Love as the Cause-Reason for Creation!
Based on the Hadees qudsi of the hidden treasure
[“I was a Hidden Treasure but unrecognized. I loved to be recognized, so I created the creatures to know me and thus I made Myself recognize, so they in turn recognized Me”]
It is revealed that it is love that caused the origin of the cosmos, thus we were separated from Him and made into a separate entity, but then we love Him in return, cutting through idols, and this way, we manifest our love for Him in return.
Creation-Allaah: re-united by love. Since the first of the Creation to recognize Allah Almighty in per-eternity was Prophet Muhammad [Peace be upon him], He is thus the reason for creation without any doubt, because were it not for his manifestation of the Divine names and attributes, none of the other creation would have manifested as he did, and thus mankind would not know Allaah Kareem in return, but remain in darkness.
In other words, Almighty Allah [God’s] love brings the universe into existence, thereby opening up a gap between his uncreated Self and the created world. But the love that brings about separation also leads to union. God’s love for creation gives rise to creation’s love for him, and that love does not remain unfulfilled.
It is man’s capability to know Allaah Kareem which makes him unique among the creation, he is given the innate ability to realise full love in order that he may utilize this power to connect himself to Allaah Taa’laa, through love, the idols of ignorance and illusion are burned away, and the love which originated with the Hidden Treasure’s desire to be known is actualized in us when we decide to return it. Until then, man remains incomplete.
Love as a Fuel for Ascent:
Shaiekh Ibn Arabi [ Rahmatul-Laahi ‘Alaieh] also sees love as the way by which the aspirant to the path ascends towards divine union, just as Maulana Room [Rumi] [ Rahmatul-Laahi ‘Alaieh] found it to be. Where Maulana Rumi [ Rahmatul-Laahi ‘Alaieh]saw love as something which could take an individual to a state where he is reunited with the Lord, devoid of his egoistic attributes, Hazrat Ibn Arabi [ Rahmatul-Laahi ‘Alaieh] experienced the same phenomenon, citing the hades e Qudsi to explain his experience, that
“My servant keeps on seeking nearness to Me through voluntary works until I love him. Then, when I love him, I am his hearing through which he hears, his vision through which he sees, his hand with which he grasps, and his feet through which he walks”, and through love, a person can reach this state that nothing enters a person’s heart except love'.
He also knew love as a trans formative power as Maulana Room [ Rahmatul-Laahi ‘Alaieh] did, that the lover can reach a state whereby he imagines nothing but the form of the Beloved, which is an explanation of the state of divine oneness, where there is no longer any ‘I’ but there is only You. So love is not an aim in itself but rather a means to an end. His own explanation of the level of Mushaihada, when an individual is gazing on Allaah Taa’laa to the exception of all, in his own experience was that his love manifested in the form of his Beloved, which prevented him from eating, and maintained him on viewing the beloved.
Love of Allaah Kareem the only means for Completion of Human Being:
In contrast to other beings in the universe, humans are complete self-disclosures of the Divine Reality, for they manifest all God’s names and attributes and encompass the three basic levels of created existence – corporeal, imaginable (or psychic), and spiritual Made in God’s form, they cannot fully
satisfy their quest for fulfillment and completion except in God himself. Only God [Allaah Taa’laa] or another human being is adequate to their love. Man’s love for God and for his own kind absorbs him totally, but
no love for anything else in the cosmos can do that. When he loves one of the forms found in the cosmos, he turns to it with the corresponding part of himself, but the rest of him stays sober in its occupation.
Only Human Being is Singled out among Creation for Divine Love:
In every Quranic verse where God [Allaah Taalaa’s] love or lack of it is mentioned, the objects are human beings. In other words, the Qur’an associates love only with man among all creatures. Most other divine attributes mentioned in the Qur’an – such as life, knowledge, desire, power, speech, generosity, justice, mercy, and wrath – have no special connection with the human race. It follows that love is a key term if we are to understand what differentiates man from those creatures who are not made in the divine form.
The Hadees mentioned most frequently to represent divine love is the sacred Hadees that when a person approached the divine through extra prayers and acts of devotion, the ultimate level he reaches is when he eliminates his ego and his human attributes are replaced by divine attributes.
Therefore, the love shown by the Lord existed at the beginning of creation, when He, being the Hidden Treasure, desired to be known, and the love is returned by the human being when he finishes eliminating the traces of his ego and transforms himself to mirror the divine attributes, and so he becomes a vessel, or mirror by which the divine is reflected.
The supernatural characteristics mentioned in the hadees are those which we see depicted in the lives of the Prophets and Saints, and the one with the most miracles was the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, because he was the one who caused his ego to submit and also reciprocate the divine love.
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