_Maḥabbat_ (love) is said to be derived from _ḥibbat_, which are seeds that fall to the earth in the desert. The name _ḥubb_ (love) was given to such desert seeds (_ḥibb_), because love is the source of life just as seeds are the origin of plants. As, when the seeds are scattered in the desert, they become hidden in the earth, and rain falls upon them and the sun shines upon them and cold and heat pass over them, yet they are not corrupted by the changing seasons, but grow up and bear flowers and give fruit, so love, when it takes its dwelling in the heart, is not corrupted by presence or absence, by pleasure or pain, by separation or union. Others say that _maḥabbat_ is derived from _ḥubb_, meaning “a jar full of stagnant water”, because when love is collected in the heart and fills it, there is no room there for any thought except of the beloved, as Shiblí says: “Love is called _maḥabbat_ because it obliterates (_tamḥú_) from the heart everything except the beloved.” Others say that _maḥabbat_ is derived from _ḥubb_, meaning “the four conjoined pieces of wood on which a water-jug is placed, because a lover lightly bears whatever his beloved metes out to him—honour or disgrace, pain or pleasure, fair treatment or foul”. According to others, _maḥabbat_ is derived from _ḥabb_, the plural of _ḥabbat_, and _ḥabbat_ is the core of the heart, where love resides. In this case, _maḥabbat_ is called by the name of its dwelling-place, a principle of which there are numerous examples in Arabic. Others derive it from _ḥabáb_, “bubbles of water and the effervescence thereof in a heavy rainfall,” because love is the effervescence of the heart in longing for union with the beloved. As the body subsists through the spirit, so the heart subsists through love, and love subsists through vision of, and union with, the beloved. Others, again, declare that _ḥubb_ is a name applied to pure love, because the Arabs call the pure white of the human eye _ḥabbat al-insán_, just as they call the pure black (core) of the heart _ḥabbat al-qalb_: the latter is the seat of love, the former of vision. Hence the heart and the eye are rivals in love, as the poet says: “_My heart envies mine eye the pleasure of seeing, And mine eye envies my heart the pleasure of meditating._” SECTION.