(AD 1226–1312; AH 622–711)
Baha al-Din Muhammad-i Walad – also known as Sultan Walad (Veled in Turkish) – was the eldest son of the great Sufi poet Jalaluddin Rumi and is regarded as the father of Turkish verse.
Although his most famous work, the mystical Rabab-nama (The Book of the Guitar), is mostly written in Persian, it also contains more than a hundred verses in Turkish, thought to be the earliest extant examples of Western Turkish poetry.
Sultan Veled kept alive the Mevlevi Order founded by Rumi (Mevlana or ‘Our Master’), gathering the followers of his father around him. He also erected a mausoleum to his father, which became a focal point for the order. Sultan Veled died in Konya aged 86 and is buried next to his father’s tomb.
Wot ye well Mevlana is of saints the Pole;
Whatsoever thing he sayeth, do in whole.
All his words are mercies from the Heavenly King;
Such that blind folks’ eyes were opened, did they sing.
Whosoever by this Word doth tread the Way –
God vouchsafe to me the meed for him, I pray.
Mine are neither flocks nor riches to bestow,
That the love of Him through riches I should show.
These the riches which the Lord hath granted me;
Who so longeth for such riches, wise is he!
E. J. W. Gibb
Words, they form the riches of the man who’s wise;
All his riches giveth he, these Words he buys.
Riches, they are dust; these Words are life for aye;
Therefore flee the wise from those, in these to stay.
Words abide enduring, wealth departing flies;
Seize the living thing and leave thou that which dies!
Hold by God, that so thou mayst abide for aye;
Beg thou guidance of the Lord both night and day.
Praying, say to Him a-weeping dolefully:
‘Through Thy grace divine do Thou have ruth on me;
That I see Thee clearly, ope mine eyen wide;
That I drop-like fall midmost the sea, and bide.
E’en as when the drop into the sea doth run,
Two they rest not, drop and sea become but one.
So would I, e’en as that drop, become the sea;
Die not, but e’en like the sea, alive would be!’
Mazed and wildered at these words the wise abide:
‘How then hath the creature the Creator spied?’
‘No man sees that Face,’ ’tis thus I answer these,
‘It is his own Self reflected that he sees.
God the Lord doth give to him of His own Light,
By that Light doth he the Lord God clearly sight.’
So far may the letters hold the Verities.
By these Words it is that soar aloft the wise,
Understanding how ’tis God that seeth God,
How it is the Light of God that seeketh God!
E. J. W. Gibb
Leave thy wisdom, on this Path a madman be!
He who gives his soul, an hundred souls wins he.
Since the soul’s from God, to Him the soul restore;
He shall give thee many and many a soul therefor.
Sow the soul where it an hundredfold shall bear;
He who sows not there his soul shall evil fare.
See, thy soul, when thou ’rt asleep, where doth it flee?
See too what it worketh there withouten thee.
From thy body, when thou sleep’st, the soul doth fleet
Bird-like, wheresoe’er it list, doth drink, doth eat;
Of itself a soul will myriad forms assume,
City, marketplace or shop will it become;
Of itself it will become the earth, the skies;
Wakeful is the soul, while there the body lies.
Know that thus will be thy soul when comes thy death.
When thou yieldest up thy soul heed well thy faith,
That the soul may bear this with it up to God,
And may walk with houris bright in Heaven’s abode.
Happy yonder soul whose very soul is Love,
And whose service on this Path is naught but Truth!
Dead the loveless soul must needs be held, I say;
Needs must find one who a Lover is straightway,
That he make the soul in thee alive through Love;
Ay, that through his radiance flee this darkness off.
That he make thee, e’en as he is, true and leal;
That he pardon through his mercy all thine ill.
Seek thou eager in the world for such an one;
Hold him fast and sure, and let all else be gone.
E. J. W. Gibb
Seek thou God from him who doth His message bear;
Deem not such is other than The Truth, beware!
Hold thou fast by him who hath found God alway;
Neither when thou’st found him cry, ‘Where’s God? I pray!’
Other is not God than he, ope thou thine eyes;
He it is who aye thy light to thee supplies.
Whoso seeth one as two is squint of eye;
Hearken not his speech, it is but trumpery.
Brother, whoso loves God from his heart, ’tis he
Who will understand these Words e’en as they be.
Heaven and earth before his sight are one alone,
All through God, without, within, One Secret shown!
One the speech, e’en though his words a myriad be;
From his speeches will an Eye come finally.
All that is will die, the soul alone will bide;
In yon world the Slave and Sultan, naught beside:
One are Slave and Sultan there, they are not tway;
In that Palace Prince and Slave are One for aye.
E. J. W. Gibb
Come, for God’s sake, come unto me that thou mayest God conceive!
Give up the world e’en this very day that thou mayest God receive!
What were thy head? Give thou it up along with thy flocks on this Path!
Open thine eyes then, headless soul! That thou mayest God perceive!
Soar up to Heaven aloft, O my soul, if thou indeed be mine;
Open thy hand, give up thy wealth, that thou mayest God achieve!
E. J. W. Gibb