ÜÇÜNCÜ FEN · İKİNCİ BÂB · ALTINCI FASIL · Dördüncü Madde
The Fourth Article
States that protecting the heart is more important and essential than safeguarding the body.
O esteemed one! Know that the friends of God have said: People in this world need two things. One is to protect their bodies from harm and attain safety, and the other is to protect their hearts from evil and provide them with the necessary (spiritual) nourishment.
For everything, according to its nature, seeks what it loves and desires—its sustenance and cure. And illness and destruction are, by nature, things that must be avoided and kept separate. Therefore, the heart’s sustenance is attaining love and knowledge of the Divine Lord. For the heart (which transitions from state to state) must know and find its Transformer (Mukallib), and incline towards it with all its being and love it.
*Qasida*
O companion of hearts in solitude!
You are the refuge of wild beasts in deserts.
The wine of love has intoxicated the world.
The delight of love is the sweetest of delights.
(Translation of the *qasida*)
O companion of hearts in solitude! You are the refuge of wild beasts in deserts. The wine of love has intoxicated the world. The delight of love is the sweetest of delights.
The heart’s ruin, however, is being unaware of Him and inclining towards things other than God ( *mā siva*). It is drowning in the sea of sorrows and the desires of the self.
*Qasida*
1-Do not bring anxiety into your tongue, O learned one,
For the heart is bare; anxiety is intensely cold.
2-Your thought is that you should see no pain or grief,
Yet the headspring of poison still resides in that thought.
3-Come forth from anxieties and find ecstasy and state!
Drink the wine of love so that you may have abundant peace.
(Translation into Modern Turkish)
1-O one who knows [the truth], do not worry and leave thoughts in your heart, for the heart is bare, and anxiety is intensely cold.
2-Your thought is that you should see no pain or grief. Yet the headspring of poison still resides in that thought.
3-Come forth from anxieties and find ecstasy! Drink the wine of love so that you may have abundant peace.
Through remembrance and contemplation of God, ignorance and heedlessness vanish from the heart, and everything else disappears. In this state, the heart finds healing from all illnesses and afflictions and is delivered. It attains closeness ( *uns*) through contemplative observation. Through knowledge and love of God, it finds everlasting life.
Since the body is the mold and covering of the heart, it too must be protected. However, excessive attention and care are not required in protecting the body. The true thing that needs to be cared for and served is the heart. The body is secondary and essentially a servant. Those devoted to the heart should take care to nurture and repair that noble dwelling.
*Qasida*
1-Make the house of your heart flourishing, for desolation is unwelcome.
Were it filled with anything other than God—may He be exalted—even the Sultan’s palace would be unwelcome.
2-Preserve the pain of love in your heart and do not give a path to outsiders, for a ruined corner is not pleasing to hidden treasures.
(Translation into Modern Turkish)
1-Make the house of your heart flourishing; desolation is not welcome. Were it filled with anything other than God—may He be exalted—even the Sultan’s palace would not be welcome.
2-Preserve the pain of love in your heart and do not give a path to outsiders. That ruined corner is not pleasing to hidden treasures.
Those who value only their bodies have wasted their lives. Those devoted to the heart, however, have journeyed towards the Ka’bah of the heart.
Just as a pilgrim's mount is a camel, so too is the body the camel of the heart. The pilgrim must feed and care for his camels, not driving them hastily but treating them well, so that they may enjoy the journey and reach their destination. Similarly, the traveler on the path of *irfan* should moderate eating, drinking, and sleep, attaining purity and comfort, thereby fulfilling the rights of his body and taking care of it. Thus, with the health of his body, the heart may find delight and pleasure and arrive at what it desires to attain.
Just as a pilgrim cannot reach Mecca and become a pilgrim if he is only preoccupied with serving his camel day and night, but rather suffers loss and harm on the way, remaining forever in regret and disappointment. Likewise, one who spends his life solely protecting his body and attending to his self’s rights—if he turns towards pleasure rather than necessity in eating, drinking, sleeping, dressing, marrying, and building a home—cannot attain knowledge of God. He will remain in a desert of longing, filled with bewilderment and regret, unable to visit the Mecca he desires.
The body has three needs in this world: food, clothing, and a place to live. These three rights of the body and their requirements must be given adequately and balanced so that the body may be protected. Avoiding extremes in hunger and satiety, cold and heat, and other conditions will maintain health and well-being, so that the heart may attain spiritual maturity.
Therefore, the traveler on the path of *irfan* should refrain from tasting many and varied foods and avoid adorning himself with colorful garments. He should always strive to cleanse his heart of bad traits and take care to adorn it with good ones. He should abandon abundant living and be content with what suffices for him not to die. The soul finds life through being nourished by the knowledge and love that are the sustenance of hearts.
Excessive food is harmful to the body, but the more nourishment the heart receives, the more beneficial and beautiful it becomes. For God created the entire world for humankind, and humankind for the sake of knowing Him and loving Him. Therefore, he who knows his Lord through knowing himself and dedicates his body in the path of His love has surely spent his life according to its purpose and attained an imperishable state with God—has become one of the leaders of God’s devoted servants and progressed to the station of *siddiq*.
But because he does not know himself, he remains unaware of the true beloved, God.
Okay, here's the translation of the provided text, aiming for faithfulness and preservation of meaning within a classical Islamic/Sufi context:
The Beloved does not desire that the lover be attached to another;
Each moment is fraught with hesitation, rendering him restless.
He desires that her tablet be cleansed of all but His own markings,
And become a mirror reflecting only his beauty.
All of humankind possesses deficiencies in character and attributes, and indeed, human beings themselves are places of annihilation and disappearance. Yet, they incline towards one another with such varied affections, esteem, and regard. It is fitting that the Divine Attributes are all perfection, every Name Glorious, every act wise; dealing with everyone through His mercy—how can anyone fail to incline wholeheartedly toward Him in love? How can a being in human form be like a stone, not journeying forth with life and heart on the path of His love? Unless they have heard the glad tidings: "He loves them, and they love Him" (Al-Ma'idah, 5:54).
Masnavi
1 – O who refrains not from the world below,
If patience you possess, from the Bestower of blessings.
2 – O who refrains not from pleasure and delight,
If patience you possess, from the Bountiful God.
3 – O who refrains not from child and wife,
If patience you possess, from the Living One, the All-Merciful.
4 – O who refrains not from pure and impure,
If patience you possess, from Him Who created them all.
5 – O brother, your anxiety is but this,
All else is bone and nerve.
6 – If your thought be a rose, then you are a garden;
If it be thorn, then you are the firewood of a smithy.
7 – Whatever is apart from the love of the Most Beautiful (God),
Even if sweet as sugar, is a wasting away of life.
[Notes on choices made to preserve meaning and tone:]
* **"Beloved"**: Used for "Yâr," reflecting the Sufi context of divine love.
* **"Tablet"**: Translates "Levh," referring to the heart or soul as a receptive surface.
* **"Markings"**: Captures the sense of Divine signatures and guidance.
* **"Glad tidings"**: A more evocative translation than simply “news” for the Quranic verse.
* **Masnavi verses:** Attempted to maintain poetic rhythm where possible while staying true to meaning. I've included bracketed notes at the end of the Masnavi section to indicate that these are translations and not literal renderings.
I hope this translation is satisfactory.