if you possess it then the whole earth and the people are in vain and the inhabitants of the country are flies. you have charged me may god honor you to write for you a treatise on the description of love its meanings causes and symptoms and what occurs in it and for it in the way of truth neither increasing nor decreasing but as a source for what comes to me in its proper form and according to its occurrence as my memory and the breadth of my hand have ended in what i mention. so i hastened to what you desire and had it not been for the affirmation to you i would not have undertaken it. this is from forgiveness and it is better for us with the shortness of our lives not to spend them except in what we hope for a spacious return and a good destination tomorrow. and if it was the judge hammam bin ahmad he told me on the authority of yahya bin malik bin aaidh with a chain of transmission that traces it back to abu aldarda that he said make the souls silent with something of falsehood so that it may be an aid to them in the truth. and from the sayings of the righteous from the accepted predecessors he who does not know how to search well has not known how to search well.
إذا حزته فالأرض جمعاء والورى هباء وسكان البلاد ذباب وكلفتني أعزك الله أن أصنف لك رسالة في صفة الحب ومعانيه وأسبابه وأعراضه، وما يقع فيه وله على سبيل الحقيقة، لا متزايدا ولا مفننا، لكن موردا لما يحضرني على وجهه وبحسب وقوعه، حيث انتهى حفظي وسعة باعي فيما أذكره، فبدرت إلى مرغوبك، ولولا الإيجاب لك لما تكلفته، فهذا من العفو، والأولى بنا مع قصر أعمارنا ألا نصرفها إلا فيما نرجو به رحب المنقلب وحسن المآب غدا، وغن كان القاضي حمام بن احمد حدثني عن يحيى ابن مالك بن عائذ بإسناد يرفعه إلى أبي الدرداء أنه قال أجموا النفوس بشيء من الباطل ليكون عونا لها على الحق ؛ ومن أقوال الصالحين من السلف المرضي من لم يحسن يتفتى لم يحسن