The Creative Power of Divine Love

Know, dear seeker of the Real, may God illuminate your heart, that the nonexistent cosmos was made manifest with love. The cosmos was in a state of rest, a rest of non-existence (sukūn ʿadamī), and then the Real gazed upon it with love, and what was at rest began to move with love, by virtue of, “I loved to become known.” And what was once at rest is still in motion, and the cosmos is still expanding. Nothing in existence moves except through the power of love, and for love’s sake. A rock tumbles down from the top of a mountain to the bottom for the sake of love. Rain falls from the sky to the earth for the sake of love. The root of creation is the love of the pre-eternal. If His love did not flow through us, we would not have become manifest in the realm of possibility. The cosmos was manifest to the Real in pre-eternity, and He brought it into manifestation through His beginning-less pre-eternal love. It is not as the philosophers say, that the world was engendered by accident.

Now in the beginning there were two gazes: a gaze from the Real toward creation, and a gaze from creation toward the Real. This is so that you know, O nonexistent one, that it is by the measure of the Creator’s love for you that you love the Creator. He creates preparedness in you, and you come to love Him by the measure of your preparedness (istiʿdād). In a sacred ḥadīth, God says, “My servant continues to draw near unto Me with supererogatory devotions (nawāfil)” until his preparedness becomes strong, whereupon he attains God’s bounty of “until I love him.”