The orthodox say, "This is good, that is bad; this is right, that is wrong", but to a Sufi the source of all good deeds is love. Someone may say that this is the source of bad deeds also, but that is not so; it is lack of love.

Our virtues are made of love, and our sins are caused by lack of it. Love turns sins into virtues, and its lack makes virtues meaningless. Christ said when a woman was brought before Him accused of sin, "Her sins are forgiven, for she loved much." Heaven is made so beautiful with love, and life becomes a hell through the lack of it. Love in reality creates harmony in one's life on earth and peace in heaven.

A nautch girl [a dancer] was once watching two funerals from her window, and she said to her lover, "The first of those two is a soul that has gone to heaven, the second is a soul that has gone to hell, I am sure." He said, "How can you, a nautch girl, pretend to know a thing only a saint could know." She said, "I know it by the simple fact that all the people who followed the first funeral had sad faces, and many had tears in their eyes; and all those who followed the second funeral had dry eyes and their faces were cheerful. The first proved that he loved and won the affection of so many, and therefore surely he was entitled to enter the heavens, and the next cannot have loved anybody, for no one grieved at his departure."

Therefore, as this world is a hell to the loveless, the same hell will become distinct in the next world. If the soul and heart are incapable of love even a man's relations and nearest friends are strangers; he is indifferent to them, and dislikes their company.