Threshold Society Theme for April 1997
The real and essential needs of the human being have not changed very much over the centuries. Who would disagree, for instance, with Al-Ghazzali’s assessment eight centuries ago that: Human perfection resides in this, that the love of God should conquer a person’s heart and possess it wholly, and even if it does not possess it wholly, it should predominate in the heart over the love of all things.
What has changed is the form and pressure of those forces that could displace the love of God from the heart. And what may change further is that human beings may lose the whole notion of love of God as the criteria for human perfection and well-being.
To be a Sufi is to be a lover, but not just any kind of lover. We need knowledge to know what to love and what love asks of us, in order that we might become love itself. Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi says: There is no greater love than love with no object.
“Truly, those who are faithful and whose actions are virtuous the All-Compassionate will imbue with love.”
Qur’an 19:96
Painting: ‘Rapture’ by Soo K Chang