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("That is, just as supplication and reliance on God greatly strengthen the inclination to do good, so repentance and the seeking of forgiveness cut the inclination to do evil, putting an end to its transgressions." içeriğiyle yeni sayfa oluşturdu) |
("------ <center> The Twenty-Fifth Word ⇐ | The Words | ⇒ The Twenty-Seventh Word </center> ------" içeriğiyle yeni sayfa oluşturdu) |
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(Aynı kullanıcının aradaki diğer 66 değişikliği gösterilmiyor) | |||
91. satır: | 91. satır: | ||
That is, just as supplication and reliance on God greatly strengthen the inclination to do good, so repentance and the seeking of forgiveness cut the inclination to do evil, putting an end to its transgressions. | That is, just as supplication and reliance on God greatly strengthen the inclination to do good, so repentance and the seeking of forgiveness cut the inclination to do evil, putting an end to its transgressions. | ||
< | <span id="ÜÇÜNCÜ_MEBHAS"></span> | ||
=== | ===THIRD TOPIC=== | ||
Belief in Divine Determining is one of the pillars of belief. That is, the belief that “everything is determined by Almighty God.” The certain proofs for Divine Determining are so numerous they cannot be calculated. We shall show in an Introduction, simply and clearly, how strong and broad is this pillar of belief. | |||
'''Introduction:''' | |||
''' | Numerous verses of the Qur’an, like, Nor anything fresh or dry [green or withered] but is [inscribed] in a Clear Book,(*<ref>*Qur’an, 6:59.</ref>) state clearly that before it comes into existence and after it passes from existence, everything is written. Through its creational signs like the order, balance, regularity, adornment, differentiation, and the giving of form, the verses, the signs, of the mighty Qur’an inscribed by Divine power and called the universe confirm these statements of the Qur’an. | ||
</ | |||
Indeed, the well-ordered missives and finely balanced verses of the book of the universe testify that everything is written. | |||
The indication that everything is determined and written before it comes into existence are all beginnings, seeds, measured proportions, and forms; each of these testifies to this. For seeds and grains are subtle containers appearing from the workbench of “Be!,” and it is in each of which is deposited a tiny index traced by Divine Determining. Divine power employs minute particles according to that plan of Divine Determining, and constructs the mighty miracles of power on the seeds. That is to say, everything that will happen to the tree is as though inscribed in its seed. For in regard to their substance seeds are simple and similar to one another; materially they are nothing. | |||
Furthermore, the well-measured proportions of everything clearly show Divine Determining. Yes, whatever living creature is considered, it is as though its form and measure emerged from a wisely and skilfully wrought mould. For it to receive such a measure, form, and shape, either there has to be a truly wondrous and infinitely intricate physical mould, or else pre-eternal power cuts out the form and shape according to a well-proportioned immaterial mould that exists in knowledge and comes from Divine Determining, and clothes it in it. | |||
For example, look carefully at this tree or that animal, you will see that the particles, which are lifeless, deaf, blind, unconscious, and similar to one another, are in motion in its growth and development. In some of the being’s intricate extremities the particles halt, as though seeing, knowing and recognizing the place of fruits and benefits. Then in another place they change their direction as though following some important aim. That means they are in motion in accordance with the immaterial measured proportions of the tree or animal, which come from Divine Determining, and are governed by those proportions. | |||
Since there are the manifestations of Divine Determining to this extent in physical and visible things, certainly the forms with which things are clothed with the passing of time and the states acquired through the motions they perform will also be dependent on the ordering of Divine Determining. In a seed are two manifestations of Divine Determining; | |||
one is ‘evident’ and points to the Clear Book, which is a title of will and the creational commands; the other is ‘theoretical’ and points to the Clear Record, which is a title of Divine knowledge and the Divine command. | |||
‘Evident’ Divine Determining specifies the physical nature, states, and parts of the tree which the seed comprises. While ‘theoretical’ Divine Determining specifies the stages, states, forms, motions, and glorifications which the tree will undergo and perform over the period of its life, and which are in the seed and will be created from it; these stages, states, forms, and acts, which constantly change and are called its life-history, each have a regulated measure in accordance with Divine Determining, the same as the tree’s branches and leaves. | |||
