Blindspot!
From Issue: 1034 [Read full issue]
Devotees of Love
Our society is currently being challenged by a spiral of problems — problems of a rare kind. We are troubled by countless incitements. We are faced with depravation, contempt for values, decadence that leads to desultoriness, addiction to pomp and vanity, avarice and indulgence in pleasures, worldly ambitions and wishfulness for eternal life in this world, and — to be able to attain these ambitions — Machiavellianism that unscrupulously legitimizes all sorts of means.
While our hearts and souls are paralyzed by these devastating afflictions, there are also many other cases of baseness. They come in the form of outrageous indifference, embarrassing heedlessness, being silent like "a mute devil" in the face of sheer injustice, and closing our ears to the uproars of despots and oppressors and to the cries of innocents and victims. This level of wickedness has been rarely witnessed in history.
Notwithstanding all these concentric deviations, there have been devotees of love who have always taken on all the risks and moved forward on their path of resurrection, even at the expense of their own lives and regardless of the bumpy road ahead. These devotees have tied their lives to the wellbeing of others and have always breathed with this lofty ideal.
They have lived these sentiments joyfully; they rose with hope and moved with disregard for worldly ambitions. As they took refuge in the All-Patient One, they never slowed down while marching on the path of the Prophets, despite all the complicated and insecure directions, unyielding hurdles, and merciless deviations. Never deterred by these challenges, they preserved the purity of the sacred in their hearts and the glory of their ideals.
They have been fully aware that their lives are transient and their strength limited. They have disassociated themselves from their individual powers — to the extent of their good judgment — and sought refuge under the unlimited strength of the Almighty and His Willpower, by way of which their drops turn to oceans and their atoms to suns. Indeed, what doesn't exist comes into existence, and what has no value becomes priceless, in this way. The Almighty's favours are also dependent on the self-relinquishing ones who have turned to Him.
These devotees of love have strived hard even during the direst of times: when time — time that has been detached from the One — has been disloyal and feelings have turned to delirium; when brute force has run amuck and pursuing a life of prophetic virtue has become extremely difficult. Through it all, they've continued on the path even when the future has become obscured.
Compiled From:
"Another eclipse is over" - Fethullah Gulen