The five degrees of love

See also Chapter 8, 'Love' in The Republic of Rumi: a Novel of Reality

The Persian poet Sanai of Ghazna, who was a predecessor of Rumi in the lineage of Sufi poetry, once said, “A pious man unites two in one; a lover unites three.” According to Iqbal, these “three” are the individual, the community and God.

Hence, Iqbal dares suggest that the “real love” (ishq-i-haqeeqi) implied in the Sufi classics was not the love of God, as famously understood by the latter day interpreters; nor was it desirable to “annihilate” the ego in “God” (fana-fi-Allah). He believed that the genuine schools of Sufism advocated “annihilation” of the individual ego in “the collective ego”, which could only be achieved by following the Divine Law.

According to him, the individual existed only virtually, the life of the community was real, and therefore the “real love” could only mean the love of one’s community.

Can this communal loyalty mature into the love of humanity, which was usually attributed to the Sufis? This question had already been answered in 1863 by Syed Ahmad Khan (later Sir), in a famous address delivered in Calcutta.

On the basis of the Calcutta Address of Syed, it is possible to list five major levels of love:

1. Personal
2. Community
3. Humanity
4. Nature
5. Universe

Syed conceded that the love of community was towards the lower end of the scale, but he emphasized that this was where the Muslims of the sub-continent needed to begin, since it was most needed in those days. A major function of the works of Iqbal is to show the reader how this love of community matures into the love of humanity, Nature and the entire universe.