Manuscript volume 33 · Page 7

only a lover worships Him and abases himself before Him. What is other than the human being glorifies Him with His praise, because it has not witnessed Him so as to love Him. To my knowledge, He has disclosed Himself in His Name the Beautiful to none of His creation except the human being, and within the human being. Hence the human being has been annihilated and lost in love with his whole being only in his Lord, or in one who is a locus of his Lord’s self-disclosure. The world’s eyes are its lovers, whatever the beloved may be, for all creatures are platforms of the Real’s self-disclosure. Their loving affection is steadfast: they are the affectionate, and He is the Loving. The affair is veiled between the Real and creation by creation and the Real.

(Veiling in the Names and Loci of Self-Disclosure)

That is why the Name the All-Forgiving accompanies the Loving: for the sake of veiling. It was said, “Qays loved Layla”: Layla is the very locus of self-disclosure. Likewise, Bishr loved Hind, Kuthayyir loved ʿAzza, Ibn al-Dhurayh loved Lubna, Tawba loved al-Akhyaliyya, and Jamil loved Buthayna.

All these are platforms upon which the Real disclosed Himself to them, although they did not know the one they loved by the Names. A human being may see a person and love him without knowing who he is, his name, his lineage, or his dwelling. Love intrinsically impels him to seek his name and dwelling so that he may remain with him and know him in his absence through his name and lineage, asking after him when he no longer sees him.

Thus is our love of God Most High. We love Him in His loci of self-disclosure and in this particular name, Layla, Lubna, or whoever it may be, without knowing that it is the Real Himself. Here we love the name without knowing that it is the Real Himself. Here we love the name without knowing the entity^[3].