FAZA’IL –E- A’MAAL

Virtues of the HOLY QUR’AAN

Revised translation of the Urdu book Fazaa’il-e-Qur’aan
By
Shaikhul Hadith Maulana Muhammad Zakariyya Kaandhlawi

Translated by
Aziz-ud-Din


Part III (Final Note)

Verily,the lover submits to his beloved.

When a person falls in love with someone, submission and obedience to the beloved becomes his habit and second nature. Disobedience to the beloved becomes as hard as it unwilling obedience to one whom one does not love.

One way of developing love for someone is the observation of his beauty and excellence. This observation may be through the physical senses or through inner perception. If a look at a beautiful face can lead to spontaneous love, a sweet heart-captivating voice can also sometimes produce a magnetic effect. A Persian poet says:

Looks alone do not inspire love;
Often this wealth is attained through charming words.

Sometimes it is the sweetness of voice which draws the heart unconsciously and sometimes it is the beauty and wisdom of expression which causes one to fall in love. Experienced men have suggested that in order to develop love, one should dwell upon the fine attributes of the beloved, and none other than the beloved should find a place in one’s heart. It is true even in the case of earthly love that the sight of a beautiful face or a hand urges one to see the other parts of the body of the beloved, so that love may increase and the yearning of the heart may be satisfied, but the stage of satisfaction is never reached. As an Urdu poet says:

The disease worsened as the treatment progressed.

If after sowing the seeds in a field, one does not care to water it, no crop will grow here. Similarly, after falling in love involuntarily, if one does not pay attention to the beloved, this love will vanish in course of time. But if one keeps on visualizing the charming features, the stature as well as the gait and the manner of speaking of the beloved, love will go on increasing every moment.

Unusual are the ways in the school of love, One who
learns his lesson gets no leave.

If you forget the lesson of love, there is a riddance for you at once. But the more you learn it, the more you are entrapped. In the same way, if a man wants to develop love with someone worthy of love, he should find out the excellence, the charms and the valued attributes of the beloved and should not remain content with what he knows, but should always be eager to know more about them.

When even in the case of the mortal beloved, the lover is not satisfied with a partial view of the beloved, and is always on the lookout for more chances to see as much of the beloved as he can, then Almighty Allah, the Pure and Sanctified, Who is the fountainhead of all elegance and beauty, (and in fact there is no beauty in this world except His) is certainly such a beloved Whose loveliness and perfection knows no bounds and is limitless. One of the manifestations of His utmost excellence is the Glorious Quran, which is the word of Allah Himself. What greater pleasure can there be for a lover of the Divine, than the fact that the Qur’an is Allah’s own Revelation. A poet says:

‘O flower! How pleased am I with you, You have the
smell of someone (beloved).