The Essence of Islam – Volume II — Page 261
Salvation 261 anyone? Love is a wonderful thing. Its fire overcomes the fire of sin and puts out the flame of disobedience. . True and personal and perfect love cannot subsist along with punishment. One of the signs of true love is that it is a part of the nature of a true lover that he is fearful of his beloved cutting asunder from him, and considers himself lost if he commits the slightest default, and deems it a poison to oppose his beloved, and always yearns to meet him and is so deeply affected by distance and absence that he becomes like one dead. He estimates as sin not only that which the common people regard as sin, for instance, murder, adultery, theft, bearing false witness, but he considers the slightest neglect as a great sin and so also that leaving God he should have the least inclination towards anything else. He is, therefore, constantly occupied with Istighfar before the Eternal Beloved and as his nature is never reconciled to any separation from God. Almighty, he considers the least neglect which might result from his humanness as a mountain of sin. That is the reason why those who have a holy and perfect relationship with God Almighty occupy themselves constantly with Istighfar. It is a characteristic of love that a true lover is always fearful lest his beloved should be annoyed with him and as his heart is thirsty that God should be wholly pleased with him, he is not content even if God Almighty tells him that He is pleased with him. As the winebibber is not satisfied with drinking once and always demands more, in the same way, when the love of the Divine surges up in the heart of a person, it demands that it should win the pleasure of God more and more. The intensity of love demands more and more of Istighfar. That is why those who love God perfectly concentrate all the time on Istighfär. The great sign of an