Original Arabic Text

Metre: vāfir, mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün fe‘ûlün. The edition says "serî‘"; the scansion of the lines is ours.

تَوَكَّلْنَا بِصِدْقٍ كُلَّ حَالِ
عَلَى اللهِ المُقَدِّرِ ذِي الجَلَالِ

Tevekkelnā bi-ṣıdḳın külle ḥālin
‘Ale’llāhi’l-muḳaddiri ẕi’l-celālī

هُوَ العَلَّامُ لِلْأَسْرَارِ كُلًّا
وخَلَّاقُ الخَلَائِقِ ذُو التَّعَالِي

Hüve’l-‘allāmu li’l-esrāri küllen
Ve ḫallāḳu’l-ḫalā’iḳı ẕü’t-te‘ālī

هُو اللهُ العَلِيُّ بِلا عَدِيلٍ
هُوَ الحَقُّ العَزِيزُ بِلا مِثَالِ

Hüve’llāhu’l-‘aliyyü bi-lā ‘adīlin
Hüve’l-ḥaḳḳu’l-‘azīzu bi-lā mis̱ālī

يُزَيِّنُ بِاخْضِرارٍ طَرْفَ رَوضٍ
عقيبَ الابْتِلالِ وَاخْضِلالِ

Yüzeyyinu bi’ḫżirārin ṭarfe ravżin
‘Aḳībe’l-ibtilāli ve’ḫżilālī

أوَحِّدُ ذاتَهُ مَا دُمْتُ حَيًّا
بِأصْنافِ التَّنَزُّهِ وَالتَّعالي

Üveḥḥidu ẕātehū mā dümtü ḥayyen
Bi-eṣnāfi’t-tenezzühi ve’t-te‘ālī

أصَلِّي بالصَّلاة عَلَى رَسولٍ
نَبِيٍّ هَاشِمِيٍّ ذِي جَمالِ

Üṣallī bi’ṣ-ṣalāti ‘alā resūlin
Nebiyyin Hāşimiyyin ẕī cemālī

وَأصْحابٍ أولِي كَرَمٍ وَآلٍ
كِرامٍ خَيرِ أصحابٍ وآلِ

Ve aṣḥābin ülī keremin ve ālin
Kirāmin ḫayri aṣḥābin ve ālī

وَبَعْدُ فَإنّ أنفَعَ كُلِّ عِلْمٍ
لِأَرْبابِ الفَضائِلِ والكَمَالِ

Ve ba‘du fe-inne enfe‘a külli ‘ilmin
Li-erbābi’l-feżā’ili ve’l-kemālī

هُوَ العِلْمُ المُسَمَّى بِالكَلامِ
جَلِيلُ الشَّأنِ عِنْدَ اللهِ عالِي

Hüve’l-‘ilmu’l-müsemmā bi’l-kelāmi
Celīlü’ş-şe’ni ‘inde’llāhi ‘ālī

وَيُنْجِي عَنْ غَيَاهِبِ كُلِّ شَكٍّ
وَمِنْ ظُلُماتِ وَهْمٍ أو خَيالِ

Ve yüncī ‘an ġayāhibi külli şekkin
Ve min ẓulumāti vehmin ev ḫayālī

وَيُوصِلُ لِلْيَقِينِ بِغيرِ عُسْرٍ
وَيَحْمِي رَاغِبِيهِ مِنَ الضَّلالِ

Ve yūṣılu li’l-yaḳīni bi-ġayri ‘usrin
Ve yaḥmī rāġibīhi mine’ż-żalālī

وَمَتْنُ عَقائدٍ مِنْ ذاكَ يَحْوِي
عَلَى غُرَرِ الفوائِدِ كَاللَّآلِي

Ve metnu ‘aḳā’idin min ẕāke yaḥvī
‘Alā ġureri’l-fevā’idi ke’l-le’ālī

وَ يَشْتَمِلُ اللُّبابَ بِغَيرِ قِشْرٍ
وَيَحْتَمِلُ الفَرائِدَ فِي خِلالِ

Ve yeştemilu’l-lübābe bi-ġayri ḳışrin
Ve yaḥtemilu’l-ferā’ide fī ḫilālī

وَيَشْمَلُ رَائقاتٍ مِنْ مَعانٍ
وَألفاظٍ سَلِيسٍ كَالزُّلالِ

Ve yeşmelu rā’iḳātin min me‘ānin
Ve elfāẓin selīsin ke’z-zülālī

فَحَتّى سَارَ سَائِرُهُ خِلالَ
الأناسِ وَصارَ مَقْبُولَ المَوالِ

Fe-ḥattā sāra sā’iruhū ḫilāle
El-unāsi ve ṣāra maḳbūle’l-mevālī

وَفِي ذا الحالِ أفْقَرُ كُلِّ ناسٍ
وَأحْوَجُهُمْ إلى اللهِ المُعالِي

Ve fī ẕe’l-ḥāli efḳaru külli nāsin
Ve aḥvecühüm ile’llāhi’l-mu‘ālī

ضَعيفٌ مُذْنِبٌ سَعْدِي بنُ تاجِي
جَزاهُ اللهُ خيراً فِي المَآلِ

Ża‘īfun müẕnibun Sa‘dī bnu Tācī
Cezāhu’llāhu ḫayran fi’l-me’ālī

تَتَبَّعَ نَظْمَهُ نَظْماً سَلِيساً
بَدِيعَ الطَّرْزِ كالسِّحْرِ الحَلالِ