Since there is such a manifestation of Divine Determining in the most common and simple of things, it surely demonstrates that all things are written before they come into existence; this may be understood with little attention. | |||
Now, evidence for the fact that the story of everything’s life is written after its existence are all fruits, which in this world tell of the Clear Book and the Clear Record, and the faculty of memory in man, which points to the Preserved Tablet; these all hint and testify to this fact. Indeed, the appointed events of a tree’s life are written in its seeds, which are like the hearts of its fruits. And man’s life-history together with some of the past events of the world are written in his memory in such a way that, as though copying out with the hand of power and pen of Divine Determining in a faculty as tiny as a mustard seed a small note from the page of his actions, the memory gives the note to man’s hand and puts it in the pocket of his mind, so that with it he will call his actions to mind at the time of reckoning. So too, due to it he may be confident that within the upheavals of transience and death there are numerous lasting mirrors in which the All-Powerful and Wise One depicts and makes permanent the identities of transient beings; and truly numerous tablets which shall endure for all eternity on which that All-Knowing Preserver inscribes the meanings of transitory beings. | |||
'''In Short:'''Since plant life, the simplest and lowest level of life, is dependent on the ordering of Divine Determining to this extent, certainly human life, the highest level of life, has been drawn in all in its details according to the scale and measuring of Divine Determining and is inscribed by its pen. Yes, just as raindrops tell of clouds, and drops of water point to the existence of a water-source, and notes and portfolios to the existence of a large ledger, so too, the ‘evident’ Divine Determining which we observe and which is the physical order in living beings indicates the notebook of Divine will and creational commands known as the Clear Book. Similarly, their fruits, seeds, grains, forms, and shapes, which are like the droplets, notes, and portfolios of ‘theoretical’ Divine Determining, which is the non-physical order and pertains to life, indicates the Preserved Tablet, one office of Divine knowledge, which is called the Clear Record. | |||
''' | |||
'''To Conclude:''' We see clearly that at the time of their growth and development the particles of living beings travel to their intricate extremities and halt, then they change their path. At each of the extremities they produce the fruits of benefits, uses, and instances of wisdom. Clearly, the forms of those things and their measures are drawn with a pen of Determining. Thus, observable, evident Determining shows that in the non- physical states of living beings also are well-ordered, fruitful extremities and limits drawn with the pen of Determining. Divine power is the source, Divine Determining is the pattern. Power writes the meaningful book on that pattern. | |||
''' | |||
Since we understand clearly that the fruitful limits and purposeful extremities have been drawn with the pen of Divine Determining, physical and non-physical, certainly the states and stages which all living beings undergo in the course of their lives are also drawn with that pen. For their life-stories follow a course with order and balance; they change forms and receive shapes. | |||
Since the pen of Divine Determining thus rules in all living beings, surely the life-history of man, the world’s most perfect fruit and vicegerent of the earth and bearer of the Supreme Trust, is more than anything dependent on the law of Divine Determining. | |||
'''If you say:''' “Divine Determining has bound us like this. It has negated our freedom. Isn’t belief in it a burden and irksome for the heart and spirit, which yearn for expansion and to roam freely?” | |||
''' | |||
'''The Answer:''' Absolutely not! It is not burdensome; it rather affords a luminosity and joy producing a lightness, ease, and spirit, and ensuring confidence and security. Because if man does not believe in Divine Determining, he is compelled to bear a burden as heavy as the world on the shoulders of his spirit within a constricted space, which allows him only an insignificant independence and temporary freedom. For man is connected with the whole universe. He has infinite aims and desires. But since his power, will, and freedom are insufficient to meet a millionth of these, it may be understood how awesome is the burden of the distress he bears. | |||
''' | |||
Thus, belief in Divine Determining throws that burden in its entirety onto the ship of Divine Determining, allowing him to roam free within its perfections with perfect ease and perfect freedom of spirit and heart. It only negates the petty freedom of the evil-commanding soul and smashes its Pharaoh- like tyranny and lordship, and its acting as it wishes. | |||
