The Essence of Islam – Volume III — Page 37
Natural, Moral and Spiritual States of Man 37 very reflection. That is why, consistent with his capacity, a person who loves God acquires, metaphorically speaking, God's light. Similarly, those who love Satan acquire the darkness which belongs to Satan. This being the reality of love, how can a true Scripture, which is from God, ever permit that you should love Satan as you love God, or love the successors of Satan the way you ought to love the successors of the Gracious One. . The pity of it is that we had hitherto held the New Testament to be false only because it deifies a humble mortal. But now we can also prove that various other teachings of the Gospels are also impure. How can a teaching be pure which requires one to love Satan as he ought to love God? It would be an exercise in futility to contend that these sayings were a slip of the tongue on the part of Jesus because he was ignorant of the philosophy of the Divine. If this was so, why did he claim to be the reformer of his people? Was he a child? Did he not even know that true love demands that the lover should sincerely love the habits, morals and religious practices of the beloved, and should endeavour heart and soul to be lost in them, so that he may attain through the beloved the life that belongs to him. The true lover loses himself in the beloved. He becomes the manifestation of the beloved and reflects in himself the image of the beloved to the extent that it becomes part and parcel of his person. . After acquiring his complexion and by standing with him, he demonstrates to the people that for a fact he is totally lost in love for his beloved. . Muhabbat [love] is an Arabic word which literally means 'to be filled'. The well-known Arabic idiom -is used when an Arab wants to say that a don تَحَبَّبَ الْحِمَارُ key's belly is full of water. When he wants to say that the