The Light of the Holy Qur'an — Page 132
T HE L IGHT OF T HE HOLY Q U R’AN—NUM BE R T WO T HE L IGHT OF T HE HOLY Q U R’AN—NUM BE R T WO 132 in his beloved so that he may acquire, through his beloved, the life that the beloved has? A true lover loses himself in his beloved. He emerges from within the garment of his beloved and he draws such a picture of the beloved in his own being as if he has soaked his beloved up. It is said that by becoming an image of the beloved and by taking on the hues of the beloved, and by becoming one with his beloved, he has shown to the people that, indeed, he has lost himself in the love of his beloved. Ma h abbat is an Arabic word and its original meaning is ‘to get filled up’. Accordingly, ُ ب َ الۡحِمَار َّ تَحَب [ ta h abbabal- h im a ru ] is a well-known idiom among the Arabs. That is, when Arabs wish to say that the belly of the donkey is filled up with water, they say ُ ب َ الۡحِمَار َّ تَحَب [ ta h abbabal- h im a ru ], and when they wish to say that the camel drank so much water that he was completely filled with water, they say ْ بَت َّ شَرِبَت ِ ا لِْبِل ُحَتّٰی تَحَب [ sharibatil-Ibilu h atta ta h abbabat ] And the word h abb, which is used for seed , is also derived from this very root, because it is filled with the attributes of the earlier seed. On the same basis, ihb a b means ‘sleep’, because one who is filled up with something will for- get himself and go to sleep, as it were, and he will have no sense left of his own self. This being the reality of love , when the Gospel teaches that you should love Satan and the satanic horde too, the purport would be none other than that you join them in their sins. What a teaching! How can such a teaching be from God? It wishes to make a Satan out of man! May God save everyone from this teaching of the Gospel! If it is asked that when it is forbidden to love Satan and those of satanic character, how then should we treat them? The reply