Çilingir Sofrası 35 / Malatyalı Niyâzî-i Mısrî (with English subtitles)

0:00Çilingir Sofrası 35 / Niyazi (from) Malatya / Mısri (Egypt) ***Translated by Prof.Dr.Nükhet Kardam***

0:02Hello, what a surprise! Welcome!

0:06We were hearing your voice but did not see you before

0:10Finally, we get to see you Sinan: Our Can is here, too, finally. Welcome!

0:13Can: Thank you, happy to be here. Thank you!

0:16Sinan: Would you like to make an announcement?

0:19Can: There is nothing to announce, the programs themselves are announcements!

0:24Can: I am happy to be here but I am not sure if I can replace Serhan and his beautiful music

0:28We took the guitar away

0:32Sinan: We didn’t bring the mandolin

0:36Perhaps Can could accompany us on the bendir?

0:39Can: I will keep rhythm on the table instead

0:43Your presence here is sufficient

0:49If you allow me,

0:51I would like to start with a particular poem (an inspiration)

0:55This time, the poem is from a poet who is said to be from Egypt

1:00but in reality he is from Malatya.

1:03He is known as Niyazi Misri but he is Niyazi Malatyavi

1:06Let him be our guest today. He is my Pir

1:10and I have communicated with him in the invisible realm

1:20We had already talked about what ‘doguş’ (inspired poetry) means so we don’t need to repeat it, right?

1:26His beauty turns all into roses

1:30And creates gardens and vineyards

1:34His qualities become jewels of creation

1:37His attributes announce Him from all corners

1:43All faces manifest His beauty

1:48in rainbow colors

1:51Everything is a book of God

1:55Those who read it travel far and wide

2:00All His attributes manifest His beauty

2:04But the human being is the proof of His Zhat

2:08If you want God Look at the human being

2:12On the human being’s face The person of wisdom sees Haq

2:17His beauty in every glance

2:21When Niyazi understood this, He embarked on travel far and wide

2:32So you see, philosophy’s subjects are presented in a logical progression

2:39and include justifications for arguments and relationships between different arguments

2:43We need laws. These are important.

2:48They constitute affairs of the mind

2:52but there are also affairs of the heart

2:55And you see hearts speak in this way, such as in this poem

3:00We can’t understand this poem by just reading it

3:02or checking the meanings of the words in a dictionary.

3:05It doesn’t work this way.

3:07What we call doguş (inspiration) manifests itself in the form of a poem, it comes from the heart

3:16The Quran is a poem

3:18so is the Bible and Torah

3:20and the Book of Psalms

3:23is full of songs, ilahis (divine songs)

3:26There is sound here

3:28When we read a philosophy text that has a logical argument,

3:33our mind is satisfied

3:36or not.

3:39We see a certain order

3:42but it doesn’t speak to our spirit

3:45It speaks to our mind

3:47But when we hear a poem, a poem has a spirit.

3:50The subject of spirit (ruh) is generally not understood

3:54What does it mean?

3:56What is it?

4:00There is a logical structure at philosophical or scientific text,

4:06a logical structure.

4:10But we don’t look for logic in poetry

4:16The mind is bypassed.

4:18Poetry is complete due to its spirit

4:22What does this mean?

4:24When we hear a poem,

4:26we feel that it is contained in itself.

4:30it is comprehensive,

4:32complete.

4:34The same thing is true

4:38in paintings.

4:42A painter paints and paints

4:46and there comes a point, a time when the painting tells the painter

4:50Don’t touch me anymore!

4:53It says to the painter, stop!

4:55I am independent now.

4:57Don’t touch me!

5:00That moment is when the painting

5:02is finished, its spirit is complete

5:06What does that mean?

5:09We can just say the painting is complete

5:10Why are we talking about the painting’s spirit?

5:12Let’s say: it is complete.

5:14But what caused its completion?

5:16Spirit

5:16why?

5:17Remember we used wind as a metaphor for spirit

5:20Wind is a symbol

5:23Essentially, it is a radiation

5:27Can: Brightness

5:28Yes, brightness

5:31If a person is spiritual, there is light emanating from him/her

5:35and that affects us

5:37We don’t receive knowledge,

5:40but our own spirit is affected,

5:42we get goosebumps an internal tremor,

5:44we get excited.

5:48When something speaks to your mind

5:50you understand and appreciate it

5:51but you don’t get excited in the same way

5:57So Can talked about radiation.

5:59That was a good analogy

6:01This is in fact something physical.

6:03There is something physical in this experience

6:06You can perceive a wave

6:08Sinan: It is like an aura

6:10Aura means light

6:17So Niyazi Misri says:

6:21"If you want God",

6:25where do you look?

6:27Yes, I want that

6:29Where will I find Him? Where?

6:32Is He in space, do we put up our hands to the sky to find Him?

