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Kıta 33 — Hidayet senden olmazsa dirayet neylesün yarab

Amasya05 Editorial Board • Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk • 01 October 2026 • Updated: 14 October 2026 • 3 min reading

Cûdî's kıta with the refrain "what can it do, O Lord": learning without guidance, the unlettered Prophet, a martyr's banner, and naturalists who read only letters.

Contents 4

1Original Ottoman Turkish Text
2In English
3Literary and Historical Commentary
4Bibliography

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Hidayet senden olmazsa dirayet neylesün yarab
Arapça bilse de bu cehle ayet neylesün yarab.

Eder infazı ayet, rayeti ikbali ümmiydi
Şehidin desti maktuunda rayet neylesün yarab.

Tabiyuyun hurufi hilkatin şeklin okur ancak
Mabedi ehline tarifi gayet neylesün yarab.

In English

1. O Lord, if guidance is not from You, what can understanding do? Even if he knows Arabic, what can the verse do for such ignorance?

2. It was the unlettered one (the Prophet) who carried out the verse and bore the banner of fortune; O Lord, what can the banner do in the severed hand of the martyr? (the couplet is not entirely clear)

3. The naturalists read only the shape of the letters of creation; O Lord, what can the definition of purpose do for the people of matter? (the line is not entirely clear)

Literary and Historical Commentary

The limit of knowledge is told in three couplets with the refrain "neylesün yarab", what can it do, O Lord. The first couplet gives the central judgement: if guidance does not come from God, understanding, that is, reason and learning, is of no use; even knowing Arabic is not enough to explain the Qur'anic verse to the ignorant. The second couplet ties this thought to the Prophet's being "ümmî", a prophet who could not read or write: it was he who carried out the verse and bore the banner of fortune. "The banner in the severed hand of the martyr" in the same couplet recalls the known story of Ja'far al-Tayyâr, who did not let go of the banner at the battle of Mu'ta even when his hands were cut off; but in the simplified text of the thesis the connection of the couplet is not entirely clear.

The third couplet fits the divan's critique of naturalism into a single line: the naturalists read only the shape of the letters of the book of creation and cannot see their meaning; explaining the purpose of creation to the people of matter is of no use. The same thought meets us in the divan in the ghazal "Hafâ-yı Zuhûr" and in the poems that read the universe as a book.

Bibliography

Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 180, 189 (Appendix, poem no. 13). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf

Online sources