Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Uluvv-i tab’-ı müştâkân atâ-yı kibriyâdandır
Safâ-yı feyz-i uşşâkân likâ-yı reh-nümâdandır
Açılsa kufl-i âlem nâ-becâ sanma bu güftârı
Hayât-ı câvidânı himmet-i ehl-i Hüdâdandır
Gönüldür mahzen-i envâr-ı sırr-ı âlem-i lâ-hûta
Ana bu rütbe-i bâlâ nazargâh-ı Hüdâdandır

In English

1. The loftiness of the yearning ones' nature is from the gift of the Almighty; the purity of the lovers' grace is from seeing the face of the guide.

2. Should the lock of the world be opened, do not think this saying out of place: eternal life is from the high resolve of the people of God.

3. It is the heart that is the treasury of the lights of the secret of the world of lâhût; this high rank comes to it from being the place of God's gaze.

Literary and Historical Commentary

These three couplets are the longest piece of Bahâeddîn Mehmed Efendi's poetry we have, and they set out in sequence the ideas of the Naqshbandi-Khalidi circle. The matla sets two sources side by side: the loftiness of the lovers' nature is directly God's gift, but the purity of their grace comes from seeing the face of the "reh-nümâ", the guide who shows the way. Seeing the guide's face and being in his company, one of the most important notions of the order, is named here as a source of grace. When one thinks of Bahâeddîn's sheikh Mîr Hamza Nigârî, it comes to mind that the couplet may also be read as praise of a sheikh; the source does not say so.

The second couplet addresses the reader with a warning: should the lock of the world be opened, that is, should hidden truths come to light, let this saying not be thought out of place; eternal life is won through the high resolve, the spiritual help, of those who have reached God. The third couplet puts the heart at the centre. The heart is the treasury of the lights of the secret of "lâhût", held to be the highest level of the divine world; what gives it this high rank is its being "nazargâh-ı Hüdâ", the place God looks upon. The idea that the heart is the place of God's gaze is a saying much repeated in Sufi literature.

The refrain is "-dandır", the rhyme the sound -â in kibriyâ, reh-nümâ, Hüdâ; the repetition of the word "Hüdâdandır" in the second and third couplets shows either that the two couplets were taken from places close together or that a repetition was allowed in the rhyme. Hüsameddin gives these couplets as a single piece.

Bibliography

Online sources