Hussein Shobokshi

THERE is an important case of great openness to the literature of aesthetic spirituality. The West has an unmatched passion for poetry, words and wisdom of Jalaluddin Al-Rumi and his teacher Shamseddin Tabriz. There is a novel by the Turkish writer Elie Shafak, “Forty Rules of Love,” topping the list of best-selling books around the world translated into more than forty languages, which is based on Al-Roumi’s words.

Years before, the American rock and roll stars gravitated toward Nusrat Khan, the famous vocalist known in Pakistan as “Qawwali,” to use his style it and give it another dimension. The novel “A Little Death” by the Saudi writer Mohammed Hassan Alwan that won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) in association with the Booker Prize Foundation in London, presents the biography of Mohiuddin Bin Arabi, the famous spiritual philosopher and his works and others, all of which are linked to one element that is “Love”.

The world recently celebrated Valentine’s Day known as the Valentine. As usual, voices came out against the argument that there should not be only one day in the world for love. It is believed that the objectors “plunge” the world with love and they are far from it. If there is a thermometer to measure “love” in the Arab world, the receiver will be surprised and shocked at the same time. The prevailing assumption in public affairs is far from “love”. Citizenship is far from “love of the homeland” and religiosity is far from “love for your brother what you love for yourself.” If love of work is worship, low productivity is evidence of the contrary.

Garbage on the roads testifies to the weakness of faith. The “march of love” does not translate into a full and continuous tender, and no judgment of the people on the visible and mistrust of them remains incomplete. How to raise the slogans of love while the misfortunes and barriers are the map of reality, or there is no contradiction and conflict in positions. I remember the saying of Ibn Arabi, in which he says, “Every love has a request is unreliable.” Societies suffering from a severe lack of vitamins of love will not be able to shine, excellence, success or tenderness because the meaning is very clear: God loves “if one of you does a work to master it”, and the other meaning that is more clear: “I loved” to be known so I created the universe, and “no one believes you until I” love “Himself” all ways lead to the secrets of love, the greatest key.

In so far as these words express a “materialistic” proposition away from the “ground” as close to the sky as well, at a time when “other” methods have been tried, layers of fragmentation, classification, satchels and hierarchies have been created, love, yes are simple words come out in moments of deep reflection after the knowledge of the situation and the conditions of our sad world and I find in the end only the question asked by the great lyricist Ibrahim Khafaji one day when he asked his question, which is still with us until today and after his departure: Love. “Any suggestion of love is not approved by my practical application to anyone and everything unreliable.”