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The Message Volumes of Hazrat Inayat Khan
VOLUME VII

LOVE, HUMAN AND DIVINE

Love, whether it is human or divine in considered to be sacred, in the view of the mystics, philosophers, and thinkers. That it is
possible to regard it thus is shown by the fact that in its root it is beyond both the human and the divine. As it is written in the
Bible, ‘God is Love,’ three words, which open up an unending realm for the thinker, who desires to probe the depth of the
secret of love.

In ordinary life, we make this word mean affection for our surroundings, for your relatives or our beloved, but when we think
deeply about it, we see that from start to finish it represents the power underlying the power of all activities and all intelligences.

When we study life from the material standpoint, we see there are four different stages: the mineral kingdom, the vegetable
kingdom, the animal, and the human. And of these four domains it is said by a dervish, ‘God slept in the mineral kingdom. He
dreamed in the vegetable kingdom. He woke in the animal, and He realized Himself in the human.’ And this gradual
progression shows us that underlying it there is a sense of life, which has expressed itself in every step towards the completed
development of love.

In the mineral kingdom we find no tendency towards love. But as the intelligence develops in the vegetable kingdom, we feel
that sympathy is reflected from us into the flowers. The plants perceive and feel that which comes from us. A loving person
may attend to plants and rear them and water them with love and sympathy, and they flourish. But in the hands of another it
may not be so. If we only watched plants closely, we should see how much they feel our presence and our love. They flourish
according to our love. The more we give, the more fragrance, the more sweetness. Man is always working on farms and in
gardens, thinking of them as material things, looking to see how plants can be improved by material means. If he could only
believe it, there is a still higher means of helping them to grow, a spiritual means: the use of love and sympathy.

There is a story in the East of Puran Bhagat, who was once living in exile in the forest. After a long time, during which he had
developed the true love in his thought and feeling and spirit, he returned to his country. The first thing he wished to do was to
sit in his garden, which had gone to ruin during his absence. He went down to it in the guise of a sage, and began to water it
with his little water bowl. The garden at once began to flourish, and in a short time it became such a miracle of beauty that
everyone in the city began to talk about it and say, 'This must be some spiritual man, since the garden begins to grow and
flourish.' The touch of the saints and sages and prophets makes things grow.

Every kind of power lies in this one thing which we call by the simple name: love. Charity, generosity, kindness, affection,
endurance, tolerance, and patience--all these words are different aspects of one; they are different names of only one thing:
love. Whether it is said, 'God is love,' or whatever name is given to it, all the names are the names of God; and yet every form
of love, every name for love, has its own peculiar scope, has a peculiarity of its own. Love as kindness is one thing, love as
tolerance is another, love as generosity is another, love as patience another; and yet from beginning to end it is just love. It is
love's different manifestations in different directions which distinguish themselves differently and have different purposes.

According to Sufi metaphysics love has two different aspects, Jelal and Jemal; and each aspect of love has its peculiar sphere.
The Jelal of love is the power of love. You may call it psychic power, will-power, or power of mind; yet it is one power
working through different channels. And this is the power of love; its power manifests and acts according to its force. Its force
is greater when it is unlimited, and less when it is limited. That which is called imagination, thought, perception, conception,
inspiration, and intuition, comes from the Jemal aspect of love.

In the third stage of evolution, which is called the animal kingdom, love is still more manifest. The animal is more capable of
perceiving and feeling our love and kindness, our pleasure and displeasure. When we enter a house the dog may be delighted,
or he may recognize our displeasure and feel depressed. Cats recognize our love, and so also do parrots and other pet animals
of different kinds. Thus we see that the cat is vexed because another cat comes into the house, and we read how, when Joseph
was in the well, it was a dog that brought him bread from a neighboring town, and fed him during the time that he was in the
well. And in Arabian stories we hear about an Arab who was protected and guarded by his horse when he fell wounded on
the battle-field; the horse became his protector.

In man love can develop still more, though sometimes man proves to be not only worse than animals, but even more dead to
love than a rock. We would rather be with the rocks than with such a man. This is because he has developed selfishness with
his evolution. He is more selfish than any other creature in the world, unless he wipes off the impression of selfishness from his
heart.

It would be no exaggeration to say that the reason why a man cannot achieve occult and psychic power, and the intuitive and
inspirational faculty, is because he has not developed the power of love; and this failure is caused by the selfishness which has
kept him back from developing the power of love.

Man does not differ from the animals in his passions and emotions. The human being differs from the animal by his human
qualities; these are not eating, drinking, or seeking his kind. Human qualities can only be developed by the development of
love. Man has fought in all ages with his brother on account of differences of religion, differences of faith, differences of belief,
differences of Church, differences of community, not knowing that each religion, each time it was given, has brought only a
message of love, taking a different expression each time. It has been given in different ages and to different people; they have
received it according to their evolution