Secrets of Divine Love: A Spiritual Journey into the Heart of Islam (Studying Qur'an & Hadith Book 2)

by A. Helwa

We can either be lured by the mortal pleasures of this world into forgetfulness of who and Whose we really are, or we can strive against our ego’s desires by being in remembrance (dhikr) of God’s incomprehensible mercy toward us.

It is through the human being that the universe comes to know itself, because it is we who have been given the gift of attributing meaning to the forms of creation.

This is why many spiritual masters throughout time have said, “He who knows himself knows his Lord.”

Although we can reflect God’s qualities, we are not God. It is not in knowing ourselves that we know God because God is like us, rather when we come to intimately know our humanity, our limitedness and fallibility, we come to taste something of God’s infinite and perfect nature. Just as when you read a beautiful and thoughtful book you are naturally inclined to ponder the brilliance of the author, when we reflect on the intricacy of our creation, it naturally points us to the unfathomable perfection of the Author who wrote us into existence.

“How we see God is a direct reflection of how we see ourselves. If God brings to mind mostly fear and blame, it means there is too much fear and blame welled inside us. If we see God as full of love and compassion, so are we.” SHAMS TABRIZI, RUMI’S SPIRITUAL GUIDE

God knows what soil your seedling soul needs to blossom. He gives you people to love you, to leave you, to inspire you, to doubt you, and to believe in you. Out of His love, God lets the world hurt you and break you, not because He wants to destroy you, but because He wants to show you your hidden strengths that can only be manifested in the cocoon of trials. This is one of the reasons the Prophet says, “If Allah wants to do good to somebody He afflicts him with trials.”30 God takes us into the cave of difficulty and pain when there are gems for us to find there. God pushes us to the edge of the cliff when He wants us to learn how to fly. The difficulties we face can act as catalysts for self-discovery and growth.

In Arabic, the word fitna, meaning “hardship,” stems from the word fatanah, which means “to test gold, burn with fire.” Just as gold is heated to extract valuable elements from the useless surrounding material, it is through the fire of our trials that our golden essence is unearthed.

“God will find a way out for those who are mindful of Him, And He will provide him from (sources) he never could imagine. And whosoever puts his trust in Allah, then He will suffice him. God will accomplish His purpose. God has appointed a measure for everything.” QUR’AN 65:2-3

Our spirits striving against the lower qualities of our ego is the great jihad of our life. The word jihad originates from the root word jahada, which means “to strive or struggle.”31 Based on narrations from the Prophet , Muslim scholars have broken down the concept of jihad into two parts: the lesser jihad and the greater jihad. The lesser or combative jihad is the act of fighting in defense for the freedom of religion, homeland, and basic human rights, while the greater or spiritual jihad is striving against one’s ego and lower desires. As the Qur’an says, “And why should you not fight in the cause of Allah and for those weak, ill-treated and oppressed among men, women, and children, whose cry is: ‘Our Lord! Rescue us from this town, whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from You one who will protect; and raise for us from You one who will help!’” (4:75).

The combative jihad has very specific rules and ends the moment peace is re-established. As the Qur’an very clearly states, “If they propose peace, accept it and trust in God” (8:61). We are called “to deal kindly and justly with anyone” who respects our right to practice our religion freely, who does not drive us unjustly out of our homes, and who does not oppress us (60:8). The Prophet Muhammad very clearly and seriously states, “Beware! Whoever is cruel and hard on a non-Muslim minority, curtails their rights, burdens them with more than they can bear, or takes anything from them against their free will, I will complain against the person on the Day of Judgment.”33

The Prophet Muhammad reminded us of the importance of the greater jihad when he said, “Have I not informed you? The believer is the one who is trusted with the lives and wealth of people. The Muslim is the one from whose tongue and hand people are safe. The one striving in jihad in the way of Allah is the one who wages jihad against himself in obedience to Allah. The emigrant is one who emigrates away from sins and evil deeds.”

However, to become a caretaker of the Earth, or mirror of God on Earth, is not only about behavior modification, but about ego and heart transformation. In Islamic theology, the heart is generally considered the “organ of perception,” because the world is experienced through the filter of the heart, not the eyes.

The heart that is truly polished does not see the creation, but sees only a reflection of Allah’s infinite qualities. This is why when Imam Ali was asked “What is creation?” he profoundly said, “It is like the dust in the air, it only becomes visible when the light of Allah strikes it.”

