The Relevance of Yunus Emre in Our Time
By Habib Siddiqui
No place seems immune these days from instability, violence and insecurity.
The worst victims are Muslims – attacked both from within and without the
community. The extremists on both sides are hijacking the narratives about
Islam, thus, bringing in much suffering to the people and creating a world of
disorder.
I see a close resemblance to the time of Yunus Emre. I, thus, feel very
strongly that we need to take time out and reflect, and what a great way of
doing such by reading the poems and adhering to the teachings of Yunus Emre!
Yunus Emre
(ca. 1240 – ca. 1321 C.E.) is one of the greatest Turkish poets. His collection
of poems, called the Divan, was
compiled after his death, and sheds some light on his life.
The love
people have for his liberating poetry is reflected in the fact that many
villages claim to be his birthplace, and many others claim to hold his tomb. It
is believed that he lived in the Karaman area of Anatolia.
Among the Sufi orders of Anatolia, the Mevlevis and Bektasis were known for
their tolerance and inclusiveness. It is this sentiment that Yunus Emre
expresses in the line “we love the created beings because of the Creator”
(Yunus Emre in Golpinarli, p. 56; trans. Z. Baskal). These Sufis facilitated
interaction between different religious, ethnic, and linguistic groups.
Popular legend assigns Yunus Emre to the Bektasi order of dervishes, which
was established in the thirteenth century (a few years before his birth), under
the leadership of Haci Bektaş Veli (1201-1271 C.E.).
According to a frequently repeated legend, one year when the harvest in his
village was scant, Yunus Emre approached a local dervish lodge of Haci Bektas
Veli to solicit food for his starving villagers. On his way to the lodge, Yunus decided he could not arrive there with
empty hands, and he picked some wild pears on the Anatolian steppes as a gift
for Haci Bektas. When Yunus
Emre begged for wheat, Haci Bektaş offered him nefes (blessings) instead. Since Yunus's mind was on his
villagers who were starving, he refused the offer. Then Haci Bektas increased
his offer, “We will give you ten nefes
for each wild pear you brought us.” Since Yunus had never heard of a nefes before, nor could he even imagine
its extraordinary bliss, he refused the offering. When he had refused the
offering third time Haci Bektas gave
him the wheat he had asked of. On the
way home, realizing his mistake, Yunus turned around and headed back to the
dervish lodge for the blessing. But he had missed his chance, said Haci Bektaş,
who referred Yunus to Taptuk Emre (a disciple of Haci Bektas). Thus began 40
years of spiritual instruction with this teacher, during which Yunus Emre began
to compose Sufi mystical poetry.
One
day, Yunus asked Taptuk for permission to leave, “I understand it is not easy to be a dervish; so let me go into the
world with my solitude, my otherness, I will become an intimate friend of those
who sorrow.”
Yunus
traveled on foot, miles and miles through the steppes of Anatolia. One day
while he wandered the steppes of Anatolia, he encountered two traveling
dervishes who invited him to accompany them. At the dusk of the first day, one
of the dervishes prayed to Allah asking for food to eat: no sooner had he
finished his prayer than a well-prepared dinner appeared. Yunus was amazed. On
the second day at dinner time, the other dervish prayed and a meal just as good
as the first one appeared. Yunus began to worry he might in his turn be asked
to produce a meal, and indeed, on the following day the two dervishes asked
Yunus for his prayer to beg Allah for food. Yunus prayed silently, “O my God, I do not know such prayers, but I
ask in the same name that my friends used in their prayer to You, please, don’t
embarrass me.”
As
soon as Yunus had finished his prayer, twice the amount of food they had eaten
on the previous days appeared. The two dervishes were very surprised and asked
Yunus, “In whose name did you pray to
Allah?”
Yunus
replied, “First, tell me in whose name you prayed.” They answered they had
prayed in the name of a dervish called Yunus from Taptuk Emre's dargah.
After
that, Yunus returned to Taptuk who gave him this explanation, “We would have delivered you to Haqq, to Allah,
as a sealed chest, but you hurried away and opened your mouth. From this day
on, you will be the intimate friend of the gharibs, the strangers, the hidden
beings, and those who sorrow. This is your path, go, do your duty!” [Note: The
Arabic word Haqq (short for Al-Haqq) means the Truth and is one of
the 99 names of Allah.]
Yunus
traveled every square inch of the steppes of Anatolia on foot by day and by
night and taught among the rural poor. His poetry expresses a deep
personal devotion to Islam, mysticism, humanity and love for Allah, His Last
Prophet Muhammad (S) and mankind. His
poetry shows that there are three degrees of Islam — belief (Iman),
application or rules (Islam), and doing the good or
beautiful (Ihsan). He uses the word Sufi or dervish for
someone who has already achieved the first two degrees and is searching for the
third, living the beautiful, in mind, body and soul.
