Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilün

Biz vücûdı mürşidi ‘aẓâm kerâmet bilmişiz
Her kelâm-ı nuṭḳunu ‘aynı reşâdet bilmişiz
Şems-i envâr-ı velâyet gün gibi ẓâhir bize
‘Aṣrınıñ ġavs̱ı kemâl aṣḥâb-ı himmet bilmişiz
Bilmeyiz fevḳınde bir erbâb-ı irşâd ẕü’l-kemâl
Ḥıżr-veş ‘ilm-i ledün ehl-i hidâyet bilmişiz
Ṭâlib-i keşf-i kerâmet ṣanma ey zâhid bizi
Biz kerâmet ṣâhibin pek ehl-i âfet bilmişiz
Ḥamduli’llâh bilmişiz “el-faḳru faḫri” sırrını
Rütbe’-i faḳrı hemân fevḳu’ṣ-ṣadâret bilmişiz
‘Âr degildir ḫalḳ içinde Ḥaḳ için olmaḳ reẕil
Biz reẕâlet mesnedin câh-ı vezâret bilmişiz
Bilmeyen ey râh-ı ‘aşḳı ḳıymayan öz cânına
Biz anı merkeb gibi şol bî-şerâfet bilmişiz
Nâr-ı ‘aşḳa yanmayan esrâr-ı ḥaḳdan bî-ḥaber
“Men ‘aref” sırrında ġāfil ehl-i ġaflet bilmişiz
Pâk-i ebdan-ı büṭûn etmek gerekdir zâhide
Ṣûretâ zühd ehlini biz bî-ṭahâret bilmişiz
Bir kem âletdir kemâlât ehline Mir’at-nümâ
Biz kemâlâtı mücerred bir kem âlât bilmişiz

In English

1. We have known the master's existence as the greatest miracle; we have known every word he utters as rectitude itself.

2. The sun of the lights of sainthood is plain to us as day; we have known him as the help of his age, a man of perfection and spiritual power.

3. We know no guide of perfection above him; we have known him, like Hızır, as possessing knowledge from God's presence and as a man of guidance.

4. O ascetic, do not think we seek unveilings and miracles; we have known the miracle-worker as one exposed to calamity.

5. Praise be to God, we have known the secret of “Poverty is my pride”; we have known the rank of poverty as above the grand vizierate.

6. It is no shame to be held lowly among the people for God's sake; we have known the seat of lowliness as the rank of vizier.

7. O you who do not know the road of love and will not sacrifice your own life, we have known such a one as dishonoured like a donkey.

8. Whoever does not burn in the fire of love we have known as ignorant of God's secrets, heedless of the secret of “Men ‘aref” (who knows himself knows his Lord), one of the heedless.

9. The ascetic must purify the inward; we have known the outwardly ascetic as lacking purity.

10. Mir'ât-nümâ, to the people of perfection outward perfections are a deficient tool; we have known perfections merely as “kem âlât”, deficient tools.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Refrain “Bilmişiz”

The refrain “bilmişiz”, we have known, voices the shared testimony of a community speaking in the first person plural, the disciples: “this is how we have known it.” The ten couplets are in the metre “Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilün”. The rhyme words flow with the sound “-et”: “kerâmet, reşâdet, himmet, hidâyet, âfet, ṣadâret, vezâret, şerâfet, ġaflet, ṭahâret, kem âlât”, reaching eleven rhyme words in a single ghazal.

The first three couplets of the ghazal praise the master; from the fourth onwards it enters a dispute within Sufism. The poet says that he does not chase unveilings and miracles and that he counts the miracle-worker “ehl-i âfet”, one exposed to calamity; the real miracle is the master's existence. This recalls the sayings of Naqshbandi masters who put uprightness rather than miracles first; the same subject is taken up again in the book's later section “On Regard for Miracles and Unveiling”. The phrase “el-faḳru faḫrî” in the fifth couplet is the saying attributed to the Prophet, “Poverty is my pride”; the thesis counts it among the quotations from hadith. The “Men ‘aref” of the eighth couplet is likewise the beginning of the saying “He who knows himself knows his Lord”.

The pun on “kemâlât” and “kem âlât” comes back in the pen-name couplet. The play used in the seventh na't for the Prophet's perfections is here turned the other way, to belittle claims of outward perfection.

Bibliography

Online sources