The Twenty-First Word

[This Word consists of Two Stations.]

First Station

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

For such Prayers are enjoined on believers at stated times.(*)

One time, a man great in age, physique, and rank said to me: “The prayers are fine, but to perform them every single day five times is excessive. Since they never end, it becomes wearying.”

A long time after the man said these words, I listened to my soul and I heard it say exactly the same things. I looked at it and saw that with the ear of laziness, it was receiving the same lesson from Satan. Then I understood that those words were as though said in the name of all evil-commanding souls, or else they had been prompted. So I said: “Since my soul commands to evil, one who does not reform his own soul cannot reform others. In which case, I shall begin with my own soul.”

I said: O soul! Listen to five ‘Warnings’ in response to those words which you uttered in compounded ignorance, on the couch of idleness, in the slumber of heedlessness.

FIRST WARNING

O my wretched soul! Is your life eternal, I wonder? Have you any incontrovertible document showing that you will live to next year, or even to tomorrow? What causes you boredom is that you fancy you shall live for ever. You complain as though you will remain in this world to enjoy yourself for ever. If you had understood that your life is brief and that it is departing fruitlessly, it surely would not cause you boredom, but excite a real eagerness and agreeable pleasure to spend one hour out of the twenty-four on a fine, agreeable, easy, and merciful act of service which is a means of gaining the true happiness of eternal life.

SECOND WARNING

O my stomach-worshipping soul! Every day you eat bread, drink water, and breathe air; do they cause you boredom? They do not, because since the need is repeated, it is not boredom that they cause, but pleasure. In which case, the five daily prayers should not cause you boredom, for they attract the needs of your companions in the house of my body, the sustenance of my heart, the water of life of my spirit, and the air of my subtle faculties.

Yes, it is by knocking through supplication on the door of One All- Compassionate and Munificent that sustenance and strength may be obtained for a heart afflicted with infinite griefs and sorrows and captivated by infinite pleasures and hopes.

And it is by turning towards the spring of mercy of an Eternal Beloved through the five daily prayers that the water of life may be imbibed by a spirit connected with most beings, which swiftly depart from this transitory world crying out at separation.

And being most needy for air in the sorrowful, crushing, distressing, transient, dark, and suffocating conditions of this world, it is only through the window of the prayers that a conscious inner sense and luminous subtle faculty can breathe, which by its nature desires eternal life and was created for eternity and is a mirror of the Pre-Eternal and Post- Eternal One and is infinitely delicate and subtle.

THIRD WARNING

O my impatient soul! Is it at all sensible to think today of past hardships of worship, difficulties of the prayers, and troubles of misfortune, and be distressed, and to imagine the future duties of worship, service of the prayers, and sorrows of disaster, and display impatience?

In being thus impatient you resemble a foolish commander, who, although the enemy’s right flank joined his right flank and became fresh forces for him, sent a significant force to the right flank, and weakened the centre. Then, while there were no enemy soldiers on the left flank, he sent a large force there, and gave them the order to fire. No forces then remained in the centre, and the enemy understood this and attacked it and routed him.

Yes, you resemble this, for the troubles of yesterday have today been transformed into mercy; the pain has gone while the pleasure remains. The difficulty has been turned into blessings, and the hardship into reward. In which case, you should not feel wearied at it, but make a serious effort to continue with a new eagerness and fresh enthusiasm. As for future days, they have not yet arrived, and to think of them now and feel bored and wearied is a lunacy like thinking today of future hunger and thirst, and starting to shout and cry out.

Since the truth is this, if you are reasonable, you will think of only today in connection with worship, and say: “I am spending one hour of it on an agreeable, pleasant, and elevated act of service, the reward for which is high and whose trouble is little.” Then your bitter dispiritedness will be transformed into sweet endeavour.

My impatient soul! You are charged with being patient in three respects.

One is patience in worship.

Another is patience in refraining from sin.

And a third is patience in the face of disaster.(*)

If you are intelligent, take as your guide the truth apparent in the comparison in this Third Warning. Say in manly fashion: “O Most Patient One!”, and shoulder the three sorts of patience. If you do not squander on the wrong way the forces of patience Almighty God has given you, they should be enough to withstand every difficulty and disaster. So hold out with those forces!

