Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilün

Râbıṭa lâzım gerekdir ekmele
Nâḳıṣa olmaz velev ki kâmile
Ekmele ruḫṣat olur yoḳ echele.
Tâ fenâ fi’llâha mâlik kümmele
Sâlike iblîs diler vermek ḫuṭûr
Nâkıṣân şeklinde hem eyler ẓuhûr
Sâliki ol ânda eyler bî-ḥużûr
Mübtedi bilmez nedendir bu fütûr
Ger fenâ fi’llâh ise şeyḫiñ yaḳīn
Râbıṭa eyle aña sen ol emîn
Ol mübârek ṣûrete girmez lâ‘în
Girmek isterse yanar ol dem hemîn
Bende var ḥâżır senin-çün bir su’âl
Dâ’imâ göñlüñde büt emlâk-i mâl
Ger Ḫudâ’dan ġayride bir iştiġāl
Râbıṭa olmaz mı mâl evlâd u ‘ıyâl
Bir delîliñ olsa ẓâhirde refîḳ
Ayrı andan bir yere ṭutuñ ṭarîḳ
Sen ġarîb ḳaldıñ o dem ṣaḥrâ ‘amîḳ
Olmadı ḥâsıl murâdıñ ol daḳīḳ
Şeyḫ-i şüyûḫ ‘ârif-i ‘avârif nâm kitâb
Anda naḳl etdi kelâm-ı müsteṭâb
Şeyḫ-i ‘Abdulḳārî’den her ḫiṭâb
Râbıṭa elzem buyurdu el-cevâb
Sûre-i Yûsuf’da burhân tefsîri
Basṭ edipdir haḳāyıḳ-ı enveri
Söyledi ẕikriñ eñ a‘ẓam serveri
Râbıṭadır bildiren ol perveri
Hem Şihâb İbn Ḥacer şerḥ-i kitâb
Baḳ teşehhüdde beyân etdigi bâb
Râbıṭa ḥaḳḳında oldu hep cevâb
Gel mufaṣṣal oldu anda etme ḫâb
Şeyh Gazalî İmâm-ı Kâmiyâb
Vardır İhyâu’l-‘Ulûm ulu kitâb
Oldu beḥḥâs̱ hem teşehhüdde cevâb
Râbıṭa baḥs̱inde mefhûm-ı ḫiṭâb
İbn ‘Abbâs’dan rivâyet ol sürûr
Bakdı ol mir’âta ḳarşı bî-ḳuṣûr
Görmedi kendi cemâlin bî-ḫuṭûr
Serveri ol kâ’inât etdi ẓuhûr
Şeyḫ Şa‘râni vü Cüneyd ser-ṭâ’ife
Çok ma‘ârifde beyân-ı ‘ârife
Var taṣavvufda ḥaḳāyıḳ ma‘rife
Eyledi tafṣîl ne ḥâcet ta‘rife
Etme zâhid râbıṭa ḥaḳḳında ḳāl
Şeyḫ-i Ekmel reh-nümâyı ẕü’l-Celâl
Râbıṭa olmazsa dâ’im iştiġāl
Bulmaz ol sâlik cemâl-i bâ-kemâl
Hep taṣavvuflarda biñ yıldan beru
Râbıṭa baḥs̱inde pek çoḳ söz ṭolu
Var ḥadîs̱ âyetle s̱âbit gel oḳu
Boş yere da‘vâ ne lâzım ṭur geri
Ḫace-i aḥrâr ma‘rûf evliyâ
Sûre-î Yûsuf’da tefsîr etdi tâ
Râbıṭa olmazsa gitmez mâsivâ
Şeyḫ-ilen ḥâṣıl Cenâb-ı Kibriyâ
Şeyḫ Suyûṭî eyledi keşf-i kelâm
Gör ne söyler bunda ol-ẕât kirâm
Hem taḥiyyâtda Resûl’e ol selâm
Şüphesiz bil râbıṭa makṣad merâm
Mollâ Câmî eyledi pek ḫoş beyân
Bil ki ol ‘allâme-i ‘aṣr-ı cihân
Şeyḫine merbûṭ olursa sâlikân
Feyż-i Ḥaḳ dâ’im anın-landır hemân

In English

1. Rabıta must be made to the most perfect; it is not to be made to the deficient, even if he be perfect.

2. Licence is given to the most perfect, there is none for the ignorant; let him be one who has reached annihilation in God and possesses perfection.

