Love of God (Sufism)

This state arises naturally when the divine mysteries are revealed and the soul is illuminated. In fact knowledge and love of God are one. It is the greatest of God's favours, arising because of God's love for the devotee. The common man expresses his love because of God's kindness and favour; there is also love as attachment through realization of God's attributes; and, highest of all, there is pure love of God reflected in a natural feeling of affinity based on knowledge of God. Then God is loved for His own sake.

In one exposition of al-Ansari, mahabbat is the final station but above all stations, being the guiding principle of the whole progress of the mystic. It has three stages: rasti – rectitude; masti – drunkenness; nisti – annihilation. It also has three degrees. The first comes from considering the divine attributes, is rooted in following the sunna and grows according to responding to one's spiritual needs. It cuts short insinuations, finds service a pleasure and consoles affliction. The second arises from considering God's attributes, from reflecting on the signs of God and from exercising the mystic stations. It prefers God above all else, the tongue is infatuated when speaking of Him and contemplation of Him attaches the heart. The third is beyond description. It ravishes, cutting short expression and rendering allusion too subtle. Man's love for God, properly directed, must transcend the conventions of religion which conceived it and finally be consumed in God's abiding love.

Ghazali sees this journey as follows: Firstly, love refers to existence in the physical world, to the individual, his family and the society he lives in; then it is shown in personal achievements and gains. In these two cases, God is the only cause for his existence and protection. This is followed by the experience of selfless love attracted towards beauty and goodness; love is then revealed in the soul as it inclines towards moral values related to beauty and goodness. In these cases, because God is the ideal of beauty and goodness and the supreme moral being, He is the true object of love. Finally there is the affinity natural between lover and beloved, when the soul is drawn naturally to God because of pre-existing fellowship with Him, the affinity of the soul and its source. It shares the divine nature and attributes and may become Godlike itself, attaining eternal life through knowledge and love.

Thus the love of the devotee passes through a number of stages to attain perfection in detachment from all and joyful communion with God. The state of perfect love may be reached through recollection of God, dhikr, the recitation of the names of God. It results from ishq, passionate desire for union with God and restlessness at separation from him.

The state of mahabbat is a spiritual state or hal, related to the Sufi's own experience and granted as a special favour by God, being the only means of unification with God. When there is love for God nothing else has any value; suffering at separation from Him can be ignored while there is disinterest in favours granted. There is satisfaction even in the midst of affliction; and love increases with obedience and respect for the beloved's commands. Perfect love is motiveless and is unaffected in the way love for a motive is affected when that motive is fulfilled. In love, human qualities are transmuted and the association to the self is lost. The Sufi does not distinguish between himself and his beloved. Love removes the veil of human qualities, annihilating the self in the beloved. Dead to his own attributes – fana – the Sufi is alive in the attributes of the loved – baqi.

The doctrines of sabr, mahabbat and ma'rifa were elaborated by the Sufi scholar Abu Talib al-Makki and followed and interpreted by many others. For al-Ansari, mahabbat is the final or 101st ground, or the 61st of 100 stations. Mahabbat is also the ninth stage in a systematic account of various stations of the Sufi spiritual path.