Man fosters love for his relations and possessions. For example, he loves Allah and the Holy Prophet, he loves his parents, wife, children, siblings, friends, home, land, property, business, city, tribe etc. The love which becomes intense and dominates all other loves is called the ardent love and is denoted by Ishq (عشق) in Arabic. If such ardent love is for Allah then it is called Divine Love (عشق حقیقی). This love turns all the other loves into ashes and overpowers them.
As the Holy Prophet said:
“None of you will have faith until he loves me more than his parents, children and all mankind.” (Bukhari 15).
What is Divine love?
In simple words to sacrifice all the dear and favourite things, relations and wealth for Allah is called Divine love. To negate desires is love. The sincere intention and true seeking is love.
Why is Divine love important?
Allah considers this passionate love for Himself an attribute of the believers and it is innate to the human soul. The origin of the universe is Divine love and the creation of man is for the sake of love. When the souls were created from the Mohammadan light, the exclusive essence of Divine love was inherited by the human souls from the Prophet. The passion of love must arouse in the inward of seeker for Divine vision. In fact the relation of the soul and Allah is that of love. Without love neither the soul awakes nor can it find ‘the Divine vision’. Love is present in the form of a seed within the human being. Although it is dormant but as soon as it awakes in the soul by the invocation and contemplation of Ism-e-Allah Zaat, inscribing the name of Allah on body and the attention of spiritual guide, the passion, longing and attraction for Allah start increasing. Sultan Mohammad Asghar Ali says, “It is useless to worship Allah without loving Him”.
Greatest lesson of Divine Love, Karbala
The Battle of Karbala proves that faith is not only hidden in superficial knowledge (Shariah, Hadith), faith is in fact love of Allah and His Prophet. Divine love means submission to Divine will. The greatest example is the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali. It portrays that true meaning of religion is to submit to Allah’s will without wrangling.
Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani says in his booklet ar-Risala tul-Ghausia:
I saw Allah. Then I asked, “O Lord! What is meant by love?” He replied, “O Ghawth al-Azam! Love Me, love for me and I am Love Myself and liberate your inward and actions from everything other than Me. When you have recognized the exoteric love, it is essential for you to surpass the stages of ardent love because love is also a veil between the lover and the Beloved. Hence it is necessary for you to go beyond everything else other than Allah because everything other than Allah is a veil betwen the lover and the Beloved.”
Sultan Bahoo and Divine Love
- Love is a subtle passion which arouses in the inward from the hidden and does not find peace with anyone but the Beloved. (Mohkim-ul-Fuqara)
- Divine love is like a skilful jeweller who checks the purity or impurity of gold. (Ain-ul-Faqr)
- The lovers of Allah are neither afraid nor frightened of anybody’s reproach. (Mehak-ul-Faqr Kalan)
Love, Knowledge, Intellect
The source of intellect is brain while the centre of love is inward. Human intellect and knowledge is limited to time and space hence man cannot get the recognition of Allah on basis of intellect and knowledge.
Sultan Bahoo says, “Knowledge and intellect are regarded as great hurdle in the path of Divine love. There is such a pleasure and trance in the love of Allah that if an excellent scholar finds a little bit of it, he will be lost in it forgetting all his knowledge.”
Sultan Mohammad Asghar Ali says:
It was love that gave courage to Prophet Abraham to jump into Nimrod’s fire and to Prophet Ishmael to lie under the knife to be sacrificed while intellect forbids to do so.
Through intellect Abu Jahl and Abu Lahab could not recognize the reality of Prophet Mohammad in spite of being near him but Owais al-Qarni recognized him even living far from him due to love.
Company of Fakirs protect the seeker’s inward from worldly love
Allah says in Quran, “And the man will get only that for which he strives. (Al-Najm 39)
Whoever desires to protect his faith from the poison of worldly love should adopt the company of Fakirs and turn away from the tyrants (the world). The company of fakirs increases the faith whereas the company of worldly people darkens the soul and makes esoteric-self ignorant of Allah’s invocation. This is by the contemplation and invocation of Ism-e-Allah Zaat. 
Whose compant to adopt in present era?
Sultan ul Ashiqeen Sultan Mohammad Najib-ur-Rehman is the perfect fakir and the spiritual successor of Sultan Bahoo in the present era. He is on the footsteps of our beloved Prophet. Thousands of people have sanctified their inwards and gained Divine love by his guidance. Numerous seekers are covering the journey of Divine vision and closeness.
