Initiatic hate and love
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(Post-)Modernist pseudo-spirituality claims that hatred is the opposite of love. This is false. The opposite of love is indifference not love due to the metaphysical function of love which both magnetizes as well as repels. Indifference neither repels nor magnetizes. Certain esoteric and initiatic paths have understood the function of this dynamic. Unfortunately in modern times this quite important distinction has been thoroughly misunderstood and instead we have fluff and puff as replacement.
Without venturing into scripture and wisdom texts to offer considerable proof, you see, hatred itself is a form of love, but in a reverse function. Esoteric Shiʿism is one of a handful of traditions (together with Zoroastrianism and Gnosticism) which has understood this precise distinction and enshrined it as a cornerstone of its creed and praxis in the form of Tabarrāʾ (تبرّى) and Tawallāʾ (تولّى); namely, hatred for the enemies of the Guides of Righteousness and their partisans, who are the embodiments of darkness (ظلمة) and fire (نار), and love and fidelity for the Guides of Righteousness, Who are the embodiments of the Light (نور). Tabarrāʾ (تبرّى) and Tawallāʾ (تولّى) in itself is also the this-wordly mystery of the tahlīl (تهليل) (i.e. لا إله إلّا الله 'there is no god but God') made manifest.
Moreover, Tabarrāʾ (تبرّى) is not about indiscriminate hatred just as Tawallāʾ (تولّى) is not about indiscriminate love. There is a very precise dialectical intentionality involved in this practice since its function in esoteric Shiʿism is alchemical as Tabarrāʾ (تبرّى) is to solve (dissolution) as Tawallāʾ (تولّى) is to coagula (synthesis). In other words, these are complimentary initiatic functions in the construction of the Stone which, even Shiʿi hadith assert, is the Imām-of-ones-being or the inner Proof (حجّة باطنة) which is the Perfect Nature, the Holy Guardian Angel.
As someone else put it, “I hate because I love.” When this truism is understood alchemically and from a higher synthetic perspective, one of the highest truths has been realized.
والله على كلّ شيء نوير
