ÜÇÜNCÜ FEN · BİRİNCİ BAB · DÖRDÜNCÜ FASIL · On Birinci Madde
The First Article
It declares that the turning of the human heart towards its own realm is more important and essential than anything else.
O esteemed one! Know that the friends of God have said: The Exalted God revealed Himself to humankind in the realm of souls with the splendor of His beauty, informing them – according to their capacities – of His Essence and attributes. The spirits drank from the cup of His love and communion, losing themselves for years in a state of awe. They were in a perpetual state of bliss within the station of joy and delight. Then, like soldiers arrayed in ranks, the spirits (the adorned spirits) fell from that exalted realm to this lower realm according to divine wisdom, falling from a world of reunion to this place of separation, becoming bound by egoistic ties while independent, filled with the preoccupation of bodily attachments, and remaining far from their original homeland and strangers. They have forgotten that assembly of nearness to God and that taste of communion.
Because they are forbidden from that realm, for some people the Presence of God remains veiled, and that union and unwavering love which cannot be contained by that time or place has completely vanished. These individuals, wherever they see a beautiful face and a refined excellence, their souls incline towards it involuntarily. But being screened by that former acquaintance, and defeated before base desires, they mistake this inclination and love for the pleasures of this world. They look at things with the desire of their nafs, not knowing or understanding the truth of the matter. What would they do (with that exalted realm)? It does not occur to them.
However, some spirits in this lower realm maintain an interest, yet guided by God’s guidance, do not become veiled from their original realm, but remember the assembly of nearness to God which was in primordiality, and their states with the souls remain in their memory. In this world as well, the manifestations of God's attributes are not hidden from them, and the desire for communion with God’s beauty increases daily. They long for the taste of attaining Him.
Therefore, if the guidance of the Exalted God also guides you, you too will not forget that assembly of nearness to God but will yearn for it. You will liberate this pure spirit from worldly attachments and obstacles that cause forgetfulness of God, and turn towards Him wholeheartedly. Thus, you will find your origin through that exalted love and friendship. That is, the heart will attain to timeless eternity, pure bliss free from sorrow, assured gnosis, unhindered beauty, and boundless grace.
If a person does not turn his heart toward the realm of the soul and does not return to his origin, but remains in heedlessness within the realm of the body, preoccupied only with the senses, and inclines towards evil things through the desires of his nafs, he cannot be more helpless, more deficient, more poor, weaker, or more abased. For that person in this world is sometimes a captive and sorrowful, sometimes afflicted by grief and pain, sometimes sick with hunger and satiety, sometimes a glutton for desire and food; he never finds rest. A taste of joy and bliss cannot continue to its end. If he obtains a pleasure through his own will, he will not escape the sorrows of it for long. For example, someone who desires the taste of food first exerts effort and strives to acquire it, experiences difficulty and hardship in preparing and cooking it. When he eats it, he feels heaviness in digesting it and is troubled by its excesses. Afterwards, illnesses and anxieties arise from this. Similarly, before and after every blessing of the world, many a price and regret arises.
If a person does not become addicted to these bad-tempered pleasures but does not befriend baseness for the sake of fulfilling one desire, and abandons every aspiration and considers himself a guest in this world, then if he enters his heart sincerely and turns towards his true homeland, he will find health by being cleansed of bad character, and will be freed from the prison of nature. Surely, that person will sit upon the throne of the soul in the land of the soul, become a sultan in his own realm. He will forget everything but God and plunge into the sea of witnessing [272], and find his Lord.
“O God! Deliver us from ourselves and do not make the world our greatest desire!”
Therefore, do not be separate from yourself! Do not weary yourself vainly in the realm of forms. Pass through this realm of the body and come to the realm of the heart. Abandon the pleasures of the nafs, but also give it its due place within the heart. Forgetting everything but Him, turn only towards Him. Thus, you will know yourself and find Him in the heart.
*Nazm (Poem)*
1- Whoever has become distant from his soul, his affair has become lamentation; Those who know the nafs, have become knowers of God.
2- Fallen into the fire of separation, one who performs a outward journey; One who undertakes an inner journey, has become united with the court.
3- The heart has become estranged from the beloved through the sorrow of reason. With the purity of love, he has become moon and sun.
4- Let not your soul and beloved be distant, remain with yourself. Let there be no connection for anyone who has become a king of the soul.
5- Gaze into your heart; know yourself, who you are? The soul who sees himself in the heart, has become an awakened one.
6- When love is currency, the soul in the heart is that vision now; He who is lost, burns for the wood of expectation.
7- Through the wonder of love, knowing oneself, the people of taste have made supplication at dawn their delight.
8- If you are Solomon, do not grieve if a moth should be; For all from matter to that sun, the hidden path has become.
Here's a translation of the provided text, aiming for faithfulness and preservation of meaning within a classical Sufi context:
7. The people of taste, consumed by wonder in love, know themselves; their soul’s delight lies in the early hours [of devotion].
8. If you are Solomon, do not harm even the ant, for every atom has a hidden path to the Sun from Him.
9. The People of Truth have avoided the turmoil of acceptance and rejection; their soul's direction is immediately toward God.