Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilün

Evvelâ elzem şerî‘at ṣohbeti
Pes anıñladır ṭarîḳat ḳuvveti
Yoġ-ise elde şerî‘at ḫil‘ati
Şüphesiz yoḳdur ṭarîḳat nisbeti
Cümleden aḳdem şerî‘atdir ṭarîḳ
Pes şerî‘at-len ṭarîḳatdir refîḳ
Ol ṭarâ’iḳ içre var baḥr-i ‘amîḳ
Fehm edip sırr-i ḥaḳīḳat ol daḳīḳ
Gel ‘azîzim eyle dâ’im inzivâ
Nefs ü şeyṭân etmesin ta ber-havâ
Pes murâdu’llâh saña reddet sivâ
Ol bu demde tâ ‘alel-‘arş istivâ
Raġbet etme gel bu dünyâ mâline
Düşme ḫalkıñ pâyine pâ-mâline
Baḳma ḫalḳıñ ḥâline ‘amâline
Herkesi ḳoy kendi özge ḥaline
Bir kişi senden ṣorar mı bir kesi
‘Âlemiñ lâzım degil terbîyesi
Her kişi kendi elinde kendisi
Ger gerek ṭoġru gerek var ḥîlesi
Baḳmasın düşmân saña nefsiñ yeter
Her fenânıñ evvelî ondan beter
Her deh meẕmûm yollara nefsiñ gider
Ḫalḳ hemân şeyṭân için bühtân eder
Sen saña nefsiñ saña senden yaḳīn
‘Arẕ edip bir fi‘le sen olsañ ḳarîn
İrtikâb etseñ anı ol dem hemîn
Ba‘dehû taḥrîk eder iblîs la‘în
Fehm olunmaz kim bu nefsiñ ḥîlesi
Ḥîle-kârlıḳda ḳatı çoḳ bilmesi
Ṣanma dostluḳdur bu nefsiñ cilvesi
Bir ‘aceb sille bu nefsiñ sillesi
Her fesâdıñ mebde’î andan ẓuhûr
Her ḳuṣûruñ evvelâ andan murûr
Her günâhıñ menba‘ı ol bâ-ḫuṭûr
Ḥâlleri kibr u ġażab ‘ucb u ġurûr
İstemez girmek ebed ‘ulviyete
Dâ’imâ mâ’il özü süfliyete
Hep cidâl etmekde ḥaḳḳāniyete
Râżı olmaz ḥaḳ olan keyfiyete
Ḥîlesi çok yoḳ işinde bir ḳarâr
Her işinde ‘âḳıbet var bir żarar
Ol ‘adüv bed-baḫta ger her kim uyar
Şüphesiz andan ‘uḳûbâtlar duyar
Naḳşibend aḥvâline diñle güzel
İttibâ‘ sünnet ‘azîmet-len ‘amel
Terk-i bid‘at kes̱reti eẕkârım me’l
Yoḳ ‘azîz ta‘ṭîl-i ẕikru’llâh eḳal
Kim demiş bu ẕâtlara bir söz ḫaṭâ
İncinir ervâḥ-ı cümle Enbiyâ
Vâris̱-i Peygamberân bu evliyâ
Bunları maḥbûb idinmiş Kibriyâ
Bil bu ẕâtlar kenz-i Raḥmân oldular
Vâḳıfân-ı ẕât-ı Yezdân oldular
Ġavs̱-i a‘ẓam sırr-ı sübḥân oldular
Ka‘be-i taḥḳīḳa derbân oldular
Bil ḥaḳīḳatde bu ẕâtlar pehlivân
Bil taṣarrufda bu ẕâtlar mürşidân
Bi’l-aṣâle vâris̱-i Peygamberân
Hep ḥaḳāyıḳ ehli bunlar ‘ârifân
‘Âlem-i ġaybdan olup bunlar ḫabîr
‘Âlem-i ġayba olup bunlar vezîr
Muḫbir-i Mevlâ bu ẕâtlar bî-naẓîr
Lî me‘allâh oldular bunlar emîr
Setr olup bunlar ‘azîz tahte’l-ḳıbâb
Şems-i Ḥaḳ bunlar cihânda mâhitâb
Bunlara dil ver hemân ḳıl intisâb
Bilmeyen oldu ḫarâbân ender ḫarâb
Seyr ‘ani’llâh’da bu ẕâtlar padişâh
Hem beḳābi’llâh’da meşhûdân nigâh
Dedi dânişden bî-iştibâh
Seyr-i fi’l eşyâda bunlar ehl-i câh

