"God is love," the New Testament teaches, and Muslim theologians would respond, "But of course." The problem is that we are not God. As Jesus said, "Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God " (Mark 10:18). There is no authentic love but one, that is, God. This is tawhid, the assertion of divine unity that is the foundation of Islamic thought.
Religious discussions of love sometimes address how it descends from its divine status and intermingles with human affairs. In any case, everyone recognizes its attractive power, even if they disagree as to what it is and where it comes from. Rumi mentions the two extremes of disagreement in the verse,
For the elect, love is a tremendous eternal light,
for the common people, love is form and appetite. (Divan 18197)
"The elect and the common people" is an expression used in all branches of Islamic learning to distinguish between the experts and the uninformed. For Rumi, the experts are the prophets and saints.
To think that love is "form and appetite" is to imagine that it derives from the realm of sense perception and biological processes. Rumi has nothing against form and appetite, but he sees the distinctiveness of human nature to lie in its openness to the tremendous eternal light.
"Eternal" (qadim) means unchanging. The word is contrasted with "newly arrived" (muhdath), which means dwelling under the sway of time and alteration. God is eternal, and everything other than God -- the universe and all it contains -- fades away. We change, the eternal light stays the same. We have the appearance of reality, but every appearance disappears.
The Quran says that God is "the light of the heavens and the earth" (24:35). The heavens are the high realms of spiritual beings (such as angels and souls), and the earth is the low realm of bodily things. Nothing appears without light. The more intense the light, however, the more difficult it is to see, which explains why the spiritual realm is invisible. No one can imagine the upper limit of physical light, much less that of nonphysical light, which is the consciousness that animates the heavens and the earth.
Spiritual traditions speak of ascending levels of nonphysical illumination, beginning with the obscure sparkles that typify everyday awareness and culminating in the infinite light of the eternal Self. In the Quran's retelling of the story of Moses and the Burning Bush, the light said, "I indeed am God; there is no god but I" (20:14): There is no god but God's very Self, the light of the heavens and the earth.
Rumi's verse, in short, refers to the axiom of tawhid, the fact that there is no true light but the divine light and no true love but the divine love. Everything in heaven and earth is the reverberation of the loving light. Each thing arrives newly and departs just as quickly. In relation to the universe, God is like the moon in relation to flowing water. As Rumi puts it,
The creatures are like water, limpid and pure,
shining therein the attributes of the majestic God...
Ages have passed, and this is a new age.
The moon is the same, but the water is not.
(Mathnawi 6: 3172, 3175)
Our scientific worldview is rooted in the measurable, but love and God are immeasurable. Scientific theories that speak of love naturally tend to agree with Rumi's common people: Love is form and appetite, feeling and emotion, impulses in the brain -- all these can be measured. The Quranic and Biblical worldviews see love as none other than the only reality that truly is. The word "reality," of course, fails to stir the heart, and "love" calls for commitment. Those who answer the call can transform themselves and the world.
Among the many mentions of love in the Quran, the favorite verse of love-theorists is this: "He loves them, and they love Him" (5:54). This verse puts the Islamic worldview in a nutshell: God brought the universe into existence because of his love for human beings. Human beings fulfill their calling by loving God.
The radiance of love's eternal light gives rise to the universe. The goal of love is to overcome separation, to bridge gaps, to bring the two lovers together as one. If love is to do its work, people must recognize the light and love it in return.
"He loves them" brought them into existence. Their recognition of the light feeds "They love Him." Once love intervenes, form and appetite lose their luster.
The final goal of lovers is to join the shining light at its source. The power that works this transformation is love. One of the many Quranic names of God is "friend" (wali), an Arabic word that combines the senses of "lover" and "helper." Both meanings can be seen in the verse, "God is the friend of those who have faith. He brings them out of the darkness into the light" (2:257).
William C. Chittick, Ph.D.: Islam: A Religion Of Love
William C. Chittick, Ph.D.: Islam and the Goal of Love
The Mystic Pen - Dr. William Chittick Remembers | Wild River Review
The first part of the sentence is correct. But this paring of Love and god is a semantic trick.
There's plenty of evidence proving existence of Love.
But there's no evidence for existence of gods!
One should not mix these two divergent concepts.
