Message of Love

 يُحِبُّهُمْ وَيُحِبُّونَهُ

(5:51)

فَاذْكُرُونِي أَذْكُرْكُمْ

(2:152)

سُبْحَانَ رَبِّكَ رَبِّ الْعِزَّةِ عَمَّا يَصِفُونَ

وَسَلَامٌ عَلَى الْمُرْسَلِينَ

وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ

[37:180-182]

The Quran-e-Karim is full of the message love from Allah swt. Particularly, there are several ayaat in which Allah swt has made it clear that His relationship with the mo’mineen is something that is supposed to be two-way. Just like any other relationship between lover and a beloved, love should be reciprocal. So, Allah swt has mentioned in many different ways about this reciprocal relationship in the Qur’an. And one 0f the best way to understand what exactly Tasawwuf, Sulook is to look at that two-way relationship. For example:

Allah swt says in Qur’an:

اللَّهُ وَلِيُّ الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا

(2:257)

that Allah swt is the Wali of those who believe.

One of the most basic things about this ayah is that in many places in the Qur’an, almost all the time, Allah swt links iman with actions. i.e. Allah swt says:

 الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ

that those who believe and do righteous actions, this phrase is repeated many times in the Qur’an-e-Karim. Here also, Allah swt could have said this too i.e. Allah swt could have said that Allah swt is the Wali of those who believe and do good deeds. But Allah swt is so Karim, so Rahim, when in Qur’an He wanted to show the believers that He is their Wali, in that ayah He didn’t add an extra condition of doing good deeds, He simply said:

اللَّهُ وَلِيُّ الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا

That Know, that as long as a person is amongst the “allazeena amanu” irrespective of whether they do amaal-e-salih or not, Allah swt is their Wali.

What does it mean?

It means that just by taking iman in our heart, by having even a one drop of iman in our heart – Allah swt becomes our Wali, Allah swt becomes our Protecting Friend, Allah swt becomes our Caretaker, Allah swt becomes our Lover.

And all of those who understood the journey from this ayah: Allahu wali-ul-lazeena aamanu, to another ayah:

أَلَا إِنَّ أَوْلِيَاءَ اللَّهِ لَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ

(10:62)

In other words, they thought how can we make this relationship of Wilayah two-way i.e. Allah swt is our Wali, just because of our iman, so how can we make our selves His Wali – this journey is called Sulook. And the person who travels on this journey is called a Salik. So, Salik is that person who wants to travel from this level that Allah swt is their Wali and go all the way up to the final level that they become the Wali of Allah swt – that path that is traveled is called Tasawwuf.

So, this Wilayah is two-ways. The interesting thing is that Allah swt has mentioned even before we do amal-e-salih, even before we do anything He is our Wali. Just like that in the secd ayah Allah swt Says:

يُحِبُّهُمْ وَيُحِبُّونَهُ

that Allah swt Loves them and they love Allah.

So, here again Allah swt mentions His love first that just by our very iman, Allah swt loves the believer and then, for that mo’min to make the journey – that okay, I have iman, Allah swt loves me, i am yuhibbuhum, i want to become yuhibbunahu i.e. i want to be one of those who love Allah swt. How can i move from that journey that Allah swt loves me, to becoming a person who loves Him. That is called Tasawwuf.

You can even understand Tasawwuf in this way that first Tasawwuf tries to bring a person to that realization that Allah swt is their Wali, that Allah swt Loves them, that they are the murad of Allah swt, they are the maqsood of Allah swt, they are the matloob of Allah, they are the intended beloved creation of Allah swt. So first Tasawwuf tries to bring a person to this realization. In other words, when a person realizes what is the real maqam of insaan-e-momin. That the person who has iman, Allah swt is their Wali, that person who has iman Allah swt loves them – when Tasawwuf brings a person to an inner realization – its only natural that a person will himself want to become the Wali of Allah swt, the lover of Allah swt.

Just like that another way we can look at this is that Allah swt says in Quran:

 فَإِنِّي قَرِيبٌ

(2:186)

Allah swt Says that Indeed! I am close to you.

In another Ayah, Allah swt Says:

نَحْنُ أَقْرَبُ إِلَيْهِ

(56:85)

نَحْنُ أَقْرَبُ إِلَيْهِ مِنْ حَبْلِ الْوَرِيدِ

(50:15)