Byron and Sufism: His Concept of Selfless Love

By 

Naji B. Oueijan

 

 

“Don’t ask what love can make or do!

Look at the colors of the world.”

Rumi.[i]

 

The Romantic ardent contemplation of the other involves the self’s elimination of physical distractions and the fusion of all disagreeables which hinder wholeness. Such a process is only possible through the medium of “Love”, selfless love, which is the only agent capable of detaching the self from egocentric desires and passions. It follows that the Romantics’ conception of “Love” concurs with their perception of knowledge and conforms to their understanding of nature. As much as the integrative power of love seems to facilitate the Romantic path to knowledge, the Romantic desire for knowledge seems to be reinforced by the power of their love to Man and to the elements of nature and the universe. The Romantic poets’ path towards wisdom begins by reconciling the opposite elements which, without love, act one upon the other to block this path.