3. The devil wishes to give the traveller evil whisperings; he appears too in the form of the deficient.

4. At that moment he makes the traveller uneasy; the beginner does not know where this slackness comes from.

5. If your sheikh is certainly annihilated in God, make rabıta to him and be secure.

6. The accursed one cannot enter that blessed form; if he tries to enter, he burns at once.

7. I have a question ready for you: while there is always an idol of goods and property in your heart,

8. is being occupied with what is other than God, goods, children and family, not also a rabıta?

9. If you had a guide as an outward companion and took a road to some place apart from him,

10. you would be left a stranger in the deep desert at that moment; O attentive one, your aim would not be achieved.

11. The Sheikh of Sheikhs (Sühreverdî), author of the book called “Avârif”, related there a fine saying:

12. in every address from Sheikh Abdulkârî he declared in answer that rabıta is essential.

13. In the commentary on the chapter of Joseph, the “burhan” (the sign Joseph saw) has unfolded the brightest of realities;

14. that nurturer made known that the greatest of remembrances, the master, is rabıta.

15. Şihâb İbn Hacer too, in his commentary on the book, see, in the chapter where he explains the tashahhud,

16. gave answer throughout on rabıta; come, it is set out in detail there, do not sleep.

17. Sheikh Gazâlî, the imam who attained his aim, has the great book “İhyâu'l-‘Ulûm”;

18. he too, as an investigator, answered in the tashahhud; the sense of the address is in the discussion of rabıta.

19. It is related from Ibn Abbâs: that joyful one looked faultlessly into that mirror,

20. he did not see his own beauty; the lord of the universe appeared in it.

21. Sheikh Şa‘rânî and Cüneyd, head of the order, in many works of gnosis, in the knower's exposition,

22. explained in detail that in Sufism there are realities and knowledge; what need is there for definition.

23. O ascetic, do not talk against rabıta; the most perfect sheikh is the guide to the Lord of Majesty.

24. Without rabıta, even if always occupied, that traveller does not find the perfect beauty.

25. For a thousand years all the books of Sufism have been full of words on rabıta.

26. Come and read, it is established by verse and hadith; what need of empty claims, stand back.

27. The famous saint Hâce Ahrâr, in his commentary on the chapter of Joseph, said:

28. “Without rabıta, what is other than God does not go; the Majestic is reached through the sheikh.”

29. Sheikh Suyûtî too opened the word; see what that noble man says here:

30. there is the greeting to the Messenger in the tahiyyât; know without doubt that the aim and purpose is rabıta.

31. Mollâ Câmî explained it very finely; know that he is the most learned of the age of the world:

32. if travellers are bound to their sheikh, the grace of God is always through him alone.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A List of Authorities on Rabıta

Rabıta, the disciple's binding himself to the sheikh by holding his image in the heart, is one of the most disputed practices of the Naqshbandi-Khalidi path, and this section (couplets 403-434) defends it. The heading lays down two conditions together: rabıta is made only to the “ekmel”, the most perfect sheikh, and is not permitted towards the deficient. The fifth and sixth couplets give the reason: the devil cannot enter the form of a sheikh who is annihilated in God.

In the seventh and eighth couplets the poet puts a question to his opponent: does the one who holds goods, property, children and family in his heart not also make a kind of rabıta? This counter-question is an answer to those who criticised rabıta as idolatry. After the eleventh couplet the section proceeds like a bibliography in verse: Sühreverdî's Avârifü'l-maârif, the commentary on the chapter of Joseph, İbn Hacer's commentary on the tashahhud, Gazâlî's İhyâ, a mirror tradition from Ibn Abbâs, Şa‘rânî and Cüneyd, Ubeydullah Ahrâr, Suyûtî and Mollâ Câmî. Many of these names are explained in the thesis among the figures mentioned in the work.

This list shows that the debate over rabıta was still alive in the nineteenth century. Naqshbandi-Khalidi circles wrote treatises to prove the legitimacy of rabıta and cited the same authorities again and again; the poet's list is a verse summary of that tradition. The couplet “Bend-i âhın-lan”, placed in the middle of the section, gathers the same subject into a single couplet.

Bibliography

Online sources