love

what is love? for some its simply an emotion that drives one towards a loving action like a kiss or a hug or a tear. the root of the compassion that feeds merciful acts. for others its a mystical abstract notion that gives order to the universe, the answer to the question "why?" the reason for being. is it this or that? a real emotion or abstract concept?

can't it be both?...a Rabia al-Basri poem: "I know about love the way the fields know about light, the way the forest shelters, the way an animal's divine raw desire seeks to unite with whatever might please its soul - without a single strange thought of remorse. There is a powerful delegation in us that lobbies every moment for contentment. How will you ever find peace unless you yield to love the way the gracious earth does to our hand's impulse."

...a poem by Hafiz: Because the Woman I love lives inside of you, I lean as close to your body with my words as I can -and I think of you all the time, dear pilgrim. Because the One I love goes with you wherever you go, Hafiz will always be near. If you sat before me, wayfarer, with your aura bright from your many charms, my lips could resist rushing you, but my eyes, my eyes can no longer hide the wonderous fact of who you really are. The Beautiful One whom I adore has pitched His royal tent inside of you, so I will always lean my heart as close to your soul as I can."

what the hell is fiqh of love ?

this morning I was thinking of something I’d heard my friend Riz say during dinner on Friday night at the UT reunion, "the fiqh oflove." In all of my readings about love theory, I had NOT come across this phrase before!! It made no sense to me. there is love, and there is fiqh. they are two different things. what the hell is "fiqh of love?" so I googled it... I've learned that fiqh is the science of figuring out the shariah. Books I read say that the shariah is for the protection of various aspects of human life: deen-life-intellect-lineage-honor-property being the traditional areas. And according to scholars of fiqh, in the life of a human, ACTIONS can be required-recommended-neutral-disliked-forbidden. Now... Love is either a feeling that is experienced in the brain, or an abstract principle created to make sense of life. It may be a motivator for an action. A very basic action may be Love motivating me to kiss a baby, or to say "I love you". I think Love happens in the realm of intention... so, maybe... I guess it’s kind of relevent to fiqh. we COULD possibly place it in the various aspects of life that the shariah protects: deen-life-intellect-lineage-honor-property-LOVE... But if we place love in this list, we are lowering Love's status. Love is like Justice or Mercy. It’s a higher principle designed to give meaning to mundane life. Not a category of mundane... Anyways, my point is that i can understand "the Fiqh of Marriage", or "the Fiqh of Ibadat" because marriage and ibadat can be said to deal with lineage, honor, or deen. but "Fiqh of LOVE"??? It makes no sense to me. Maybe I’m too dumb to understand? (don’t answer that!)... First you have to define what love is, and that is the realm of philosophy, psychology, or mysticism (Akhlaq not Fiqh)... so what is this "fiqh of love"? where is this phrase coming from?... Apparently there's a class being offered around the country where attendees learn about love and "marriage in islam." (according to the wahhabi sect). it’s a big hit among the young, sincere, naive, gullible recruits. If this class (or any other offered by the Al-Maghrib Institute directed by Muhammad Alshareef) is conducted in any city, the institute creates a qabila, oh sorry..."qabeelah" or tribe for the students to join, allowing them to compete with other cities in terms of test results (interesting idea) and do extracurricular "tribal activities," including dawah (recruiting more people to wahhabi thought). I once organized a lecture at UT called "The Lover and The Beloved" but it was about sufism (because sufi poets use such language to describe their relationship with the Divine), and while the speaker had no accent, he did have a harsh tone and ended up not speaking about love as much as I had wanted him to. I also remember when we had a Friday Cookie Halaqa on the topic of love given by some wahhabi preacher from Dallas. The dude was kind of repulsive. He also had a harsh tone and thick accent too. And he focused on marriage. These and other things motivated me to speak on the topic, the real topic "love". Unlike the other speakers we had that year, I focused on "what is Love?"... I wish more people spoke of just love... Anyways, My confusion about this damn "fiqh of love" was cleared up when I went to the Al-Maghrib website. It's simply a marketing ploy for a class about the allowable and the prohibited regarding marriage and the wahhabi approach to its fiqh. But this time its not like that harsh accented preacher from Dallas, the tone seems to be much softer. But it appears it’s too soft for some recruits (not wahhabi enough for them)! peace and love.