Love in Sufism is technical vocabulary, not sentiment: it is the force that moves a seeker toward union, described in the poetry with deliberately scandalous imagery — wine, intoxication, the beloved's face, the ruin of reputation. That register got Sufis in trouble repeatedly and is exactly why the poetry travels: Rumi, Hafez, and Ibn Arabi are read worldwide by people with no interest in Islamic law, which Sufis of a traditional bent find both gratifying and alarming.