Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilün

Ḥubb-i ẕâtından ḳılıp Ḥaḳ Aḥmed’i
Bâ-kemâl gösterdi vech-i vāḥidi
Ẕâtına mir’ât edip ol sâcidi
Tâ o mir’âtden bile her ‘âbidi
Çünkü maḥbûb eyledi ẕât-ı penâh
Dest-gîr oldu aña ol pâdişâh
Eyledi ‘arż-ı kemâlâtın ilâh
Lî me‘allâh bildi ẕâtu’llâh-ı şâh
Çün Muḥammed ḥubb-i ẕât-ı kibriyâ
Pes bu ḥubdan enbiyâ vü evliyâ
Olmasa ger ḥubb-i şâh-ı aṣfiyâ
Ḫalḳ olunmazdı bu ‘âlem ü Enbiyâ
Cümle eşyânıñ olup ḥubb-i aḳdemi
Ṣoñradan Ḥaḳ ḳıldı rûḥ-ı Âdem’i
Tâ cemî‘ ervâḥ u arş-ı a‘ẕamı
Pes edip iḥdâs̱ vücûd-ı ‘âlemi
İş bu ḥubdan eyledi Âdem ẓuhûr
Eyledi ‘âlemin tâ kesb-i sürûr
Sırr-ı vaḥdet ẓâhir oldu bâ-‘ubûr
Ḳalmadı keşf oldu hep esrâr-ı nûr
Çün Muḥammeddir ki ‘ayn-ı hubb-ı ẕât
Bil olup insân bu vech-i resmiyât
Bir mekân yoḳdur anın-çün vâsi‘ât
Ḳalb-i insândır maḥall-i câlisât
Soñra ketb oldu haḳāyıḳ ṣûreti
Çıktı ṣûretden aṣâlet hey’eti
Tâ olup ḥubbuñ ṭarîḳat ṣan‘ati
‘Aynıdır sırr-ı ḥaḳīḳat sîreti
Nefs-ilen ḥub istedi etmek ciḥâd
Ḥubba tâbi‘ oldu pes ‘aḳl-i me‘âd
Nefse ġālip oldu ḥubbu’llâh ziyâde
Tâ ki ḥubba gösterip nefs inḳiyâd
Ḥaḳ tecellî ḳıldı Şâh-ı Aḥmed’e
Tâ ede da‘vet bu ḫalḳı vāḥide
Oldu çün irsâliñe cüml ‘âbide
Bildire Allâh’ı cümle zâhide
Şâh-ı Aḥmed’den bilindi vaṣl-ı yâr
Ġayri yoldan kim görünmez ol nigâr
Çün anı maḥbûb edip perverdigâr
Ol olup miftâḥ-ı bâb-ı Kirdgâr
Mâye-i sırrı Muḥammed’dir bu ḥub
Mebde-i bâb-ı şerî‘atdir bu ḥub
Maḫzen-i feyż-i ṭarîḳatdir bu ḥub
Menşe-i vaṣl-ı ḥaḳīḳatdir bu ḥub

In English

1. Out of love for His own essence God brought forth Ahmed and showed in perfection the face of the One.

2. He made that worshipper the mirror of His essence, so that every worshipper might know Him from that mirror.

3. When the essence that is the refuge made him the beloved, that sovereign took him by the hand.

4. God displayed His perfections to him; that king knew the essence of God through the secret “Lî me‘allâh” (I have a time with God …).

5. Since Muhammad is the love of the essence of the Majestic, the prophets and saints too come from this love.

6. Were it not for the love of the king of the pure, neither this world nor the prophets would have been created.

7. He became the love that came before all things; God created the spirit of Adam afterwards.

8. He made all the spirits and the mighty Throne, and then brought the existence of the world into being.

9. Adam appeared from this love, and so the world gained its joy.

10. The secret of oneness became manifest in passing; nothing stayed hidden, all the secrets of light were unveiled.

11. Since Muhammad is the very love of the essence, know that man received this visible face.

12. For this reason no place can contain him; his seat is only the heart of man.

13. Then the form of the realities was written; the shape of the original came out of the form.

14. So love became the art of the path, and the inner nature of the secret of reality is love itself.

15. Love sought to wage holy war against the self, and the mind that looks to the hereafter followed love.

16. The love of God prevailed over the self abundantly, until the self submitted to love.

17. God manifested Himself to King Ahmed, so that he might call this people to the One.

18. All worshippers were bound to his sending, so that he might make God known to every ascetic.

19. Union with the beloved was learned from King Ahmed; that beauty is not seen by any other road.

20. Because the Lord made him His beloved, he became the key to the Creator's door.

21. This love is Muhammad, the leaven of the secret; this love is the beginning of the door of the law.

22. This love is the treasury of the grace of the path; this love is the source of union with reality.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Reality of Muhammad

That the universe was created out of God's love for His own essence, and out of the light of Muhammad as the first manifestation of that love, is an idea widespread in Sufi thought; here the poet sets it out in verse. The section is headed “The Reality of Muhammad and the Appearance of the Spirits in the World” and covers couplets 61-82 in the edition. The narrative is plain, the terms heavy and the sentences short; the metre is still the three-foot remel.

The backbone of the section is the word “ḥub”, love. Love first becomes the cause of creation, then brings about the appearance of Adam and of the world, then becomes a force that fights against the self, and finally the art of the path. In the last two couplets the word recurs four times as a refrain, and love is defined in turn as the beginning of the law, the treasury of the path and the source of reality. This triad rebuilds the familiar steps of law, path and reality found in Naqshbandi treatises through the notion of love.

The mirror image appears again in the second couplet: God has made the Prophet Muhammad a “mir'ât” to His essence, and servants come to know God from that mirror. The twelfth couplet takes up an idea close to the sacred hadith which says that the heart is the seat of the reality that no place can contain. The phrase “Lî me‘allâh” in the fourth couplet refers to the saying attributed to the Prophet about a time with God into which no angel or prophet can enter.

Bibliography

Online sources