FOURTH WARNING

O my foolish soul! Is this duty of worship without result, and is its recompense little that it causes you weariness? Whereas if someone was to give you a little money, or to intimidate you, he could make you work till evening, and you would work without slacking.

So is it that the prescribed prayers are without result, which in this guest-house of the world are sustenance and wealth for your impotent and weak heart, and in your grave, which will be a certain dwelling-place for you, sustenance and light, and at the Resurrection, when you will anyway be judged, a document and patent, and on the Bridge of Sirat, over which you are bound to pass, a light and a mount? Are their recompense little? Someone promises you a present worth a hundred liras, and makes you work for a hundred days. You trust the man who may go back on his word and work without slacking.

So if One for Whom the breaking of a promise is impossible, promises you recompense like Paradise and a gift like eternal happiness, and employs you for a very short time in a very agreeable duty, if you do not perform that service, or you act accusingly towards His promise or slight His gift by performing it unwillingly like someone forced to work, or by being bored, or by working in half-hearted fashion, you will deserve a severe reprimand and awesome punishment. Have you not thought of this? Although you serve without flagging in the heaviest work in this world out of fear of imprisonment, does the fear of an eternal incarceration like Hell not fill you with enthusiasm for a truly light and agreeable act of service?

FIFTH WARNING

O my world-worshipping soul! Does your slackness in worship and remissness in the prescribed prayers arise from the multiplicity of your worldly occupations, or because you cannot find time due to the struggle for livelihood? Were you created only for this world that you spend all your time on it?

You know that in regard to your abilities you are superior to all the animals, but in regard to procuring the necessities of worldly life you cannot compete with even a sparrow. So why can you not understand that your basic duty is not to labour like an animal, but to strive for a true, perpetual life, like a true human being.

In addition, the things you call worldly occupations mostly do not concern you, and are trivial matters which you meddle in officiously. You neglect the essential things and pass your time acquiring inessential information as though you were going to live for a thousand years. For example, you squander your precious time on worthless things like learning what the rings around Saturn are like or how many chickens there are in America. As though you were becoming an expert in astronomy or statistics.

If you say: “What keeps me from the prayers and worship and causes me to be lax is not unnecessary things like that, but essential matters like earning a livelihood,”

then my answer is this: if you work for a daily wage of one hundred kurush, and someone comes to you and says: “Come and dig here for ten minutes, and you will find a brilliant and an emerald worth a hundred liras.” If you reply: “No, I won’t come, because ten kurush will be cut from my wage and my subsistence will be less,” of course you understand what a foolish pretext it would be.

In just the same way, you work in this orchard for your livelihood. If you abandon the obligatory prayers, all the fruits of your effort will be restricted to only a worldly, unimportant, and unproductive livelihood. But if you spend your rest periods on the prayers, which allow your spirit to relax and heart to take a breather, you will discover two mines which are an important source, both for a productive worldly livelihood, and your livelihood and provisions of the hereafter.

First Mine: Through a sound intention, you will receive a share of the praises and glorifications offered by all the plants and trees, whether flowering or fruit-bearing, that you grow in the garden.(*)

Second Mine: Whatever is eaten of the garden’s produce, whether by animals or man, cattle or flies, buyers or thieves, it will become like almsgiving from you.(*) But on condition you work in the name of the True Provider and within the bounds of what He permits, and see yourself as a distribution official giving His property to His creatures.

So see what a great loss is made by one who abandons the prescribed prayers. What significant wealth he loses, and he is deprived of those two results and mines which would otherwise cause him to work eagerly and ensure his morale is strong; he becomes bankrupt. Even, as he grows old, he will grow weary of gardening and lose interest in it, saying, “What is it to me? I am anyway leaving this world, why should I put up with this much difficulty?” He will sink into idleness. But the first man says: “I shall work harder at both worship and licit activities in order to send even more abundant light to my grave and procure more provisions for my life in the hereafter.”