In English

1. First, the company of the law is most necessary; the strength of the path is only through it.

2. If one has no robe of the law in hand, there is without doubt no bond with the path.

3. The road that comes before all is the law; the path is a companion together with the law.

4. Among those paths is a deep sea; understand the secret of reality and be attentive.

5. Come, my dear, keep always to retreat, lest the self and Satan blow you away.

6. For God's will reject all else; then you will be at the station of “settling upon the Throne”.

7. Come, do not long for the goods of this world; do not fall to be trampled under the people's feet.

8. Do not look at the people's state and deeds; leave everyone to his own particular state.

9. Will anyone ask you about another? The training of the world is not your duty.

10. Each person is in his own hands, whether he be honest or have his tricks.

11. Let no enemy look at you, your self is enough; the first of every evil is worse coming from it.

12. Your self goes every moment down blameworthy roads, and the people at once slander Satan for it.

13. Your self is nearer to you than you are; when it proposes a deed and you draw near to it,

14. if you commit it in that moment, then the accursed devil spurs you on.

15. The trickery of this self cannot be grasped; in craft it knows a great deal.

16. Do not take the coquetry of this self for friendship; the slap of this self is a strange slap.

17. The beginning of every corruption appears from it; every fault passes first through it.

18. That dangerous one is the source of every sin; its states are pride, anger, conceit and vanity.

19. It never wishes to enter loftiness; its nature always inclines to baseness.

20. It is ever wrangling with what is true; it is not content with any quality that is right.

21. Its tricks are many and there is no constancy in its doing; in each of its deeds there is harm in the end.

22. Whoever follows that ill-starred enemy will surely taste punishments from it.

23. Listen well to the states of the Naqshbandis: they follow the custom and act with resolve.

24. Abandoning innovation and much remembrance are their way; my dear, they never neglect the remembrance of God in the least.

25. Whoever has said a wrong word against these men wounds the spirits of all the prophets.

26. These saints are the heirs of the prophets; the Majestic One has made them His beloved.

27. Know that these men became the treasury of the Merciful; they came to know the essence of God.

28. They became the great help, the secret of the Glorious; they became gatekeepers of the Kaaba of verification.

29. Know that in reality these men are champions; know that in spiritual power these men are masters.

30. By origin they are the heirs of the prophets; all of them are people of realities, knowers of God.

31. They are informed of the unseen world; they are viziers to the unseen world.

32. These men are the Lord's peerless messengers; they became emirs of “Lî me‘allâh”.

33. My dear, they are hidden beneath the domes; they are the sun of God and the moonlight in the world.

34. Give your heart to them at once and attach yourself to them; whoever did not know them became a ruin among ruins.

35. In the journey from God these men are kings; in abiding in God they are the gazes beheld.

36. Without doubt he said from knowledge that in the journey through things these are the people of rank.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Law, Self and Saints

Without the “robe of the law” there is no bond with the path: with this image the opening couplets of this long section repeat the book's main principle and count the company of the law as the strength of the path. The section, couplets 280-316 in the edition, names three subjects in its heading, and the mesnevî treats them in turn: the observance of the law by the people of the path, their inner strength, and the corruptions of the self. Şensöz summarises the work's view of the relation between law and path through this section.

From the seventh to the fourteenth couplet the poet advises not to look at the state of the people and not to undertake to train anyone; the real enemy is the self. The observation in the twelfth couplet is striking: people at once lay evil at Satan's door, whereas it is the self that first opens the road; Satan spurs one on only after the deed is done. The image of the “sille”, the slap, in the sixteenth couplet describes the sudden blow that follows the friendly-seeming coquetry of the self.

After the twenty-third couplet the subject passes to the Naqshbandi saints, and the section ends with a long eulogy. The phrase “bu ẕâtlar”, these men, is repeated in almost every couplet: heirs of the prophets, treasury of the Merciful, viziers of the unseen, suns hidden beneath domes. The twenty-fifth couplet shows the polemical side of this praise: whoever speaks a wrong word against these men wounds the spirits of all the prophets. The last couplets touch on stages of the Sufi journey such as “seyr ‘ani'llâh”, “beḳā bi'llâh” and “seyr fi'l-eşyâ”; it is not clear whose saying the last line reports.

Bibliography

Online sources