(AD 1271–1332; AH 669–732)
Little is known about the life of this Turkish mystic and poet. His first name was Ali, but he is simply known as Ashiq (‘Lover’, i.e., a lover of God, a name given to an ecstatic mystic), while Pasha is an honorific.
His most famous work is the long masnavi poem Gahribnameh (The Book of the Stranger), which is notable for its orthodox Muslim viewpoint at a time when many heterodox Muslim sects were flourishing.
Ashiq Pasha is popular in Turkey and Central Asia, but his poetry is not highly regarded in literary circles. However, as one of the earliest mystics writing in Turkish, his work and ideas are significant.
Be thou in the Love of God both leal and true.
These at once thy servants are, thy source, thy heart;
Ne’er let doubt thereof within thy bosom start.
Greater these than thou to outward seeing are,
Lesser these than thou in inward being are.
If one look unto the form, these nourish thee;
Know thou yet that they in truth thy servants be.
Come are these to nourish and sustain thy frame,
Come they are not for to make thee slave to them.
Every thing doth serve the soul with one accord,
While the soul itself is come to serve the Lord.
Pity if it should its servants’ servant be,
To its own dependents paying service fee.
To the wise these words enow the meaning show;
O my mad one, from these words will meaning grow.
Nor would more of words avail the fool in aught;
Hearing, of their meaning he would gather naught.
Whosoever shall have known himself in truth,
He, collected, to himself is come in sooth.
Unto him the root of all the meaning’s known,
Therefore is he judge and subject both in one.
To the lover ’tis Love’s words the meaning show,
Never shall the loveless frere the meaning know.
O my God! of him to whom these words are clear
Quicken Thou the love, that with his soul he hear;
Never let him from Thy love depart or stray,
Losing ne’er in Either World the Narrow Way.
E. J. W. Gibb
If thou’rt mate, O heart, with one who knows the Path,
Or if thou thyself art one who vision hath,
Learn its lesson from each thing that thou dost see,
So thou mayest know the Source whence all things be.
If the eye learn of things seen their lessoning,
In the heart will knowledge surely sprout and spring;
Thence to it the Hidden Treasure will be shown.
E. J. W. Gibb
… ’Tis through Reason Knowledge lives in very deed;
Look through Reason, and therewith this Knowledge read.
Naught of Knowledge his who hath of Reason naught;
He who Reason hath is thence with Knowledge fraught.
He whose Knowledge lives hath this through Reason done,
He who Knowledge wins hath this through Reason won.
Yea, the Knowledge of the Reasonless is dead,
Hence no work of his hath aught accomplished.
’Tis this Reason is the life of Knowledge, sooth;
He who Reason lacks wins not through Knowledge truth.
Who hath Knowledge and yet doth not Reason own?
From a Knowledge such as his result were none.
Thus that Knowledge living is whose comrade true
Reason is from first to last and through and through.
Well, that Knowledge lives through Reason thou dost see;
Look now at what maketh Reason living be.
Look now, what is it that maketh Reason live?
Hearken, that the tale thereof to thee I give.
Love it is makes Reason live, know thou in truth;
Dead the Loveless Reason is in soothest sooth.
Who may man of Reason yet no Lover be?
Were there such, unworthy of the Truth were he.
Dead the Reason that for comrade hath not Love;
Lower such than e’en the very lusts thereof.
For such Reason as with Love trod not the road
Wisdom and the Mysteries were never food.
’Tis this holy Love is Reason’s life indeed;
Love it is that Reason up to God doth lead.
Whate’er Reason is not in that Presence dazed –
Know the Love of God hath not its life upraised.
Lo this Reason’s life is Love in very sooth;
See how Loveless Reason ne’er may win the Truth.
Well thou knowest now this Reason’s life is Love;
Look at Love and see from whence its life doth prove,
See through what it is that Love is thus alive;
Know in truth the Truth to Love its life doth give.
Yea, the life of Love is through the Truth alone;
Parted from the Truth, hath Love nor stead nor wone.
In the world below hath Love no fond desire,
To the Truth alone its wistful hopes aspire.
Naught in Love beside the Truth may ever be;
So the heart is filled, nor seeketh worldly fee.
Ne’er in Love do name and fame exultant rise;
But in Love full many a ‘hidden treasure’ lies.
’Tis the Truth’s own word that by Love’s tongue is said,
’Tis the Truth’s own work that by Love’s hand is sped;
’Tis the Truth’s own light that looketh through Love’s eye,
Therefore doth it build at times, at times destroy.
Reason, Spirit, Body, Soul are slaves to Love,
For the Truth hath filled Love; doubt ne’er thereof.
Since it is the Truth makes Love alive in sooth,
Hold thou fast by Love that thou mayst win the Truth.
Love is His, the Lover and the Loved is He;
So thou wouldest win to Him, a Lover be.
Know that Love may never be from Him apart,
Ne’er for aught beside take then from Love thy heart.
Love is life of all, the Truth is life of Love;
Hid within the Signless doth that Signless move.
E. J. W. Gibb