In Short: O my soul! Know that yesterday has left you, and as for tomorrow, you have nothing to prove that it will be yours. In which case, know that your true life is the present day. So throw at least one of its hours into a mosque or prayer-mat, a coffer for the hereafter like a reserve fund, set up for the true future.

Know too that for you and for everyone each new day is the door to a new world. If you do not perform the prayers, your world that day will depart dark and wretched, and will testify against you in the World of Similitudes. For everyone, every day, has a private world out of this world, and its nature is dependent on the person’s heart and actions. Like a splendid palace reflected in a mirror takes on the colour of the mirror; if it is black, it appears black; if it is red, it appears red. Also it takes on the qualities of the mirror; if the mirror is smooth, it shows the palace to be beautiful, and if it is not, it shows it to be ugly. As it shows the most delicate things to be coarse, so you alter the shape of your own world with your heart, mind, actions, and wishes. You may make it testify either for you or against you.

If you perform the five daily prayers, and through them you are turned towards that world’s Glorious Maker, all of a sudden your world, which looks to you, is lit up. Quite simply as though the prayers are an electric lamp and your intention to perform them touches the switch, they disperse the world’s darkness and show the changes and movements within the confused wretchedness of worldly chaos to be a wise and purposeful order and a meaningful writing of Divine power.

They scatter one light of the light-filled verse, God is the Light of the Heavens and the Earth(*) over your heart, and your world on that day is illuminated through the light’s reflection. It will cause it to testify in your favour through its luminosity.

Beware, do not say: “What are my prayers in comparison with the reality of the prayers?”, because like the seed of a date-palm describes the full-grown tree, your prayers describe your tree. The difference is only in the summary and details; like the prayers of a great saint, the prayers of ordinary people like you or me, even if they are not aware of it, have a share of that light. There is a mystery in this truth, even if the conscious mind does not perceive it... but the unfolding and illumination differs according to the degrees of those performing them. However many stages and degrees there are from the seed of a date-palm to the mature tree, the degrees of the prayers and their stages are even more numerous. But the essence of that luminous truth is present in all the degrees.

O God! Grant blessings and peace to the one who said: “The five daily prayers are the pillar of religion,”(*) and to all his Family and Companions.

The Second Station of the Twenty-First Word

[This comprises five cures for five of the heart’s wounds.]

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

And say: “O my Sustainer! I seek refuge with You from the suggestions of the evil ones * And I seek refuge with you, O my Sustainer, lest they should come near me.”(*)

O one afflicted with the sickness of scruples! Do you know what your scruples resemble? A calamity! The more importance they are given, the more they grow. If you give them no importance, they die away. If you see them as big, they grow bigger. If you see them as small, they grow smaller. If you fear them, they swell and make you ill. If you do not fear them, they are light and remain hidden. If you do not know their true nature, they persist and become established. While if you do know them and recognize them, they disappear. And so, I shall explain only five ‘Aspects’ which, of the many sorts of these calamitous scruples, are those which most frequently occur. Perhaps it may be curative for you and for me, for these scruples are such that ignorance invites them and knowledge repulses them. If you do not recognize them they come, if you do recognize them they go.

FIRST ASPECT - FIRST WOUND

Satan first casts a doubt into the heart. If the heart does not accept it, it turns from a doubt into abuse. It depicts before the imagination some unclean memories and unmannerly, ugly states which resemble abuse, and causes the heart to declare: “Alas!”, and fall into despair. The person suffering from scruples supposes that he has acted wrongfully before his Sustainer and feels a terrible agitation and anxiety. In order to be saved from it, he flees from the Divine presence and wants to plunge into heedlessness.

The cure for this wound is this:

O wretched man suffering from scruples! Do not be alarmed! For what comes to your mind is not abuse, but something imaginary. And like to imagine unbelief is not unbelief, to imagine abuse is not abuse either. For according to logic, an imagining is not a judgement, and abuse is a judgement. Moreover, those ugly words are not the words of your heart, because your heart is saddened and sorry at them. Rather they come from the inner faculty situated near the heart which is a means of Satanic whisperings. The harm of scruples is imagining the harm. That is, it is to suffer harm in the heart through imagining them to be harmful. For it is imagining to be reality an imagining which is devoid of judgement. Also, it is to attribute to the heart Satan’s works; to suppose his words to be from it. Such a person thinks it is harmful, so it becomes harmful. That is anyway what Satan wanted.

