Is Allah Our True Beloved or Deity?
Who is our beloved, or what is it? A brand new Bugatti? Our spouse? A luxurious house that we always dream about? God? Anyhow, the beloved, or more precisely, the ‘deity,’ plays a significant role in our lives. Because only if we reach our deity and beloved, we find happiness and peace.
Each dimension of our existence has its own deity and beloved, and it invokes the call of “There is no deity but ….” (“La ilaha illa…“) in relation to its beloved. For example, our sensate dimension has no deity but sensory forms, our imaginary dimension has no deity but imaginal forms, and our estimative and intellective dimensions also do not have any deities but estimations and rational matters. Amongst all these, the only deity and beloved of our supra- rational dimension, i.e., our true beloved, is Allah.
We suffer from a defect when a part of our existence fails to reach its beloved or source of peace. For example, an eye that cannot reach its beloved, which is light, becomes blind. Or an ear that lacks access to its beloved, i.e., sound waves, becomes deaf. However, the most unfortunate situation occurs when we have a defect as a human being. That is, we may appear to be human, but we lack human character and cannot establish a connection with the beloved of our human dimension, which is God.
If we want to define “there is no deity but Allah” (“La ilaha illa-Allah”) in simple terms, we can say that it is a two-sided reality. One side represents monotheism and Allah, and the other side is about the human being whose deity is Allah. “There is no deity but Allah” is the true essence of our life; it is the life story of an infinite-seeking being who has separated from its origin and has become entangled in veils and limitations upon entering the world, to the point where he sometimes wrongly identifies his true deity and beloved. We must follow the path back to our original and primary position according to the plan given to us by our beloved. Religion is a program designed for our supra-rational dimension to lead us to the truth of “There is no deity but Allah.” Religion is the path to lead us to our ultimate deity and true beloved, that is Allah.
Where Can We Find Happiness and Peace?
All our efforts in life revolve around one goal: achieving happiness and peace. We work, get married, travel, gather together, spend money, study, and so on, all with the ultimate aim of finding peace. Perhaps none of us would like to imagine himself as a wealthy but depressed and anxious king. We act like a person who tries all the keys except the main key to unlock the door to happiness and peace. Since we have forgotten our spiritual dimension, we do not know that the main key to unlock everlasting happiness and peace lies in our spiritual part.
The inability to recognize the importance of having a lovely relationship with God means that either our supra-rational faculty has not been properly nourished and matured, or this dimension does not rule over us at all. As a result, the goals and plans we set for ourselves are not compatible with the purpose of our creation. We do have a long journey ahead of us to reach the truth of “There is no deity but Allah,” but with practice, we can move from merely saying that we have no deity or beloved other than Allah to truly believing in this reality.
Allah is the Absolute and Infinite Perfect. Whatever we do and whatever we choose, if it does not bring us closer to God or increase His love in our hearts, it is nothing but an obstacle and veil, and it brings us nothing but harm and loss. Actually, our humanity depends on how much we are close to Allah (the Absolute Perfect or True Beloved) for spiritual growth. In reality, as much as we get close to Him (i.e., the Beloved of our human or supra-rational dimension), we will find eternal peace and happiness.
All Beloveds at the Service of Allah
But why should all our beloveds serve the Beloved of the supra-rational dimension of our being?
Imagine that you are on a road heading towards a specific destination. The destination is our goal, and any action that takes us to our goal is beneficial and desirable.
On the other hand, we avoid making any unnecessary stops, accidents, or distractions that hold us back from reaching our destination. In this example, the goal is reaching the destination, and in real life, the goal is achieving lasting happiness and peace, which is only possible by reaching our True Beloved, i.e., Allah or the Absolute Perfect.
Since our true origin and essence do not belong to the material world, we seek the Infinite and love Allah by nature. If, contrary to our innate nature, we abandon our True Infinite Beloved, and if we ignore our True Beloved by pursuing limited perfections such as wealth, beauty, power, and knowledge, we actually deviate from our natural state and fall out of human balance. In other words, we fall into fisq (straying from the right path).
We are in a state of balance when the human or supra-rational dimension rules over the soul and all other dimensions and faculties of the soul serve this part of our existence. It means that all the dimensions of our existence strive harmoniously to reach our True Beloved. If we regulate our thoughts, behaviors, decisions, and relationships and prioritize the beloveds and existential properties of the lower dimensions of our being based on this principle, then we have placed ourselves in the solid fortress of “There is no deity but Allah.” In this case, we will find everlasting happiness and peace in our True Beloved.
But if the supra-rational faculty does not rule over our soul, all dimensions of our existence try to take control of the soul by relying on the desire for the infinite, pulling us towards whatever they desire. This is something that many of us can relate to. We often find ourselves worrying about many different things and constantly thinking about them, trying to be the best in everything, but despite all our efforts, we are never satisfied, happy, or at peace.
In this article, we touched upon the beloveds of the different dimensions of our existence. We stated that the level of our humanity depends on how much we are connected to the Beloved of our supra-rational or human dimension, that is, Allah.
The degree of our joy and tranquility depends on our connection and closeness to our True Beloved, and it is through this closeness that we experience lasting joy, happiness, peace, and love. Furthermore, we stated that if we are in a state of spiritual balance, we arrange our relationships, decisions, and beloveds in a way that leads us towards our True Beloved, which is Allah.