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THE BEST MEANS FOR SELF-EDIFICATION

The foregoing discussions in the context of love and devotion were only introductory. Now we wish to gradually arrive at the conclusion. The most important proposition, which in fact is the central subject of the moot, is whether the love with saints and affiliation with the pious is in itself an end or means to achieve self-edification, reformation of soul, virtue and human beauties.

In animal love the lover pays whole attention and care to the face, proportion of limbs, complexion and charms of-the beloved's skin. These charms attract man and make him fond. But after once these charms fade away, nothing is left to enkindle those flames. He gets cold and keeps mum.

But human love, as we have said earlier, is life and vivacity. It begets obedience and submission. It is love, which makes the lover similar to the beloved. He strives to be a reflection of the beloved. He copies the beloved's manners. As Khwaja Naseer-ud-Din Toosi says in 'Shara-e-Isharat-e-Bu Ali': "The spiritual love is that which emanates from the urge of the lover to resemble the beloved. The lover pays greater attention to the manners of the beloved and, the impressions, which originate from the beloved's heart. It is love which makes the heart tender, anxious and eager; and it blesses the lover with such susceptibilities which make him scornful of worldly contamina­tions".

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Love pulls towards resemblance and similarity and becomes the source of what makes the lover resemble the beloved. Love is like electric wire, which connects the personality of the beloved to the lover's and thus the merits of the former are flown to the latter. Hence the selection of the beloved of paramount importance. Islam lays great stress on and makes special provisions for selection and choice of friends. In this context many verses and traditions may be cited, because friendship brings about uni­formity in behaviour, it beautifies and intoxicates. So much so, wherever love has held sway the demerits of the beloved are taken as merits and a thorn is accepted as a rose or a jasmine. Some of the verses and traditions have strictly forbidden company of and friendship with impious and mendacious people. Some of these verses and traditions call for making friends with the pious. Ibn Abbas says, "We were sitting in the company of the Prophet, when somebody asked, 'who is the best of the companions'? The Prophet replied, "The one whose appearance reminds you of Allah, whose words enhance your knowledge, and whose gait reminds you of the doomsday".

Man is always in need of the alchemy of love of the pious and the virtuous so that the love of the virtuous makes his behaviour identical with and his looks similar to the pious.

For the reformation of morals and the soul, many methods have been formulated and different schools have come forth. Of all such schools, one is of Socrates. According to the rules of this school, man is expected to reform himself through wisdom and reason. Man should first completely believe in the merits of piety and the demerits of debauchery. Thereafter, by adopting logical procedure he should locate each and every vice, like a man who removes the hair from his nose one by one, or like a farmer who clears his field of unwanted growths and weeds one by one, or like a person who sifts the wheat from sand and dust, grain by grain, and thus he cleanse the harvest of his life. According to this method one should patiently, with determination and calculation, gradually remove the impurities from the gold of his existence. Perhaps it is rightly said that for wisdom it may not be possible to accomplish the task.

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The philosophers want reformation of morals by force of logic and methodology. For example, they say piety and contentment determine the prestige and individuality of a man among the masses, and greed and ambition are the cause of his disgrace and disrepute. Or, they say, knowledge is a factor to achieve power and strength. Knowledge is like this and like that, or "the knowledge is the seal of Solomon's authority". Knowledge is a light that discerns a route from a ditch. Or, they say, jealousy and malice are spiritual diseases and sociologically they will lead to a disastrous end, and things like that.

No doubt, this method is a correct method and such means are fair means but the difference lies in the comparative utility of this method to that of another method. As an automobile is a good means, but we should see the extent of its worth comparatively with an aeroplane.

Forthwith, we do not want to discuss the worth of rational course for guidance. That is to say, we have nothing to argue as to what amount of arguments, in rational terminology, may be sufficient to discover moral problems exactly, faithfully, correctly, errorlessly and doubtlessly. Suffice it to say that schools of reformative philosophy are innumerable and incalculable. And for the purposes of rationality they have not so far travelled beyond "dispute" and "disagreement". But we know that people of divinity conclusively say:

"The logicians have wooden feet.

Wooden feet are most treacherous".

