DÖRDÜNCÜ BÂB · İKİNCİ FASIL · Yirminci Madde
The Twentieth Point
It declares that the love of our Lord is more honorable and superior than human reason.
O beloved! It must be known that the friends of Allah have said: The love of the Lord is more honorable and superior than human reason. That is, the all-encompassing intellect [66] (the collective intellect grasping the future) is surely more venerable and esteemed than the intellect that grasps only transient matters (the individual, livelihood-sustaining intellect). For love is a pure attribute of God. The faithful lover is cleansed of faults and sorrow. Whoever attains to that immaculate attribute, his human characteristics vanish. He who constantly drinks from the cup of love, the wine of love, thereby frees himself from the base qualities arising from the animalistic self. Love purifies every blemish; it opens the veils of the unseen realm.
Whoever is a lover of form and color will be bewildered when form and color disappear. As the person who loves the wall with the brilliance of the sun turns away from it when the sun sets. For meaning is the ultimate goal, the light. Form is darkness and that husk. Meaning is like oceans, while form is but the palm of a hand in comparison to it. Meaning is the pearl; form is the shell that preserves it. In essence, meaning finds expression through form.
The gnostic appears to be a lover of meaning outwardly. But he who loves form is unfaithful. He who loves meaning is filled with joy. The pride of the rational person lies in honor and wealth. The boast of the lover lies in poverty and annihilation. The pleasure of the rational person consists of satisfying the desires of the self. The delight of the lover is the love of God. For the lover, every pleasure and delight that separates him from the love of the Lord is a torment, an affliction.
The arduous tasks which people consider difficult, if they lead to the love of their Creator, are joy and gladness—they bring peace to the lover’s soul.
*Quatrain*
O tongue, grace is for you, even if adversity comes from love;
Sensual love is desire, true love is the ultimate end.
If the beloved is a human being, that love becomes a burden on the soul;
The beloved of the precious soul becomes the friend of God’s love.
(Modern Turkish Translation – provided for context)
O heart! Even if adversity comes from love, it is grace to you. Sensual love is desire; true love is the ultimate end. If one loves a human being, that love becomes a burden on the soul. The beloved of the precious soul becomes the friend of God’s love.
Because lovers share similar states and become intimate with each other, they quickly become friends. They become confidants familiar with each other's hidden conditions. The pleasure of the rational person is always argument and contention. The delight of the lover is ecstasy, a state. The ambition of the rational person is to be famous and renowned. The entire effort of the lover is to forget all else than God. The fetters of the rational person are wealth, fame, and position. The sorrow of the lover is to be intoxicated in the boundless ocean of divine love.
The rational mind has surrendered to reason; the lover has surrendered to love. Rational people are crude and unrefined humans and they are among the common folk. Lovers are people with refined souls, generosity, and distinction. The rational person desires various branches of knowledge and sciences. Love only craves superior delights that intoxicate the soul. Above all, love is dominant over reason and life.
*Quatrain*
Love is the sultan of the world of the soul;
In the eyes of love, reason is ignorant.
The soul is earth, love is the sea of life;
Reason is a termite, and love is Solomon [67].
(Modern Turkish Translation – provided for context)
Love is the sultan of the world of the soul. In the eyes of love, reason is ignorant. The soul is earth, love is the sea of life. Reason is an ant, and love is Solomon.
The lover has now tasted the pleasure of love. Therefore, he is independent of everything in this world. Whoever is filled with the sorrow of love, withered and faded with zeal and longing, has surely passed beyond his own existence and become preoccupied only with that station. And through this state, he has entered the company of the acceptable servants of God. For whoever mounts the steed of love [288/a], a path to ascension has been opened for him.
The devotee is a lover of God. He cuts off connection with what is other than God and frees himself from anxieties. The death of the lover is a sign of life, like the receding of water bubbles. For when the air bubbles that are considered signs of life disappear, what remains is the water. The lover of God desires death; he longs to be reunited with his Lord. The rational person fears death. Fear of death is a great disgrace for the lover, for his death is reunion with his beloved. But in the rational man, fear of death is at its peak, because the things he desires perish with death.
The lover is willing to burn in the fire of love. The rational person fears that such a difficult thing will befall him.
*Bayt*
Those devoted to love are the beloved of hearts;
He who burns in the fire of love becomes the light of eyes.
