Abstract

Based on his philosophical-mystical foundations regarding love, The Grand Sheikh considered love to be flowing and prevalent in all aspects of existence, and examined it in seven chapters of various levels of existence. He analyzed love in animal souls, love in beautiful forms, love in divine souls, and finally love in divine nature, which is the highest and most perfect type of love. In his philosophical-mystical view, love was absolute good, as he believed that good is in itself desirable, popular and beloved. He defined every movement in the world of possibility towards perfection as love; and considered all such movements to be the result of love incarnated in every living being—how he defines love in “A Treatise on Love” (Risālah fī al-'Ishq). As a doctor, he mentioned love as a disease that presents with symptoms, and that comes with a cure. In the law, love is recognized as a disease, as the soul and body affect each other. The psychological symptoms of love in the fourth stage, that is, love in the animal soul, manifests in the body of the lover; having observed symptoms such as emaciation, cachexia, dry and sunken eyes, the doctor diagnoses a disease—a disease affected by carnal passions.

Keywords: Avicenna, love, treatise on love, law