LOVE (TRUE MEANING)

What is Ishq (love) & it’s 

true meaning

Love lives in those who are willing to make the greatest sacrifices without keeping account. Real love means remaining truthful, even when you have all the opportunity in the world to hurt someone. Real love is seeing that the one you love is happy even when you do things for them that make you unhappy. True love can be difficult to understand without first discussing the meaning of love. Love is commonly defined as an intense feeling of attraction to another person. It is a feeling you get whenever you see someone you think is desirable, attractive, and almost close to perfection.

Love between a man and a woman is a very misunderstood concept in the human history. People have their own definitions of it. Most associate it with physical pleasures and intimacy. I personally being a very practical man have never experienced love, at least the true essence of it in which way it is known to most of the people in this world.  A few days back I met a friend and we, after discussing the usual topics of politics and jobs and difficulties of life and cars, stumbled upon the topic of LOVE and what it really is. I found him different and happy, so I asked him the reason and he said he is ‘’ finally’’ in love and he feels at home and satisfied. Now he is a businessman and a man of numbers who was emitting happy vibes even though he was talking about a loss that he incurred, so he got my curiosity and I asked him to explain. His love story was unusual, whatever he told me about the person was unusual yet here he was being comfortable and calm and most importantly happy. He said I accepted to be in love and that person because she was good for my soul.

I was amused at first to be honest as I am not a mushy guy, but his definition is interesting. He said that, love is to be cherished and accepted fully, never to feel alone or weak or an alien in your own skin. To be always protected and secure. It’s a huge commitment and a responsibility to never hurt.

My counter argument to this overdose of sweet talk was, look around, and see all the suffering and worries and mayhem, where most people are going for divorces and breakups. From the practical viewpoint, no one is so special that we can ruin our lives for them, plus the issues of trust and then making out is a human basic need and the compatibility in it is very important. I have a million things to do in a day, 1000 responsibilities, this all is just for movies, not convenient at all, and to be honest most people will agree with me.

According to him, in life the reason of all this chaos is that we have forgotten to love. Or to look for our soul-mates. We marry or get into the relationship because everyone is doing it, or the person is hot or rich or stable in life. Hence we don’t gain security or peace or love in that other person , we gain insecurities , what if I gain weight, my ‘’love’’ will not be attracted to me, what if I lose the job and can’t afford that fancy car , she will leave me or be ashamed of me, hence check the reason for getting into the relationship, why did you opt for that person, is she good for your soul or just a hot body, good for the social image. The day we will stop being in a rat-race for our image and start thinking and taking people as souls and falling in love, we will find peace. Being cherished and accepted or to cherish and accept means that you both know that what kind of a person , each other are and still accept them without judgments , small stuff to big stuff, like accepting the other as not being a morning person , or having a weird sense of humour or eating ice cream with fries . He or she is not there only to have fun but in your worst times as well, when you really need them. Everyone goes through rough patches and imagined you being left alone to gather your shattered self because she or he had a dinner to attend to or an important errand to run. No one likes to be humiliated or made fun of or feel worthless.

The reason of all this hurt in the world is that we have become materialistic and always thinking about gain, lets just go back to what we were created for, LOVE. And start to again learn what love really is and how to love than only we will be able to bring some peace and normality in our shattered and tattered lives.

I have been thinking long and hard on these arguments and he is right , somewhere along the way of earning a decent living and making a perfect life we lost the true meaning of life, to be happy , be loved and to love and to cherish the people who love us for us not for the gains we bring them . In short I can say that you know you truly love somebody when they hurt you so badly, but all you can think about it is the times when they made you smile.” “Always remember true love never fades away even if it is not reciprocated. ... “True love cannot be found where it does not truly exist, nor can it be hidden where it truly does.

All this is best sum up in these quotes:

"The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise, we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them." ― Thomas Merton

"Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination." ― Voltaire

"Love isn’t a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now." ― Fred Rogers

And the best of all is : "Once you have drunk from the water of unconditional love, no other well can satisfy your thirst. The pangs of separation may become so intense that seeking the affection of the Beloved becomes an obsession." ― Ram Dass

By: Ovais Asad Khan