6:36Where?

6:38Misri says "if you want God, go, look at human beings"

6:44See that the sun, the light of God’s Zhat (essence) shows up brightly (rahşan) in his/her face

6:54‘Rahşan’ in this case means radiating light

6:57from a face.

7:02Look at that face and your spirit will feel

7:06the excitement, you will feel an internal tremor

7:10It is interesting, friends

7:13that some of the meanings in the Qur’an are lost in translation

7:18"Havf" is translated as fear,

7:21that is right.

7:24There is a Surah about this.

7:29Allah’s friends

7:34Can’t remember, let’s see

7:39***E la inne evliya allahi la havfun aleyhim ve lahum yahzenun (Yunus Surah 62)***

7:42Yes, it says Allah’s friends are not afraid,

7:44they are not sad either.

7:49There is the mention of fear,

7:51but there is also the mention of ‘hashyetullah’

7:54you look it up and it is translated as fear

7:56That’s not true, "hashyet" means an internal tremor as a result of attraction.

8:02When are we attracted to something?

8:04For instance, when you are in front of great beauty

8:07such as an art work, you can see that it is beautiful

8:14But does it create a spiritual effect?

8:16That is the question You look at a painting

8:19such as a painting of Caravaccio

8:22you are strongly affected by it, it radiates light,

8:27same thing with Rembrandt’s paintings

8:31If you are sensitive,

8:33you might get goosebumps,

8:35that’s what is meant by ‘hashyet’

8:36Sinan: There is a reason why they put benches in front of the paintings of great painters where people sit for hours and watch them.

8:39Can: They wake up our intuitive side.

8:45Can: Why don’t you continue talking, I need to check something, don’t stop the conversation please.

8:50It is the same when you listen to music

8:54You might listen to a piece

8:55and you appreciate it and say yes, that was good

9:00But then you listen to another piece that may take you away from yourself.

9:03This is an interesting expression.

9:05What takes you away from yourself?

9:09That’s a spiritual influence.

9:12Does every person’s face have this kind of light?

9:16Can we see this light in every person’s face?

9:20Yes! You can.

9:22On the face of every ‘human being’ (insan),

9:27but not on the face of every person (besher).

9:30A person (besher) is different from a human being (insan)

9:33Besher means "skin" in Arabic

9:36and is used for the body.

9:38There is besher.

9:40Adam is the father of the bodies,

9:45not of spirits.

9:48The Qur’an says that

9:51we created Christ to replace Adam.

9:55Christ is called Ruhullah

10:00What does it mean?

10:02He is the Prophet of Spirits

10:04whereas Adam is the Prophet of Bodies

10:09Christ says in the Bible:

10:13That who is born from the body is another body, but who is born from spirit is spirit.

10:17It is spirits that inherit the world of Melekut

10:19The bodies are not going anywhere,

10:21they come from the earth and go back to it,

10:23they are just garments.

10:24That is the "basher"

10:25That’s why you see animality on the face of the besher, nothing else.

10:29I don’t mean this as an insult.

10:32What you see is the last stage of biological evolution

10:37When you look there,

10:40you see life, liveliness.

10:43We might see sadness or fear.

10:46These are also states of the spirit but in this case the spirit is not shining through

10:52You don’t get a spiritual influence

10:54Only when we see a human being (insan), our spirit is affected

10:58What do we mean by insan?

11:00Insan means Enis ul Haq Enis means closeness

11:04Haq here means a person’s own zhat (essence)

11:09There is no haq outside

11:12That’s why when a person says ‘En el haq’

11:15That means he has found his own zhat (essence)

11:18Those, who say it without having found it, are liars

11:22If someone has really found his/her own zhat

11:24Then his/her own Rab talks through the person and says:

11:26'En el haq’ (I am the God)

11:28And the brightness that shines from such a person’s face

11:31is God’s beauty.

11:33That’s what Niyazi Misri (or Niyazi Malatyavi) is saying and

11:38Niyazi Malatyavi is imparting a very high level of knowledge.

11:48"A person of wisdom can see the manifestation Of God’s attributes in everyone and everything"

11:51A person of wisdom (arif) can see this at each and every creature.

11:58Because God manifests in each and every creature with a different attribute

12:04His attributes are many. And they manifest in everyone and everything differently

12:09A person of wisdom (arif) can see this

12:11But a person of knowledge (alim)

12:13knows what each thing may be good for.

12:19For example, he might say, I can take this plant and boil the leaves,

12:22and turn it into a remedy for this illness.

12:25But it is the person wisdom (arif) who perceives God’s beauty in each thing

12:31and says, my Rab, What beauty you have created!

12:35Let’s say we go to an exhibition and see many paintings

12:41You asked me where the painter is. How did she possibly create such beautiful paintings?