Tetebbe‘a naẓmehū naẓmen selīsen
Bedī‘a’ṭ-ṭarzi ke’s-siḥri’l-ḥalālī

وَأفْرَزَ ما تَكَرَّرَ مِنْهُ مَعْنًى
فِراراً وَاحتِرازاً مِن مَطالِ

Ve efreze mā tekerrera minhü ma‘nen
Firāran ve’ḥtirāzen min meṭālī

لِيَسْهُلَ حفْظُهُ أربابَ شُغْلٍ
وَتَحْصُلَ مِنْهُ أصْنافُ المَنالِ

Li-yeshule ḥıfẓuhū erbābe şuġlin
Ve taḥṣule minhü eṣnāfu’l-menālī

وَوَشَّحَ صَدْرَهُ بِجَمِيلِ وَصْفٍ
لِسُلْطانٍ جَلِيلٍ ذِي المَعالي

Ve veşşeḥa ṣadrahū bi-cemīli vaṣfin
Li-sulṭānin celīlin ẕi’l-me‘ālī

وَذا السُّلطانُ سُلطان بايَزِيدُ
مَلِيكٌ عادِلٌ حَسَنُ الخِصالِ

Ve ẕe’s-sulṭānu sulṭān Bāyezīdü
Melīkun ‘ādilun ḥasenü’l-ḫiṣālī

مَلِيكٌ لا يُرَى بَينَ البَرايا
لِذاتِهِ مِن ضَرِيبٍ أو مِثالِ

Melīkun lā yürā beyne’l-berāyā
Li-ẕātihī min żarībin ev mis̱ālī

كَبَرْقٍ بارِقٍ فِي يَومِ حَرْبٍ
وَمُزْنٍ هاطِلٍ وَقتَ النَّوالِ

Ke-berḳin bāriḳın fī yevmi ḥarbin
Ve muznin hāṭilin vaḳte’n-nevālī

فَأضْحَى بابُهُ مَأوَى فُحُولٍ
وَصارَ مَلاذَ مُلّاكٍ أعالِ

Fe-eżḥā bābuhū me’vā fuḥūlin
Ve ṣāra melāẕe müllākin e‘ālī

مُنايَ مِنَ الإلَهِ دَوامَ عُمْرِهِ
لَعَمْرِي غيرَ ذلكَ لا مُنالِ

Münāye mine’l-ilāhi devāme ‘umrihī
Le-‘amrī ġayra ẕālike lā münālī

وَقاهُ اللهُ مِنْ هَمٍّ وَ غَمٍّ
وَبَأسٍ مَا أتَى مَعْنًى بِبَالِ

Veḳāhu’llāhu min hemmin ve ġammin
Ve be’sin mā etā ma‘nen bi-bālī

وَ مَا هَدَلَ الهَدِيلُ عَلَى غُصُونٍ
وَمَا اهْتَزَّ الغُصُونُ مِنَ الشَّمالِ

Ve mā hedele’l-hedīlu ‘alā ġuṣūnin
Ve me’htezze’l-ġuṣūnu mine’ş-şimālī

فَفِي التَّرتِيبِ إنْ وَقَعَ اختِلافٌ
لِضِيقِ الوَزْنِ فَاحْذَرْ عَنْ جِدالِ

Fe-fi’t-tertībi in veḳa‘a’ḫtilāfun
Li-żīḳi’l-vezni fe’ḥẕer ‘an cidālī

وَإنْ وَقَعَ التَّكَرُّرُ فِي القَوافِي
لِعُذْرٍ جازَ عِنْدَ أولِي فَعالِ

Ve in veḳa‘a’t-tekerruru fi’l-ḳavāfī
Li-‘uẕrin cāze ‘inde ülī fe‘ālī

فَنَشْرَعُ ما هُوَ المَقْصُودُ عِنْدِي
ونَبْتَدِئُ المَباحِثَ حَسْبَ حالِ

Fe-neşra‘u mā hüve’l-maḳṣūdu ‘indī
Ve nebtedi’u’l-mebāḥis̱e ḥasbe ḥālī

وَفَضْلُ اللهِ يَكْفِينِي وَ حَسْبِي
عَلَيهِ اعْتِمادِي وَ اتِّكالِ

Ve fażlu’llāhi yekfīnī ve ḥasbī
‘Aleyhi’‘timādī ve’ttikālī

In English

1. In every state we have placed our trust, sincerely, in God, the Ordainer, Lord of majesty.

2. He is the One who knows every secret in full, the Creator of all creatures, the Exalted.

3. He is God, the Most High, without equal; He is the Real, the Mighty, without likeness.

4. He adorns every corner of the garden with green after it has been soaked and moistened. (The edition's translation expands this as "after watering every side of His paradise with His mercy"; the word in the text is "ravż", a garden.)