Belief in Divine Determining produces such pleasure and happiness it is beyond description. We shall only allude to it with the following comparison. | |||
Two men travelled to the seat of government of a king, and there entered his private palace, a place of rare wonders. One of them did not recognize the king and laying hands on everything and stealing them, wanted to settle there. However, he experienced certain difficulties, for he had to manage the palace and its park, oversee its revenues, work its machines, and feed its strange animals; he suffered constant distress. The paradise-like park became hell for him. He pitied everything. He could not govern them. He passed his time regretfully. Then this thieving, unmannerly man was cast into prison as a punishment. The second man recognized the king and knew himself to be his guest. He believed that all the matters in the park and palace occurred through the regulation of the law, and that everything functioned with perfect ease in accordance with a programme. Leaving the difficulties to the king’s law, he benefited with complete enjoyment from all the pleasures of that Paradise-like garden, and relying on the king’s mercy and the efficacy of the administrative laws, he saw everything as agreeable and passed his life in perfect pleasure and happiness. He understood the meaning of the saying: “He who believes in Divine Determining is saved from grief.” | |||
< | <span id="DÖRDÜNCÜ_MEBHAS"></span> | ||
=== | ===FOURTH TOPIC=== | ||
'''If you say:'''“In the First Topic you proved that everything about Divine Determining is good and beautiful. Even the evil that comes from it is good, and the ugliness, beautiful. But the disasters and tribulations in this world refute that statement.” | |||
''' | |||
'''The Answer:''' O my soul and my friend who feel severe pain out of intense compassion! The facts that all virtues and perfections return to existence and that the basis of all rebellion, calamities, and defects is non-existence are a proof that existence is pure good and non-existence, pure evil. Since non-existence is pure evil, circumstances that either result in non-existence or give an inkling of it, also comprise evil. Therefore, life, the most brilliant light of existence, proceeding through different circumstances, finds strength; it encounters varying situations and is purified; it takes on numerous qualities and produces the desired results, and enters many stages and displays comprehensively the impresses of the Bestower of Life’s Names. | |||
''' | |||
It is due to this fact that certain things happen to living creatures in the form of griefs, calamities, difficulties, and tribulations whereby the lights of existence are renewed in their lives, and the darkness of non-existence draws distant and their lives are purified. For arrest, repose, silence, idleness, rest, and monotony are all, both in quality and as conditions, non-existence. Even the greatest pleasure is reduced to nothing by monotony. | |||
'''In Short:''' Since life displays the impresses of the Most Beautiful Names, everything that happens to it is good. | |||
''' | |||
For example, an extremely rich and infinitely skilful person who is proficient in many crafts, for an hour and in return for a wage, clothes a miserable wretch in a bejewelled, artistically fashioned garment. This garment he made in order to make the miserable man act as a model and to display the works of his art and his extensive wealth. He works the garment on the man, gives it various forms, and alters it. In order to display every variety of his art, he cuts it, changes it, and lengthens and shortens it. Can the poor man receiving the wage be justified if he says to the person: “You are giving me trouble. You are making me bow down and stand up. By cutting and shortening this garment which makes me more beautiful, you are spoiling my beauty”? Does he have the right to tell him: “You are acting unkindly and unfairly”? | |||
Thus, like him, in order to display the impresses of His Most Beautiful Names, the All-Glorious Maker, the Peerless Creator, alters within numerous circumstances the garment of existence He clothes on living creatures, bejewelled with senses and subtle faculties like eyes, ears, the reason, and the heart. He changes it within very many situations. Among these are circumstances in the form of suffering and calamity which show the meanings of some of His Names, and the rays of mercy within flashes of wisdom, and the subtle instances of beauty within those rays of mercy. | |||
< | <span id="Hâtime"></span> | ||
=== | ===Conclusion=== | ||
[Five Paragraphs which silenced the Old Said’s rebellious, proud, vain, conceited, and hypocritical soul, and compelled it to submit.] | |||