In fact, scientific studies from the Heartmath Institute have shown that the electromagnetic field of the heart can be measured several feet outside the body—and is 60 times stronger than our brain waves. Plus, the heart of a fetus begins beating before the brain or central nervous system are even developed. In fact, recent studies have shown that the heart has its own set of neurons, with both short-term and long-term memory that can interact with the brain, affecting our emotions.42

The transformation of the heart and purification of the ego is one of the fundamental purposes of divine revelation. Every pillar and practice in Islam serves to purify the ego by turning the heart from the desires of the fleeting world toward the everlasting love of God. The two most powerful ways the Qur’an speaks of how to refine the ego and transform the heart is through the practices of repentance (tawba) and remembrance (dhikr).

A spiritual seeker went to the mountains of Iran to learn from a mystic by the name of Essijan. When the master heard that the seeker wanted to learn about the Divine, she said, “First we must drink tea” When the water had boiled, Essijan poured tea in the seeker’s cup until it became full and then began to overflow on the table. Essijan wouldn’t stop pouring tea in the full cup until the confused seeker said, “Master, there is no more room in this cup, it is already filled.” The teacher then smiled and said, “Just like you. How can I teach you about the ways of the spirit when you are so filled? You have to first empty your cup of your judgments, past mistakes, opinions, and everything you think you know, if you want to be filled with the awareness of God.”

Remembering God is more than just words on a tongue, it is about actively tuning our consciousness toward the Divine, with intentional words that are followed by actions that actualize our intention.

It is important to allow permission for yourself to be vulnerable and honest as you invite Allah’s divine light into the places where you feel pain, anger, sadness, self-hatred, and doubt.

“It is God who has made you deputies on the Earth, raising you in ranks, some above others, in order to test you in the gifts He has given you.” QUR’AN 6:165

God will ask to what extent we manifested and actualized the gifts He gave us. He will ask if we used our intellect for the benefit of society or to its detriment, if we used our hands to bring peace or to instigate war. He will ask if we wasted our blessings in focusing on materialism or if we used what we were divinely given as a means of supporting those who are less fortunate.

“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” PABLO PICASSO, ARTIST

We polish our hearts to unveil the interconnectedness of creation, to embrace the places within us where love lives and compassion flourishes, and to see that beneath all outward differences we all originate from a single seed of divine origin. When we fully face God, we become like a holy mirror that contains the entire world within our love. After all, our journey here is not to just connect with the Divine in worship, but once we do this, to return to the creation, as a conduit and reflection of God’s unending love on Earth. You are not just pottery fashioned from dust and water, you were sent to be God’s eyes on Earth.

As the ninth-century Persian mystic Imam Junaid said, “A Muslim is like the earth; even if impurities are thrown on it, it will blossom into a green pasture.” We are called to be like a date tree, so rooted in the love of God that when people throw stones at you, you reply with fruits that taste sweet. Do not live your life in reaction to what people have done to you, but live your life in gratitude for all that God has done for you.

“The servants of The Most Merciful are they who walk modestly upon the earth, and if the ignorant address them, they say, ‘Peace.’” QUR’AN 25:63

Just as a seed sprouts when it is kissed by the light of the sun, when we are open to receiving the light of God’s love, we too transform. It is when we align with our divinely inspired spirit that we awaken within us a sacred longing for justice, a passion to bring mercy and kindness to hurting hearts, and a burning desire to see the world in alignment with the laws of divine love. When we surrender before God, allowing Him to act through us, we not only transform, but our divine alignment creates a magnetic force that pulls others toward the pole of divine compassion, mercy, and love for all creatures without discrimination. It is not through our ability that great things happen, but through God’s grace.

Our work is not to change the world. Our mission is to serve and love the world, believing that when we serve God and His creations from a place of love, by the virtue of God’s mercy the world begins to heal. We live in a uni-verse, meaning there is only one. There is no third world, there is only one world. The Qur’an intimately speaks to our interconnected nature by reminding us that we all come from a single soul. Islam’s call for actualizing our oneness can be understood through the South African phrase ubuntu, which roughly translates to “I am what I am because of what we all are.”

In the context of faith, someone who follows the philosophy of ubuntu is someone who knows how God manifests His love most completely when we are aware of our interconnectedness.

Just as when the sun shines, it shines on everyone, and when the rain falls, it pours on everyone—we were created as divine representatives to manifest God’s glory upon all of His creations. As the Prophet Muhammad says, “All humankind is from Adam and Eve. An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab, nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab. Also, a white has no superiority over black, nor a black has any superiority over white except by God-consciousness and good action.”55 To be a true Muslim means to look at every creature of God and say the following: I honor the sacredness of your life, regardless of what you believe; if the Creator of the universe has decided to create you from the spirit of His love, then by virtue of your very existence, you are more than enough for me.

