"God, ever exalted is He, says:
'He who pretends to love Me and neglects Me is a liar. Does not every lover seek to be secluded with his beloved?
'I am He who is completely aware of My lovers when they picture Me before them, address Me in contemplation and speak to Me in My Presence.
'Tomorrow I shall make their eyes delight in My Gardens.'"
Muhammad, Hadith (Divine Sayings, p. 59)
And here's yet another hadith qudsi drawn from the Divine Sayings book. Yesterday I was holding forth on how that specific hadith reminded me of certain aspects of Buddhism; as I proposed, there are many passages in the Quran and the ahadith which remind me of Buddhism (now there's another impossible book I should write). Today hadith reminds me of the Song of Songs from the Old Testament, but also some of the Sufi writers (and, as already promised, I'll talk about Rumi and Hafiz and Omar Khayyam and Ibn Arabi later). The Sufis, especially Rumi, Hafiz and Omar Khayyam would often use the metaphor of the desire of lovers for the love between God and humankind. Here God is speaking as a neglected lover: "Does not every lover seek to be secluded with his beloved?" It is a very fitting metaphor for the folly of ignoring the Beloved as you would any beloved. So, you would see this metaphor pop up quite a bit among the poets, but I haven't seen in in the Quran or the ahadith, so this is definitely interesting. As Hirtenstein and Notcutt point out in the introduction to the Divine Sayings, "On occasion, such hadith are addressed by God to another prophet, such as Abraham, Moses or David, or to the angels, and reported by Muhammad." I wonder if this might be one possible reason for the Song of Songs feel of this particular hadith? They continue by pointing out that "a hadith qudsi does not necessarily come through Gabriel, but may be revealed through inspiration or a dream." Again, I wonder if this helps explain the more dreamlike, romantic/sexual nature of this particular hadith?
'He who pretends to love Me and neglects Me is a liar. Does not every lover seek to be secluded with his beloved?
'I am He who is completely aware of My lovers when they picture Me before them, address Me in contemplation and speak to Me in My Presence.
'Tomorrow I shall make their eyes delight in My Gardens.'"
Muhammad, Hadith (Divine Sayings, p. 59)
And here's yet another hadith qudsi drawn from the Divine Sayings book. Yesterday I was holding forth on how that specific hadith reminded me of certain aspects of Buddhism; as I proposed, there are many passages in the Quran and the ahadith which remind me of Buddhism (now there's another impossible book I should write). Today hadith reminds me of the Song of Songs from the Old Testament, but also some of the Sufi writers (and, as already promised, I'll talk about Rumi and Hafiz and Omar Khayyam and Ibn Arabi later). The Sufis, especially Rumi, Hafiz and Omar Khayyam would often use the metaphor of the desire of lovers for the love between God and humankind. Here God is speaking as a neglected lover: "Does not every lover seek to be secluded with his beloved?" It is a very fitting metaphor for the folly of ignoring the Beloved as you would any beloved. So, you would see this metaphor pop up quite a bit among the poets, but I haven't seen in in the Quran or the ahadith, so this is definitely interesting. As Hirtenstein and Notcutt point out in the introduction to the Divine Sayings, "On occasion, such hadith are addressed by God to another prophet, such as Abraham, Moses or David, or to the angels, and reported by Muhammad." I wonder if this might be one possible reason for the Song of Songs feel of this particular hadith? They continue by pointing out that "a hadith qudsi does not necessarily come through Gabriel, but may be revealed through inspiration or a dream." Again, I wonder if this helps explain the more dreamlike, romantic/sexual nature of this particular hadith?
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