Yahya Ibn Muaz relates, “I watched Bayazid. Bistami at prayer through one entire night. When he had finished he stood up and said, 4 0 Lord! some of Thy servants have asked and obtained of Thee the power to perform miracles, to walk on the sea, and to fly in the air, but this I do not ask; some have asked and obtained treasures, but these I do not ask.’ Then he turned, and, seeing me, said, 4 Are you there, Yahya? ’ I replied, 4 Yes.’ He asked, 4 Since when? ’ I answered, 4 For a long time.’ I then asked him to reveal to me some of his spiritual experiences. 4 1 will reveal,’ he answered, 4 what is lawful to tell you. The Almighty showed me His kingdom, from its loftiest to its lowest; He TREASURES SURPASSING 109 raised me above the throne and the seat and all the seven heavens. Then He said, 44 Ask of me whatsoever thing thon desirest.” I answered, 44 Lord! I wish for nothing beside Thee.”
4 4 Verily,” He said, 44 thou art My servant.” 5 ” On another occasion Bayazid said, 44 Were God to offer thee the intimacy with Himself of Abra¬ ham, the power in prayer of Moses, the spirituality of Jesus, yet keep thy face directed to Him only, for He has treasures surpassing even these.” One day a friend said to him, 44 For thirty years I have fasted by day and prayed by night and have found none of that spiritual joy of which thou speakest.” Bayazid answered, 44 If you fasted and prayed for three hundred years, you would never find it.” 44 How is that? ” asked the other. 44 Because,” said Bayazid, 44 your selfishness is acting as a veil between you and God.” 44 Tell me, then, the cure.” 44 It is a cure which you cannot carry out.” However, as his friend pressed him to reveal it, Bayazid said, 44 Go to the nearest barber and have your beard shaved; strip yourself of your clothes, with the exception of a girdle round your loins. Take a horse’s nose-bag full of walnuts, hang it round your neck, go into the bazaar and cry out, 4 Any boy who gives me a slap on the nape of my neck shall have a walnut.’ Then, in this manner, go where the Cadi and the doctors of the law are sitting.” 44 Bless my soul! ” said his friend, 110 110 THE LOVE OF GOD “ I really can’t do that; do suggest some other remedy.” “ This is the indispensable preliminary to a cure,” answered Bayazid, “ but, as I told you, you are incurable.”
The reason Bayazid indicated this method of cure for want of relish in devotion was that his friend was an ambitious seeker after place and honour. Ambition and pride are diseases which can only be cured in some such way. God said unto Jesus, “ O Jesus! when I see in My servants5 hearts pure love for Myself unmixed with any selfish desire concerning this world or the next, I act as guardian over that love.” Again, when people asked Jesus “ What is the highest work of all? ” he answered, “ To love God and to be resigned to His will.” The saint Rabia was once asked whether she loved the Prophet: “ The love of the Creator,” she said, “ has prevented my loving the creature.” Ibrahim Ben Adham, in his prayers, said, “ 0 God! In my eyes heaven itself is less than a gnat in comparison with the love of Thee and the joy of Thy remembrance which Thou hast granted me.”
He who supposes that it is possible to enjoy happiness in the next world apart from the love of God is far gone in error, for the very essence of the future life is to arrive at God as at an Object of desire long aimed at and attained through countless obstacles. This enjoyment of God is happiness. But if he had no delight in STORY OF THE SCAVENGER 111 God before, he will not delight in Him then, and if his joy in God was but slight before it will be but slight then. In brief, our future happiness will be in strict proportion to the degree in which we have loved God here.
But (and may God preserve us from such a doom!) if in a man’s heart there has been growing up a love of what is opposed to God, the conditions of the next life will be altogether alien to him,, and that which will cause joy to others will to him cause misery.