5. As long as I live I proclaim the oneness of His essence, declaring Him free of every flaw and exalting Him. (A footnote in the edition gives the other copy's variant "mis̱le’t-te‘ālī".)

6. I call down blessings upon the Messenger, a Prophet of the house of Hāshim, endowed with beauty,

7. and upon his generous Companions and his noble family, the best of companions and of kin.

8. And now: the most useful of all sciences for people of virtue and attainment

9. is the science called kalām (scholastic theology), great in standing and high in rank before God.

10. It delivers a man from the deep darkness of every doubt and from the shadows of fancy and imagination.

11. It brings one to certainty without hardship and guards those who desire it from going astray.

12. And a text of the articles of faith, drawn from that science, holds choice benefits like pearls.

13. It contains the kernel without the husk and carries single pearls, that is, rare points, within its lines.

14. It holds clear meanings and words that flow like sweet, pure water.

15. So that the whole of it might circulate among people and win the approval of friends. (The first hemistich ends on the word "ḫilāle" and the sentence runs on into the second. The edition's translation takes the first line as "so that what displeases people may be removed"; the Arabic admits both readings.)

16. And yet its author is the poorest of all people and the most in need of God, the Exalted. (The other copy reads "mu‘āvin", the Helper.)

17. He is weak and sinful Sa‘dī, son of Tācī; may God reward him with good in the end.

18. He set about putting it into smooth verse, novel in manner, like "lawful magic".

19. He removed whatever was repeated in meaning, fleeing and guarding against prolixity,

20. so that those occupied with the science might memorise it easily and gain from it every kind of profit.

21. And he adorned its opening with fine praise of a great sultan, lord of high deeds.

22. That sultan is Sultan Bayezid, a just king of fine character.

23. A king whose like or match is not to be seen among all creatures.

24. He is like flashing lightning on the day of battle and a pouring rain-cloud at the time of giving.

25. His gate became the refuge of eminent men and the shelter of lords of high rank.

26. My wish from God is that his life may endure; by my life, I ask for nothing else.

27. May God protect him from care, grief and hardship. (The second hemistich can be read two ways: for as long as a meaning comes to mind, that is, as long as this prayer lasts; or, as in the edition's translation, from the hardship that comes to mind.)

