Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilün

Ḫilḳat-ı ẕât-ı Ḫudâ nûr-ı hüviyyetdir edeb
Her ‘ulûmuñ mebde’i ‘ilm-i nihâyetdir edeb
Bî-edeb insân-ı kâmil olmaz ‘âlemde kişi
Mûcib-i feyż-i Ḫudâ bâb-ı velâyetdir edeb
Ḳurb-i ẕâtı Ḥaḳ için eñ sâlike sehl-i ṭarîḳ
Sâlikân-ı Ḥaḳḳ’a bir mefrûża ẕimmetdir edeb
Ẓâhir-i bâṭın ḫalâyıḳ içre bir a‘ẓam kemâl
Oldu ‘inde’l-Ḥaḳ ḥalâyıḳ içre rif‘atdir edeb
Bî-edeb Mir’ât-nümâ tek olma taḥṣîl et edeb
Öyle bil “dünyâ ve mâ-fihâ” şerâfetdir edeb

In English

1. Good conduct is the creation of God's essence, the light of selfhood; good conduct is the beginning of every science and the final science.

2. Without good conduct no one becomes a perfect man in the world; good conduct is the cause of God's grace, the door of sainthood.

3. Nearness to the essence for God's sake is the easiest road for the traveller; good conduct is a debt made obligatory on the travellers to God.

4. Good conduct is the greatest perfection, outward and inward, among creatures; in God's sight it is loftiness among creatures.

5. Do not be ill-mannered like Mir'ât-nümâ, acquire good conduct; know that good conduct is nobler than “the world and all that is in it”.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Ghazal That Bears the Book's Name

The notion in the book's title, “edeb”, good conduct, becomes the refrain of these five couplets: “-dir edeb”. Each couplet gives a definition of good conduct: light of selfhood, beginning and end of every science, door of sainthood, a debt made obligatory, the greatest perfection and loftiness. The idea repeated since the beginning of the book, “Şarṭ-ı a‘ẓamdır ṭarîḳatde edeb”, the greatest condition on the path is good conduct, here spreads over the whole of a ghazal; the measure is “Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilün”.

The first couplet defines good conduct as a science: it is both the “mebde'”, the beginning, of every science and the “‘ilm-i nihâyet”, the final science to be reached. The line “Bî-edeb insân-ı kâmil olmaz” in the second couplet, without good conduct no one becomes a perfect man, ties the Sufi ideal of the “insân-ı kâmil” to good conduct. The fourth couplet counts good conduct as both outward and inward perfection; it is not only behaviour but an inner state.

Şensöz leans on this pen-name couplet too when identifying the pen name: “Bî-edeb Mir'ât-nümâ tek olma taḥṣîl et edeb”, do not be ill-mannered like Mir'ât-nümâ, acquire good conduct. The poet continues his humility by offering himself as an example of the ill-mannered and ties the ghazal, through the hadith phrase of the first ghazal, to “dünyâ ve mâ-fîhâ”: good conduct is nobler than the world and all that is in it.

Bibliography

Online sources