SECOND ASPECT

It is this: when meanings arise in the heart, they enter the imagination stripped of form; it is there that they are clothed in an image or form. The imagination, always affected by some cause, weaves images of a sort. It leaves on the way the images of the things to which it gives importance. Whatever meaning passes through it, it either clothes it, or wears it, or taints it, or veils it. If the meanings are pure and clean, and the images, dirty and base, there is no clothing, but there is contact. The man with scruples confuses the contact with being clothed. He exclaims: “Alas! How corrupted my heart has become. This lowness has made me despicable!” Satan takes advantage of this vein of his.

The cure for such a wound is as follows:

Listen, O you unfortunate! Just as outward cleanliness, which is the means to the correct conduct of your prayers, is not affected by the uncleanness of the inside of your inner organs, and is not spoiled by it, so the sacred meanings being close to unclean forms does not harm them. For example, you are reflecting on some Divine signs when suddenly you feel ill, or an appetite, or a stimulation like a need to pass water. Of course your imagination will see whatever is necessary to cure the ill or answer the need, and will look at it, weave lowly forms appropriate to them, and the meanings that arise will pass between them. But there is no harm in their passing, nor soiling, nor error, nor injury. If there is any mistake, it is in paying them attention and imagining the harm.

THIRD ASPECT

It is this: there are certain hidden connections between things. There are even the threads of connections between things you least expected. They are either there in fact, or your imagination made them according to the art with which it was preoccupied, and tied them together. It is due to this mystery of connections that sometimes seeing a sacred thing calls to mind a dirty thing.

As stated in the science of rhetoric, “Although opposition is the cause of distance in the outer world, it is the cause of proximity in the imagination.” That is, an imaginary connection is the means of bringing together the images of two opposites. The recollection which arises from this connection is called the association of ideas. For example, while performing the prayers or reciting supplications before the Ka’ba in the Divine Presence, this association of ideas takes hold of you and drives you to the furthest, lowest trivia, although you are reflecting on Qur’anic verses.

If your head is afflicted with association of ideas in this way, beware, do not be alarmed. Rather, the moment you come to your senses, turn back. Do not say: “I’ve done a great wrong,” and keep playing with the trigger, lest through your attention, that tenuous connection strengthens. For the more you feel regret, the more importance you give it and that faint memory of yours becomes ingrained. It becomes an imaginary sickness. Do not be frightened, it is not a sickness of the heart. This sort of recollection is mostly involuntary. Especially in sensitive, nervous people it is more common. Satan works the mine of this sort of scruple a great deal.

The cure for this wound is as follows:

The association of ideas is mostly involuntary. One is not answerable for it. In association there is proximity; there is no touching or intermingling. Therefore the nature of the ideas do not pass to one another and do not harm one another. Just as Satan and the angel of inspiration being in proximity to one another around the heart, and sinners and the pious being close to one another in the same house cause no harm, so too, if at the prompting of the association of ideas, dirty imaginings come and enter among clean thoughts, they cause no harm. Unless it is intentional, or by imagining them to be harmful, one is over-occupied with them. And sometimes the heart becomes tired, and the mind occupies itself with anything it encounters in order to entertain itself. Then Satan finds an opportunity, and scatters dirty things before it, and eggs it on.

DÖRDÜNCÜ VECİH

Amelin en iyi suretini taharriden neş’et eden bir vesvesedir ki takva zannıyla teşeddüd ettikçe hal ona şiddetlenir. Hattâ bir dereceye varır ki o adam amelin daha evlâsını ararken harama düşer. Bazen bir sünnetin araması, bir vâcibi terk ettiriyor. “Acaba amelim sahih oldu mu?” der, iade eder. Bu hal devam eder. Gayet yeise düşer. Şeytan şu halinden istifade eder, onu yaralar.

