As Rumi pointed out, all types of love are ultimately aspects of our love for God; all kinds of love can lead to God. The constant heat of love's fire allows a soul to fully ripen. It allows an individual who is "raw" or immature to attain a "cooked" or even a "burnt" state. Most important, the power of love allows the individual to surrender the false self of the isolated ego for the sake of the Beloved and receive a deeper vision of reality — a vision that is no longer self-centered.
— David Fideler, Sabrineh Fideler, Love's Alchemy by David Fideler, translator, Sabrineh Fideler, translator