Some Sufi Love for V-Day

One of my favorite love poems is a short one from Hafiz, which appears in The Gift, translated by Daniel Ladinsky.

Even after all this time, the sun never says to the earth,

“You owe me.”

Look what happens with a love like that–it lights up the whole sky.

As beautiful as that is, I think it’s worth mentioning that on Valentine’s Day, as well as elsewhen, we may talk about love, but we don’t really talk about what it is. What is love?

From the Sufi perspective, Love is a Divine quality, one of the eternal, infinite, unbounded qualities of God. As such, it’s not something we can create, manufacture, or control. It IS something we can receive, express, and share.

Here’s where it gets a little tricky: in order to receive, express and share something, we need the internal space. We need to empty ourselves, and be the vessel that the Divine can pour love into.

Try this heart-request on for size:

“Oh Divine Source, Oneness, God, Allah (insert how you address That Which Is), please remove  from me everything that is not You, and please veil me from everything that is not You, and please allow me to see only You, and to know only You.”

Because Sufism is a path of devotion, there is a personal flavor to the prayers. And the language, being dualistic (You and me), can seem a little distancing. What the language does is acknowledge that for the most part we are witnessing less than the Unity of all, and so we are addressing the Infinite from a finite perspective, while the lover knows that the separation between the small ego and the Divine is an illusion.

In making that heart request to empty yourself, then call in the Divine quality of Love. In Sufism, in Arabic, the word is “Al Wadude”- the One who loves unconditionally. It may be helpful to use a non-English word to call it in, so you can sidestep the assumptions our brain makes about what love is and isn’t.

Let me share a bit from one of my teachers, the description of this Divine Name:

When you repeat this Name, you feel enveloped by sweetness, kindness and mercy. You feel how your heart turns towards the Divine, leaving everything behind – possessions, children, relatives and relationships. The longing for the Divine nearness grows and the way to the Divine opens through tender threads growing out of your heart.

Human beings who carry the quality Al-Wadude love you through their words and deeds, expressed through their faithfulness, pure and without intention, loving and authentic. Al-Wadude pulls you gently, lovingly near the One and fills your heart with Divine light, opening the space for you to be the Divine servant, until such time when you become a knower of unconditional love. Some say that Al-Wadude is the greatest Name…

There are many people who need help, support, love and who must know that they are loved for nothing heals a human being more than that knowledge. Accept hte fact that you can help! The Divine Name Al-Wadude is like a magnet. Those who repeat this Name mucha re loved by all creatures and Allah sends love for them in the hearts of the creatures.

Lay your hands on your heart, centre in your heart, and repeat the Divine Name Ya Wadude, and while you are repeating it, bring your hands once over your belly and then take them to your forehead. Feel how the quality of Ya Wadude touches all the parts in you, how the unconditional Divine love opens a channel in you and how the Divine gorws in you.

Allow yourself to be loved so that the fire of love can change everything inyou. It is about transforming, not developing, the I. Transformational happens with us and for us. It depends on the work we do because we do has consequences for us, for other people and for our planet because everything is connected.

Let love be your guide today and all days. Let your heart be empty of everything, and then let Love rush in. May we be the servants of Love in all that we do, and let us never forget the Source of Love, and that we are merely expressions of that primal Divine loving.