Friday, March 7, 2008

Love of God


The Fear of God and the Love of God must coexist.

We must know God is the All-Merciful and the King of Justice.

11:42 But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
(King James Bible, Luke)

That hypocrite in prayers and fasts
Displays exceeding diligence,
That men may think him drunk with love of God;
But if you look into the truth, he is drowned in hypocrisy.
(Mathnavi of Rumi (E.H. Whinfield tr), The Masnavi Vol 1)

2:160 Yet there are men who take to them idols along with God, and love them with the love of God: But stronger in the faithful is the love of God. Oh! the impious will see, when they see their chastisement, that all power is God's, and that God is severe in chastising.
(The Qur'an (Rodwell tr), Sura 2 - The Cow)

Take thou good heed that ye may all, under the leadership of Him Who is the Source of Divine Guidance, be enabled to direct thy steps aright upon the Bridge, which is sharper than the sword and finer than a hair, so that perchance the things which from the beginning of thy life till the end thou hast performed for the love of God, may not, all at once and unrealized by thyself, be turned to acts not acceptable in the sight of God. Verily God guideth whom He will into the path of absolute certitude.
(The Bab, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 96)

Church dignitaries of various branches of the Christian Tree came, some earnestly desirous of finding new aspects of the Truth -- "the wisdom that buildeth up, rather than the knowledge that puffeth up." Others there were who stopped their ears, lest they should hear and understand.

One afternoon, a party of the latter type arrived. They spoke words of bigotry, of intolerance, of sheer cruelty in their bitter condemnation of all who did not accept their own particular dogma, showing themselves obsessed by "the hate of man, disguised as love of God," a thin disguise to the penetrating eyes of the Master. Perhaps they were dreading the revealing light of Truth which He sought to shed upon the darkness of their outworn ecclesiasticism. The new revelation was too great for their narrowed souls and fettered minds.
(Lady Blomfield, The Chosen Highway, p. 182)