THE PRINCIPLE OF LOVE & DESIRE || Who is wise || Types of Desire & Love || Love Follows Experience

I have written elsewhere concerning the people's differing over knowledge: Is it an affected quality that comes after the thing that is known, as defined by the people of rhetoric, or is it an effective quality that effects the thing that is known, as defined by a group among the philosophers?

The correct opinion is that knowledge is of two types: The first is knowledge that comes after the thing that is known and does not affect its state, which is purely theoretical, narrated, and experienced knowledge. This type of knowledge is knowledge of something in whose existence we had no hand, such as knowledge of the Creator, the Glorified, the Most High, His angels, Books, prophets, and the rest of His creation.

The second type is knowledge of something that we had an effect on, such as our knowledge of our voluntary actions and the benefit that is attained and the harm that is repelled by them.

Both categories relate to Allah's knowledge because He knows Himself and also knows His creation. The first is knowledge of something in existence and the second is knowledge of an objective.

However, the knowledge of something that exists or is present that is unrelated to our actions may give rise to love or hatred of that thing. Therefore, knowledge of that thing becomes a cause for our actions in relation to it, so this affected knowledge is also effective from this perspective, and our knowledge of the good and bad deeds of others is another example of this.

The Lord's knowledge of His slave's good and bad deeds also neces- sitates His love for good deeds and hatred for bad deeds. Knowledge of the intention behind our actions, even if it has an effect on the thing that is known about and is a reason for its occurrence, is not attained until after one knows about preexisting affairs obligated intentionally or voluntarily for those actions, because a voluntary action follows the desire, and the desire follows the object of the desire. Therefore, one must visualize the thing that is intended or wanted before intending to do the act that will cause that thing to happen, as they say: "The last idea is the start of the work," and this is called the teleological or final cause. So one must visualize the thing that is wanted, and the enjoyment that comes from that action should bring about a benefit and repel a harm. Enjoyment is conditional upon one experiencing something enjoyable. People do not begin to seek something enjoyable without having tried it first and then loving it, enjoying it, and wanting it, so that is knowledge of something that predated the knowledge, followed by knowl- edge of an objective that came after that knowledge. However, the pleasure can occur first without a desire for that thing, like if a person tastes something nice that he didn't know previously, then he likes it after that; so this enjoyment is not preceded by a demand or action to obtain that thing, unlike the person who had already tried it and liked it, then began to strive to obtain it.

Therefore, you can see that both types of knowledge-effective and affected-necessitate the other, and likewise the Lord's knowl- edge of Himself necessitates His knowledge of His attributes, actions, and the effects of His actions. He, the Glorified, praises Himself and His actions, and we cannot comprehend the praise for Him; rather, He is as He praises Himself. His knowledge of His actions and the effects of His actions necessitate His knowledge of Himself and His knowledge of His creation and their actions following His love and hatred, His commands and prohibitions, His knowledge of the punishments and the rewards that He bestows upon His slaves, and other things that follow His knowledge. We spoke on this topic in other places. The reason for this discussion is that this categorization of knowledge also applies to desire and love.

Desire and love can also be categorized as effective, causing an effect to the object of the desire and love. Effective desire and love is the desire and love of the action, even if the object of the desire and the love is dependent on that love, affected by it, and non-existent. Some people think that this is the only type of love and desire; they say al-iradah and al-muhabbah are only related to what is non-ex- istent, not something present, and to something new, not old. This is the opinion of some of the groups among the people of rhetoric.

Most of these people believe that the only type of love and desire is affected love and desire. Therefore, they believe knowledge, in reality, only relates to something that is known, dependent on the love, and is in existence, and they believe that desire only relates to the thing that is desired and dependent on the desire, such as the thing that is affected and absent.

Desire and love are also categorized as affected dependent on the object of the desire and love, which isn't affected by its existence as a matter of principle; rather, the thing that is loved and desired exists without desire, and the lover only loves and wants that thing that exists, and it is said regarding many types of that, "He desires and loves it" and other similar statements.

