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The Author said: Since we have already explained in the Ninth Gate the meanings of abstinence from the world, and our purpose in it was to free the heart for the exclusive devotion to God (great and exalted) — that was the preparation; this gate is the destination. For the love of God is the highest of the obligations of the heart and the summit toward which all the previous gates have been climbing: trust in God, sincerity, humility, repentance, self-accounting, and abstinence — all of these are preparations for and pathways to the love of God. And love of God is the crowning fruit of all that came before.
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The Author said: Fear of God precedes love of God, for fear is the endpoint of abstinence and the farthest limit it can reach — and it is the first gateway of the gateways of love. There is no path to love of God that does not pass through fear of God, as Scripture says: "The Lord your God you shall fear; Him you shall serve" (Deuteronomy 6:13).
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Know, my brother, that the soul and the body are bound to each other by a natural partnership that developed between them from the very beginning of their coming-into-being. When the soul perceives what is beneficial for its body and what sustains its existence, the animal part of the soul inclines toward it and yearns for it in pursuit of comfort — comfort from the ailments of its body, pleasure from the senses, and the satisfaction of its natural desires.
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But when the soul is refined from the grossness of the body and awakened to the reality of its Creator — Who is the Exalted, the Mighty, the Magnificent — it is seized by awe, alarm, reverence, trembling, and fear, from the greatness and majesty of the Creator. It does not cease in this state until the Creator (great and exalted) befriends it and calms its awe and fear. And at that point, the love of God (great and exalted) blossoms in it, and it is singled out for closeness and devotion to Him.
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The Author said: Know that the love of God (great and exalted) is of three kinds.
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The first is love of God for His beneficence toward us and His grace upon us — the love of someone for another because of the other's goodness to him and his continuous favors and beneficence. This is the most common form and the most widely present. Scripture says: "I love You, O Lord, my strength" (Psalms 18:2) — that is, because of His strength which He lent me.
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The second is love of God because of His overlooking our sins, His abundant forgiveness of us, and His pardoning of our transgressions. This arises from gratitude for God's patience with the sinner and His promise of forgiveness to the repentant. It is higher than the first, because its object is God's moral quality of mercy rather than merely the material benefits He provides.
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The third kind is love of God out of reverence, exaltation, and awe — for His own majesty and dignity alone, not for any benefit received or forgiveness granted. This is the highest and most complete kind of love, for it is purely for God's sake, free of any self-interest. This is the love that the prophets and righteous ones experienced, as David said: "As a deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for You, O God" (Psalms 42:2).
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The prophet commanded us with this total love: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might" (Deuteronomy 6:5). This means: the believer should sacrifice all of himself — soul, body, and wealth — for the love of God. For love takes three forms: a love in which a person is willing to sacrifice his wealth but not his body or soul; a love in which he is willing to sacrifice part of his body along with his wealth, hoping his soul will survive; and the highest love, in which he is willing to sacrifice his soul along with his body and wealth. This last is the love required of us toward God (great and exalted).
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The clearest indicator of the two lower kinds of love versus the highest kind of love — of pure love in God — is the story of Job. Satan said of him: "Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has on every side?... But stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has" (Job 1:9–11) — meaning: he loves You only for the benefit You have given him. And God permitted Satan to test him through the loss of his possessions and his children and his health, so that it would be known whether Job's love was for God's sake or for his own sake. And Job passed the test, and God praised him.
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The test of love in God is thus: if one is tried with adversity and his love does not diminish, his love was pure — for God's sake. If his love diminishes with adversity, his love was not for God's sake but for the benefit he received. God (great and exalted) has praised those whom He tried with difficulty — Noah, Daniel, and Job — as Scripture says: "Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it" (Ezekiel 14:14). And God (great and exalted) strengthened Job afterward, saying: "And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job" (Job 42:10).
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All the tested ones of history were on the same pattern and path — their love was tried and it held.
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The Author said: The love of God is not attained directly; it is only reached after many prerequisites are fulfilled. When the prerequisites are sound, love of God results from them. As for the one who aims for love directly without the prerequisites — there is no path for him to it.
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The prerequisites that the lover of God must fulfill before his love can be called complete include:
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The first prerequisite is the knowledge of God's essence, attributes, and works — the foundation of all the rest. No one can love what he does not know. Knowing God leads to the love of God, for when the servant truly perceives God's greatness, wisdom, beauty, and goodness, love naturally grows in the heart.
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The second prerequisite is the purification of the heart from passion and desire — for passion is the greatest obstacle to love of God. So long as the heart is filled with love of the world, there is no room in it for love of God, as the two are mutually exclusive.
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The third prerequisite is the contemplation of God's blessings and beneficences — both the general blessings shared by all and the particular blessings unique to each person. When the heart contemplates these blessings, gratitude grows in it, and gratitude deepens into love.
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The fourth prerequisite is the fear of God — for fear is the first gateway to love, as we said. The fear of God's majesty and greatness, when held continuously in the heart, opens the door to love. The soul thirsts for God, as Scripture says: "My soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You" (Psalms 63:2), and: "My soul thirsts for God, for the living God" (Psalms 42:3).
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Among the strongest aids to this high degree, my brother, is the profound and overwhelming fear of God, and reverence of Him, and alarm at His command and prohibition.
