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From Love to True Love

Or is the reality inverse?
ShahrezRafiqQureshi
When Aristotle was asked to give his views regarding obsessive love or Eshgh (Persian equivalent of Ishq), he said that it wasnothing but craziness. Some people believe that to be able to love God, or to be able to do Ishq-e-Haqeeqi, one must walk through the path of Ishq-e-Majazi. Ishq-e-Majazi, can be regarded as a persons love to the creation of holy creator, another human. In its most general meanings, the love between a male and female is Ishq-e-Majazi. It is the kind of love in which one submerges into, WITHOUT any monetary or worldly benefit. For some it is the highest degree of love possible in the world between two mortals. It requires ones mind to be free of all the selfishness and to love his loved one without even thinking about his own benefits, whether they are related to his safety or self. It requires a person to submit himself to the will of his beloved. Ishq-e-Haqeeqion the other hand is described as the love between a person and his creator. It is the highest possible form of love which can be achieved by a mortal. The first and foremost point of it is to submit ones self to the will of God and to accept his will because of his love for him. But question is how Ishq-e-Majazi is supposed to pave the path for Ishq-e-Haqeeqi and whether Ishq-eMajazi acts as a ladder for the higher level of love i.e. Ishq-e-Majazi or not? People who advocate Ishq-e-Majazi, say that Ishq-e-Haqeeqi requires a person who is used to submitting himself to the will of his beloved. Only he can easily start walking on the path of Ishq-eHaqeeqi as the first and foremost requirement of Ishq-e-Haqeeqiis,submission. Seeing the nature of Ishq-e-Majazi, it is hard to mark it as a guide for the right path and thats because of its physical nature. People fall in obsessive love mostly when they get inspired by some physical feature of their beloved, for sme it may be just the heel of a foot, for some it may be the slight swagger in the way their beloved walks. Reasons for attraction vary, but nature of these reasons remains the same. These are a few things which enticea lover enough that he feels the need to closure. This is the first step, of Ishq-e-Majazi, Attraction. NO love can, could or would start without this first step of feeling attracted towards the opposite sex. If you are agreeing with me so far, than here is the deal breaker. According to Holy Prophet (PBUH), seeing ones parents with eyes of thankfulness and love is like performing Hajj, while watching a girl intentionally and knowingly to whom you have no blood relation is like committing adultery.At this point you might say that one doesnt have to SEE the opposite sex,

they may be conversing by the means of letters or any other digital textual form. But even then, according to Islam, talking to a Na-Mehram without any true need is sin on the part of participants. When no such means of initial attraction are possible, how can someone fall in love without doing a sin? And a thing which starts with sin, do you think it would ever lead to a good thing? In my humble opinion, no it wont. Among Tauheeds various benefits which we have been told since beginning of our social and religious education is that when we bow down and place our head on the earth symbolically submitting ourselves to Allah, we are actually getting rid of obedience to any animal, snake, cow or an idol made up of stone. When the purpose and benefit of Tauheed is that, than how can you resign yourself to the will of another mortal being without making him your idol? Just suppose that it CAN (I am not saying it WILL)lead to Ishq-e-Majazi. Would you opt to choose a path which starts with piles of dunghill scattered all over or would you start with the path that starts with beautiful rosaries, when both of the path lead to the same destination and are of equal length? I hope you said the path which starts with roses and gardens. If thats your answer then you dont need to find a man in order to fall in love with him (Ishq-e-Majazi) and then to learn the art of submission and resignation and then start walking towards the path which leads to the True Love. You can just realize that God is the greatest truth, he is the only one worthy of our love. Believing that ones husband/wife is worthy of love and respect JUST because God Almighty wants us to (Submission) is True Ishq. Loving all the creations and not just the God himself, just because God Almighty wants us to isIshq-eHaqeeqi. Ishq-e-Haqeeqi is free from any desire of our mortal form. And it is the purest kind of love because one learns to find pleasure in resignation to the will of God rather finding solace in the physical pleasure. The topics like Ishq-e-Majazi vs. Ishq-e-Haqeeqi or Whether the Quran is creation or the Creator, began when Malookiyat (Baadshahat) came to rise in Muslim History. They started justifying their deeds by taking help from the Muslim Scholars, who bent the rules of Islam by publishing Tafaseer in which they began to mask and cloak the commandments with their own version of Truth. 3,00,000 Muslim scholars were present and were discussing whether the Quran is Creation or the Creator when Siege of Baghdad occurred, Genghis Khan killed each and every one of them. This is the biggest proof of how devastating such question can become and how far they can lead us from Amal. Iran has played a great role in rising questions as this in order to make Muslims misguided. They were among those who began translating books of Arabic origin for the local Muslims and guised within them such controversies. In Islam, the only kind of Love which is allowed is True Love. Loving your spouse because God ordered is the resignation to the will of God and hence is pure, pious and more benefitting than Ishq-e-Majazi.

If one has already fallen in love, he or she must ask forgiveness to Allah Almighty, and start walking towards the path of True Love as true love encompasses loving your spouse, your children, your parents, entire humanity and God himself.