Contrasting earthly time with cosmic time, his poetry summons readers to
prepare for inevitable death. He reminds them that they must leave this world
and that life is a brief sojourn; all beautiful things will pass. Couplets such
as the following attest to the world’s sensual attractiveness: “This world is a bride dressed in green and
red/One cannot get tired of looking at a new bride” (Yunus Emre Divani,
p. 116; trans. Z. Baskal). Other couplets warn the reader not to be taken in by
the world’s outward beauty: “Worshipping
the world is like savoring a poisonous meal/The one who cares about the end of
life abandons the meal” (Yunus Emre Divani, p. 88; trans. Z.
Baskal). The aim is to redirect the reader’s focus from worldly things to the
transitory nature of life.
Devotion to Allah becomes an alternative to fears of mortality: “The world is the enemy of people; the goal
is the Soul of the souls (i.e., Allah)/One should know that the world passes,
abandon the world, my dear” (Yunus
Emre Divani, p. 170; trans. Z. Baskal). In one of the most masterful
and harmonious couplets of Turkish literature, Yunus holds out the eternal
reward of salvation for the faithful: “Why
are you afraid of death? / Don’t be afraid! You will live forever” (Yunus
Emre Divani, p. 49; trans. Z. Baskal).
Yunus Emre was a contemporary of the
celebrated Sufi poet Rumi who had settled in the same region. Yunus made a
point of writing, singing and speaking in spoken Turkish language of the common
people of the day rather than adopting the Persian or Arabic speech that was
prevalent in his own country, particularly amongst the sophisticated people. He
was very skillful in describing quite abstruse Sufi concepts in a clear way to
ordinary folks.
Legend has it that one day a stern teacher named Molla Kasim found a
collection of Yunus Emre’s poetry. When he sat down by the river and began to
read the poems, he found them contrary to his dogmatic religious understanding.
He threw 1,000 poems into the river and 1,000 poems into the air. When Molla
Kasim came to the 2,001st poem, he noticed that the couplet said: “O Yunus! Do not tell your words in a crooked
way/Or Molla Kasim will come and straighten you.” The prediction of these
words made Molla Kasim realize the insightfulness of the poet whose words he
had just discarded, and he decided to keep the poems he still had in hand to
pass on to future generations. Some interpret the story to mean that although
Yunus Emre had his critics from the religious establishment, the power of his
poetry eventually won them over.
Yunus Emre’s inspiration for his stupendous
love of mankind comes from his deep understanding of the Qur’an, which begins
with the phrase: ‘Bismillahir Rahmanir
Raheem’ (meaning: In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful). He,
thus, put the love of Allah over the fear of Allah who is the only Master of the universe to whom all
praises duly belong.
In the true spirit of Islam, which makes no distinction between
race, color, ethnicity, rich or poor, Yunus recognized the unity of mankind. That is, all of us are brothers
and sisters, and the children of Adam and Eve (Hawa). The person of merit is one who has taqwa or the fear of Allah in his/her
heart so that he/she obeys Allah and His Messenger Muhammad (S) to the best of
his/her abilities by doing good and abstaining from harmful acts. It is in
recognition of this fact that Yunus Emre urges man to love Allah wholeheartedly.
The qalb
or heart is the battleground for fighting nafs
(soul, ego). Strife comes when
one becomes prisoner of one’s nafs (ego,
self) and knows only how to love oneself. As a Sufi who had gone through the rigorous
discipline of tazkiyah-e-nafs, i.e.,
purification of the self, Yunus knew that in this remedial medicine, ego has no
place but only servitude that matters. By serving and giving to others rather than being served and
receiving and thereby, finding a joy in happiness of others lie the only remedy
against the temptations of the nafs.
Yunus understood that the path of love starts with first loving Allah, the
Creator, to truly love mankind, who created them all. Any deviation from this
well-trodden path is only an illusion and is bound to fail.
General interest in Yunus Emre’s poetry has grown over the years,
especially since Fuad Koprulu’s landmark study Turk Edebiyatinda Ilk Mutasavviflar
(1918; The First Mystics in Turkish Literature). His poems have also been
translated into English, German, French and Urdu. His
poetry has been honored by the UNESCO, which proclaimed 1991 the International
Yunus Emre Year, recognizing his poetry as a quintessential representation of
humanistic values.
Yunus
Emre’s poems convey a profound spirituality. His subject is the Heart, the
point of awareness where God is realized in us. He sang,
“I am not here as a claimant,
My concern is one of love,
A friend finds a shelter only
in hearts,
I've come to build some heart.”
A
reading of his Divan – the collected
poems – shows that Yunus Emre has walked his talk. It is up to us to continue
that vital task and make our world a better place for all to live in peace and harmony.
[Dr.
Siddiqui’s latest book – Yunus
Emre, the Sufi Poet of Turkey – is now available in the
Amazon.com.]
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