ÜÇÜNCÜ FEN · BİRİNCİ BAB · İKİNCİ FASIL · Altıncı Madde
Sixth Point
It indicates that the love of the world is an obstacle to attaining nearness to the Divine Beloved (Mawla), and that the heart purifies itself from it through various methods of asceticism (zuhd).
Beloved! It must be known that the friends of Allah have said: The love of the world turns the servant away from his Lord’s path and prevents him from worship and nearness to Him.
To remove the world from the heart and eliminate it is only possible through detaching oneself from all worldly possessions (tajarrud) [179] and turning away from the world (zuhd) [180]. This zühd and tajarrud are necessary for you because inclination and love for the world preoccupy you. It binds your outward self (zahir) with constant desires and labor, while also occupying your heart (batin) with longing and desire. But both of these are what keep one away from the Divine Presence and worship of Him. For the nafs (self) and the heart are one and the same. When preoccupied with something, you distance yourself from its opposite. The world and the afterlife are two opposites that anger one while pleasing the other. Indeed, the world and the afterlife are like the west and the east; the more you incline towards one, the further you move away from the other.
It is a certainty that outward preoccupation with the world through desire and labor is necessary. For Hazrat Abu Darda (r.a.) said: “I sought a way to combine worship and trade, but they could not be brought together. So I turned away from trade and directed myself towards worship.” Hazrat Umar (r.a.) said: "If it were possible for anyone other than me to combine worship and trade [189/a], it would have been possible for me first."
Because the Exalted Allah has granted me both mercy (lînet/softness) and strength.
The preoccupation with the world through desire and longing in the heart is certain. For the Most Beloved Prophet (s.a.w.) said: “He who loves the world, harms his afterlife. He who loves the afterlife, benefits his world. So prefer that which is eternal over that which is transient.”
Verse
1-Kesî çun be-fânî nehed dil zi-cân
Çu û-râ zevâlî resed gam buved
2-Çu men dil be-bâkî nihâdem temâm
Ez-ân hâtırem hûb u hurrem buved
(Translation of the Verse)
1-Whoever attaches his heart to that which is transient, grieves and sorrows when he loses it.
2-Because I have attached my heart to that which is Eternal, my heart is joyful, blissful, and content.
While the body is preoccupied with worldly desires and the heart is occupied with worldly longing, neither worship will be facilitated for you nor will you find contentment. If you abandon the world and distance yourself from it with your body and your heart, then both worship will be facilitated for you and you will find contentment.
The definition and reality of zühd is turning away from the world. Its opposite is desire (raghbat). Zühd is of two kinds: one through the servant’s will, power, and strength (zühd-i makdur), and the other which is not through the servant's power and ability (ghayr-i makdur). The zühd that a servant has through his own will (zühd-i makdur) consists of three things: first, abandoning the desire for the transient world that will perish. Second, distributing all worldly benefits and separating oneself from them. Third, abandoning personal desires and preferring them. Zühd that is not through the servant’s own will is the coolness in the heart of the ascetic towards the world.
Zühd-i makdur is the beginning of ghayr-i makdur zühd. For if a person performs his actions with zühd based on his own will, meaning he does not covet that which he does not possess in terms of worldly goods, and distributes what he has, and does not desire to seek reunion with the world while knowing its calamities, then this creates a coolness towards the world for Allah in his heart. And through this, he attains zühd that is outside of his own will. Indeed, true zühd is in this meaning. Of the three things mentioned above, the most difficult is hating and cooling down from the world with the heart and turning away from it and not loving it at all. For there are many ascetics who appear outwardly ascetic, cool, and distant from the world, but inwardly they love, desire, and incline towards it.
The ascetic struggles intensely with his nafs (self). But what truly causes coolness towards the world is the recounting and remembering of the destructive calamities of the world. These arise from the faults of the world. As one gnostic said: “I abandoned the world because of its much toil, little wealth, near end, and miserly and base companions.” Another gnostic, hearing this, said: "This speech smells of inclination (raghbat). For he who complains about separation desires reunion. He who abandons something in an undesirable environment is longing for it if he were to find it alone. Perhaps the most acceptable sentence on this matter is: ‘The world is the enemy of Mawla, while the heart desires its love. But a lover should be hostile to the enemy of that which he loves.’”
Verse
1-Terk-i în şurb er be-gûyî yek do rûz
Der konî ender-şerâb-i huld pûz
2-Yek do rûzî ceh ki dünya sâ‘atîst
Her ki terkeş kerd ender- râhatîst
3-Ber segân begzâr în murdâr-râ
Hord bişken şîşe-i pindâr-râ
(Translation of the Verse)
1-If you abandon this drinking for just two days, you will immerse your mouth in the wine of eternity.
2-Strive and toil for a few days, because the world is momentary. Whoever abandons it has attained comfort.
3-Leave this corpse to dogs. Break and shatter the bottle of self-deception (pindar).
A perfected one said: “The world is, in reality, a foul and disgusting corpse.” Do you not see that the end of the world is filth, decay, and annihilation? Yet, those who are ignorant are deceived by its appearance because the exterior of the world is adorned with various beautiful ornaments, embellishments, silver, and gold. Gnostics, however, avoid it through zühd. While abandoning the haram (forbidden) of the world is an obligation, abandoning that which is halal (permissible) is a bounty and beauty.
For the haram of the world is fire, and the halal is like animal carcass. However, taking what is necessary in times of need is permissible. For example, if someone cooks a halva according to its conditions, then adds a small amount of something lethal…
1 – Turn your face to the mirror of this world and observe it, so that you may know the meaning of the form which you behold.
2 – Since you are the perfection of proportion and the letters of the alphabet of Adam, through you the reckoning of the revolution of the sphere is brought forth.
3 – Desire your soul from the heart, pass beyond the beauty of the body; this is nothing at all. Were you the sun of the soul, the horizons would be intoxicated by your radiance.
4 – If you desire Paradise, transcend the self and come to the heart, for Hell is the self, its evil traits are the blazing fire.
5 – Why should a knowing heart go forth from the heart to observe? For within the heart’s bud have blossomed ten thousand gardens.
6 – Whoever turns away from that garden of meaning and looks at a form, his flowing water becomes chains and walls and a prison-garden.
7 – The world is a slaughterhouse; its gold and silver are stones for purification. No one who has cleansed his soul with abstinence will reach out to it.
8 – Greed is like the fire of a furnace, desiring to melt gold and silver. He who gathers them with greed becomes abased like a furnace keeper.
9 – From this furnace, the people of contentment have departed towards the bathhouse; having withdrawn into solitude, they purified their body and soul.
10 – The prosperity that men of state seek is the abandonment of the poor; true poverty is the reality, seeking prosperity is folly.
11 – He who has a cause connected to his acquaintance will not grieve if the cause fails, for what does the sweet basil growing from the sea know of the rain’s absence?
12 – How can that self-loving, soul-devoted one find a friend? Today he desires a son and wife, tomorrow houri and servants.
13 – Abandon the pleasures of the self, give over what is due; be devoted to God, for both worlds are forbidden to that soul which is truly sincere.
14 – The garden has become a furnace for one who is unfriendly to those devoted to love. He who finds it becomes intoxicated and amazed in both worlds.
15 – It is manifest that every secret will spread beyond the two lips. Guard, by God’s grace, the secret of the heart and soul from the two lips.
16 – Whoever has never concealed the secret of his inner self will not be excused; but the revealing of secrets often brings regret to God.