Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilün

Ṭutmadıñ müfsid ṭarîk-ı ḥaḳḳı ‘isyân eylediñ
Bil ḫaṭâ ḳıldıñ bu sözde sâdâ noḳṣân eylediñ
Ḳīl u ḳāl etmek nedir nâ-ḥaḳ yere aṣḥâb için
Bî-edeb sözler düzüp aṣḥâba bühtân eylediñ
Ehl-i sünnet iddi‘âsın etme ey kâẕib ebed
Bir ‘acem ḫâin kelâmın elde burhân eylediñ
Var mı bir maḳbûle şâyân elde mażbûṭ bir sened
Bi-sened ey müdde‘î da‘vâyı şeyṭân eylediñ
Bir hadîs̱ âyet mi vardır bunda bilmem bir delîl
Bir iki mevżû‘ kelâmı ḫalḳa ‘îlân eylediñ
İctiḥâd bâbında aṣhâbıñ biri-çün yoḳ ḫaṭâ
Müctehid ‘ilmin muḳallid sen mi mîzân eylediñ
Böyle sû’i ‘itiḳādla ḥaşr olursañ ‘âḳıbet
Şüphesiz âḫir mekânıñ bil ki nîrân eylediñ
Ḫâdim-i bâb-ı şerî‘atdir ṭarâiḳ ehli bil
Sen bu yolda kendiñi maṭrûd-ı pîrân eyledin
Cümleten ‘aşḳ ehli baş ḳoydu imâmeyn-i ‘aşḳına
Sen seni ṣanma muḥibbi şâh-ı merdân eyledin
Öyle bend ol kim velîler bâbına Mir’ât-nümâ
Çünkü ḥaḳḳı bâṭılı sen anda evzân eylediñ

In English

1. O corrupter, you did not keep to the road of God, you rebelled; know that you erred and in these words diminished the purity of the faith.

2. What is this gossip without right about the Companions? Composing ill-mannered words, you slandered the Companions.

3. O liar, never claim to belong to the people of the Sunna; in your hands you made the words of a Persian traitor your proof.

4. Do you have in hand any sound, acceptable authority? O claimant, without authority you made your case the devil's case.

5. Is there a hadith or a verse in this, I do not know, any proof? You proclaimed one or two fabricated sayings to the people.

6. In matters of independent judgement no error is to be laid on any of the Companions; did you, a mere follower, weigh the knowledge of the mujtahid?

7. If you are raised at the end with such evil belief, know without doubt that you have made the fire your last abode.

8. Know that the people of the paths are servants at the door of the law; on this road you have made yourself one driven away by the masters.

9. All the people of love laid their heads down for love of the two imams (Hasan and Hüseyin); do not think yourself among the lovers of the king of the brave (Ali).

10. Mir'ât-nümâ, be bound to the door of the saints, for it is there that you have weighed truth and falsehood.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Ghazal on the Dispute over the Companions

The dispute of the section on the sürh-ser turns here into a harsh address to a single interlocutor. Each of the ten couplets on the refrain “eylediñ”, you did, set in the remel, lists a wrong the addressee has done: you did not keep to the road of God, you slandered the Companions, you made the words of a Persian traitor your proof, you proclaimed fabricated sayings to the people. The rhyme words “‘isyân, bühtân, burhân, şeyṭân, ‘îlân, mîzân, nîrân, pîrân, merdân, evzân” line up like a list of charges.

The subject of the ghazal is plain: speaking ill of the Companions. The sixth couplet states a basic principle of Sunni theology: no error is to be imputed to the Companions in their differences of independent judgement; a mere follower cannot weigh the knowledge of a mujtahid. The phrase “bir ‘acem ḫâ'in kelâmı”, the words of a Persian traitor, in the third couplet implies that the views against the Companions were of Iranian origin. Hüsameddin's statement that Süleyman Efendi opposed the attitude of “reviling and cursing” in the circle of Nigârî, the Naqshbandi sheikh from Karabakh, suggests that the ghazal is connected with this dispute in Amasya; but the poem names no one, and this connection is an interpretation.

The ninth couplet shows the subtlety of the dispute: the poet takes love for the Prophet's household out of the addressee's monopoly. All the people of love have laid down their heads for love of the “imâmeyn”, Hasan and Hüseyin; the one who reviles the Companions must not think himself a lover of Ali, the “king of the brave”. The place where truth and falsehood are weighed, says the closing couplet, is the door of the saints.

Bibliography

Online sources