(Modern Turkish Translation – provided for context)
The devotees of love are the beloved of hearts! Whoever burns in the fire of love, becomes the light of eyes.
The lover is intimate with his beloved and is always together. The rational person is deprived of this intimacy and is unaware of such a delight. Outwardly, the lover may seem contemptible and insignificant, but he is a sultan in the realm of eternity; he is a lover of God. The lover is the treasure of love, a mirror to the beauty of love. The lover is like water flowing from under sand. The lover’s body is mixed with blood and other substances, but his heart is separate from the world. The attributes of his soul are countless.
*Bayt*
Love that touches the heart makes it constantly observe;
Every wave and every thing pours into that ocean.
(Modern Turkish Translation – provided for context)
Love that touches the heart makes it constantly observe; Every wave and every thing pours into that ocean.
The lover’s exterior is a tavern, his interior a garden. For the lover, pursuing bodily pleasures is error and injustice. The delights that stir the soul and nourish the spirit are joy and bliss. The lover's heart desires God’s beauty, his soul desires union and state. The rational person knows only the simple states happening in the world. But the lover is a confidant of the secrets of the heart and soul. For he is familiar with the presence of the Most High. Reason calls the intelligent to science; love draws the lover to wonder.
Here's the translation of the provided text, aiming for faithfulness and preserving meaning within a classical Islamic/Sufi context:
Love is the essence of existence, and all things are but its veils.
The intellect, estranged from this truth, cannot unlock the heart’s secrets.
The lover abandons worldly appetites; his sustenance is love.
His soul purified, filled with the wine of unity, he finds intoxication.
His remembrance is solely of God; his desire, to reach His presence.
God's grace lies hidden within seeming adversity.
It is the lover who tastes sweetness even in God’s trials.
The intellect flees from hardship, missing the hidden blessing therein.
Truth’s secrets are revealed through love alone.
The intellect remains external; it cannot penetrate the heart’s depths.
Love is the companion of every lover, beloved within the soul,
Cherished in the heart, and life itself.
Love is the progenitor of all existence;
Every act is a grace and kindness to humankind.
Those devoted to love have found fortune and ease,
For all their endeavors are made effortless by it.
Love is the friend of the innermost being,
The beloved within the soul, cherished in the heart.
Love is the ancestor of all creation;
Every deed is a blessing and favor bestowed upon humanity.
Those devoted to love have found fortune and ease,
For all their endeavors are made effortless by it.
The lover is intoxicated by God’s compassionate wine.
Thus his words, actions, and thoughts are marked by justice, truth, and purity.
His discerning heart is far from error and misguidance.
The lover is a diver in the sea of love, a bird in the desert of passion.
His heart is a storehouse of love’s secrets; his soul knows of love's light.
The lover’s aspiration transcends all else; he seeks only God.
The intellect is preoccupied with worldly gain.
The lover is drawn to hidden mysteries.
He has been cleansed of human attributes, and thus worthy of honor and grace.
The lover’s soul plunges into the ocean of being, becoming boundless.
Every desire manifests within his own heart; he needs nothing beyond himself.
Separation for the lover is union; absence is presence.
How can a lover ever truly be apart from his beloved?
The intellect finds pleasure in gardens and orchards.
The lover finds joy within the heart and soul.
The world of the intellect is composed of water and earth.
The abode of the lover lies within the realms of the heart and spirit.
Within the veil of the soul, countless lights of love reside.
With the beauty of pure love, a thousand endeavors of lovers exist.
2. Reason declares, "There is no path for the soul save from six directions."
Love proclaims, “There are countless travelers upon the certain path.”
3. Reason has seen this marketplace and engaged in buying and selling.
Yet within this marketplace, Love possesses another marketplace of its own.
4. The hearts of sorrowful lovers are filled with a hundred thousand joys.
The minds of astute individuals harbor a thousand anxieties.
5. Reason says, "Do not journey to the path of annihilation, for it is thorny."
Love proclaims, “I have arrived at annihilation; countless rose gardens exist there.”
6. Love declares, "O reason! Lift the veil of existence and look!
For within the heart, you may behold paradises and rivers."
7. The love of God is a sun hidden within clouds of letters.
When it manifests, whose words are present in its presence?