Love is the only path to recognizing and reaching God. It is the only power that will enable humanity to reach maturity. If love did not exist, we would never have had Gnostics; we would never have had a poet like Rumi.

If there had not been love,
How should there have been existence?
How should bread have attached itself to you
and become (assimilated to) you.

The perfected pattern of the human form is coherence with God’s love. Humanity drinks from the spring inspired by God. The drink inspired by God will remain forever, until perpetuity (Abad).

When we talk about love our aim is true love (ishq haqiqi), not metaphorical love (ishq majazi). Ishq Majazi is related to the material transient world, but the real or true love, ishq haqiqi, is the love which is felt toward the infinite God. The real love is eternal and infinite. 

The love, if its purpose is color, won’t be love.
Eventually it will be shame…

A lover acquainted and faced with true love will get burned in the heat and realize that the material world is temporary and inconstant. The lover will think how to reach the truth (Mashooq Haqiqi) day and night, and his/her feelings, respect, and appreciation toward any element in the world will grow stronger as they will be connected to the original existence. 

Elements which were once valuable can lose their value. But not love: it increases the lover’s power from within. Love is an important and powerful element, powering the body inward (Batn) and outward (Zaaher) until it evolves and love can be the medicine of all causes, strengthening faith and relieving sorrow and anxiety. 

Whoever tears clothes due to love
Will be completely clean and clear from greed and fault.
Be happy, lover of a happy trade,
You are the physician of all of our causes.
Love raised dust to sky,
And made mountains start dancing.

A lover like Rumi will have a special desire to become Gnostic; he or she will be drawn to this hard journey and fight their way through, driven by the ecstasies of desire. The Gnostic lover will arrange life’s style and other activities.

The Gnostic experiences a state of pain and heartache that burns from within. The burning becomes so strong and painful that it forces the lover to scream and shout. But these shouts emerge as symphonic rhymes and poems.

Search us in love, and search love in us
Sometimes we praise love, and sometimes love praises us

Rumi believed that love clears the heart, brings harmony, decreases prejudice, and brings people closer to each other.

The Gnostic love is love of humanity. It’s not lust or heartache, but love without prejudice. It’s the kind of love that takes away selfishness and brings one closer to God. Rumi’s love and understanding started at a place of spiritual retreat (Khaaneqa). Singing (semah) in the retreat made his love stronger.

Poems, music, and dance are resources of Gnostic, not the target; the aim is to reach the truth. Rumi told us the good news: that one day the religion of love will capture the entire world.

We are all witnessing the love Rumi predicted, and most people are in love with his words.

The lover’s ailment is different from all other ailments;
Love is an astrolabe of God’s mysteries.
Love may be from this side or that side;
in the end it leads us to that King.
Though the expression of the tongue is enlightening,
the tongue-less love is more expressive.

Love is the only way to recognize God, and after the power of God, love is the only power. Mansur al-Hallaj said, “The ascension of men is love!” 

Whoever does not have love of the lover in his head,
Bring that person a pack-saddle and bridle.

Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali wrote about love: “Love is eagerness to find something that you love; therefore, love has variety. But love in the Gnostic and spiritual world is love of God. Love is the base of success.”

After Rumi discovered his self and felt what was inside of him, he began to see in others what was in him; this way, he unified the love of God with the love of humanity. He came to the conclusion that to love human beings is to love God.

Rumi said: 

A servant is in desire of freedom.
A lover does not want freedom until perpetuity.

Rumi was a Gnostic poet. Rumi did all things with love: he prayed with love, and he died with love, only to reach the only Lover.

God created me from the wine of love,
I will still be love even I am dead.

I do not think that there is one human being in the entire world without love. Every human being is in love either with worldly materials or in love with God.

The description of Gnostic love is with those worlds that describes ishq majazi, but if readers do not pay attention or they are not familiar with these kinds of poems, poets and their aim, readers might think that the aim of these Gnostic poets are ishq majazi, not true love.

Love is the fundamental of the Gnostic and without love we are not able to find a Gnostic.

Rumi developed his perfection through boundless love and then he taught that love to thousands of students and followers through his poems and other works. He became a guide to mankind: from East to West, North to South, the world became his territory. He conquered the world with love, and as the sound of his feet still reflecting in the corridor of the times, Rumi describes how love remains forever:

Whatever is in this world, love is its soul.
Whatever you see is not permanent, except love.
The only way to reach the sky is from inside. Move the wings of love.
When the wings of love became strong, there is no need for a ladder.

Gnostic lovers like Rumi drink from the cup of truth and are cleansed by the truth, which has been inspired by God; their hearts are clear as crystal.

Gnostics drink from the cup of truth,
They knew the secrets and covered those secrets.
Whenever they taught the mystery of truth to anybody,
They sealed and sewed up his lips.”

Furthermore, love of these true men cannot be described in writing or speaking, as Rumi said:

Love cannot be contained in an exchange of words.
Love is a fathomless ocean. 

Every Gnostic can be a poet, but not every poet is a Gnostic, as they might be in love, but their love may be ishq majazi. I would like to conclude this article with another poem from Rumi:

There is no end to describe these words.