This type, in reality, is the basis of the first type, as we discussed regarding some of the previous principles a few years ago. We mentioned that knowledge and desire are connected primarily with something that already exists, and to connect it to something non-existent, it must be dependent on a connection with something that does exist. We mentioned that people do not like something or want it until they have experienced it or have knowledge of it, and that is accompanied with an inclination towards it and a love for it, and each of those two types are a part of one's natural inclination and disposition, knowledge, and love. Because of this, everyone is born upon the fitrah of Islam, which is to worship Allah alone, and that is based on knowledge and love.

A person cannot perceive something that doesn't exist, and one can only understand something non-existent or absent in relation to something that does exist; for example, a person would imagine a mountain of rubies and an ocean of mercury. A person would use their knowledge of what a mountain is and what a ruby is and then reject the idea of the existence of that, but he wouldn't reject it until it exists virtually in his mind.

If love arises from experiencing something with one's senses, and you can only sense something that exists, then one can only love something that exists. Also, experience or feelings will not be first except for something that exists, so likewise, love in itself cannot exist without the existence of something or the thing that is loved. If a person loves something that does not exist, then that is nothing, and whatever is nothing is not loved. If someone loves and wants the existence of something that doesn't exist or is absent, he must have experienced that thing before and enjoyed it when it was not absent, and then loved it after that, or he experienced something similar to it. And this is mentioned elsewhere.

This is not refuted by the newborn baby crying for milk, and then when he tastes milk for the first time he becomes satisfied and quiet, because before tasting the milk the baby never loved or desired milk; rather, the baby cries due to the pain of hunger, then once he tastes the milk and he enjoys it and finds that it removes the hunger pains, he starts to love and want it. This is the same for anyone who is hungry, because the hungry person doesn't want anything in particular unless he had tried it before, but he does have the desire to remove the hunger pains. Because of this, if there is available to him something he tried before or something he has never tried, then he will want to have the first one that he loves. As for the second one, then his desire for that will depend on him trying it or hearing someone else describe it, because hearing something described can lead to love and wanting, just as knowing something can, as is often said:

Likewise, a person may taste the flavor of love for what is similar to that thing, even if it is a small resemblance; then, likewise, that thing is not imagined until it is experienced by one of the senses or something that is similar to that in some ways. And it is also the same for something disliked.

Due to this, a number of examples are made to educate, motivate, and intimidate. Things that cannot be perceived or experienced by one's senses are unknown and cannot be loved or hated except by using analogy and comparison. The thing may be more complete in the sought qualities that it has in common, such as what is promised in Jannah and the Hellfire, and how the Lord describes Himself; or it can be lesser than it, such as anything that is compared with something that is better than it.

This is where the Sabian philosophers became misguided and misguided others from among the Muslims. They think that the descriptions that Allah has told us about Jannah are figurative, to help aid understanding of the soul's place of return, and not literal. There are others from among those who reject the people of rheto- ric but are also similarly misguided. Despite both groups reaching their conclusions by using the faculty of logic, they have contra- dictory views regarding affirming and negating (Allah's attributes), but the two groups are similar in their misguidance concerning the attributes of the Most Venerable. They plunge into the subject of belief in Allah and the Hereafter with misguidances that cannot be discussed sufficiently here. Every misguidance is based on some truth, because otherwise it would not propagate or cause doubt.

If desire and love can be divided into that which is followed by the object of want or desire, and that which follows the object of want or desire, then it is for it like the reason for the person doing the action, and it is for it like the reason for the person doing the action, and it is from it like the cause of the effect, and this is the basis.

If it is known that all the movements in the world arise from muhab- bah and iradah, and muhabbah and iradah must have an object of love and desire as an effective cause, then it is known by that that there must be for every movement a deity to whom worship, desire, and love is directed. Hence, this is an evidence of the True Deity, because if there were in the heavens and the earth deities besides Allah, they would all be in ruin, and this is not the same thing that proves His rububiyyah (lordship). And we have spoken a lot about this in many other places, because it is the most important and most noble divine knowledge.

The point of this is simply to explain that al-iradah (desire) is of two types just like knowledge.

And Allah knows best.