The Prophet Muhammad was sitting with a group of Arabs and one of them asked, “When will the end of times come?” The Prophet Muhammad looked at him and said, “What have you done to prepare for that?” The man said, “I have done nothing but learn to love my Lord and love my Prophet.” The Prophet Muhammad said, “That is enough to get you into heaven.”
Love is at the crux of understanding. Love is at the crossroad of reality. When we walk through our lives we can either walk into the illusory world, or walk into the world of haqq, the world of God’s reality. At that juncture, when that choice is made, love is there. If we choose illusion, we choose love of the world. If we choose reality, God’s reality, we choose Divine Love. Both of these words are pronounced the same way in English, love and love, but they have entirely different meanings.
Love of the world is a selfish kind of love. The kind of love that we have for the fish that we eat for dinner, “I love this fish.” Of course we need to kill the fish in order to eat it. Divine Love is a different kind of love. Divine Love is the kind of love that does not take, but gives, the kind of love that does not hoard, but gives out, the kind of love that comes from God that sustains, that helps others move through their lives, that encourages, that is without self-motive, and is motivated by the needs of others.
We need to begin to have a motive within our own being that we will be the ones who are motivated to do God’s will, not our own will. We need to create a motive that is
separate from our mind, separate from what is known as the nafs, the self-indulgence of existence. We need to move from self-indulgence to being an aide, and to assist others.
In order to understand the nature of assisting others, in order to understand the nature of God’s sustenance, God’s constant giving, we need to have joy in seeing the success of others, we need to have joy in being able to feel the happiness of others, to be happy with them, and for them. We need to become empathetic.
