(This began as a question: what’s the most important thing in life? to which my brother answered- in jest I hope- wealth. I began with “Faith, Knowledge, & Love. Then next are Health, Happiness and Wealth.” I intended to explain each virtue and why I think they’re important, but I got stuck in Love. Don’t I always?)
Knowledge is useless without faith. Knowing what is right doesn’t do any good unless you have the motivation to do it. The right knowledge: knowing the reason for our existence and having absolute certainty of it, and believing beyond what our eyes can see, that is the kind of faith that goes beyond following blindly.
For most people, the presence of Love is essential for one’s happiness. The absence of a partner or espouse doesn’t mean love will be absent also. There’s the love of parents, of brother’s and sisters, of family. Their love is steadier than your friend’s and that of the girl you like or that boy you hope for. And beyond this, and before this: is the Love of God. We should not forget that God created the world and everything in it. That includes everything and everyone in it. Whoever loved one you have now, be grateful to God for it. And remember that your heart is still beating at this very moment only because of God’s grace, the only reason that I am able to write this, and that you are able to read this.
It has been said that Love is that state when the happiness of the beloved is essential to one’s own. When you are in love, nothing breaks your heart more than the thought that the person is displeased with you and doesn’t want to be with you. Or to put it simply, doesn’t love you anymore. Seen in this light, then the Love of God is the same as Fear of God. Those with enough faith refrain from forbidden things because they fear God’s punishment, but those with great faith and love God shun those things because they cannot bear the thought that God will be displeased with them and choose not to be with them on the Day of Judgment.
When you truly love someone, you want to be with that someone. When you are apart, you wish you can be together again soon. And those who love God look forward to being with God forever.
“We all belong to God, and to God we all shall return.”
Life in this world is temporary, like working abroad, and we will all go home eventually. The question is: what state will we be in when we return to God? Will it be like that of a prisoner being lead to an execution, or that of a loved one returning home after being away for a lifetime?
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