The world famous quote by Albert Einstein – one of the greatest physicist of all the times reads that When you trip over love, it is easy to get up. But when you fall in love, it is impossible to stand again.
The quote describes the attributes of being in love essentially well. To elaborate it further let’s just break down the statement into several pieces to understand its true essence.
The second part of quote can be ascribed as an eternity in affection and devotion. It’s a kind of selflessness that negates whatever we call materialistic aspects. It is rather a strong emotional and deep connection if naysayers are to believe.
The ‘trip over’ means to fall over, to stumble on, to slip on something. To trip over means you are so anxious and eager to stumble upon something or someone you look up the most. This for the most of its part can be referred as infatuation. What exactly infatuation is? If Merriam-Webster definition is to believe then it defines infatuation as a feeling of foolish or obsessively strong admiration for someone or something.
Now let’s move on to the second term that sums up the inherent nature of the statement. That is ‘love’. Love by notation is a very strong feeling of liking and caring for somebody/something.
In metaphysical terms love is interpreted worldly and materialistic in nature. By contrast, spirituality describes love as self-renunciation and self-sacrifice, the giving up of all possessions–wealth, honour, will, life, and whatever else men value–for the beloved’s sake without any thought of reward.
This spiritual interpretation emphasize a deep connection to God that helps us find meaning and purpose in our lives. In sufism, it is the supreme principle to seek the Almighty’s will.
In the words of eminent Sufi and Persian poet Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-1273), love is the remedy of our pride and self-conceit, the physician of all our infirmities.
Rumi, who’s an inspiration for many, asserts that in order to love the Creator one needs first to learn how to love His creation, i.e, human beings.
Without loving mankind, one cannot achieve divine inspiration. Rumi is of the view that all the conflicts and polarisation among human beings are because of focusing only on the physical aspect of human life.
Another Sufi Saint Sheikh Nizamuddin Awliya devoted his life in saving mankind from sin and suffering. He believed that in the eyes of Almighty no deed was of greater significance than freeing fellow human beings from their misery and helping the helpless.
Once someone asked Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti what was the highest form of devotion in the eyes of God. He replied: “Develop river-like generosity, sun-like bounty and earth-like hospitality”.
In Qur’an, numerous verses mention love, but whenever the word love is used “the quality is always ascribed to God and human beings, and nothing else; and God’s love is always directed at His vicegerents.” This ascertains that relationship between God and human beings is inexplicable.
In the verses that mention love for God, the Qur’an makes two important points. First, God wants people to love him and second is that their love for God follows upon His love for them.
To conclude, two expressions of love are here to mention. The first is love in the material world, and the second is the “real love,” which is the “affection felt toward God.”
Yet another quote by ROMI describes love as the attribute of God, who has no need of anyone. To be in love with other than Him is metaphorical and that no matter what’s the nature of love; it ultimately takes humans to God.
