First Volume
A person who flees from the intellect of the intellect and does not follow the prophets and the walī (friend[s] of God), resembles the well-known Harut and Marut. They too, because of their pride, were struck by a poisoned arrow. They trusted in their sacred creation, in being angels. But this trust is like a water buffalo trusting a lion. How much can a buffalo trust a lion?
Even if it had a hundred horns and tried to protect itself with them, still the lion would not only shatter its horn, but even the horn of its horn. Even if it were covered with thorns from head to toe like a porcupine, the lion would still helplessly kill it.
If a hurricane uproots many trees, it shows favor to a lowly blade of grass. That harsh wind pities the weakness of the grass. O heart, do not boast of strength anymore. Does an axe ever fear the multitude or density of trees and branches? It shatters and cuts them all. But it does not attack a blade of grass. A scalpel is not struck anywhere but the wound. What does it matter to the fire how much wood there is? Does the butcher flee from the flock of sheep?
What is form compared to meaning? Very weak, very powerless. It is the meaning within that holds the wicked upside down. Take the revolving sky as an analogy, like a waterwheel. Why does it turn? Because of the intellect that governs it. O son, the turning and movement of this body, which is like a shield, is also from the hidden ruh (the spirit).
The movement of this wind, its meaning (the meaning that appears in that form, from the power of Allah), is like the wheel of a mill; the wheel is captive to the river’s water. The inhaling and exhaling of this breath, its coming and going, is from none other than the passionate can (life-force). The can sometimes turns that breath, the word that comes out with the breath, into the letter mīm; sometimes into ḥā and dāl (thus, it can also be denial). Sometimes it makes that word a word of peace, sometimes a word of war.
The can sometimes takes that breath to the right, sometimes to the left... Sometimes it places it in a rose garden, sometimes turns it into a thorn. Likewise, our Allah once made this wind a dragon for the people of ʿĀd, yet the same wind He made a mercy, life, and security for the believers.
The thousand shaykh of the sea of meanings, the Lord of the worlds, said: “The meaning is Allah.” All the heavens and the earth are like chaff and straw in that walking sea, that ocean of can. The movement and play of chaff and straw in the water is due to the water’s waves. If it insists and wishes to leave them motionless, it throws them to the shore. When it draws them from the shore back to where it waves, it does to them what fire does to grass—the sea sweeps them away, erases, and destroys them. There is no end to this word. O youth, return again to the story of Harut and Marut.
These two angels, when they saw the sins and evils of the people of the world, would bite their hands in anger. But with their eyes, they did not see their own faults. An ugly person, seeing himself in the mirror, turned his face away and became angry. One who sees and admires himself, when he sees a fault in someone else... within him flares a fire more intense than hell. He calls this pride “religious zeal”; he does not see his own kāfir nafs (disbelieving lower self).
Religious zeal has other signs. From that fire, a whole world grows green and finds life. Allah said to Harut and Marut: “If you are innocent angels created from light, do not be deceived, do not see the sins of the deceived and the harmful.
O soldiers of the sky, My servants! Be grateful that you are saved from lust and sexual inclination. If I were to give you lust as well, the heavens would no longer accept you. The innocence in you is a reflection of My isma (infallibility), My protection. Know that innocence as coming from Me, not from yourselves. Come to your senses, come to yourselves... Let not the accursed Shayṭān prevail over you,” He said.
Indeed, the Prophet’s scribe of revelation also saw wisdom in himself and imagined that revelation was coming to him as well.
He thought the song of Allah’s birds was present in himself too, and fell into the delusion that his own ugly whistle was as beautiful as the song of those birds. While you keep praising the songs of birds, how will you ever understand the bird’s intention? Even if you learn and recognize the nightingale’s song, what is it doing with the rose, what business does it have? How would you know?
Suppose you know by way of analogy and doubt... That knowledge is nothing more than the understanding and knowledge that the deaf have from watching lips move.
A perceptive person, one who knows manners and ways, told a deaf man, “Your neighbor is ill.” The deaf man said to himself: “With these deaf ears, how will I understand what he says? Especially if he is ill and cannot speak loudly... But I must go. When I see his lips move, I will deduce by analogy what he is saying and figure it out myself.
‘O my friend in distress, how are you?’ I will say. He will surely reply, ‘I am well,’ or ‘I am fine.’ He will answer, ‘Thanks be to Allah.’ I will ask, ‘What soup did you eat?’ He will, for example, reply, ‘Lentil soup.’ I will say, ‘Bon appétit.’ I will ask, ‘Which doctor is coming, whom are you getting treated by?’
