Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilün

Bend-i âhın-lan murâbıṭ ol velîler bâbına
Ḳurb-ı Ḥaḳḳ’a rükn-i a‘ẓamdır ‘azîzim râbıṭa

In English

1. Bind yourself with an iron bond to the door of the saints; my dear, rabıta is the greatest pillar of nearness to God.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Rabıta in a Single Couplet

Here the whole argument of the section on rabıta comes down to two lines: the disciple must be bound to the door of the saints with a “bend-i âhın”, an iron bond; rabıta is the greatest pillar of nearness to God. The couplet falls among the mesnevî couplets at the beginning of the section, and the edition prints it apart under the heading “Beyit”. Its measure is “Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilün”.

There is a play of sound built on the choice of the word “murâbıṭ”. The murâbıt is one who keeps watch at a frontier post, bound to a place and never leaving it; the word comes from the same root as “râbıta”. The poet depicts the disciple as a murâbıt keeping watch at the door of the saints; the image of the iron bond expresses the unbreakable nature of this devotion. The “rükn-i a‘ẓam”, the greatest pillar, of the second line shows the place given to rabıta in the structure of the order.

The appearance of this couplet after the long defence in the mesnevî is like reducing the teaching to a formula to be learned by heart. No author is recorded for it. Its language and rhyme do not stand apart from the book's other couplets, which makes it most probably Süleyman Efendi's own.

Bibliography

Online sources