The following passage by Al-Ghazali is taken from his book Love, Longing, Intimacy and Contentment. For more about Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali, see this earlier post.

When love overwhelms, it irresistibly conquers all that is not itself. He whose Beloved is dearer to him than indolence, casts off indolence; he whose Beloved is dearer to him than wealth forsakes wealth for His love.

Someone said to a lover, who had already expended himself and his property until he had nothing left, “What is the reason for this state of love in which you find yourself?” He answered, “One day I heard a lover alone with his beloved who said, ‘I love you with all my heart but you turn your face away from me.’ The beloved said to him, ‘If you do love me, what will you spend for me?’ He answered, ‘O you who master me, I make yours what is mine and my spirit I shall spend until it perishes!’ Then I said, ‘This is from creature to creature and slave to slave. But how ought it to be from worshippers to One who is adored?’ All of this comes from that reason.”