12:47But we are told that she has gone to lunch.

12:51So we wait.

12:53Wait to meet her, the painter who created this beautiful piece of art.

12:58When she arrives, we see that she is just a person like you and I!

13:01So she is the one who made this amazing painting!

13:03I look at her and do not perceive anything but I look at her painting

13:08and I perceive beauty and my spirit is affected

13:12How come?

13:14Why am I not affected by the person who made these paintings?

13:19I have seen this person but I don’t get the same effect

13:21That’s because she didn’t create those paintings in the state she is in now

13:24Her state was different while she painted

13:28In that state, she was connected to her own Zhat therefore her Rab.

13:32When one leaves his/her ego

13:38then one can wait for his/her inspiration,

13:44then the brush begins to move.

13:46Sinan: I heard the same thing from a few painters

13:48Is that right?

13:50Sinan: Exactly like this, they say, I didn’t paint this, it just arrived

13:52Sinan: I say how could you not have created it? There is your signature there!

13:55Sinan: They say: 'I woke up after it was finished.' Exactly!

13:58If we were to watch a painter right at that moment at the moment of the creation of the painting

14:05We would get the same effect from the painter too.

14:09Why did I mention this?

14:12It flows (Cud) from the painter and receives form (Vücud)

14:18And Sücud means love.

14:23Secde means meeting with love, we receive such a creation with love

14:26In Islam, "Secde" means love,

14:28"Ruku" means respect,

14:30Kiyam is the kible. When we welcome someone, we get up (kiyam)

14:34When we appreciate a person, we bow in front of them (ruku)

14:42But if hear the Word from a person, if we are connected through the heart

14:45Then we perform secde. In other words, we love such a person.

14:50That’s the essence of this discourse

14:52Sinan: Those who don’t prostrate before Adam are called ‘Sheitan’ (Satan)

14:55That’s right.

15:00Sheitan means devotion to things to forms,

15:04rather than its essence.

15:10Now

15:11We talked about the light emanating from a face.

15:14Let’s not forget it

15:15We receive this spiritual light in art

15:22What we mean by Cemal (Beauty)

15:25In order for that beauty to shine for a face to emanate beauty,

15:31that person must have transcended

15:35his/her ego (Nefs)

15:37His/her ‘nefs’ (self) must become ‘nefis’ (exquisite)

15:40We see that in certain poets

15:42or painters or actors.

15:47They leave their egos and are able to manifest a divine attribute.

15:51That doesn’t mean they are taking on a role

15:54What it means is that they have become transparent such that a divine attribute shows up through them

15:57For example let’s look at the attribute of Mercy (Rahmet)

16:00You can see it on the face of every mother who has just given birth.

16:04Just look at her face, she is Mary (Meryem)

16:06She is not a specific woman anymore, not this aunt, that sister.

16:15when you look at her face what manifests or shines is the spirit of motherhood,

16:23the Divine Name of Rahim

16:29The mind cannot perceive this, the mind can understand this as a concept but that’s all.

16:38When we say rationality in the modern times, the focus has been on rationality.

16:42Of course, it is true that we need to be rational

16:45but we have exalted rationality

16:47It is true that we need it to create

16:49order

16:51Fine, but rationality is not the same thing as spirituality

16:57Choose the mind and throw away spirituality?

17:00That means let’s not do art, let everything proceed according to law.

17:06and let’s not have any art

17:08For example, let’s make Istanbul very orderly but there is no need to receive

17:13any spiritual effect

17:16Why would I do with such a city?

17:19Sinan: They sometimes talk about ‘a city without a spirit’

17:22Spirituality means comprehensiveness,

17:25beauty which affects us.

17:28There must be a spiritual attraction

17:35What moves people? Let’s say two things

17:39We can of course come up with many things but for now, let’s say two things

17:50One is motivation, a person needs to be motivated in order to to act

17:57Then he or she will act

18:01Motivation in Turkish is prodding

18:04In Anatolia , they call it

18:09‘modullamak’

18:10and was used in the context of getting an animal to go, to move

18:14For example when a donkey does not move, you prod it.

18:21That’s what ‘modullama’ means.

18:25Is the human being just a being of motivation?

18:27No

18:29But as ‘besher’, a person needs to be motivated to act

18:33Do you know what the scientific definition of motivation is?

18:37It is instinct

18:40We act instinctually.

18:51For example we look for food

18:54for shelter.

18:56Our instincts motivate us to reproduce and have children.

18:58All of this is instinctual

19:00This is the instincts of ‘besher’, not the ‘human being’

19:05Human being is someone who is attracted by God.

19:08A person becomes a human being as a result of such divine attraction.

19:11Çilingir Sofrası 35 / Niyazi (from) Malatya / Mısri (Egypt) ***Translated by Prof.Dr.Nükhet Kardam***