Why does humanity not behave in the same way towards other needs?

Why does humanity not behave in the same way towards other needs? Have you ever seen a person who worships money or a person who is ambitious for higher material positions, writing love poems on money or on ambition? Has anyone ever written a love poem asking for bread? Why is it that people enjoy listening to or reading the love poems of another? Why is it that so many people receive such pleasure from Hafiz's love poems?

Is it not because each person senses that it conforms to some very deep instinct which possesses their whole being? How mistaken are those who say that the one and only reason which forms the basis for human activity is an economic one! Human beings have developed special literary rhytmic forms to express that love just as they have done with spritualities whereas no special literary rhytmic forms have been developed for things which are essentially material like bread and water.

We do not want to insinuate that all loves are sexual nor do we mean to imply that all of Hafiz's or Sa'adi's poems stem from their sexual instinct. This is something which needs to be discussed separately at another time. But what is clear is that many of the love poems are ones written by men in devotion to women. It is suffiecient for us to recognize that a man's attention towards a woman is not based on bread and water so that is can be satiated when the stomach is full.

Rather, it either takes the form of greed and the worship of variety and multiplicity or the form of love and love poems. We will later discuss under what conditions the state of greed and sexual covetousness is strengthened and under what conditions love and love poems assume a spiritual quality. At any rate, Islam has placed special emphasis upon the amazing power of this fiery instinct.

There are traditions which speak of the danger of 'a look', the danger of a man and woman being along together and, finally, the danger of the instinct which unites a man and a woman. Islam has established ways of controlling, balancing and taming this instinct. Duties have been given to both men and women in this area. On duty which is the responsibility of both men and women relates to looking at each other.