FIRST PARAGRAPH: Since things exist and they are full of art, they surely have a maker. As is decisively proved in the Twenty-Second Word, if everything is not one person’s, then each thing becomes as difficult and problematical as all things. Since someone made the earth and the heavens and created them, for sure that most wise and skilful Being would not leave to others living beings, which are the fruits, results, and aims of the heavens and the earth, and spoil his work. Making it futile and without purpose, He would not hand over to others all His wise works; He would not give their thanks and worship to others. | |||
SECOND PARAGRAPH: O my conceited soul! You resemble a grape-vine. Do not become proud! The vine itself did not attach the bunches of grapes; someone else attached them. | |||
THIRD PARAGRAPH: O my hypocritical soul! Do not become vain, saying: “I have served religion.” According to the meaning of the saying, “God strengthens this religion by means of sinful men,”(*<ref>*Bukhari, Jihad, 182; Maghazi, 38; Qadr, 5; Muslim, Iman, 178; Ibn Maja, Fitan, 35.</ref>) it was because you were not purified. Indeed, you should know yourself to be such a sinful man, and that your duty and worship is thanks for past bounties. For these are the function of your nature, incumbent on you due to your | |||
creation, and the result of art; know this and be saved from vanity and hypocrisy! | |||
</ | |||
FOURTH PARAGRAPH: If you want knowledge of reality and true wisdom, gain knowledge of Almighty God. For the realities of beings are rays of the Divine Name of Truth and the manifestations of His Names and attributes. The reality of all things, whether physical, non-physical, essential, non-essential, and the reality of all human beings, is based on a Name and relies on Its reality. Things are not merely insignificant forms without reality. There is a brief discussion of this mystery at the end of the Twentieth Word. | |||
O my soul! If you long for the life of this world and flee death, know certainly that the conditions you suppose to be life are only the minute in which you are. All the time previous to the present minute and the things of the world within that time are dead in the present minute. And all the time subsequent to the present minute and all it contains are non-existent in it, and nothing. That means the physical life on which you rely is only one minute. Some of the learned, even, said it was a tenth of a minute, rather, the passing instant. It is due to this mystery that certain saints stated that with regard to this world, this world is non-existent. | |||
Since it is thus, give up the physical life of the soul; rise to the level of life of the heart, spirit, and inner faculties; see what a broad sphere of life they have. For them, the past and the future, which for you are dead, are living; they are existent and full of life. O my soul! Like my heart, you too weep and cry out and say: | |||
I am ephemeral; I do not want another who is thus. I am impotent; I do not want another who is thus. I have surrendered my spirit to the Most Merciful; I do not want another. I want another, but let him be an eternal friend. I am a mere atom, but I desire an Everlasting Sun. I am nothing, yet I wish for these beings, all of them. | |||
FIFTH PARAGRAPH:This Paragraph occurred to me in Arabic, and so it was written thus. Also, it recalls one of the thirty-three degrees of reflection in the recitation, God is Most Great. | |||
God is Most Great! The Eternal, All-Knowing, All-Wise, Most Generous, Most Compassionate, All-Beauteous, the Inscriber, the Pre-Eternal! What is the reality of the universe in its entirety and in its parts, and its pages and levels, and what is the reality of beings altogether and singly, in their existence and continuation, but the lines of the pen of His Determining and Decree, and His setting in order and determining, with knowledge and wisdom; what are they but the skilful inscriptions of His knowledge and wisdom and regulating and forming, with art and favour; the adornments of the shining hand of His art and favour and embellishing and illuminating, with grace and munificence; the flowers of the subtleties of His favour and munificence and making known and loved, with mercy and bounty; the fruits of the effusions of His mercy and bounty and pity and compassion, with beauty and perfection; the flashes and manifestations of His beauty and perfection through the testimony of the transience of the mirrors and the ephemerality of the places of manifestation and the permanence of that transcendent, eternal beauty, and its constant manifestation and appearance throughout the passage of the seasons, centuries, and ages, and the perpetual bestowal of bounties throughout the passage of the creatures and days and people? | |||