The divine calling of humankind to be the caretaker or representative of God on Earth is beautifully expressed in Judaism with the teaching of Tikkun Olam or “To repair the world.” The idea behind Tikkun Olam is that if we can see what needs to be repaired and healed in the world, we have found what God has called us to fulfill in His name. However, if we find ourselves only seeing what is broken and wrong with the world, then it is we ourselves that need to be healed. We are a part of this world, so when we change ourselves the world changes too. After all, we can only give to others what we ourselves contain.

Jesus and his faithful disciples entered a town where the villagers started to scream at Jesus with profanities and false accusations that were not befitting of his holy stature, kind demeanor, and gentle heart. Jesus turned his face toward them, returning every harsh remark with a merciful prayer to God for their happiness and success in life. One of his disciples turned to Jesus and said, “Oh master, why are you praying for these terrible people? How are you not filled with righteous anger toward their hateful remarks?” Jesus kindly looked at his disciple and replied, “My dear brother, I can only spend from what I have in my purse.” Just as whether you squeeze an orange harshly or softly, it will only produce orange juice, Jesus carried no hate within him, so when harsh words squeezed him, only love poured out.

The human journey is insightfully illustrated in another ancient story that has been orally passed down throughout the years. A traveler was wandering through a town, searching for hope, when he came across a crippled beggar, then an old woman getting beaten, and then the funeral of a baby. He fell into a spell of pain, distraught from the despair, famine, and destruction he witnessed. He ran out of the town into the vast silence of the desert at night and screamed to God, “Oh why God! Why is there so much pain? Why is there so much oppression, so much injustice? Why don’t You do something?” The man was crying as he was punching the desert floor with his fists, crying over and over again, “Why don’t You do something, Lord? Why is there so much war, and cancer, and hatred? Why must so many people starve themselves to sleep? Why must children be homeless? Oh God why don’t You do something? Why don’t You quench the flames of our sadness? Why don’t you bring joy where hope is lost? Why don’t You do something? Why don’t You just do something?!” The poor man dug his knuckles into the hot sand and screamed until he fell into an ecstatic state, and heard the Divine reply, “I did do something. I created you.”

“There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the earth.” RUMI

Don’t compare yourself to others, for every person carries a unique divine song in their soul, a melody of love, kindness, mercy, justice, freedom, and oneness that is longing to play in the concert hall of creation. Everything in existence is in a symphony of praise for the Divine. Knowing this encourages us to surrender to the unique song that God composed and wrote in the pages of our heart before we were ever sent to Earth.

Your blessings, your trials and triumphs, your journey of falling and rising, your gifts and talents—they are all connected. Your true calling is held in the arms of your deepest wounds. God only breaks you to remake you, because breakdowns come before breakthroughs. Everything that God has written into your path was meant to prepare you for this exact moment. God wants you to come as you are, not as you think you should be. “This place where you are right now, God circled on a map for you.” HAFIZ, 14TH-CENTURY PERSIAN POET

“Make room for one another in your collective life. Make room and in return God will make room for you.” QUR’AN 58:11

One of the words for “love” in Arabic is muhabbah, which comes from a root word that means “to erase.” This implies that knowledge of Al-Wadud, The Most Loving, begins with erasing all attachment to the self. As Rumi says, “Be melting snow. Wash yourself of yourself.”

As Rumi says, “Knock, and He’ll open the door. Vanish, and He’ll make you shine like the sun. Fall, and He’ll raise you to the heavens. Become nothing, and He’ll turn you into everything.”

My Lord, help me faithfully walk the straight path of return into Your embrace of love. “My Lord! Open for me my heart. And make easy for me my mission” (20:25-26). As my beloved Prophet says, “Oh Allah! Inspire my heart to guidance and save me from the evil of my soul.”58 Lord, inspire my heart to turn to You in fear and in hope, in failure and in success, in happiness and in sorrow, and for me to seek for You and reach for You in all the moments of my life. “Our Lord! Perfect our light, and forgive us. Surely You have full power over everything!” (66:8). In Your illuminating names I pray, Ameen.

“Alif. Lam. Ra. A Book has been revealed to you, so that, by the permission of their Lord, you would be able to bring forth humankind from the darkness into the light—to the path of The Mighty, The Praiseworthy.” QUR’AN 14:1 “Let the Qur’an be the springtime of my heart, the light of my chest, the remover of my sadness, and the reliever of my distress.”1 PROPHET MUHAMMAD

In fact, the word Qur’an originates from the triliteral root qaf-ra-hamza, which means “to recite, read, gather, collect, and join.”

