lover! You are the One whom I love! You are the One who is desired! You are My Face amongst my slaves... You are the One who is the most wanted and looked for… You are My Secret within secrets… You are My Light within lights! You are the Beauty of My Countenance (Cemal)… You are My Perfection (Kemal)… You are My Name… You are My Essence… You are My Attribute (Sifat)! Come nearer to witness Me! Do not stay far away from Me… You are the essence of the universe! Come nearer to Me, My Lover! Ascend to Me, My Lover! I desired you for My Essence. I have created you for Me alone… Do not look for anything else other than Me. Do not crave for anything else other than Me! My Lover, smell Me within all fragrances… My Lover, devour Me within all foods... My Lover, touch Me in whatever you touch... My Lover, you are My Yearning!”
Having liberated themselves from any base desires, passions, and worldly interests, they have become the slave of Love. When they do something, whatever it is, they do it just for Love. Any act that they do for Love never corrupts or makes them impure because Love burns and purifies man. Their Love also purifies those in relationship to them. What make man corrupt and impure are not the faults in his actions but his intentions while doing these actions. Man is completely responsible for his acts when he harmfully influences and changes the intentions of other people. O You who are looking for Love! Until you come across a true friend of God, you will never know Love and yourself. Your craving for Love will never be satisfied. The “Divine Beloved Ones” are those who give Love to the whole of humanity. * * * (From: Divine Love written by Faruk Dilaver) |
