Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilün

‘Arifân-ı kibriyâdır sâlikân-ı Naḳşibend
Mazhar-ı feyż-i Ḫudâdır ‘âşıḳān-ı Naḳşibend
Kâmilânı bildiler kim nehnu aḳrab sırrını
Ẕikri ḳalb-ile muḳayyed ẕâkirân-ı Naḳşibend
Bâ-şerî‘at buldular bir genc-i esrâr-ı ḫafî
Baḥr-i esrâr-ı ḥüviyyet vâkıfân-ı Naḳşibend
Sâlikânî gizli yoldan vâṣıl eyler Ḥaḳḳ’a kim
‘İlm-i irşâdda mükemmel mürşidân-ı Naḳşibend
İttibâ‘ı sünnet-ile me’mûr terk-i bid‘at bende-gân
Tâbi‘-i şâh-ı risâlet râşidân-ı Naḳşibend
Bende-i dergâh şâh-ı evvel bahâ Mir’ât-nümâ
Bir gedâsın yolda ḳoymaz vâṣılân-ı Naḳşibend

In English

1. The travellers of Nakşibend are the knowers of the Majestic; the lovers of Nakşibend are the locus of the grace of God.

2. The perfect ones knew the secret of “Naḥnu aḳrab” (We are nearer); those who remember in Nakşibend's way are bound to remembrance with the heart.

3. With the law they found a hidden treasury of secrets; those versed in Nakşibend's way are a sea of the secrets of selfhood.

4. They bring travellers to God by a hidden road; the masters of Nakşibend are perfect in the science of guidance.

5. Following the custom, they are servants charged with forsaking innovation; the rightly guided of Nakşibend follow the king of prophethood.

6. Mir'ât-nümâ is a servant at the threshold of Shah Bahâ, the first; those who have reached Nakşibend do not leave a beggar on the road.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Return of the Refrain “Naḳşibend”

The refrain of the book's second ghazal comes back here: “-ân-ı Naḳşibend”. But whereas the path was praised in the second ghazal, here the members of the path are praised; the second line of each couplet names them by a plural attribute: ‘âşıḳān, ẕâkirân, vâḳıfân, mürşidân, râşidân, vâṣılân, the lovers, those who remember, the knowing, the masters, the rightly guided, those who arrive. Once more the metre is remel with four feet.

What the section on the forty-day retreat just before it taught is here gathered into a short ghazal. The phrase “ẕikri ḳalb-ile muḳayyed”, bound to remembrance with the heart, in the second couplet describes silent remembrance; “bâ-şerî‘at”, with the law, in the third describes loyalty to the law; the “hidden road” of the fourth describes the quiet and unostentatious side of Naqshbandi training. The verse “Naḥnu aḳrab” from the chapter Kaf appears again in the second couplet; it had also appeared in the book's kaside to the saints.

In the makta, the couplet with the pen name, the poet calls himself a servant at the threshold of “şâh-ı evvel Bahâ”, Bahâeddîn Nakşibend, founder of the lineage, and adds that those who have reached this path do not leave a beggar on the road. The image of the beggar, seen in many places in the book, here turns into an assurance.

Bibliography

Online sources