Şu yaranın iki merhemi var:

Birinci merhem: Bu gibi vesvese Ehl-i İtizal’e lâyıktır. Çünkü onlar derler: “Medar-ı teklif olan ef’al ve eşya, kendi zatında, âhiret itibarıyla ya hüsnü var; sonra o hüsne binaen emredilmiş veya kubhu var; sonra ona binaen nehyedilmiş. Demek eşyada, âhiret ve hakikat nokta-i nazarında olan hüsün ve kubuh zatîdir; emir ve nehy-i İlahî ona tabidir.” Bu mezhebe göre insan, her işlediği amelde şöyle bir vesvese gelir: “Acaba amelim nefsü’l-emirdeki güzel surette yapılmış mıdır?”

Amma mezheb-i hak olan Ehl-i Sünnet ve Cemaat derler ki: Cenab-ı Hak bir şeye emreder, sonra hasen olur. Nehyeder, sonra kabih olur. Demek emir ile güzellik, nehiy ile çirkinlik tahakkuk eder. Hüsün ve kubuh mükellefin ıttılaına bakar ve ona göre takarrur eder. Şu hüsün ve kubuh ise surî ve dünyaya bakan yüzünde değil belki âhirete bakan yüzdedir.

Mesela, sen namaz kıldın veya abdest aldın. Halbuki namazını ve abdestini fesada verecek bir sebep, nefsü’l-emirde varmış. Lâkin sen ona hiç muttali olmadın. Senin namazın ve abdestin hem sahihtir hem hasendir. Mutezile der: “Hakikatte kabih ve fâsiddir. Lâkin senden kabul edilir. Çünkü cehlin var, bilmedin ve özrün var.” Öyle ise Ehl-i Sünnet mezhebine göre, zâhir-i şeriata muvafık olarak işlediğin ameline: “Acaba sahih olmuş mu?” deyip vesvese etme. Fakat “Kabul olmuş mu?” de; gururlanma, ucbe girme.

İkinci merhem: Dinde harec yoktur. لَا حَرَجَ فِى الدّٖينِ Madem dört mezhep haktır. Madem istiğfara müncer olan derk-i kusur ise gurura müncer olan hüsn-ü amelin rü’yetine –böyle vesveseli adama– müreccahtır. Yani böyle vesveseli adam, amelini güzel görüp gurura düşmektense amelini kusurlu görse, istiğfar etse daha evlâdır.

Madem böyledir, sen vesveseyi at. Şeytana de ki: Şu hal, bir harecdir. Hakikat-i hale muttali olmak güçtür. Dindeki yüsre münafîdir. لَا حَرَجَ فِى الدّٖينِ ۝ اَلدّٖينُ يُس۟رٌ esasına muhaliftir. Elbette böyle amelim bir mezheb-i hakka muvafık gelir. O bana kâfidir. Hem lâekall ben aczimi itiraf ederek ibadeti lâyık-ı vechile eda edemediğimden istiğfar ve tazarru ile merhamet-i İlahiyeye dehalet edip kusurum affolunmak, kusurlu amelim kabul olunmak için mütezellilane bir niyaza vesiledir.

BEŞİNCİ VECİH

Mesail-i imaniyede şüphe suretinde gelen vesvesedir. Bîçare vesveseli adam, bazen tahayyülü, taakkul ile iltibas eder. Yani hayale gelen bir şüpheyi, akla girmiş bir şüphe tevehhüm edip itikadına halel gelmiş zanneder. Hem bazen tevehhüm ettiği bir şüpheyi, imana zarar veren bir şek zanneder. Hem bazen tasavvur ettiği bir şüpheyi, tasdik-i aklîye girmiş bir şüphe zanneder. Hem bazen bir emr-i küfrîde tefekkürü, küfür zanneder. Yani dalaletin esbabını anlamak suretinde kuvve-i müfekkirenin cevelanını ve tetkikatını ve bîtarafane muhakemesini, hilaf-ı iman zanneder.

İşte telkinat-ı şeytaniyenin eseri olan şu zanlardan ürkerek “Eyvah! Kalbim bozulmuş, itikadıma halel gelmiş.” der. O haller, galiben ihtiyarsız olduğundan cüz-i ihtiyarîsiyle ıslah edemediğinden yeise düşer.

