Knowledge and heart are just like the positive and negative forces; it is these two things which make life balanced. If the heart quality is very strong and intellect is lacking then life lacks balance. Knowledge and heart quality must be developed together. And therefore according to Attar the faculty of devotion or quality of heart is the second valley, the Valley of Love; and the third valley is the Valley of Knowledge, the knowledge which illuminates and comes by the help of the love element and the intellect. That is the knowledge which is called spiritual knowledge. Without a developed love quality man is incapable of having that knowledge. There are fine lights and shades in one's life which cannot be perceived and fully understood without having touched the deeper side of life, which is the devotional side. The person who has never in his life been wholly grateful cannot know what it is. He who has not experienced humility in life does not know its beauty. The one who has not known gentleness or modesty cannot appreciate its beauty or recognize it.

No doubt a person of fine qualities is often ridiculed if he happens to be in a place where these qualities are not understood, where they are like a foreign language. This shows there is a refinement in life for which intellect alone is not sufficient. The heart must be open too. A very intellectual man went to Jami and asked him to take him as his pupil and give him initiation. Jami looked at him and said, "Have you ever loved anybody?" This man said, "No, I have not loved." Then Jami said, "Go and love first, then come to me and I will show you the way.'

Love has its time at every stage of life. As a child, as a youth, as a grown-up person, whatever stage of life one has reached, love is always asked for and love has always its part to perform; whatever situation we are placed in, among friends or foes, among those who understand us or among those who do not, in ease or in difficulty, in all places, at all times, it has its part to perform. And the one who thinks, "I must not let the principle of love have its way, I must harden myself against it", imprisons his soul. There is only one thing in the world which shows the sign of heaven, which gives the proof of God, and that is pure unselfish love. For all the noble qualities which are hidden in the soul will spring forth and blossom when love helps them and nurtures them. Man may have a great deal of good in him and he may be very intelligent, but as long as his heart is closed he cannot show that nobleness, that goodness which is hidden in his heart; and the psychology of the heart is such that once one begins to know it one realizes that life is a continual phenomenon. Then every moment of life becomes a miracle; a searchlight is thrown upon human nature and all things become so clear that one does not ask for any greater phenomenon or miracle; it is a miracle in itself. What one calls telepathy, thought-reading, or clairvoyance, and all such things, come by themselves when the heart is open.

If a person is cold and rigid, he feels within himself as if he were in a grave; he is not living, he cannot enjoy this life, for he cannot express himself and he cannot see the light and life outside. And what keeps man back from developing the heart quality? His exacting attitude. He wants to make a business of love. He says, "If you will love me I will love you." As soon as a man measures and weighs his favors and his services, and all that he does for one whom he loves, he ceases to know what love is. Love sees the beloved and nothing else.

As Rumi says, "Whether you love a human being or you love God, there will come a day when all lovers, either of man or of God will be brought before the throne of love, and the presence of that only Beloved will reign there."

What does this show? In loving our friend, in loving our neighbor, even in the love that one shows to one's enemy, one is only loving God. And the one who says, "I love God but I cannot love man," does not love God; he cannot. It is like saying, "I love you very much but I do not like looking at your face!"