The Dissolution of Love: A Spiritual Journey Toward God
Love… Far more than a mere emotion. At times a search, at times a collapse, and most often—a rebirth.
This essay is a record of an inner journey that seeks to understand how love dissolves us, and how this very dissolution leads us toward God. Through the words of Ibn ʿArabī, Rumi, and Auguste Comte, we will look together into the mirrors I hold within myself—perhaps to see whether they resonate within you as well.
Chapter 1: The Dissolution of Love – The Fragmentation of the Heart and the Opening of the Soul
Sometimes, when I love someone, it feels as though the boundaries within me begin to dissolve. As if my sense of self flows outward, like a river overflowing its banks. Yet at the same time, I experience a kind of fragmentation. Instead of gathering in one place, my heart shatters into countless pieces—each fragment turning into a separate prayer.
This is precisely what spiritual dissolution is: Through love, the rigidity within me melts away, all the defenses I have built collapse, and I am left alone—with myself and with the Creator. Paradoxically, it is at that very moment that I come closest to myself… because without the dissolution of the ego, I cannot fully encounter God.
Chapter 2: Ibn ʿArabī and Divine Love – “The Lover Is, in Truth, Seeking God”
“The lover is, in truth, seeking God.”
The first time I encountered this sentence, something suddenly clicked within me. It was as if the essence behind all the loves I had experienced was the same: seeking. No matter what—or whom—a person loves, they are, in fact, loving Him. Knowingly or unknowingly.
According to Ibn ʿArabī, love is longing for Absolute Being. Thus, when we believe we are falling in love with another, we are actually burning with the desire to return to the source of existence—Allah. This perspective completely transformed my understanding of love.
Chapter 3: Rumi’s Perspective – Burning with Love and the Purification of the Soul
For Rumi, love is a fire that purifies by burning. This fire is ignited not merely by affection for another human being, but by an infinite longing for God.
“Become a lover and see what love is. One who dies through love becomes alive.”
In Rumi’s conception, love is not merely union—it is dissolution and rebirth. There are moments when the ego writhes in pain, yet the soul gives thanks. Unless you burn, unless I burn, how will darkness turn into light?
Chapter 4: Auguste Comte’s Secular Love – A Devotion to Humanity
The founder of positivism, Auguste Comte, regarded love as a sacred bond connecting the living, the dead, and those yet to be born. His famous motto states: “Love as principle, order as foundation, and progress as goal.”
Though Comte’s view may appear distant from mystical, God-centered love, it rests upon the same underlying principle: self-transcendence. Love ceases to be a mere emotion and becomes a mode of existence.
Chapter 5: A Personal Testimony on Love as the Love of God
Whenever I love someone deeply, I notice the same sensation: Not something, but someone seems to grow within my heart. Yet over time, I come to realize—it was not that person who was growing. It was my longing for God expanding within me.
All of this reveals to me that true love is not possession, but surrender. And the name of this surrender is the love of God.