Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Hakîkat bil budur ol ferd-i mutlak
Ki oldur râ'î vü mer'î muhakkak

In English

1. Know that the truth is this: that absolute One (God) is truly both the one who sees and the one who is seen.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a single couplet (beyit). Hüseyin Hüsameddin quotes it from the verse work called Etvâr-ı Seb'a that he attributes to Habib-i Karamânî, as an example of the work's treatment of "zât-ı Bârî ve isbât-ı vücûd", that is, the essence of God and the proof of His existence. The two lines rhyme on the words "mutlak" and "muhakkak"; this fits the mathnawi form, in which each couplet rhymes within itself. Since the work as a whole is unknown, it is not known from which section the couplet is taken or what precedes it. The source does not state the metre.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

At the centre of the couplet stand the words "râ'î" (the one who sees) and "mer'î" (the one who is seen). The use side by side of these two words from the same root is the figure called iştikak (derivation), and the meaning too is built on this closeness: the seer and the seen are not counted as two separate things; both are the "ferd-i mutlak", the absolute One without peer or likeness, limited by nothing. This idea is a concise expression of the Sufi doctrine of the unity of being (vahdet-i vücûd), which holds that all existence is in truth the manifestation of a single being: in everything a person sees, it is God who is seen and at the same time God who sees. Beginning "Hakîkat bil" (know that the truth is), the couplet gives the reader, like a piece of counsel, the knowledge the dervish is to reach at the end of the spiritual path.

The word "muhakkak" also plays with meaning. At the end of the line it stands like an intensifier meaning "certainly, truly"; at the same time it means "verified, whose truth is known", and it comes from the same root as "hakîkat", the first word of the couplet. The couplet thus opens with "hakîkat" and closes with "muhakkak".

Historical Context

The attribution of the couplet to Habib rests on Hüsameddin's record alone; the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi article on Habib does not mention the Etvâr-ı Seb'a. The presence in the Süleymaniye Library (Esad Efendi no. 1321) of a Manzûme fi'l-etvâri's-seb'a registered under the name "Habîb Ömer Halvânî", in the list Suat Donuk takes from Ramazan Muslu, suggests that the work Hüsameddin mentions may be this manuscript; as we have not seen the copy, this identification is a possibility. The seven stages (etvâr-ı seb'a) were a subject much treated by Khalwati sheikhs from Habib's master Sayyid Yahya Shirvani onwards; a quarter of the Gülşen-i Tevhîd of Habib's disciple in Amasya, Dâvûd-ı Halvetî, is also devoted to it. For the sheikh's works and the state of the sources see Habib-i Karamânî: Writer and Works.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources