Unity of experience precedes unity of belief. And herein lies the reason why people with different belief systems come together on the same path in their quest for love. They may have experienced love and lost it, trying to cling to it, never realizing that it was momentary because a human being (in which they're trying to find that love back) is dynamic. Then there would be some who experienced love in the realm of dreams. They don't know it but are already wandering in its quest.
What is love? Most of us don't realize - it is to "Submit" to the lover. To submit is to surrender unconditionally with an unwavering and unconscious trust. But in most human relationships, the person to whom we submit is incapable of handling that surrender, at least not eternally. And then that amounts to betrayal. Like a father who spreads his arms for his son to jump into, but then pulls them back at the very moment the son jumps .
Therefore, the only solution is to "Submit" to a lover who doesn't change, who's not dynamically evolving, who is eternal and has no beginning nor end. Little wonder then, that lover in concept is God. Whether this is a construct of the mind or an actuality doesn't matter at all - because it solves the human quest for true love.
Interestingly, the literal meaning of Islam is also "To Submit". But experience must precede belief to be sealed with the ink of love. A person may believe blindly in letters and words and transliteral meaning - but may always remain elusive to the experience.
"The minute I heard my first love story,
I started looking for you, not knowing
how blind that was.
Lovers don't finally meet somewhere,
they're in each other all along."
- Rumi Love and Ecstasy Poems
translated by Coleman Barks and Shahram Shiva.