Chittick is not a postmodernist, he's a classicist, with a PhD in Persian literature. He's a leading translator and interpreter of classical Islamic philosophical and mystical texts, best known for his groundbreaking work on Rumi and Ibn 'Arabi, and has also written extensively on Islamic philosophy. He's currently Professor of Asian and Asian American Studies at Stony Brook University New York, and he's published over thirty books on Islamic intellectual history, including:
The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi
Faith and Practice of Islam: Three Thirteenth-Century Sufi Texts
The Self-Disclosure of God: Principles of Ibn Al-'Arabi's Cosmology
The Inner Journey: Views from the Islamic Tradition
and many others -- see http://www.amazon.com/William-C.-Chittick/e/B001HD1E7M/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_2
Where is your PhD from, crydespite? Which Islamic countries have you lived in? What books and articles have you written? Do you speak and read Persian? Have you read the Sufi philosophers and poets? Ibn Arabi? Rumi? Do you even know who they are? Have you spent years debating the issues discussed here, or translating ancient texts, or teaching comparative religion, or writing for critical audiences?
Or do you think abysmal ignorance and a cheap, easy scorn is equal to a lifetime's worth of work, study and accomplishment?
You fail to understand something, and it's "gibberish." Look in the mirror. And then go read some Rumi.
Commenter "crydespite" owes no apologies.
Yes, all the major wisdom traditions (including Hindu and Bhuddist) believe in One Reality and a world outside of this one. (5:69) emphasized this understanding along with effort to purify oneself of egotistical traits (wanna be god) of arrogance, ignorance, greed, etc. Hence "works of setting oneself right"
oK-- I'll give you another verse. "let the people of the Gospel judge by what God has revealed therein" (5:47)
"To each among you we have prescribed a law and an open way. If God had willed, he would have made you all a single people. But he intends to test you by you've been given. So strive as in a race for all virtues. The goal of all of you is to God, it is he that will show you the truth of the matters in which you dispute. (5:48)
Yes, (5:3) and (3:85) emphasize that Islam (Surrender to God- the true Reality)- is the optimal contract and means of conduct-- as opposed to making a contract (deen), paying your debts (dayn), or seeking thanks from unreal things. The word Islam has a universal connotation not referring to the different manifestations of it in History-- as the Qur'an refers to earlier prophets as -muslim- (submitters to God).
(5:72) is criticizing one strain of Christian Theology (which has been disputed by the Christians themselves throughout history) not Christianity as a whole-- which is Love for Christ Jesus. And even that mistake can be forgiving as stated in (5:118).
Anymore?
Your're wrong about Hinduism and Buddhism here, when you bring in "a world beyond this one". The eternal heaven/hell idea does exist in Christianity and Islam though.
I don't deny that there is ugliness in Muslim history. Much of it has been Muslim on Muslim. There is a whole Muslim holy day coming up next week (Ashura) highlighting the point: man's inhumanity towards man.
Lastly about your statement above. I'm sure you're aware of Samsara-- schools of thought within both Hinduism and Buddhism display some very graphic pictures of Heaven/Hell. True, the ultimate aim is to free oneself from Samsara-- but this concept can also be found with in the mystical dimensions of all the Abrahamic faiths-- and is not alien to the Qur'an which says over 47 times "Everything returns to God".
Your second sentence eggreriously minimizes muslim violence on non-muslims. Can you find Hindus and Buddhists perpetrating violence on other communities in their histories, as is very easily found in Islamic hisorty? No, unless you care to show otherwise; give it a go, try finding such a history and let me know.
In asking about this difference in histories, one can see that excusivist, supremecist ideologies lead to violence upon the "other". The monotheisms (Christianity and Islam) think they have the "only way" and thus the problem starts (destruction of temples, forced conversions, extra taxation on "non-believers" and the like). Rather than minimizing the reasons for this violence, history must be made transparent, rather than being hidden by the sort of minimizing of violence that you wish to accomplish. Without understanding and acknowledging the reasons behind the violence by the monotheisms, the metaphysical structure which led to the violence remains intact, and could once again come to the fore. Christianity has largely been defanged, but not yet Islam. There is work to be done yet. And that work is the bringing to light the extent of violence and the reasons behind it, which are not just people behaving badly by misunderstanding scripture, but the exclusivist, supremecist ideology in the scripture itself. This will hurt the ego no doubt, but it must be pursued nonetheless.
Huh!
The scientific worldview is not just rooted in the "measurable," but in the rational....implying there is evidence or a chain of reasoning with valid premisses as a foundation for the issue under consideration...
