I wrote this after perusing through Dr. William Chittick’s latest book: Divine Love: Islamic Literature and the Path to God.
Why do people fall in love? Specifically, why do seekers on the Islamic spiritual path fall in love with God? One main and essential antecedent is beauty. Human beings are innately attracted to beautiful forms, and thus travelers on the spiritual path find ultimate beauty in their Creator. He is the embodiment of perfection in beauty, which He chooses to disclose to His select servants. Thereby these servants become perfect reflections of the Divine Beauty, and thereby humans fall in love with these perfected servants of God. The entire cosmos is beautiful because it is a reflection of the Creative Wisdom of its Originator. Finally, the attraction to this beauty in the cosmos, messengers, and God Himself, is the moving force and magnetic attraction that compels the wayfarers on the path to God to move infinitely closer to their Beloved.
