:: Love ::

Before I begin, let me start with this: my message here is not about love in the traditional Islamic way. Instead, it was written for those who are in “love” in today’s society to gain a better understanding to the questions to follow.

Are you in Love? How can you tell? By the way, what does the word “love” really mean?

Love has always been a subject that people are anxious to talk about. I consider it to be the emotional feeling that a person holds for another person, object, land, memorable place, or anything else that a person holds dear.

We have many examples from history to help us understand the meaning of love. For example, we’ve heard of stories of a person who would sail overseas and give his ultimate effort just to see his beloved! Another would kiss the ground of his lover's land just to satisfy a glimpse of his desire for her. Some people stay awake all night staring at their bedroom wall for hours assembling the beautiful images of a girl with crystal clear eyes and long hair that looks like shredded pearls, smelling the elegant aroma of her body, and hearing her soft voice as if it was coming from musical instruments; but when you come to reality, the truth is nowhere near those imaginations! Overall, we have witnessed that a man or woman will do anything just to please his beloved, even if, in the extreme cases, it leads to hell! Hey, who cares about heaven if this would satisfy them now?!?!

Hell? Yes. Did you not hear about the person who threw himself from the fifth floor of a building just because his girlfriend betrayed him! This guy cried day and night sending his girlfriend messages saying, "I'm nothing in this life without you, please reply to my message or something bad will happen to me." Another story comes from a person that sits on the beach watching the waves as they splash in front of him; and this long painful tear leaves his eye making its way down his cheek just because his lover forgot to congratulate him for his birthday! Poets have contributed painful feelings to our society by admitting that their lovers have broken their hearts. One poet said that he is willing to cut his hand to write her name with his own blood. This poet even went on to explain that even if he would see her every day and night, in every dream and in reality; this would still not satisfy him. He would love to sacrifice his life in exchange of the two spirits with her; so she can continue breathing happily in this life and he takes her place in the dark grave!!


How painful and bad is love?Isn’t it supposed to be a good feeling that a person carries?
Why do we see these negative circumstances on the person who carries the love?!

To me the best description of love was given in one of the “Tash ma Tash” episodes, a Saudi Arabian comedy. Some one named Hmaidan woke up in the morning and said, "Something is itching me in the bottom of my neck I don't know what it is." So his foolish brother Saidan said, with an innocent look, "Oh yeah...this is love wa ana abook" Thank you “Tash ma Tash” for these words; finally we have gotten something useful from you! Hmaidan is 100% right. Love is only an itch that comes to you. If you give this itch an important priority, treat it well, and take care of it all the time, it will get worse! But, if you just leave it alone and let it grow with wisdom, the pain will slowly disappear between your eyes and things will be under control.

Maybe someone will say, “Abdulrahman you will never understand because you have never been in love in your life!!” Well, DUH!!
If you consider love to be counting the beats of my heart as they beat faster when she calls me, or sweating while answering her call while I wait for a loving word from her, or spending all of my money buying prepaid phone cards to talk to her, or buying those expensive gifts for every upcoming event. Then yes, I have never been in this sad and yucky situation before. I have never accepted myself to be a slave under this kind of situation. I own my heart, and I'm the only one who gives the regulations on how to react with my emotional feelings. I never accept any automatic actions that my heart wants to take before balancing out the consequences.

Believe it or not... I am in love!
Did you forget that I am a normal human who carries desire, passion, emotions and feelings in his heart? But, a smart person is one who controls those feelings and knows how and when to react with them. Before falling in love, you must know the three “W’s.” That doesn’t mean the open line to an Internet explorer page! It is answering the three important questions of: whom, why, and what? And yes, those are the codes to open a perfect love line.

To be continued…