When you write and employ words in order to make a point, as is done in your article, you are buying into a "rational" model of the world, unless you are just going to make unsupported assertions...a little bit of a paradox here, using reason to condem reason and justify.......whatever....
-- Only one religion I can think of excludes jews from entire countries simply based on their religion; only one religion I can think of demands protection money if you are not a believer. Only one religion I can think of continues to call for the death of those who "blaspheme" it.
I'll give you a hint: It's not jainism.
Please bring your evidence that the religion you speak of calls for these things as opposed to the people who profess to follow it/ or it's politicians. The religion you refer to says "let there be no compulsion in religion" Qur'an(2:256). It's clearly states in (22:40) "Had not God defended people against others, there surely would have been destroyed monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques, where the name of God is commemorated abundantly." This shows that the highest aim of peace, stability, and defense is to all allow "the name of God to be commemorated" regardless of which faith expression. Just because one adopts a label, religious or otherwise--doesn't mean they are free of the human diseases of arrogance, power seeking, ignorance, greed, etc, within the psyche/soul. People of all faiths have coexisted in majority Muslim lands (indonesia, west africa, levant, etc) for centuries. Many ancient places of worship in these land still stand. Places with large Muslim minorities (India, China,etc.) have also had coexisting communities. Now in the era of identity politics and wars -- all these atrocities have taken place. The Jews fleeing the persecution the Inquisition in Spain fled to Muslim lands.
Here... http://wikiislam.net/wiki/List_of_worship_places_converted_or_destroyed_by_Muslims
It also mentioned some points regarding Hindu and Buddhist history (with links)- reiterating the premise that simply claiming oneself as something does not grant sanctity. Only after following a way (din)/ path to it's fullest, both intellectually and practically, while overcoming many tests and temptations- can one make progress towards fully actualizing what it means to be human. And in each Wisdom tradition you can find champions and saints.
Hadith is a chain of narration that was written down several generation after prophet Mohammed. let alone in days when written manuscript was rare. You seem to also use contemporary times as a standard to judge a culture where warfare was the norm and tribalism reign. Mohammed was trust( for those who believe) to reform a backward civilization who worship a different idol everyday, not to mention burying their firstborn alive when it was girl.
His success in reforming the Arabia during hid lifetime is considered by even by western scholars as unmatched and un-parallel even by the likeness of Mahatama Ghandi or Martin Luthur. One have to judge a leader of his stature in a wholesome manner and not by snippets of unreliable narration.
Also, it his people who must first accepted him has a reformer, leader and a prophet . They are the one that would be best to judge him.
"We went out with Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) on the expedition to the Bi'l-Mustaliq and took captive some excellent Arab women; and we desired them, for we were suffering from the absence of our wives, (but at the same time) we also desired ransom for them. So we decided to have sexual intercourse with them but by observing 'azl (Withdrawing the male se. xual organ before emission to avoid-conception). But we said: We are doing an act whereas Allah's Messenger is amongst us; why not ask him? So we asked Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him), and he said: It does not matter" (Sahih Muslim 3371)"
The West also has a problem. The fundamental weakness of both Western civilization and Christianity is their inability to recognise that they share the planet not with inferiors but with EQUALS.
Unless the Western civilization intellectually and socially, politically and economically, and the Christian church theologically, can learn to treat other men with fundamental respect, these two in their turn will have failed to come to terms with the actualities of the 21st century.
The problems raised in this are, of course, as profound as anything touching on Islam. The reality is that Islam and the West share a common tradition. From the time of the Prophet Muhammad, Muslims have recognised this Why the West denies this?
Today, some Muslims are beginning to turn against the cultures of the People of the Book which have humiliated and despised them. A rejection to build a mosque near WIC site may help to turn the radicals against the West more.
They have even begun to justify their hatred in the name of Islam which vehemently condemns hatred, pride and arrogance
The West should understand that a healthy and functioning Islam is crucial because it helps Muslim people to cultivate decent values and ideals which people in the west cherish. The West finds it difficult to cope with Islam because its ideas have been crude and dismissive.
(note: I am certainly not saying christianity does, as I am not one, and dislike that creed as well)
"Those who believe, those among the Jews, the Sabians, and the Christians-- any who believe in God and the Hereafter, and work righteousness-- on them shall be no fear nor shall they grieve." (5:69)
Or did you mean "comprehensible"?