To better understand the significance of the Qur’an, we must go back in time to the story of a man who was given the answer to these questions not through words, but through an incredible example: A man once asked a spiritual master, “What is there to gain from reading the Qur’an if we will never fully understand it? What’s the point of reading the same book over and over again?” The old sage responded by taking the young man to a well, where he emptied a big bag of black coal, and handed the dirty bag to the man. The sage told the man to fill the bag with water. The man said, “But master, this is a cloth bag, the water will seep through the fabric.” The old man said, “If you trust me, then do as I say,” and then he left. For the next few hours, the man kept filling the bag with bucket after bucket, only for the water to keep seeping through the cloth. By the time the sage returned, the man was exhausted and defeated. The sage looked at the empty bag and smiled. The confused young man asked, “Why are you smiling? I have no water in this bag.” The old man replied, “Your bag may not have been able to contain the water, but over time the water you poured within it washed away all the darkness of the coal that had stained the bag, making the bag as beautiful as the day I bought it. It is similar with the Qur’an. You will not be able to contain the entire revelation, but the more you recite it and allow the vibration to flow through you, the more it will purify you. The revelat...

Just as the essence of fire is constant, but what it reacts with results in different outcomes, the Qur’an is one revelation, but its manifestations are infinite, due to the innumerable shades of the human experience.

“If religion had not, on the one hand, expressed its ideas in common, familiar language, it would have been incomprehensible to the people of that age; but if it had expressed its ideas in common language, religion would have had no meaning in later times. It was therefore necessary that religion should speak in images and symbols that would become comprehensible with the development of human thought and science.”16 ALI SHARI’ATI, 20TH-CENTURY SCHOLAR

“The Holy Qur’an, we must always remember, does not contain the human speech and thought of the Prophet Muhammad , but is the Divine Song of power and love sung directly by Allah, the ultimate Source of the universe, through the personal, cultural, and spiritual being of His Prophet. The Holy Qur’an, in its depth, is direct revelation, regardless of whatever historical studies are made of its surface. No meditation upon the Qur’an, no matter how strong the inspiration or how broad the scholarship, could begin to equal the Arabic original, simply because the Arabic Qur’an remains in the realm of revelation. This is a living revelation, occurring afresh each time the Holy Qur’an is sung or chanted, for these Arabic words are the actual resonance of Allah Most High, and thus they transmit healing, protecting, transforming, and illuminating power directly from the Source.”19 LEX HIXON, “THE HEART OF THE QUR’AN”

While the Qur’an was often revealed through the Angel Gabriel coming to the Prophet in the shape of a man, it also at times was revealed through a spiritual medium that the Prophet described as “a voice which resembles the sound of a ringing bell.”21 It is hard to ignore the vibratory nature of a bell’s resonance and how that reiterates the notion that revelation is more than just words that carry meaning.

Scientists have shown that rhyming patterns assist in acoustically encoding memories. Since rhyming words carry similar sound codes they tend to be more easily linked together in the brain.28 Since the Qur’an is recited out loud and often heard repeatedly during prayers and at mosques, it becomes easier to memorize.

As the Prophet Muhammad beautifully said, in the eyes of God, “All people are equal as the teeth of a comb.”31 Our closeness to God and our connection with the Qur’an are not determined by our wealth, beauty, or knowledge but by the intentions behind our actions, the state of our hearts, and the sincerity of our love for Allah and His messengers.

The Qur’an was not meant to replace the Bible, Torah, or other holy scriptures; it was meant as a capstone and confirmation of the truth revealed to all divinely chosen prophets sent to this world. The prophets are like different rivers throughout time that all pointed to the same ocean of unity.

The Qur’an never describes itself as a replacement of the original message of Abraham, Moses, or Jesus, but rather as a reminder of God’s oneness in the Arabic language.

The Qur’an changed the way people dressed, spoke, ate, prayed, conducted business, treated women, and interacted with their parents. Through the revelation of the Qur’an, the Prophet Muhammad established equal rights among people of all colors, eradicated the class system and tribalism, abolished alcoholism, and established a justice system that was both revolutionary and inclusive of people of all socioeconomic statures. One of the most revolutionary ideas was the rights of women. Through the Qur’an, Allah confronted the sexist culture of seventh-century Arabia by declaring that men and women were of equal worth in the eyes of God. In a culture of misogyny where men would bury their infant girls alive, the Qur’an gave women the right to vote, inherit money, and own property. Additionally, the Prophet made education compulsory for every Muslim girl.36 The Qur’an serves to remind us that there is more to being a representative of God on Earth than praying privately in our homes. We need to stand up for the rights of others, demand equality, and respect people of all cultures and races. The Qur’an doesn’t just teach us to let go of our biases, it shows us how to transform our judgments into opportunities for greater understanding and connection.