When he says so-and-so, I will say: ‘His step is very blessed. When he comes, your affairs are set right. We have tried his footstep; wherever he was, wishes were fulfilled.’” This good man, having composed these answers by analogy, hurried to visit the sick neighbor.
He said, “How are you?” When the sick man replied, “I am dying,” he said, “Thanks be to Allah!” The sick man became angry at these words, his soul was greatly troubled. He thought, “What kind of thanks is this? It turns out he wishes us ill.” The deaf man had thought up words, but he was mistaken. Then, when he asked, “What did you eat?” the sick man replied,
“Poison.” As soon as the deaf man said, “Bon appétit,” the sick man’s anger increased.
After this, the deaf man asked, “Which doctor is coming to treat you?” The sick man replied, “Go away, Azrāʾīl (the Angel of Death) is coming!” The deaf man said, “His step is very blessed, rejoice, be glad!” The deaf man, pleased with himself for having visited and fulfilled the neighborly right at such a time, left with joy.
Because of his foolishness, the deaf man thought the exact opposite; he thought that act, which was pure loss, was profit. The sick man, on the other hand, said, “He is an enemy to our life, we did not know he was a mine of torment.” A hundred kinds of evil thoughts came to his mind, and he planned to send him all sorts of messages.
The heart of one who has eaten bad food is troubled until he vomits it out. This is how to overcome anger; vomit it out so that you may hear sweet words in return. Because he was not sick, the sick man was writhing, saying, “Where is that foul-mouthed dog? Let me answer all he said. At that time, I was completely ill, my intellect, which is like a lion, was asleep, nothing came to mind. Visiting the sick, asking after their condition, and consoling them is for the sake of the heart. But this was not visiting, it was enmity!
He wanted to rejoice at seeing his enemy weak and exhausted,” he thought. Many people who have abandoned worship and left servanthood still hope to attain Allah’s riḍā (contentment with God’s decree) and to gain reward. Yet, in essence, this is a hidden sin.
There are many things that are turbid, which you think are pure and clear. Like the deaf man... The deaf man thought he had done good, but the opposite occurred. He sat comfortably, thinking, “I did good to a sick man, I asked after him, I fulfilled the neighborly right.” But a fire flared up in the heart of the sick man, and it burned him too. Fear the fires you have kindled. You have increased them with your sins, and because of your sin, you are in the flames.
The Prophet, when a hypocrite performed prayer, said, “O brave one, get up and pray, for what you performed was not prayer.” Because of these fears, in every prayer it is said, “ihdinā ṣ-ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm – Guide us to the straight path.”
That is, “O Allah! Do not mix my prayer with the prayer of those who have gone astray, the hypocrites.” Because of the analogy chosen by that deaf man, ten years of conversation came to nothing. O noble one, especially if this analogy is the analogy of inferiority in revelation that cannot be described... Even if your ear of sense can understand the letters, know that your ear that hears the unseen is deaf.
The first to put forward such analogies against Allah’s lights was Iblīs. He said: “Surely, fire is better than earth. I was created from fire, Adam from black earth. So let us compare the branch to the root: he is from darkness, we are from bright light.”
Allah said: “No, there is no lineage. Asceticism and abstaining from doubtful things is the miḥrāb of virtue. This is not the inheritance of this perishable world that you should obtain it by lineage. This is the inheritance of the soul. Indeed, it is the inheritance of the prophets. Its inheritor is the soul of the believer who abstains from doubtful things.
The son of Abū Jahl openly became a Muslim; yet the son of Prophet Nūḥ was among those who went astray. The one created from earth shone like the moon. You, created from fire, became black-faced, be gone!”
These analogies, these investigations, are for finding the qibla on a cloudy day or at night. But when the sun has risen and the Kaʿba is before you, leave aside this analogy, this investigation, do not search! Do not turn away from the Kaʿba because of analogy, do not ignore it.
Allah knows best what is right. When you hear a song from Allah’s bird, you memorize only its outward aspect as if learning a lesson, and keep it in mind. Then you make analogies from yourself, and imagine that your fantasy is reality itself. The abdāl (saints) have their own terminology, of which your words know nothing. You have learned the bird’s language only in terms of sound; you have kindled hundreds of analogies and desires.
But just as the sick man was hurt, hearts were hurt and saddened by you as well. Yet the deaf man, caught up in his own supposition, thought he was right and became drunk with joy. That scribe of revelation, too, heard the bird’s song and thought himself equal to the bird. But the bird struck a wing and blinded him... It took him all the way to the depths of death and pain.
