Re: Define Divine Love
Well, I’m a born muslim and have read Quran but never really tried to understand it, the understanding I got about my religion mainly comes from my culture and society and when I looked for more knowledge I found wahabi (anti-sufi) material but didn’t find satisfaction in it and that’s why I think that it’s important to read the Sufi literature (like Rumi’s) to gain the understanding of universal love because they definitely understood it better than others. I like this quote from Sh. Yusuf’s article where he quoted a verse from Quran and also a hadith explaining divine love.
"This last love is attained only by those who possess the direct knowledge of God described in the sacred hadith above. Furthermore, it is only attained by one who has in his or her heart that universal love for all of creation that is understood in the verse, “My Mercy encompasses all things” (7:156). It is the mercy that the Messenger of God, God bless and grant him peace, spoke of when he said, “you will not truly believe until you show mercy to one another.”
To this, a companion responded, “But Messenger of God, all of us show mercy to others.”
The Prophet, God bless and grant him peace, explained, “I am not speaking of the mercy one of you shows to his friend but of universal mercy—mercy to all of humanity.”
Regarding the famous hadith, “None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself,” Imam al-Nawawi (d. 676/1277) states in his commentary that this love includes all of humanity. He further elucidates that it is a love that goes against our very nature; it is angelic in nature, and it is only obtained by negating the ego.
He also states that we should hate sin not the sinner. It’s really hard to actually imply these things but I pray that I can do that.