Love: from Love is the Wine
Tales of a Sufi Master in America
Sheikh Muzaffer Ozak
Edited and compiled by Sheikh Ragip Frager, Ph.D.
The essence of God is love and the Sufi
path is a path of love. It is very difficult to describe love in words. It
is like trying to describe honey to someone who has never tasted or even
seen honey, who doesn't know what honey is.
Love is to see what is good and beautiful
in everything. It is to learn from everything, to see the gifts of God and
the generosity of God in everything, to see the gifts of God and the
generosity of God in everything. It is to be thankful for all God's
bounties.
This is the first step on the road to the
love of God. This is just a seed of love. In time, the seed will grow and
become a tree and bear fruit. Then, whoever tastes of that fruit will know
what real love is. It will be difficult for those who have tasted to tell
of it to those who did not.
Love is a special pleasurable pain. Whoever
has this in their heart will know the secret. They will see that
everything is Truth, and that everything leads to Truth. There is nothing
but Truth. In the realization of that they will be overcome. They will
sink into the sea of Truth.
Whatever you taste of love, in whatever
manner, in whatever degree -- it is a tiny part of Divine Love. Love
between men and women is also a part of that Divine Love. But sometimes
the beloved becomes a curtain between love and realization of true love.
One day that curtain will lift and then the real Beloved, the real goal
will appear in all Divine glory.
What is important is to have this feeling
of love in your heart in whatever form and shape. It is also important
that you be loved. It is easier to love than to be the beloved. If you
have been in love you will certainly reach the Beloved one day.
The gifts of God often come to you from the
hands of other human beings, through God's servants. And so, Divine love
also expresses itself between human beings.
The sheikhs are the pourers of the wine and
the dervish is the glass. Love is the wine. By the hand of the wine
pourer, the glass -- the dervish -- is filled. This is the short
way.
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