Come to your senses, lest, because of an echo or a supposition, you fall from your stations in the heavens. Even if you are Harut and Marut, even if you are ahead of everyone on the roof of “We worship You purely,” have compassion for the wicked in their wickedness. Do not circle around self-regard and self-admiration. Come to your senses. Let Allah’s zeal see you emerge from ambush; otherwise, you will go headlong into the depths of the earth.
Both said: “O Allah, if Your command, Your favor, Your protection is not with us, where is any favor, where is any protector?” Yet even as they said this, their hearts were restless to descend to earth and rule. “Can evil come from us? What excellent servants we are!” they were saying.
This pride and desire did not leave them at ease: in the end, it made them self-admiring.
“O people of earth, water, soil, and fire, O you who know nothing of the purity of the spiritual! We weave veils above the sky, descend to earth and build fountains. We do justice, worship; every night we fly back to the heavens. Thus, we become the wondrous great ones of this age, spreading justice and security on earth,” they said. They compared the conditions of the heavens to the earth, but this analogy is not correct... There is a great difference between them!
Listen to the word of the Wise One who has gone under the veil: Lay your head where you drank wine, and sleep. The one who leaves the tavern, the lost drunkard, becomes the laughingstock and plaything of children. He falls everywhere, into every road, into the mud, and every fool laughs at him. While he is in this state, children who know nothing of his drunkenness or the joy and pleasure of the wine he drank follow after him.
All people are children except for the Allah-intoxicated. None is mature except the one who has escaped from whim and desire. Allah said: “The world is but a dry desire, a useless plaything, and you are children.” Allah speaks the truth. Until you abandon playthings, you are a child. How can you be pure until the ruh is purified?
This lust, always sought and pursued in the world, never abandoned, know that it is like the copulation of children. What is the copulation of a child? Compared to the copulation of a Rustam, a hero, it is nothing but play. The wars of the people are like the wars of children. Completely meaningless, baseless, and contemptible! They all fight with wooden swords.
They all keep busy with useless things. They all mount a stick, calling it their Burāq, their Duldul-stepping horse. They have a load on their backs, but in their ignorance, they think themselves high, as if riding a horse and traveling a road.
Wait and see... Let the horsemen of the people one day ride their horses through the nine heavens! On that day, the ruh and the angels ascend to Allah. The heavens tremble at the ascension of the ruh! But you, in general, are like children riding your skirts... You hold the edge of your skirt as if riding a horse!
The decree has come from Allah: “Surely, conjecture avails nothing against the truth.” (Qur’an 53:28) Where will the donkey of conjecture gallop through the heavens? If there are two kinds of conjecture, the one with strength is preferred. But when the sun appears... one does not persist in its existence and brightness. Then you see what you have been riding; you realize you have only been riding your own feet...
Consider imagination, thought, feeling, and understanding as the stick-horse of children! The knowledge of the people of the heart carries them. The knowledge of the people of the body is a burden to them. Knowledge that strikes the heart and makes a person one of the people of the heart benefits a person. Knowledge that affects only the body and does not belong to the person is nothing but a burden.
Allah said: “The likeness of those who were charged with the Torah but did not observe it is as the likeness of a donkey carrying books.” (Qur’an 62:5) Knowledge not from Allah is a burden. Knowledge not given directly from Allah is like the color applied by a woman to adorn a bride; it does not remain alive, it flies away. But if you bear this burden well, they will take your load and give you comfort.
Do not carry the burden of knowledge for the sake of whim and desire, so that you may see the storehouse of knowledge within you. After mounting the ambling horse of knowledge, they will remove the load from your back. Without Allah’s cup, how will you pass beyond whims and desires? O you who are content with only the name “HU” of Allah! What is born from attribute and name? Imagination! That imagination is only a proof of union for its owner. Have you ever seen a signifier without a signified?
Without a road, there can never be a rose... Have you ever seen a name without a reality, or gathered roses from the letters kāf and lām? Since you have read the name, go and seek the named. Know the moon is in the sky, not in the river!
If you wish to pass beyond name and letter, immediately purify yourself completely from yourself (annihilate yourself)! Leave your iron-ness like iron, become colorless. In spiritual discipline, be a mirror without dust or rust! Purify yourself from your own attributes so that you may see your own pure, immaculate essence.
Then, without book, discussion partner, or master, you will find the knowledge of the prophets in your heart. The Prophet said: “Among my community are those who are of the same creation as I, who have the same aspiration as I. With whatever light I see them, their souls will surely see me with the same light.”
They see the Prophet at the fountain of the water of life (in their hearts) without the need for the books of the Shihayn, hadiths, or transmitters of hadith. Know the secret of ‘We slept as Kurds,’ read the secret of ‘We awoke as Arabs!’ If you want an example of secret knowledge, tell the story of the people of Rome and the Chinese...