واصف علی واصف

          The beloved affects the life of the lover in a strange manner. Love blinds a man. He can see nothing save the beloved. Even when he looks at something else he fails to register its presence. There is only one manifestation in his heart and vision, that is, the manifestation of the beloved.

          The beloved is the tiding of oases in the sahara of life. The beloved makes the lover feel lonely in the midst of life’s fiesta. The beloved alone is the reason why you travel, the beloved is also your fellow-traveller, he is your guide, and in the end the beloved alone is your travel’s gain.

          Sometimes the beloved reveals himself as a manifestation and at times becomes an al-encompassing remembrance. The beloved never leaves you, not even when he goes away. He does not pass away even when he passes away. He lives on in the lover’s eyes. When the eyes no longer see the beloved he takes up his abode in the lover’s heart. He never comes to an end, he never disappears, never passes into nothingness.

          All the hustle and bustle in the world is because of the beloved. Man devotes his entire life to keep his beloved in a happy frame of mind. Why speak of man only, the entire creation represented by the cosmos is on the move for the beloved’s sake. The dance of the peacock, the frisking of the deer, the song of the nighthingales the lament of the partridge, the tumult of the waves, are the blandishments of the beloved. The beloved, by instilling in the lover an awareness of life, helps him to gain the awareness of self. Unaware of Adam’s loveliness, Satan refused to prostrate before him and was deprived of love. He despaired of Allah’s mercy and was counted among the accused. Satan did have someone he could worship but did not have anyone he could love. That alone is enough to lead one to damnation. To bow down before Allah without loving men is to bow down out of one’s ego’s vanity. Allah loves man whereas Satan and his minions don’t love man. And how could they love him!

          He alone can love man to whom Allah is kind. When Allah happens to be exceptionally kind to someone. He bestows on him the love of His dearest Beloved. The greatest favour among the favours granted by Allah is love. A man who is vain and without insight is not able to love. It is a game, which high-spirited and visionary people play. It is a privilege of men who enjoy the best of luck. The man who is able to win his beloved during the course of this life can be regarded as blessed with everything.

          The moment you find your beloved life ceases to be prosaic and enters the domain of poetry. The beloved himself is like a delicate verse. His nearness enables the lover to comprehend the nuances of poetry. When someone is unable to find his beloved the ghazal appears meaningless to him. He begins to develop some disliking for poetry. If you do not have a beloved your thoughts will never become beautiful.

          Who is the beloved? Someone you always want to be very near to. It is a desire, which never comes to an end. It is like becoming nothing yourself in order to be reborn and live forever in another being _____ and that other being is known as the beloved. The beloved is another name for the lover’s excellence of choice and the loveliness of his imagination.

          For each man alive there must be a beloved somewhere. Those who do not have a beloved, adore themselves, fall in love with their own blandishments. This craze for self-infatuation, which deludes them into thinking that they are in the pink of health, conclusively proves that they are out and out selfish and sick. Such people often surround themselves with gorgeous mirrors. They don’t like anyone and no one likes them either. Clearly their lives resemble islands. They themselves are both the speaker and the eager listener, applauding their own voice. Such men are stone-hearted and short-tempered. They are destined to remain lonely. However, occasionally these people do become aware of their own selves. They are able to approach their innermost secret. When this happens, the beloved, who is their own self, is able to perform miracles for them.

          The man of today has become somewhat independent of the beloved. He has lost faith in men. He has lost faith in himself. He can trust no one under any circumstances. He is not only ashamed of his past but is also ashamed of his future.

          The beloved of the man of the present era is wealth. He regards his wealth as his beloved, adores it, worships it, is happy when he is in touch with it and fears to be parted from it. Nowadays man is more afraid of poverty than of death. The love of wealth has blinded him. He has become headless. His eyes only open when they are about to close forever. Because of the beloved he has chosen there are nothing but frustrations in store for the lover of today.

          To wealth belongs a strange property. If you put it aside it is of no worth. Its utility lies only in spending it, making use of it, in parting from it. This beloved is always faithless, has been faithless and will continue to be faithless to everyone. The love of lifeless wealth deprives the living man of moral values. The love of wealth makes him greedy and the heart of the greedy always remains empty, though his pockets be full.

          There are people who love Allah. Only Allah and no one else. They don’t love this men. How an Allah be pleased with those who don’t love His men. Dear in Allah’s eyes are only those who love and are loved by mankind. The secret of Allah’s love lies in the love for men. Allah is worthy of worship, man is the beloved. The way of Allah is the way of human beings ______ the way of those who have been rewarded.

          As far as man is concerned, wealth, which is today’s beloved, has resulted in great unhappiness. The distance between human beings is growing. The geographical distances are drawing to an end but the gulf separating the feeling heart from the seeing eyes is widening. The family as a unit has already ceased to be. The walls raised by money divide husbands from the wives and children from their parents. The wife can put up with her husband’s absence but cannot bear to be deprived of money. As luck would have it, wealth is now obtainable overseas only. The husband resides in some foreign country, the wife makes do with letters and remittances. The houses present a gay appearance but he is no where to be seen for whose hospitality’s sake all these homes are being decorated. He has gone away to make money.

          Some people regard an ideology as their beloved. The love of ideologies has led to chaos in many a country. The division into left and right has caused a split within the nation. Brothers face each other, nay, they confront each other. Fresh mischief is afort in this beautiful land of our. The ideologist is misanthrope. The danger of a war caused by ideologies looms very near. The situation is fraught with danger. Men stand divided. Iran and Iraq are ideologies. Both parties are engaged in a jihad. Both groups are battling it out for the sake of the true God. Who is right? Who is in the wrong? Both of them can’t be right. To love one’s beloved cannot be the same thing as war mongering. In our country the government and the opposition are at loggerheads. Two ideologies on the warpath! People who are bereft of the love of human beings have fallen a prey to ideologies.

          Without the love of human beings, even the love of one’s country is an illusion. We cannot love a country in which there is no one we can call our beloved. The patriotism of today’s man is dubious simply because he is unable to love human beings. The man who loves land, houses and money has been but off from the real spirit of love. We love our country because our dear ones live in it. Otherwise what does the country or love of the country matter? If the beloved is to be found outside the country, love also, which must trail the beloved, will turn its back on the country.

          Fame is the most dangerous of beloveds. Someone who loves fame is in fact the worshipper of his own ego. It is a crime to become prominent without serving the people. The man who gains fame in a society based on false-hood would be regarded as infamous in a truthful society.