Sufi Path is the Path of Love

The essence of God is love and the Sufi path is a path of love. It is very difficult to describe love in words. It is like trying to describe honey to someone who has never tasted or even seen honey, who doesn’t know what honey is.

Love is to see what is good and beautiful in everything. It is to learn from everything, to see the gifts of God and the generosity of God in everything, to see the gifts of God and the generosity of God in everything. It is to be thankful for all God’s bounties.

This is the first step on the road to the love of God. This is just a seed of love. In time, the seed will grow and become a tree and bear fruit. Then, whoever tastes of that fruit will know what real love is. It will be difficult for those who have tasted to tell of it to those who did not.

Love is a special pleasurable pain. Whoever has this in their heart will know the secret. They will see that everything is Truth, and that everything leads to Truth. There is nothing but Truth. In the realization of that they will be overcome. They will sink into the sea of Truth.

Whatever you taste of love, in whatever manner, in whatever degree — it is a tiny part of Divine Love. Love between men and women is also a part of that Divine Love. But sometimes the beloved becomes a curtain between love and realization of true love. One day that curtain will lift and then the real Beloved, the real goal will appear in all Divine glory.

What is important is to have this feeling of love in your heart in whatever form and shape. It is also important that you be loved. It is easier to love than to be the beloved. If you have been in love you will certainly reach the Beloved one day.

The gifts of God often come to you from the hands of other human beings, through God’s servants. And so, Divine love also expresses itself between human beings.

The sheikhs are the pourers of the wine and the dervish is the glass. Love is the wine. By the hand of the wine pourer, the glass — the dervish — is filled. This is the short way. Love could be offered to one by other hands. This is the short way.

(Sheikh Muzaffer Ozak. Love is the Wine. Tales of a Sufi Master in America)

70

It is not surprising that 70 has a certain cabalistic value, since it is the tenfold of the sacred 7, and thus, as it were, its "great form." "Our life lasts threescore and ten ... " (Ps. 90: 10) says the psalmist, and groups of 70 are found throughout the Old Testament, from the 70 men accompanying Moses to Mount Sinai (Ex. 24:1) to the 70 years of the Babylonian exile (Jer. 25: 12). This latter period also contains the aspect of mourning that is sometimes connected with 70-as when Moses was mourned for 70 days. Likewise, Isaiah threatened that Tyre would be forgotten for 70 years. According to Jewish and early Christian tradition, either 70 or 72 scholars are supposed to have translated the Old Testament into Greek in the days of the Egyptian king Ptolomy II, and the Greek version is therefore still known as Septuaginta, "of the 70." Whatever their real number was, since they were excellent scholars, they had to be a group of 70 or 72.

According to legend, Adam knew 70 languages, which is taken to mean all the languages of the world. In a similar vein, the Prophet Muhammad is said to have recited the Quran 70 times during his heavenly journey in the Divine Presence, and also to have asked forgiveness 70 times daily-a recurring motif in the Abrahamic religions.

A charming wordplay with 70 is found in the later Midrash where it is said: "He who remains sober while drinking wine has the insight of 70 wise men." The Hebrew word for wine, yayin, has the numerical value of 70, as does the word for secret, sod; thus, when the wine enters, the secrets come out.

Although 70 is itself a great round number, it can be multiplied. Islamic mysticism holds that 70,000 veils separate God from his creatures, and according to another mystical tradition in Islam, the Prophet's luminous essence stayed at the Tree of Knowledge for 70,000 years.

(Annemarie Schimmel. The Mystery of Numbers. Oxford University Press, 1993 p. 263-264)

The Prophet stood up for the funeral of a Jew

 A funeral procession passed near the Prophet and he stood up as a mark of respect.
Embarassed, his Companions said, "O Messenger of God, this is the procession of a Jew!" to which the Prophet firmly answered, "Was he not a human being?"
( Sahih Bukhari 1250, Sahih Muslim 961)

This was the teaching of the Prophet and Muslims...