THE LOVE OF GOD AND ITS SIGNS[1]
Love of God is the highest stage of our soul's progress and her summum bonum. Repentance, patience, piety, and other virtues are all preliminary steps. Although rare these qualities are found in true devotees and the commonality, though devoid of them, at any rate believe in them. Love of God is not only very rare: the possibility of it is doubted, even by some Ulamas who call it simply service. For, in their opinion love exists amongst species of the same kind, but God being ultra-mundane and not of our kind. His love is an impossibility and hence the much talked of ecstatic states of the "true lovers of God" are mere delusions. As this is far from truth and impedes the progress of the soul, by spreading false notions, we shall briefly discuss the subject. First we shall quote passages from the Quran and the Hadith testify-
- ↑ Ihya IV 6
