Sultan Bahoo The Life and Teachings/Ishq-e-Haqeeqi (Divine Love)

Allah says in the Holy Quran: "And those who believe truly, love Allah intensely." (Al-Bakra-165)

Man loves his several relatives and things. For example, he loves Allah and the Holy Prophet Sall’Allahu Alayhi Wa’alihi Wasallam, he loves his parents, wife, children, sisters and brothers, friends, home, land, property, city, the tribe, kith and kin, business etc. The love which is so intense and crazy that it dominates all the other loves is called Ishq (Intense/Eternal Love). Ishq turns all the other loves into ashes and overpowers them. As the Holy Prophet says, “Your faith is not complete until I am not endear to you more than your lives, wives, children, house and business and everything else” (Bukhari and Muslim). Allah considers this passionate Love for Him, an attribute of the true believers and it is in the very nature of the human soul.

Sultan-ul-Arifeen, Hazrat Sakhi Sultan Bahoo States: "Know! When Allah the One, intended to manifest Himself in multiplicity, getting out of the chamber of solitude of Oneness, he graced the worlds with the warmth of His Love by purifying the Manifestations of His Perfect and Illuminous Beauty, with which both the realms started burning like a moth over His Flaming Beauty. On this, Allah concealed Himself with the veil of ‘meem’ and appeared as the sacred self of Ahmad Sall’Allahu Alayhi Wa’alihi Wasallam." (Risala Roohi Sharif)

Mehboob-e-Subhani, Qutb-e-Rabbani, Syedna Ghaus-ul-Azam Razi Allah Anhu states in his periodical “Asrar-e-Elahiya” (Risala Al-Ghausia) that: “I saw Allah. Then I asked, “O Rab! What is meant by Ishq?” He replied, “O Ghaus-ul-Azam! Love Me, Love for Me and I am Love Myself and get your heart and actions free from everything other than Me. When you have recognized the outward love, it is essential for you to surpass the stages of (inward) love because Ishq is also a veil between the Lover and the Beloved. Hence, it is necessary for you to go beyond everything else other than Allah because everything other than Allah is a veil between the Lover and the Beloved.”

Hazrat Rabia Basri says: "To prostrate before the Beloved madly, is the real prayer of the lovers and the sadness of their painful hearts is their recitation of the Holy Quran."

According to Maulana Rumi: "Ishq is the flame which when lighted, burns everything except the Beloved."

According to the philosophy of Faqr of Sultan-ul-Arifeen, Ishq is the key to eternal success and only Ishq conveys one to the Court of Allah. "The poor Lover is always dying for his Beloved. He always sings romantic songs of love." (Ain-ul-Faqr) "You know what is Ishq? It is to kill your “self.” It is due to the intensity of Ishq that the heart of the Lover is ever suffering from the pangs of pain." (Mehek-ul-Faqr Kalan)