The Intoxication of Love

In the religion of love-intoxicated people there is neither day nor night. They are constantly engaged in the contemplation of the Beloved day and night, and they do what cannot possibly be done by people of the world or even by very intellectual and clever people. The nights of the world are their days. In other words, they are awake in remembrance of the Lord day and night. Even the force of calamities cannot remove their attention from their Beloved.

The heart and the mind of lovers are always drowned in the remembrance of the Beloved. They have no concern for their body, because they have lost themselves in the remembrance and contemplation of their Beloved. They have no rest or peace unless their mind is fixed on their Beloved. Worldly troubles, poverty, pain, hunger or anxieties do not distract their attention. 

Sheik Sa’adi says:

There is no patience in the heart of a lover which is like a sieve through which water of Patience immediately passes.

Loves are not affected by any calamities or unrest in this world, because they remain aloof from worldly distractions. They should keep silent, because nobody is able to understand the secret of such lovers. The lovers of God are not even aware how and when the sun rises.

A lover has become mad after his Beloved, and there is joy in that intoxication. He has broken the cup of his body and has no feeling about it. What effect can anybody’s clever and intellectual talk have on him? He has passed beyond the gardens of intellect.

He is so intoxicated in love that the wine of ecstasy drips down his eyes at all times. 

Maulana Jammi says:

I am so intoxicated with the bliss of love that the wine of intoxication (wine of ecstasy) is overflowing from my eyes.

Shamas-i-Tabriz has also described the state of intoxication of a lover of God in the following words:

I see the caravan of camels as well as their drivers happy from head to foot in the intoxication of love. The rich are intoxicated, the priests are intoxicated, my friends are intoxicated, and even my enemies are intoxicated. I see them all in a state of unique bliss. Oh heaven, how long will you continue moving! Look at the movement of the elements: Earth is intoxicated; water is intoxicated; wind is intoxicated; and even fire is intoxicated. This is the state which I see outside. But please do not ask me about the state of my inner being. My sense, my intellect and even my soul are intoxicated, and they have achieved a permanent bliss of intoxication. The roots of these tree-like bodies are drinking the secret wine of love. Have patience, because even you will one day wake up into this state of intoxication. In my mind there is a festival of bliss. You should try to feel the effect of the wine of Divine Love, so that even the walls and the doors are all intoxicated.

When the wine of God’ Love is flowing in the mind of a lover, he sees that bliss everywhere, Shamas Tabriz has very forcefully pleaded for an increasing ecstasy of God’s Love in the following quotation:

If you are intoxicated, increase it and become senseless in it. Try to know yourself, and become wise in it. We cannot do anything without.

He further says:

Oh you men with superficial eyes! If you are not familiar with our nature, please go away! Try to understand the true nature of our intoxication. This divine ecstasy has now given me all its qualities.

Even death cannot mar the happiness of those who have been pierced by the pangs of love, because contemplation on the face of the Beloved has become a shield for them. How can the arrows of this world pierce them?

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