Indeed, a perfect work points to one possessing intellect who performs a perfect act, and the perfect act points to one with understanding who possesses perfect names, and the perfect names point to perfect attributes, and perfect attributes point to perfect qualities, and the perfect qualities point to the perfection of the essence from which they proceed, and this is absolutely certain. Indeed, the ephemerality of the mirrors and death of creatures together with the perpetual manifestation and constant effulgence is the clearest of proofs that their apparent beauty does not belong to the places of manifestation; it is the most eloquent statement and clearest argument for a transcendent beauty, and renewed bestowal, to the Necessary Existent, to the Enduring One, the Loving One... O God! Grant blessings to our master Muhammad from pre-eternity to post- eternity to the number of things encompassed by Divine Knowledge, and to his Family and Companions, and grant them peace. | |||
< | <span id="ZEYL"></span> | ||
== | ==Addendum== | ||
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. | |||
[This short Addendum has great importance; it is beneficial for everyone.] | |||
The ways leading to Almighty God are truly numerous. While all true ways are taken from the Qur’an, some are shorter, safer, and more general than others. One of these is the way of impotence, poverty, compassion, and reflection, from which, with my defective understanding, I have benefited. | |||
Indeed, like ecstatic love, impotence is a path which, by way of worship, leads to winning God’s love; but it is safer. | |||
Poverty too leads to the Divine Name of All-Merciful. | |||
And, like ecstatic love, compassion leads to the Name of All-Compassionate, but is a swifter and broader path. | |||
Also like ecstatic love, reflection leads to the Name of All- Wise, but it is a richer, broader, and more brilliant path. | |||
This path consists not of ten steps like the ‘ten subtle faculties’ of some of the Sufi orders (tariqat) employing silent recollection, nor of seven stages like the ‘seven souls’ of those practising public recitation, but of four steps. It is reality , rather than a tariqat. It is Shari’a. However, let it not be misunderstood. It means to see one’s impotence, poverty and faults before Almighty God, not to fabricate them or display them to people. | |||
The method of this short path is to follow the Practices of the Prophet (PBUH), perform the religious obligations and give up serious sins. And it is especially to perform the prescribed prayers correctly and with attention, and following them to say the tesbihat. | |||
< | The verse, Therefore, do not justify yourselves,(*<ref>*Qur’an, 53:32.</ref>) points to the first step. | ||
</ | |||
< | The verse, And be not like those who forget God, and He therefore makes them forget their own selves,(*<ref>*Qur’an, 59:19.</ref>) points to the second step. | ||
</ | |||
< | The verse, Whatever good happens to you is from God, but whatever evil befalls you is from yourself,(*<ref>*Qur’an, 4:79.</ref>) points to the third step. | ||
</ | |||
< | The verse, Everything will perish save His countenance,(*<ref>*Qur’an, 28:88.</ref>) points to the fourth step. | ||
</ | |||
A brief explanation of these Four Steps is as follows: | |||
'''THE FIRST STEP:''' As the verse, Therefore, do not justify yourselves suggests, it is to not purify the soul. For on account of his nature and innate disposition, man loves himself. Indeed, he loves himself before anything else, and only himself. He sacrifices everything other than himself to his own soul. He praises himself in a manner befitting | |||
''' | some object of worship. He absolves and exonerates himself from faults in the same way. As far as he possibly can, he does not see faults as being appropriate for him, and does not accept them. He defends himself passionately as though worshipping himself. Even, using on himself the members and faculties given him as part of his nature in order to | ||
</ | praise and glorify the True Object of Worship, he displays the meaning of the verse, Who takes as his god his own desires.(*<ref>*Qur’an, 25:43; 45:23.</ref>) | ||
He considers himself, he relies on himself, he fancies himself. | |||
Thus, his purification and cleansing at this stage, in this step, is to not purify himself; it is not to absolve himself. | |||
'''SECOND STEP:'''As the verse, And be not like those who forget God, and He therefore makes them forget their own selves teaches, man is oblivious of himself, and is not aware of himself. If he thinks of death, it is in relation to others. If he sees transience and decline, he does not attribute them to himself. His evil-commanding soul demands that when it comes to inconvenience and service of others, he forgets himself, but when it comes to receiving his recompense, and to benefits and enjoyment, he thinks of himself, and takes his own part fervently. His purification, cleansing, and training at this stage is the reverse of this state. | |||
''' | |||
That is to say, when oblivious of himself, it is not to be oblivious. That is, to forget himself when it comes to pleasure, and ambition and greed, and to think of himself when it comes to death and service of others. | |||