28. As long as the dove coos upon the branches and the branches sway in the north wind.

29. If there is any change in the order of topics, it is due to the narrowness of the metre; beware of disputing it.

30. And if a rhyme is repeated, the generous will allow it for that excuse. (The other copy reads "kerem" for "fe‘āl".)

31. Now I begin what is my real purpose and open the topics as far as my state allows.

32. God's grace suffices me and is enough; on Him is my reliance and my trust.

Literary and Historical Commentary

How the Introduction Is Built

The thirty-two-couplet introduction enters by the familiar door of a madrasa book: trust in God, praise, blessings on the Prophet, his Companions and his family. Sa‘dī Çelebi completes this frame in seven couplets and moves to his real concern. From the eighth couplet onward he praises kalām, scholastic theology: it is the most useful of sciences, it delivers from the darkness of doubt, it leads to certainty without hardship. The praise also says what the work is. The "metnu ‘aḳā’id", a text of the articles of faith, in the twelfth couplet is the short treatise known under the name of ‘Umar al-Nasafī (d. 537/1142). Sa‘dī never names his source; Kamile Ünlüsoy and Mohammad Shakib Asım established that the poem is a versified form of the ‘Aḳāidü’n-Nesefî, since its order of topics and its content largely coincide with it.

The second half of the introduction is an author's statement. In the seventeenth couplet the poet names himself: "Ża‘īfun müẕnibun Sa‘dī bnu Tācī", weak and sinful Sa‘dī, son of Tācī. The attribution of the work rests on this couplet. The copy in the National Library in Ankara assigns the poem, under the title Kasîdetü Kelâmiye, to his elder brother Tâcîzâde Câfer Çelebi; according to the editors, the presence of the same couplet in the introduction of both copies settles that the work is Sa‘dī's. Then comes the method. The poet says he cast the text into smooth verse, removed passages repeated in meaning, and did so to make memorisation easy. The apology in the twenty-ninth and thirtieth couplets belongs to the same task: because the metre was narrow, the order of topics changed here and there and rhymes were repeated, and he asks the reader not to make a dispute of it.

In the couplets praising kalām the metaphors are built on the contrast of light and darkness. On one side stand the "ġayāhib", the deep darknesses of doubt, and the "ẓulumāt" of fancy and imagination; on the other, the clarity of certainty. The pearl image follows at once: the text carries choice benefits like pearls, keeps the kernel (lübāb) and leaves the husk, and holds within it single pearls called "ferā’id". Sa‘dī uses the phrase "lawful magic" (siḥr-i ḥelāl) for his own verse; the old expression for fine speech does not hide, even in a didactic poem, the wish to show the poet's skill.

The Praise of Sultan Bayezid

The praise that runs from the twenty-first couplet to the twenty-eighth opens by saying that the poet has adorned the head of the work "with a fine description" and names the ruler: Sultan Bayezid. Lightning flashing on the day of battle and a cloud pouring at the time of giving are a well-known pair in Arabic panegyric; they join courage and generosity in a single couplet. His gate is called the refuge of the "fuḥūl", the eminent men. The prayer closes with a two-couplet condition: as long as the dove coos on the branches, as long as the branches sway in the north wind. This formula, which expresses an endless span through the recurrences of nature, is common in the prayer sections of qasidas.

The praise also helps to date the work. At the end of the National Library copy stands the date 882 (1477-1478); yet Bayezid II came to the throne in 1481, and both copies speak of him as sultan. For this reason the editors consider it more likely that the work was written at the end of the fifteenth century. The date line in the conclusion gives a further answer to this question; that calculation is treated in the last section of the poem. The Topkapı copy bears a seal with the tughra of Şehzade Ahmed, which shows that the work was read in the circle of Bayezid's sons. That Sa‘dī presented qasidas to Bayezid is known from entries in the İn‘âmât Defteri, the register of royal gifts.

Metre and Rhyme

The editors state that the work is written in the serî‘ metre with the rhyme letter lām. The syllable pattern of the lines points to another measure: the line "Tevekkelnā bi-ṣıdḳın külle ḥālin", with its short-long-long-long sequence, fits the vāfir metre of Arabic prosody in the form "mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün fe‘ûlün", built from its "mufâ‘eletün" foot read with a quiescent letter, and that pattern holds throughout the poem; we reached this by scanning the lines one by one ourselves. The second lines of all 234 couplets end in the sound "-ālī" (celālī, te‘ālī, mis̱ālī…); the poem is built from beginning to end like a monorhyme qasida. This is also the reason for the apology in the thirtieth couplet, since in a text of this length the same rhyme word inevitably returns. On this site the poem has been divided into eleven sections following the "el-Ḳavlu fī…" headings of the manuscripts; couplet numbers show the order in the whole poem.

Bibliography

Online sources