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Presently our discussion is not in this context. It is rather in this context that what is the sum total of the output of these methods. The people of divinity, morality and mysticism propound the course of love and devotion instead of adopting the course of logic and rationalism. They say: "Find out a perfect man and develop love, contact and affiliation with him from the depth of your heart, because this is a method safer and quicker than that of wisdom and logic". For purposes of comparison, both these methods are like the old manual method and the mechanical method. The impact of the force of love and affiliation to remove the moral vices from the heart is identical to the effect of chemical process of purification of metal, e.g., one engraver burns away the circumference of letters with acid, and not with a nail, a point of knife or a thing like that. The effect of the force of reason in refining morals is like the exercise of a man who with manual labour sifts the fragments of iron from the dust. How difficult it is. If he has one powerful piece of magnet in his hand, it is possible he may with a single effort collect the whole of such fragments. The force of love and affiliation has the qualities of magnet, it musters the vices to oust them. According to the belief of the saints, the love and affiliation with the pious and the perfect is an automatic instrument which of itself musters the evils and expels them. If endearment has reached such a degree, it would be the best of the condi­tions, and this is what purifies and lends glory.

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Yes those, who have adopted this course, want moral reformation through the force of love and rely on the force of devotion and dedication. Experience has shown that the degree of moral influence, produced by the company of the pious and love with them, could not be achieved by reading hundreds of books on morals. Maulvi defines the message of love as lamen­tations of Flute:

Like flute none has tasted poison and panacea,

Whosoever has torn his garb in love,

He has become immune from greed and evil,

Bravo! my love, my happy madness,

O, the healer of all my ailments.

Sometimes we come across divines whose followers adopt even their gait, the design of their robes, follow their manners and copy their dialect.

This imitation is not willful, it is rather spontaneous and natural. The power of love and affiliation enters every limb of the lover and makes him resemble the beloved. It is for this reason that everyone should strive to search out a righteous personality and develop love with him so as to reform himself:

"if you have a madness of fruition, O Hafiz!

You should humble yourself on the threshold of the righteous!"

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Man has often decided to offer prayers or to do a good deed but lethargy abstained him. Now as soon as love finds expression, the lethargy disappears. His determination becomes strong and his urge vigorous

The love of the beautiful robs the faith recklessly,

The chess-board is not as captivating as a charming face;

You should not think that Majnoon became Majnoon of himself

It was Laila who pulled him from fish to the star;

I did not of myself reach the point from where the sun rises,

I was a dust particle but thy love elevated me,

It was the bend of your eyebrow and your heavenly palm,

Which moved in the 'assemblage' and captivated me.

History knows many great men whose love and affiliation with the perfect, at least in the estimation of their followers, infused revolutionary spirit in their bodies. Maula-i-Room is one of such persons. To start with, he was not so anxious and aflame. He was a sage but cold and silent. He imparted instructions in a corner of his town. From the day he benefited form Shams Tabrizi, he developed devotion towards him. This devotion altogether changed him. It made his soul ablaze. It worked as an ignition in a storehouse of gunpowder and caused flames to rise. Although he himself might belong to the Ash'ari school yet his 'Masnavi' no doubt is one of the greatest (poetical) works of the world. This stalwart's numbers are all dynamism and activation. He has sung 'Diwan-i-Shams' in the memory of his ideal and beloved. He frequently reverts to him in the 'Masnavi' as well.

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In 'Masnavi', we see Maula-i-Room, though dealing with a particular subject, is instantly put to the reminiscence of Shams. This arouses a violent storm in his soul that produces roaring waves in him:

This spirit has put my soul on fire,

As if it has smelt the scent of Yusof's apron,

For the sake of company of years,

Repeat the mystery of those happy moments,

So that the earth and heaven rejoice,

Wisdom, soul and eyes are enriched hundred times;

I say, Oh! You the distant from your friend,

You are like a patient away from the physician;

What could I say, whose not a vein in his body is robust,

About the friend who has missed his friend,

Put off the details of the separation and its pangs,

Forget it for the moment till some other time,

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Do not seek trouble, dread and blood-shed,

Do not say more about Shams Tabrizi.

In this context Hafiz has rightly said:

From the bounty of the rose, nightingale has learnt to sing, otherwise,

All this lyric and charm was not arranged in its beak.

From here we can deduce that effort and attraction and activity and inspiration must go hand in hand. Nor do emotions fructify without efforts, in the same manner as attraction without efforts leads to nowhere.