Understanding The Prophet's Life
From Issue: 580 [Read full issue]
The Secret of Love
Muhammad's (peace be upon him) life journey offered at every stage an existence devoted to the worship of God. The heart cannot but commune with such a being as he follows the path to freedom: freedom not only to think or act, for which Muhammad fought with dignity, but also the freedom of a being who had liberated himself from his attachments to superficial emotions, destructive passions, or alienating dependence. Everybody loved, cherished, and respected his ego, to give himself, and, in turn, to love without bondage. Divine love was free from human dependence. He submitted, and he was free: he submitted in the peace of the divine, and he was free from the illusions of the human. He had once told one of his Companions the secret of love: "Keep away from [do not envy] what men love, and men will love you." [Ibn Majah]
God had inspired him to follow the path to the Love that continues this love: "My servant keeps getting close to Me through freely chosen devotions until I love him; and when I love him, I am the hearing through which he hears, the sight through which he sees, the hand through which he holds, and the foot through which he walks." [Bukhari] God's love offers the gift of proximity to the divine and transcendence of the self. God's Love is a Love without dependence, a Love that liberates and elevates. In the experience of this closeness one perceives the presence of the Being, of the divine.
Compiled From:
"In The Footsteps of The Prophet" - Tariq Ramadan, p. 215