To be human...

At the risk of being a bit forward in discussing issues to do with closeness to Allah (perhaps even completely wrong), I thought I'd jot down some thoughts I have about a hadith by the Prophet which I have mentioned before. Muhammad once said that his three favourite things in this world are women, perfume and prayer. Ibn Arabi had some interesting things to say about this hadith, which I'd also noted down previously, but this evening I found myself thinking about stories I had heard of Sufi guilds in the Middle East. Apparently they only admitted a person once they had fallen in love at least once in their lives. It was important that they tasted that ecstacy and longing. Only then would they be admitted...

Perhaps only then can a human being truly understand the Prophet's saying. How else could we possibly understand otherwise?