arthra
Baha'i
Abdul-Baha said there were four kinds of love:
"There are but four kinds of Love:
(a) The love of God for His Creation, the reflection
of Himself in the mirror of creation. Through one ray
of this Love all other love exists.
(b) The Love of God for His children. His servants.
Through this love man is endowed with physical existence,
until through the Breaths of the Holy Spirit-this
same Love-he receives eternal life and becomes the image
of the Living God. This love is the origin of all the
love in the world of creation.
(c) "The love of man for God. This is attraction to
the Divine World, entrance into the Kingdom of God,
receiving the Bounties of God, illumination with the
Lights of the Kingdom. This love is the origin of all
philanthropy; this love causes the heart of man to reflect
the rays of the Sun of Reality.
(d) "The love of man for man. The love which
exists between the believers in God is prompted by the
ideal of the unity of spirits. This love is attained
through the knowledge of God, so that men see the
Divine Love reflected in the heart. Each sees in the
other the Beauty of God reflected in the soul, and, finding
this point of similarity, they are attracted to one another
in love. This love will make all men the waves of one
sea, the stars of one heaven, the fruits of one tree.
~ Howard Colby Ives, Portals to Freedom, p. 110
