Malfuzat - Volume VII — Page 401
24 September 1905 401 The Pleasures of Divine Love Therefore, the more a person reads the Holy Quran with care and consideration, the more he will understand the fact that he will enjoy these metaphorically expressed pleasures. Love of God has pleasures. The experience implied in the word ‘pleas- ure’ is thousands of times greater when applied to spiritual pleasure in comparison to physical pleasure. If the pleasure of this love does not have extraordinary richness and abundance, then why should lovers of Almighty Allah give up physical pleasures to the extent that some were even of the calibre who abandoned their throne? Accordingly, Ibr a h i m Adham gave up his throne, and the Prophets, peace be on them, endured hun- dreds of millions of afflictions. If that pleasure and delight was not there at the base of Divine love that was drawing them to it uncontrollably, then what was the reason that they happily took up so much suffer- ing? Since the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, exceeds all in this rank, the example of his s as life reigns supreme and is the most eminent of all. The disbelievers of Makkah placed all the bounties and honours of this world before the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him—wealth, riches, empire, women—requesting him s as to refrain from condemning their idols and presenting this monotheistic religion. Let go of this idea. They were worldly people; their sight could not go beyond the fleeting and illu- sory pleasures of the world. They surmised that this preaching was towards these ends, but he rejected all these things presented by them and said that even if you place the sun and the moon in my right and left hands, even then I cannot leave it. Then, in contrast to this, they inflicted upon him such afflictions, the likes of which cannot be seen in the sufferings of any other individual. Nevertheless,