'''THIRD STEP:''' As the verse, Whatever good happens to you is from God, but whatever evil befalls you is from yourself teaches, the nature of the evil-commanding soul demands that it always considers goodness to be from itself and becomes vain and conceited. Thus, in this Step, a person sees only faults, defects, impotence, and poverty in himself, and understands that all his good qualities and perfections are bounties bestowed on him by the All-Glorious Creator. He gives thanks instead of being conceited, and offers praise instead of boasting. | |||
''' | |||
< | According to the meaning of the verse, Truly he succeeds who purifies it,(*<ref>*Qur’an, 91:9.</ref>) | ||
his purification at this stage is to know his perfection to lie in imperfection, his power in impotence, and his wealth in poverty. | |||
</ | |||
'''FOURTH STEP:'''As the verse, Everything will perish save His countenance teaches, the evil-commanding soul considers itself to be free and independent and to exist of itself. Because of this, man claims to possess a sort of dominicality. He harbours a hostile rebelliousness towards his True Object of Worship. Thus, through understanding the following fact, he is saved from this. | |||
''' | |||
The fact is this: According to the apparent meaning of things, which looks to each thing itself, | |||
everything is transitory, lacking, accidental, non-existent. But according to the meaning that signifies something other than itself and in respect of each thing being a mirror to the All-Glorious Maker’s Names and charged with various duties, each is a witness, it is witnessed, and it is existent. | |||
The purification and cleansing of a person at this stage is as follows: In his existence he is non-existent, and in his non-existence he has existence. That is to say, if he values himself and attributes existence to himself, he is in a darkness of non- existence as great as the universe. That is, if he relies on his individual existence and is unmindful of the True Giver of Existence, he has an individual light of existence like that of a fire-fly and is submerged in an endless darkness of non-existence and separation. But if he gives up egotism and sees that he is a mirror of the manifestations of the True Giver of Existence, he gains all beings and an infinite existence. For he who finds the Necessary Existent One, the manifestation of Whose Names all beings manifest, finds everything. | |||
< | <span id="HÂTİME"></span> | ||
== | ==Conclusion== | ||
The Four Steps in this way of impotence, poverty, compassion, and reflection have been explained in the twenty-six Words so far written, which are concerned with knowledge of reality, the reality of the Shari’a, and the wisdom of the Qur’an. So here we shall allude briefly to only one or two points, as follows: | |||
Indeed, this path is shorter, because it consists of four steps. When impotence removes the hand from the soul, it gives it directly to the All-Powerful One of Glory. Whereas, when the way of ecstatic love, the swiftest way, takes the hand away from the soul, it attaches it to the metaphorical beloved. Only after the beloved is found to be impermanent does it go to the True Beloved. | |||
Also, this path is much safer, because the ravings and high-flown claims of the soul are not present on it. For, apart from impotence, poverty, and defect, the soul possesses nothing so that it oversteps its mark. | |||
Also, this path is much broader and more universal. For, in order to attain to a constant awareness of God’s presence, a person is not compelled to imagine the universe to be condemned to non-existence and to declare: “There is no existent but He,” like those who believe in ‘the unity of existence,’ nor to suppose the universe to be condemned to imprisonment in absolute oblivion and to say, “There is nothing witnessed but He,” like those who believe in ‘the unity of witnessing.’ Rather, since the Qur’an has most explicitly pardoned the universe and released it from execution and imprisonment, one on this path disregards the above, and dismissing beings from working on their own account and employing them on account of the All-Glorious Creator, and in the duty of manifesting the Most Beautiful Names and being mirrors to them, he considers them from the point of view of signifying something other than themselves; and being saved from absolute heedlessness he enters the Divine presence permanently; he finds a way leading to Almighty God in everything. | |||
In Short: Dismissing beings from working on account of other beings, this way is to not look at them as signifying themselves. | |||
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<center> [[Yirmi Beşinci Söz]] ⇐ | [[Sözler]] | ⇒ [[Yirmi Yedinci Söz]] </center> | <center> [[Yirmi Beşinci Söz/en|The Twenty-Fifth Word]] ⇐ | [[Sözler/en|The Words]] | ⇒ [[Yirmi Yedinci Söz/en|The Twenty-Seventh Word]] </center> | ||
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