The Essence of Islam – Volume I — Page 239
The Holy Prophetsa 239 continuous beneficence and many bounties and the personal qualities of his master, advances in his love and sincerity so much so that he acquires a similar temperament and follows the same way as that of his master, on account of the personal love born in his heart. Thus he desires fulfilment of his master's wishes quite like the master himself. The same is the attitude of the faithful servant towards God Almighty. He too, progressing in his sincerity and fidelity, arrives at a stage where he ceases to be himself, and assumes the colour of his Noble. Master. . . . . The second type of nearness to God resembles the nearness between father and son as God Almighty says: 140 فَاذْكُرُوا اللهَ كَذِكركُمْ أبَاءَ كُمْ أو اشدّ ذكرًا م). This means: Remember Allāh the Glorious with such spontaneous love and fervour, as you remember your fathers. . It should be remembered that a master begins to resemble a father when love for him becomes extremely intense and love which is purified of all selfishness settles in the heart as if it were part of it. Then all the eagerness of love and the strong attachment to the beloved is felt as natural and so appropriate to one's nature and so much a part of it that it does not seem to have originated in any effort. As a son on thinking of his father feels spiritual relationship with him, in the same way a believer feels this relationship; and as a son displays the features of his father and resembles him in his ways and manners, the same is the case with the believer. . . . 140 al-Baqarah, 2:201 [Publisher]