Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilün

Râh-ı ḥaḳda istiḳāmet gerçi kâr
Müstaḳīm sâlikde feyż-i Kirdgâr
Ḳalb olupdur ḫâne-i perver-digâr
Yâr u aġyâr istemez âmir zi-kâr
Veẕkuru’llâh sırrını bildiñ a cân
Ẕâkirân meẕkûra etmen terk-i cân
Ger seven cânânını taḥḳīḳ-i ‘ayân
Olmaya ġāfil rıżâsından bir ân
Kimden almışsañ eger ẕikr-i Ḫudâ
Ol mu‘allimdir saña ḳıl iḳtidâ
Ḳıl aña ḥürmet ri‘âyet dâ’imâ
Çün olup ol reh-nümâyı kibriyâ
Ger şerî‘atde muḳīm olmazsa ol
Var diger bir kâmile ol bende ḳul
Yed-i ṣaḥîḥ mürşid gerekdir şarṭı şol
Ṭoġru yed-i ekmal mükemmel ṭurma bul
Var mükemmelde ‘alâmet ḥüsn-i ḥâl
Yoḳ lisânında muḫâlif ḳīl u ḳāl
Ḥak’da ifnâ ḫâliḳında iştiġāl
Ṭut göñül al feyż-i ẕât-ı ẕü’l-Celâl
Ekmele dil verse bir tâlib dilâ
Yoḳ olur göñlünde küll-i mâsivâ
Bi-ġarażu’llâh mecâlis olsa tâ
Farḳ eder sırr-ı velâyet intihâ
Yed-i s̱aḥîḥ var ba‘żı müstaḫlif ẕevât
Ḫalḳı da‘vetci olup Ḥaḳḳ’a o ẕât
Yoḳ demem bir şey velî bu müşkilât
Çünkü nâḳısdır sülûk vermez ḥayât
Ba‘żı ṭâlipde füzûn-ı Ḥaḳ derdi var
Ḥaḳ için eyler müdâim âh u zâr
Şeyḫ aña olmazsa gerçi yâr-ı ġār
Ṭâlibi maḳhûr eder bir rûzigâr
Ol ki şeyḫiñ şeyḫi olsa ber-ḥayât
Çün alur rûḥâni ṭâlib feyż-i ẕât
Ger ḥayâtda yoḳ ise müşkil necât
Tâ olur ṭâlib-i helâk bî-ḥâṣılât
Ba‘żı ṭâlipde muḥabbet verdi az
Feyẕ-i Ḥaḳ taḥṣiline eyler çü nâz
Ẕikr için eyyâm arar tâ ḳış u yaz
Yoḳ ziyân nâḳıṣ gerek şeyḫ ser-firâz

In English

1. On the road of God uprightness is indeed the real work; in the upright traveller is the grace of the Creator.

2. The heart has become the house of the Lord; the friend and strangers do not dwell together, this is the work of the One who commands.

3. O soul, you have known the secret of “Ve'ẕkurû'llâh” (Remember God); those who remember do not abandon the Remembered with their life.

4. If the lover truly and plainly knows his beloved, he is not heedless of his pleasure for a moment.

5. From whomever you received the remembrance of God, he is your teacher; follow him.

6. Always show him reverence and respect, for he has become the guide to the Majestic.

7. If he does not stand firm in the law, go to another perfect one and become his bound servant.

8. The condition is this: a master with a sound hand is needed; find a true, most perfect, accomplished hand, do not delay.

9. In the accomplished one the sign is a good state; there is no talk against the law on his tongue.

10. Annihilated in God, he is occupied with his Creator; hold your heart, receive the grace of the essence of the Lord of Majesty.

11. O heart, if a seeker gives his heart to a perfect one, everything other than God vanishes from his heart.

12. If assemblies are for God without self-interest, they distinguish the furthest point of the secret of sainthood.

13. There are some deputies whose hand is sound; such a one is a summoner of the people to God.

14. I say nothing, but there is a difficulty here, for the deficient one is deficient; his way gives no life.

15. In some seekers the longing for God is great; for God's sake they sigh and lament continually.

16. If the sheikh does not truly become his companion of the cave, in time he crushes the seeker.

17. If the sheikh's own sheikh is alive, the seeker receives the grace of the essence spiritually.

18. If he is not alive, salvation is hard, and the seeker perishes without result.

19. To some seekers God gave little love; they are coy about gaining the grace of God.

20. For remembrance they pick days, winter and summer; a deficient sheikh does no harm here, yet an exalted sheikh is needed.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Uprightness and the Deficient Sheikh

The heading names three subjects together: “the benefits of uprightness on the path”, “the signs of the perfect” and “the training of the deficient”. The twenty couplets are numbered 182-201; the count starts again at 182, overlapping with the last three couplets of the previous section, a slip in the edition's own numbering. The section opens with a couplet saying that “istikamet”, uprightness, is the real work of the path, and passes to the secret of “Veẕkuru’llâh”, which points to the Qur'anic command “Remember God”.

The core of the section is the seventh and eighth couplets. Right after it is said that the disciple must regard as his teacher the one from whom he received remembrance, an important exception follows: if that sheikh does not stand firm in the law, the disciple must go to another perfect master. In the literature of the orders a disciple's changing sheikhs is often frowned upon; Süleyman Efendi puts conformity to the law before loyalty to the sheikh. The ninth couplet gives the sign of the perfect: a good state and no word against the law on his tongue.

After the thirteenth couplet the poet discusses the case of the “müstaḫlif”, the deputies, whose own sheikh is no longer living, and says that if the sheikh's sheikh is alive the seeker can receive grace from him spiritually, and that otherwise salvation is hard. That these lines were written by a deputy whose own master Mustafa İsmet Efendi had died in 1289 gives the couplets a personal weight as well; the text does not draw this connection openly. The phrase “yâr-ı ġār”, companion of the cave, describes the bond between sheikh and disciple by recalling Ebûbekir's companionship in the cave.

Bibliography

Online sources