Chishti stages of love – Part 3

Love (‘eshq) has five phases: 1. The first phase is fuqdaan-e-qalb (the losing of one’s heart). It is a well-known saying in the Arab language: He who has not lost his heart is not a lover. A poet expresses this idea in his own words: Ze delam neshaan che khaahi ke ze del khabr nadaaram To begu ke del che baashad man azu asar nadaaram Why do you make a search for my heart for I am myself unaware thereof? Tell me yourself: What is a heart? I do not find any sign thereof. The reason for this is that whosoever has a heart heeds its presence alone and is oblivious of love: Ke goft man khabri daaram az haqiqat-e…

Chishti stages of love – Part 2

The stage of exclusive attachment to the Beloved also has five phases. 1. The first phase of exclusive attachment to the Beloved is called mu’aanadat (enmity). What happens that when the lover moves in company, she or he feels ill at ease with strangers and is afraid of being laughed at. People become her or his enemies and are prone to ridicule this lover. To explain this the author of Resaala-e-‘eshqia (The Epistle of Love) has quoted the following verse of Qur’an 22:52 We have not sent a messenger or prophet before you but when he recited the devil would intrude into his recitation Yet Allah annuls what the devil has cast. Then Allah establishes his revelations. Allah is All-knowing,…

Chishti stages of love – Part 1

The pen faces difficulties or even fails when trying to describe love. As you know steps can be seen leading up to the ocean, but what happens then? The well-known Chishti Sufi Khwaja Nasiruddin Cheragh (the “lamp”) of Delhi, who was the successor of Nizamuddin Awliya has described the indescribable. He not only described ten stages and fifty phases of love, but he also experienced them. I’m grateful to the work of Mir Valiuddin in this respect. I’ve at places added some relevant anecdotes. Scholars say that the description of the Chishti stages of love has not been written by the aforesaid Sufi. It does not really matter, as the only thing of importance is the experience of love. The…