To Love This Way

TO LOVE THIS WAY

[This aphoristic piece is for Mina whose loveliness is the drink given unto me by Allaah in my shyness and solitude]

Blessed is he who hears this calling, between the two waves of the sea that caress each other, which bespeaks a tenderness and an endlessness far greater and more ancient than humanity's own journeying and way-finding.

Blessed is he who loves and does not hide it. Pity the lovers who say, "Let's hide somewhere and kiss." For hasn't this world hidden and covered much of the naked soul of man already? What can withhold a soul from another soul when, in the morning light, the shadows of the world are too shy to cover their nakedness and to race along with the Weightless and the Boundless in them?

Blessed is he who accepts the seasons of the heart and realizes that it takes a true Lover to place the light of the day in the bosom of the night. For to love is to know the difference between the Living and the Dead.

To love is to love the Living. It is to entrust Life unto its own Heart.

Blessed is he who exalts Reason in the heights of Passion and lets Passion direct his Reason. When journeying into the mid-sea whose waves are intricate feelings and whose vortices are confusions, neither Reason nor Passion should be left behind as an orphaned wing at the shore. For what is Reason but Love's Necessity that mirrors itself? And what is Passion but Love's Longing for itself?

To love this way is to love with the translucent height of the sky, the ancient depth of the sea, the empirean expanse of the ether, and the innocent swiftness of the winds.

Blessed is he who smiles for Love's sake; for a smile, like Dzikr, is the Fullness of Knowledge and the Vastness of Love made visible. For, among all the possessions of mankind, only Love and Trust and can be given in Whole, upon wings.

In this world of shadows, many things that sway with the winds look like Love, sound like Love, feel like Love, taste like Love. Yet True Love is only discovered in the fold of silence and stillness beyond our being in this world. It is a gift taken from a seemingly very distant shore, which is covered in morning mist, and brought unto the earth as a celestial celebration and a soothing serenade.

Love, whose only dress is nakedness, is the gift of the Unconditional and the Boundless unto this conditional, self-imprisoning world. It is a gift of Eternity unto this world's temporality, often encompassed in a single breath and heartbeat.

To love is to breathe and give your breath to the one you love. It is to admire, in Full Knowledge, she who mirrors naked Life in her shyness. It is to touch her spirit with the soft fingers of dream; and not to possess her image with the claws of time.

To love this way is to gaze at the Beloved with thankfulness and direct His Gaze with equal gratitude at the Reflection of Himself which resides in the mirror of another heart like the morning dew.

To love is to place the Desire and Longing of the Merciful Himself, like a candle in someone's presence, and like a heartbeat in someone's breath, without murdering the innocent in her. It is to kiss her the way the butterfly kisses the flower in the light of the day and sips its nectar at the enveloping hand of the sincere spring.

To love is to paint, with the water-colors of joy and sorrow, the Beauty of Being upon the soft canvas of Understanding. For, in the beating heart of a season lies hidden the curves and colors of all the other seasons.

Nothing done in the pure motion of Love's sentiments is futile. For to love is to grow in the lap of the seasons like a branch in the Silent Knowledge of the Tree.

Even if you have to paint your own painful understanding of Love with your blood and tears, Love's tenderness shall not be lost. For what is to love but to caress Life's days and nights with their own substance?

To love someone is not to measure her depth in space nor to claim her in the possession of time. It is to hold her hands in infinity and timelessness with the rarest delight, simply because Love precedes our breathing. For, unless Love is recognized instantaneously, free of attributes, how can such a singular beauty be expected to unfold after a thousand years?

To love this way is not to open a window only to shut it afterwards. It is not to open our eyes unto the sun only to close them. It is to discover Allaah at the Dawn of Certainty and to love with Allaah, in Allaah, and for Allaah alone. It is to release the Solitary Truth within each one of us, and, in our Silent Understanding of Life, share Allaah's secrets with another human being.

Verily, a song shared with another in Life's own heart shall be forever in flight as it lingers from dawn to dawn, beyond the night's boundary and possession. And the hours shall become wings that beat in Love's space.

Blessed is he who, having found his True Beloved beyond the narrow edges of the cosmos and beyond the intimidating darkness of a loner's abyss, says unto his sweetheart,

"I love you so much that I can't love you, dearest, with my limited, quivering self. Nor can I love you with my past, which was but a veil. I can love you only at the Present, only as Allaah Himself is Present, and as He Himself loves you."

Dani