Treatise on Sufi Love: Huda'i's "Seed of Love":
Edition, translation, commentary

by Prof. Tarui Hiroshi(垂井弘志教授)
published in the Annals of Japan Association for Middle Eastern Studies (9, 1994)



'Aziz Mahmud Huda'i is a Sufi of the 16/17th century and the virtual founder of the Jilwatiyah Sufi Order. He wrote many treatises and poetry of mystical character both in Arabic and in Ottoman Turkish. "Seed of Love," written in Arabic, is a short treatise on mystical love.

This work consists of three chapters, in each of which is discussed the love for God, the Prophet and the family of the Prophet. Each chapter begins with a verse concerning the subject of the chapter. He who loves God, the ultimate lover, necessarily loves the Prophet, the Beloved of God. And he who loves the Prophet necessarily loves his family with whom he is tightly connected by blood and faith. On the other hand, he can love the Prophet and attain the love of God by loving his family.

There are three kinds of human beings: the masses, the elite and the elite of elite. The masses are owners of lower soul, and their love has self-interested and temporary nature based on sensual delight and worldly benefit. The elite are owners of the heart, and their love is based on the beauty and the glory of God, but their piety still remains external and they have not attained the union with God. The elite of elite are owners of the spirit, and their love has a spiritual, essential and radical nature based on the eternal harmony of the spirits before the manifestation of the One, the ultimate principle of existence. Human beings can attain the love of God according to their degree of fana', i.e. fana' of deeds, attributes and self.







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