Thirst for Love

One of the most devastating experiences in life happens when someone who loves you stops loving you. Just like falling in love or feeling loved can revolutionize your life, losing love can bring you to the brink of death. How can such a physical outcome occur from something as abstract as love?

There are countless books, songs and art work inspired by love, and we humans haven't exhausted this unparalleled source, yet. Love is a magical tool that frees us while enslaving. It is an elixir that makes us leave behind who we are while at the same time causing us to realize our selves to the fullest. It is a language that penetrates all cultures, while it is so vulnerable as a butterfly. It is curious that extremes are combined in this powerful feeling, making it a map and a source of energy to navigate in our personal journeys.

Love has various kinds and it is not only among humans but also between the Creator and us, His creation. Needless to say that the implications of the latter are not the same as the former, but still, love is love. Any person who discovers their personal relationship with God feels that they are loved. They feel an exhilaration as if they have just seen the Source of all Beauties. Their initial days in this discovery is no different than a happy honeymoon. But the opposite is true, too.

Among humans, for example a divorce literally rips the heart. Insincere actions or abandoning of a friend comes as a punch in the face. And when you feel left alone by your Lord, that is when you don't receive special treatment from Him, you can feel you are suffocating.

And if their evasion is difficult for you, then if you are able to seek a tunnel into the earth or a stairway into the sky to bring them a sign, [then do so]. (6/35)

Nevertheless, life is life, and we get into excruciating situations that last for too long, and the end of the gloomy days may not seem in the horizon. Then? Can you easily say that God still loves you? After experiencing periods of personal attention from your Lord, if you are treated as any other person or like an unimportant, disposable rock, wouldn't you feel heartbroken? Wouldn't you question the veracity of your initial experiences? As your hopes of the future fade, so does your conviction of the Lord's love for you.

In that depressive state, if you can recollect yourself and read His words, you see a startling call:

"surely none despairs of Allah's mercy except the unbelieving people" (12/87)

With this call, you feel polarized. You are surrounded by the grim reality, and those around you are either suffering like you or don't care about you or enjoying your doom. You are powerless to make any changes, and yet, your Creator is ordering you not to despair! This is pure irrationality. And that is exactly where love comes into the scene.

"Your Lord has not forsaken you, nor has He become displeased" (93/3)

Where ever there is love, there is hope, and where ever there is hope, there is love. Love is a telescope that can see the distances that are not available to the reason. And that 's why love is a better instrument to comprehend the infinity of the power and will of God.

"O Allah! Increase us, do not diminish us. Favor us, do not withhold from us, make us pleased and be pleased with us." (Tirmidhi,3173)

What love can glimpse at and what the reason cannot see is that despite you are deprived of minor personal treatment from your Lord at the moment, you are proceeding towards a major realization where the universe is going to work in concert to meet your needs by the will of God. You are getting thirsty for manifestations of love so that you can better appreciate the grandeur of what is coming, and so that you are transformed by that miracle when it comes.

"And soon will your Lord give you so that you shall be well pleased." (93/5)