Let us begin by discussing the permissibility of applying the word ʿishq (eros) to love for and from God, first because the views of our teachers on the question differ and second in order that no one who hears us using this word in the appropriate contexts will find it unseemly and reject it because it is unfamiliar. Indeed our masters employed the term only in rare instances, or individually from time to time. Thus we have decided to mention the matter here, so that the reader will be informed before we use the word.

Our masters have held differing views on the subject. Some rejected the use of the word ʿishq and some allowed it. Among the latter were the followers of ʿAbd al-Wāḥid b. Zayd and the mystics of Damascus as a whole, together with their partisans in this opinion, whom we shall mention in the chapter on the diverse views people hold about love. Also among those who allowed the usage were Abū Yazīd al-Bisṭāmī, Abū ʾ1- Qāsim al-Junayd, al-Ḥusayn b. Manṣur [al-Ḥallāj], and others. As for our teacher, Abū ʿAbd Allah b. Khafif, may God have mercy on him, he was opposed to it for some time, until he came across a tract on ʿishq by Abū ʾ1-Qā sim al-Junayd in which he discussed its meaning, etymology, and essence. He then changed [10]his view, allowing the use of the term, and himself composed a tract on the issue.

It has been related from the Prophet that he said: “God Most High says: Tf I know that [the heart of] my servant is overwhelmed by obsession with me, I cause him to desire to implore me and to confide in me. If the condition of a man is such, then he loves me (ʿashiqanṭ) and I love him (ʿashiqtuhū). And if the condition of a man is such, and he desires to be forgetful of me, then I come between him and his forgetfulness. Such men are my saints (awliyāʾī) in truth. They are the true heroes. They are those for the sake of whom, when I will to punish the people of the earth, I set the punishment aside.