This may be illustrated by the following anecdote: A certain scavenger went into the perfume-sellers’ bazaar, and, smelling the sweet scents, fell down unconscious. People came round him and sprinkled rose-water upon him and held musk to his nose, but he only became worse. At last one came who had been a scavenger himself; he held a little filth under the man’s nose and he revived instantly, ex¬ claiming, with a sigh of satisfaction, “ Ah! this is perfume indeed! ” Thus in the next life a worldling will no longer find the filthy lucre and the filthy pleasures of the world; the spiritual joys of that world will be altogether alien to him and but increase his wretchedness. For the next world is a world of Spirit and of the manifestation of the Beauty of God; happy is that man who has aimed at and acquired affinity with it. All- austerities, devotions, studies have the acquire- 112 THE LOVE OF GOD ment of that affinity for their aim, and that affinity is love. This is the meaning of that saying of the Koran, “ He who has purified his soul is happy.” Sins and lusts directly oppose the attainment of this affinity; therefore the Koran goes on to say, “ And he who has cor¬ rupted his soul is miserable.” 1 Those who are gifted with spiritual insight have really grasped this truth as a fact of experience, and not a merely traditional maxim. Their clear perception of it leads them to the conviction that he by whom it was spoken was a prophet indeed, just as a man who has studied medicine knows when he is listening to a physician. This is a kind of cer¬ tainty which requires no support from miracles such as the conversion of a rod into a snake,, the credit of which may be shaken by apparently equally extraordinary miracles performed by magicians.
The Signs of the Love of God Many claim to love God, but each should ex¬ amine himself as to the genuineness of the love which he professes. The first test is this: he should not dislike the thought of death, for no friend shrinks from going to see a friend. The Prophet said, “ Whoever wishes to see God, God wishes to see him.” It is true a sincere lover of 1 Koran, chap. 91.
TESTS OF SINCERITY 113 God may shrink from the thought of death coming before he has finished his preparation for the next world, but if he is sincere, he will be diligent in making such preparation.
The second test of sincerity is that a man should be willing to sacrifice his will to God’s, should cleave to what brings him nearer to God, and should shun what places him at a distance from God. The fact of a man’s sinning is no proof that he does not love God at all, but it proves that he does not love Him with his whole heart. The saint Fudhail said to a certain man, “ If any one asks you whether you love God, keep silent; for if you say, 4 1 do not love Him,’ you are an infidel; and if you say, ‘ I do,’ your deeds contradict you.”
The third test is that the remembrance of God should always remain fresh in a man’s heart without effort, for what a man loves he constantly remembers, and if his love is perfect he never forgets it. It is possible, however, that, while the love of God does not take the first place in a man’s heart, the love of the love of God may, for love is one thing and the love of love another.
The fourth test is, that he will love the Koran, which is the Word of God, and Muhammad, who is the Prophet of God; if his love is really strong, he will love all men, for all are God’s servants, nay, his love will embrace the whole creation, for 8 114 THE LOVE OF GOD he who loves any one loves the works he composes and his handwriting.
The fifth test is, he will be covetous of retire¬ ment and privacy for purposes of devotion; he will long for the approach of night, so that he may hold intercourse with his Friend without let or hindrance. If he prefers conversation by day and sleep at night to such retirement, then his love is imperfect. God said to David, “ Be not too intimate with men; for two kinds of persons are excluded from My presence: those who are earnest in seeking reward and slack when they obtain it, and those who prefer their own thoughts to the remembrance of Me. The sign of My displeasure is, that I leave such to them¬ selves.”
In truth, if the love of God really take possession of the heart all other love is excluded. One of the children of Israel was in the habit of praying at night, but, observing that a bird sang in a certain tree very sweetly, he began to pray under that tree, in order to have the pleasure of listening to the bird. God told David to go and say to him, “ Thou hast mingled the love of a melodious bird with the love of Me; thy rank among the saints is lowered.” On the other hand, some have loved God with such intensity that, while they were engaged in devotion, their houses have caught fire and they have not noticed it.
A sixth test is that worship becomes easy. A WHO ARE THY LOVERS?
115 certain saint said, “ During one space of thirty years I performed my night-devotions with great difficulty, but during a second space of thirty years they became a delight.” When love to God is complete no joy is equal to the joy of worship.
The seventh test is that lovers of God will love those who obey Him and hate the infidels and the disobedient, as the Koran says: “ They are strenuous against the unbelievers and merciful to each other.” The Prophet once asked God and said, “ 0 Lord! who are Thy lovers? ” and the answer came, “ Those who cleave to Me as a child to its mother, take refuge in the re¬ membrance of Me as a bird seeks the shelter of its nest, and are as angry at the sight of sin as an angry lion who fears nothing.”
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