The development of love is often hindered by different obstacles in life. The first obstacle is ourselves. We begin our life with selfishness, and all that we want is for self and if there is a tendency to love, it is for one's own happiness, and one's own joy. When the question comes, "How much do you love me, and how much do I love you?" it has come to be a trading in love. "I love you, but you do not love me" is as much as to say, "I have bid so much, and I expect a return of love." This is trading in love, and trade cannot lead anywhere, because it makes one think of the self, and love is beyond that.

To love is to give; it is not to take at all. The true lover never speaks of what he has done for his beloved, for he loves for love's sake, not for the sake of a return. If a person begins to love and makes it a love fed by the love of his beloved, then he seeks an impossible thing. If a person keeps waiting for the love of the beloved, he is bound to find that nature cannot grant that desire, unless both are traders in love. Then each takes the best of the other; each may think he loves, but neither truly loves.

Love teaches the lover patience, forbearance, gentleness, because he thinks, "My beloved will be displeased; I will be as gentle as possible in my action and in my movements." These thoughts are a correction to the lover. With every such thought that passes in the life of the lover he corrects himself. Hope is the only thing in life which keeps us alive, because it feeds on love. Patience is fed by love. We can never have patience with anybody without love. How valuable is patience!

As it is said in the Qur'an, "Allah loves the patient."