Love, not hate

Bangladesh has witnessed the most despicable act of hate in the brutal killing of foreigners and Bangladeshi citizens on a Ramadan night on July 1 in the Spanish Holey Artisan Bakery of Gulshan. The soul of Bangladesh wept witnessing such a massacre. Those who participated and perpetrated in such a heinous crime in the name of “religion” represent the religion of hate. These people never understood what constitutes the true essence of Islam. Rather, they were far removed from its core values. Their perverted understanding of religion and their vicious indoctrination produced the deadly poison of hate in their psyche and transformed them into monstrous mass murderers. By contrast, the sublime sacrifice by young Faraaz A Hossain for the sake of his friends and acquaintances, even though he had the option to save himself, represents the compassionate face of humanity, the religion of love.

Love is the underlying reality of the soul. The Qur’an speaks of love in a number of key verses that clarify its essential role. The Qur’anic surah 3:31 speaks of love of God as a precondition for receiving God’s love in return. God created people out of love for them

He stood by the sides of his terrified friends and did not waver even at the cost of his life. I would like to dedicate the following lines from the great 12th century Sufi saint and poet, Hazrat Fariduddin Attar to the memory of Faraaz:   “Let love lead your soul Make it a place to retire to A kind of cave, a retreat For the deep core of being.”   To those foreigners who have been mercilessly shot or hacked to death, our hearts bleed with deep sorrow and sadness. We would like to pray for their noble souls and beg them to forgive us as a nation for we do not represent the religion of hate. Those who believe in the religion of love and compassion bear in their hearts the following undying words of the great mystic and saint Hazrat Sheikh Sadi (pbuh). Sadi said:   “The children of Adam are members of a single body For from the moment of creation they were made of one substance. When fate causes pain in any member, The other members cannot remain still. O thou who hath no sorrow in seeing the sorrow of others, Thou art not worthy of being called a human being.”   The murderers at Holey Artisan Bakery were not “worthy of being called a human being.” Their heart and head hardened to the gel of inhumanity. The Qur’an declares clearly and in no uncertain terms that there is no compulsion in religion. It states also that from a single humanity God has created different nations and tribes and people. The Qur’an reveals in unequivocal terms: “Say, ye: we believe in Allah and the revelation given to us and to Abraham, Ismail, Isaac, Jacob and the Tribes and that given to Moses and Jesus and  that given to (all) prophets from their Lord. We make no difference between one and another of them and we submit to Allah.” (Sura Baqarah/136) Narrated by Hazrat Abu Jarr (pbuh), he heard the prophet of Islam saying: “No man shall call another man fasik or kafir. Because if he/she is not really, so the allegation will fall on the person who said so” (Bukhari). The Prophet also said: “Everyone is divinely furthered in accordance with his character.” The greatest spiritual poet the world has known, Hazrat Mowlana Jalaluddin Rumi wrote in his epic book of poetry:   “I (God) look not at the tongue and the speech, I look at the inward spirit and the state of feeling Because the heart is the substance Speech is only the accident, so the accident is subservient, The substance is the real object. The religion of Love is apart from all religion: For lovers, the only religion and creed is God.” (Vol. 2: Mathnawi)   Love is the underlying reality of the soul. The Qur’an speaks of love in a number of key verses that clarify its essential role. The Qur’anic surah 3:31 speaks of love of God as a precondition for receiving God’s love in return. God created people out of love for them. The most often cited Qur’anic verse as proof for this hierarchy of love is the verse: “He loves them and they love Him” (5:54). The Sufis from the eighth century onwards have forcefully focused on the theme of love as a catalyst to cleanse one’s soul and purify the body. Of the most celebrated Sufi masters, Hazrat Mohiuddin Ibn Al-Arabi, the Shaikh ul Akbar, and Hazrat Jalaluddin Rumi stand out as the prominent proponents of the religion of love. Ibn Al-Arabi and Mowlana Rumi consistently reminded their readers that love for any creature can only be love for God. Only ignorance veils people from perceiving what they love. Ibn Al-Arabi wrote the famous poem on the universal religion of love: “My heart has become capable of every form, it is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks And a temple for idols, and the pilgrim’s Kaa’ba and the tables of  the Tora and the book of the Qur’an. I follow the religions of love, whichever way his camels take, My religion and my faith is true religion.”   This great Sufi saint lies buried today in Damascus, in hate-torn Syria. It may be mentioned here that Ibn Al-Arabi remains the most outstanding scholar of Islam and Sufi theoretician whose works are being studied with renewed zeal and interest in the Western universities. The advent of Islam in Bengal or Bangladesh took place from the tenth century onwards through the teachings of Sufis and Darvishes. The country came under the spell of Sufis and saints. Their message of equality in the eye of God and their acceptance of people without regard to caste and creed won the hearts of the people of this delta. The existence of countless Sufi mazaars and shrines in the length and breadth of Bangladesh bear eloquent testimony to the fact that Islam came to this land through the tolerant touch of humanity and not by swords or sabres. In concluding this piece, I would like to go back to a few lines from “Divan” of that supreme Sufi poet Mowlana Rumi:   “A soul not clothed in Love brings shame on its existence. Be drunk on Love, for Love is all that exists.”