THE THIRTY-SECOND DISCOURSE On not sharing one’s love of Allah

How often do you say, "Whoever I love, my love for him does not endure. Separation intervenes between us, either through absence, or through death, or through enmity, or through destruction or loss of wealth." So you are told, "Do you not know, O believer in God, on whom God has conferred gifts, the one to whom God has paid attention, the one whom God guards with jealous care? Do you not know that surely God is jealous. He has created you for Himself and you are desirous of belonging to somebody other than Him? Have you not heard His words: He loves them, and they love Him (5:54)? As also His commandment: And I have not created the jinn and the men, except that they should serve Me (51:56). Or have you not heard the saying of the Holy Prophet: "When God loves a servant He puts him in a trial; then if - he shows patience, He looks after him. "He was asked: "0 Prophet of God (may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), and what is His looking after?" He said: "He does not leave for him any wealth or any children." This is because when he has any wealth or children whom he loves, his love for his Lord becomes divided; then it becomes diminished and scattered, then it is distributed between God and others; and Allah does not brook any partner, and He is jealous and He is powerful over all things and predominant over all. So He destroys His partner and annihilates it in order to monopolise the heart of His servant for His ownself to the exclusion of all others. Then will be proved the truth of the words of God: He will love them and they will love Him (5:54). Till at last the heart becomes clear of all partners of God and idols such as wife and wealth and children and enjoyments and fashions and longing for dominions and kingdoms, for miracles and spiritual states and spiritual stages and stations, and gardens of heaven and spiritual grades and nearness to God — no purpose will remain in the heart and no desire. Then the heart will become like a holed vessel in which no liquid can stay, because it is now broken by the act of God. Whenever any purpose grows in it, the act of God and His jealousy break it. Then screens of dignity and might and awe are hung round it and besides this, trenches of greatness and might are dug. Thus, no desires about anything will be able to approach the heart. Nothing of wealth and children and wife and friends and miracles and authority and power of interpretation will be able to do any harm to the heart. Surely all these things will remain outside the heart, and therefore they will not excite the jealousy of God. Rather all these things will be a sign of honour from God for His servant and His kindness towards him and His blessings and sustenance and things beneficial to those who go to Him. Thus these people are honoured by this and shown mercy by it and protected through this investment of honour from God Who will be their guard and police and shelter and intercessor in this life and in the hereafter.