Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilün

‘Azm-i ‘uḳbâ eylese şeyḫin eger
Sen aña rabṭ eyle dâ’im bî-keder
İsti‘âne eyle her şâm tâ seḥer
Bil eder terbiyye rûḥânî ḫaber
Belki ehlu’llâh olmaz al ḫaber
Bil aña tems̱îl olur şemşîr meger
Çün çıḳıp ḳandan olursa ṭaşra ger
Çoḳ keser elbette evvelden beter
Çünkü rûḥda ḳalmadı aṣla ḥicâb
Ol maḳāmında mis̱âl-i âfitâb
Kim aña ḳarşı ṭurursa el-cevâb
Şübhesiz elbette eyler ḥiṣṣe-yâb
Var bu rûḥda ḳuvvet u ḳudret şedîd
Bulmaġa ister ki sâlik müste‘îd
Yoḳ gibidir şimdi böyle müctehid
Ḥiṣṣe-dâr olmaz bu rûḥdan her mürîd
Var ise ekmel vekîli bî‘at et
Sen anı şeyḫ ittiḫâẕ et ḥürmet et
Ṭurma bir dem sen ki sa‘y u himmet et
Sen aña rabṭ-ile aḫẕ-i nisbet et

In English

1. If your sheikh departs for the hereafter, make rabıta to him always, without sorrow.

2. Ask his help every evening until dawn; know that he trains you spiritually and gives tidings.

3. Perhaps the people of God do not die, take this news; know that the sword is his likeness;

4. for if it comes out of its sheath it surely cuts far more than before.

5. For in the spirit no veil remains at all; in that station it is like the sun.

6. Whoever stands facing it, the answer is: without doubt it surely gives him a share.

7. In this spirit there is a mighty strength and power; to find it the traveller must be capable.

8. Now there is hardly anyone who strives like this; not every disciple has a share of this spirit.

9. If there is a most perfect deputy of his, pledge yourself to him; take him as sheikh and honour him.

10. Do not delay a moment, make effort and exert yourself; through rabıta with him take the spiritual bond.

Literary and Historical Commentary

When the Sheikh Dies

The traveller who cannot benefit from the spiritual presence of his sheikh must pledge himself to a living master: this is how the heading of the ten-couplet section, couplets 526-535 in the edition, answers a question touched on in the book's early sections. The answer comes in two stages. The first eight couplets advise the disciple whose sheikh has died to continue his rabıta to him and to ask his help every night; for the people of God do not die in dying, and their spiritual power becomes sharper than before, like a sword drawn from its sheath.

The sword comparison is an extended form of the image of the “seyf-i Ḫudâ”, the sword of God, also seen in the book's only rubai; the comparison with the sun in the fifth couplet completes it. In the seventh and eighth couplets, however, a condition is set: to receive grace from this spiritual power the traveller must be capable, and such men are hardly to be found now. The last two couplets give the practical conclusion: if the dead sheikh has an “ekmel vekîl”, his most perfect deputy, one should pledge oneself to him and take the spiritual bond from him through rabıta.

These lines also explain the position of the poet himself, who after Mustafa İsmet Efendi's death in 1289 went as his deputy to Gümüş and from there to Amasya: for the disciples in Amasya he was the deputy of the dead sheikh. The two Persian couplets that follow the section continue the same idea.

Bibliography

Online sources