Bu yaranın merhemi şudur ki:

Tahayyül-ü küfür, küfür olmadığı gibi tevehhüm-ü küfür dahi küfür değildir. Tasavvur-u dalalet, dalalet olmadığı gibi tefekkür-ü dalalet dahi dalalet değildir. Çünkü hem tahayyül hem tevehhüm hem tasavvur hem tefekkür; tasdik-i aklîden ve iz’an-ı kalbîden ayrıdırlar, başkadırlar. Onlar bir derece serbesttirler. Cüz-i ihtiyariyeyi pek dinlemiyorlar. Teklif-i dinî altına çok giremiyorlar. Tasdik ve iz’an, öyle değiller. Bir mizana tabidirler. Hem tahayyül, tevehhüm, tasavvur, tefekkür nasıl ki tasdik ve iz’an değiller. Öyle de şüphe ve tereddüt sayılmazlar. Fakat eğer lüzumsuz tekrar ede ede müstekar bir hale gelse o vakit hakiki bir nevi şüphe, ondan tevellüd edebilir. Hem bîtarafane muhakeme namıyla veya insaf namına deyip şıkk-ı muhalifi iltizam ede ede, tâ öyle bir hale gelir ki ihtiyarsız taraf-ı muhalifi iltizam eder. Ona vâcib olan hakkın iltizamı kırılır. O da tehlikeye düşer. Hasmın veya şeytanın bir vekil-i fuzulîsi olacak bir halet, zihninde takarrur eder.

Şu nevi vesvesenin en mühimmi budur ki: Vesveseli adam, imkân-ı zatî ile imkân-ı zihnîyi birbiriyle iltibas eder. Yani bir şeyi zatında mümkün görse o şeyi zihnen dahi mümkün ve aklen meşkuk tevehhüm eder. Halbuki ilm-i kelâmın kaidelerindendir ki imkân-ı zatî ise yakîn-i ilmîye münafî değil ve zaruret-i zihniyeye zıddiyeti yoktur. Mesela, şu dakikada Karadeniz’in yere batması, zatında mümkündür ve o imkân-ı zatî ile muhtemeldir. Halbuki yakînen, o denizin yerinde olduğunu hükmediyoruz, şüphesiz biliyoruz. Ve o ihtimal-i imkânî ve o imkân-ı zatî, bize şek vermez, bir şüphe getirmez, yakînimizi bozmaz. Mesela, şu güneş zatında mümkündür ki bugün gurûb etmesin veya yarın tulû etmesin. Halbuki bu imkân yakînimize zarar vermez, şüphe getirmez.

İşte bunun gibi mesela, hakaik-i imaniyeden olan hayat-ı dünyeviyenin gurûbuna ve hayat-ı uhreviyenin tulûuna, imkân-ı zatî cihetinde gelen vehimler, yakîn-i imanîye zarar vermez. Hem لَا عِب۟رَةَ لِل۟اِح۟تِمَالِ ال۟غَي۟رِ النَّاشِئِ عَن۟ دَلٖيلٍ yani “Bir delilden neş’et etmeyen bir ihtimalin hiç ehemmiyeti yoktur.” olan kaide-i meşhure hem usûlü’d-din hem usûlü’l-fıkhın kaide-i mukarreresindendir.

Eğer desen: Bu derece mü’minlere muzır ve müz’iç olan vesvese, ne hikmete binaen bize bela olmuş?

Elcevap: İfrata varmamak hem galebe çalmamak şartıyla asl-ı vesvese; teyakkuza sebeptir, taharriye dâîdir, ciddiyete vesiledir. Lâkaytlığı atar, tehavünü def’eder. Onun için Hakîm-i Mutlak, şu dâr-ı imtihanda, şu meydan-ı müsabakada bize bir kamçı-yı teşvik olarak vesveseyi şeytanın eline vermiş. Beşerin başına vuruyor. Şayet ziyade incitse Hakîm-i Rahîm’e şekva etmeli اَعُوذُ بِاللّٰهِ مِنَ الشَّي۟طَانِ الرَّجٖيمِ demeli.

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