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The Author said: Know that the signs and qualities of one who truly loves God are many. I shall enumerate some of the most important.
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**The first sign** is the abandonment of whatever distracts from God's obedience — all the superfluities that occupy the heart with other than God. The lover of God finds the thought of anything that distances him from God intolerable. As Scripture says: "So that His fear will be upon your faces, so that you will not sin" (Exodus 20:17).
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**The second sign** is that the fear of God is manifest upon him in his outward appearance — a visible reverence and gravity that marks him, as Scripture says.
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**The third sign** is the constant mention of God's name on his tongue — in praise, thanks, glorification, and sanctification. He never leaves the name of God from his lips; his tongue is always engaged in extolling God, as Scripture says: "And my tongue will tell of Your righteousness, Your praise all the day" (Psalms 71:24), and: "Let my mouth be filled with Your praise, Your glory all the day" (Psalms 71:8). And if he cannot utter God's name, let him think of it in his heart — for the heart's intention is the foundation of all, and the intention of the heart is with God even when the tongue is occupied.
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**The fourth sign** is hastening to fulfill his pledges and promises — not delaying them even for a brief time. This is for two reasons: either out of caution that death might overtake him before he fulfills what he promised, or because of his ignorance of what God's decree has already preceded regarding that.
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**The fifth sign** is teaching many people and guiding them — for whoever guides many people and directs them toward truth, the merit of the many is attributed to him, as Scripture says: "The righteousness of the Lord He performed, and His judgments with Israel" (Deuteronomy 33:21), and the sage said: "And those who justify the many are like the stars forever and ever" (Daniel 12:3).
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**The sixth sign** is the longing for his Beloved at night — the preference for night prayer and the night vigil with God. The night is the time of the lover's intimacy with his Beloved, when the distractions of the day are stilled. Scripture says: "My soul yearns for You in the night" (Isaiah 26:9), and: "On my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loves" (Song of Songs 3:1). The mention of night prayer recurs many times in our book — the pious one said: "I remember Your name in the night, O Lord" (Psalms 119:55), and: "At midnight I rise to praise You" (Psalms 119:62).
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**The seventh sign** is joy and gladness in God (great and exalted) and in His knowledge — the longing for His pleasure, the delight in His love, the attachment to His law, and the vigilance over those who are pure before Him, as Scripture says: "My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God" (Psalms 84:3).
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**The eighth sign** is that whatever commandments they undertook from God's obligatory acts, they thanked their Lord for them and praised Him for them. And whatever they were unable to perform because of their weakness — whatever did not emerge into actual deed — God recorded for them the strength of their intention and their resolve, as if they had performed it in deed. As the early teachers said concerning all commandments: even those inapplicable to the person's situation (one with no children — the redemption of the firstborn does not apply; one with no roof — the parapet law does not apply; an orphan — the commandment of honoring father and mother does not apply, and the like) — when they achieved the obligations, they said: "We will not take credit for those that do not apply to us." This is characteristic of the lovers of God: they count their blessings for what they can do rather than lamenting what they cannot.
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**The ninth sign** is the illumination visible on their faces — the light of devotion that appears on those who are truly devoted to God. When you look into their hearts, you find hearts broken before God, alive with conversation with God, emptied of worldly occupations. The love of God fills their hearts; His fear dwells in their faces; His glorification is upon their tongues. They feel no loneliness with God and no closeness to any other than God, and no pleasure in anything other than the pleasure of God.
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The Author said: If you, my brother, are among those who desire their company and wish to join their number — turn away from the superfluities of your world, and employ deliberate heedlessness toward it, and be sparing of it, and restrict your love to what is necessary of it, and despise what you are compelled to have of it, and maintain yourself with the minimum, and prefer solitude to company, and direct your desire toward the service of your Creator, and trust in His promise of reward, and flee from His punishment. Do not forget your share in this world — for whoever deprives himself of this world does not thereby gain greater piety or higher rank; the law does not demand this. But be moderate, as we have explained in this gate.
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The Author said: I close this book with certain verses that are like a companion to its themes — addressing you, my brother, in different circumstances and states:
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When you are in an act of worship, these verses call you to sincerity of heart toward God.
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When you are in worldly work, they call you to self-accounting.
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When you are troubled by your worldly affairs, they call you to trust in God.
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When you are in the presence of tribulation, they call you to patience.
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When you are heedless of your end, they call you to awareness.
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When you feel pride and vainglory, they call you to humility before God (great and exalted) — contemplating that the end of every creature is dust and earth, and that your dwelling is sand and a clod of earth.
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When you need to repent to God (great and exalted) and know its limits, your intellect's wisdom addresses your foolishness: "Return from the wickedness of your heart and your inclination."
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When you need to account yourself before God (great and exalted), they address you with what keeps you alert and directs you to what guards you.
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When you need love of God, they address you with what teaches you true love and directs you to the straight path toward it.
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Attend to this book and read it and return to its meanings and preserve its foundations and investigate its branches always — and you will be guided by it to the peak of excellences and the limit of the high stations approved before God (great and exalted). Be with it, and may God guide you.
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*The quest is completed, and with its completion the Book of Guidance to the Duties of the Heart is complete.*
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