Tasavvufî Düşüncede Akıl ve Attâr’ın Rubâîlerinde Akıl Mefhumu
Serpil KoçKonusu bakımından genel olarak felsefî ve tasavvufî düşünceleri özlü bir şekilde anlatan rubâî nazım şekli, mutasavvıf şairler arasında da rağbet görmüş bir nazım şeklidir. Fars edebiyatında başta divanları olmak üzere diğer manzum eserlerinde rubâî nazım şeklinde şiirler söylemiş mutasavvıf şairler olduğu gibi bu nazım şeklinde müstakil bir mecmua oluşturacak kadar rubâî söylemiş şairlere de rastlamak mümkündür. Bu bağlamda İranlı meşhur şair ve mutasavvıf Ferîdüddîn Attâr (ö. 618/1221)’ın kendisine aidiyeti kesinlik kazanmış sekiz eserinden biri olan ve ihtiva ettiği konu çeşitliğine göre elli babdan müteşekkil Muhtârnâme adlı rubâî mecmuası, bir örnek teşkil etmektedir. Rubâî nazım şekli üzerinden felsefî ve tasavvufî düşüncelerin şiirsel söylem içerisinde değerlendirilmesinin hedeflendiği bu çalışmada; Ferîdüddîn Attâr’ın tasavvufî düşüncesinin felsefî yönünü ortaya koyması bakımından Muhtârnâme’sinden seçilmiş örnek rubâîlerden istifadeyle, akıl mefhumu ve müstakilen Attâr’da akıl ele alınmıştır.
The Mind in Sufi Thought and Its Conceptualization in Ferîdüddîn Attâr’s Rubai Poems
Serpil KoçQuatrain/rubai poetry generally illustrates philosophical and mystical thoughts in a concise way and has been a popular form of poetry among the mystic Sufi poets. Poets in the Persian literature can be found to have written rubai poems in their works, especially those known as diwans. Poets are also found to have written enough quatrain poetry to form a separate book consisting of poems solely in the form of rubai. Within this framework, the rubai poetry book Mukhtār-Nāma, one of the eight works confirmed to have belonged to the famous Iranian poet and Sufi Ferîduddîn Attâr (d. 618/1221) and composed of 50 chapters (called “sections”) in terms of the variety of subjects it contains, is an example. This study aims to evaluate philosophical and mystical thoughts in a linguistic and intellectual context with respect to the rubai poetic discourse and to analyze the concept of mind and the concept of partial mind, which Attâr independently discussed, through the sample of rubai poems selected from the Mukhtār-Nāma with the aim of the understanding the philosophical aspect of Ferîduddîn Attâr’s mystical thought.
Rubai poems involve a variety of subjects from love and mysticism to philosophy and wisdom and are a difficult form of poetry to express, due to both its compact format and strong impact on readers. The rubai format has become popular among poets, with this distinctive feature separating it from other forms of poetry. The Mukhtār-Nāma, or Rubâînâme as it is also known, was written by the famous Iranian poet and sufi Ferîdüddîn Attâr and stands out in this regard. Although Attâr’s rubai in this book are covered under the three main topics of aşıkâne [pertaining to lovers], sufîâne [pertaining to mysticism], and Hayyâmnâme [pertaining to love], its main influence on his followers were the rubai poems in the sufîâne section. Mawlānā Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (d. 672/1273), Saadi Shīrāzī (d. 690/1292), Mahmūd Shabestarī (d.720/1320), Hafiz Shīrāzī (d.792/1390), and Abdurrahman Jāmī (d.898/1492) are some of the important Iranian poets and Sufis who were inspired by his poems. Through his Tadhkirat-ul-Awliyā [hagiographic collection of Muslim saints and mystics], his divan, and the rubai poetry book Mukhtār-Nāma, Attâr became known as a great masnavi poet in the Iranian literature, with five of the seven poetic works in masnavi-verse form (independent internally rhyming lines) confirmed as belonging to him. Apart from his love-related masnavi poetry book Khusraw-Nāma, his other five masnavi poetry books are about Sufism. When considering the influence two of Attâr’s masnavi works (i.e., Mantiq-ut-Tayr and Ilāhī-Nāma) had on Rumi’s masnavi, the claim that Attâr’s mystical thoughts continued in later Sufis is a fair one. Attâr is an important name and has had a large impact on the world of Sufi thought with his works. Süleyman Uludağ drew attention to the presence of a pantheistic tendency in Attâr’s mystical understanding in the preface of Tadhkirat-ul-Awliyā, but this tendency did not take on a philosophical or theoretical form.
Not enough information is found about Attâr’s life, family, or education. Süleyman Uludağ (cite) assessed Attâr’s works, and according to Uludağ, Attâr had been educated in the fields of hikmat [mystery], philosophy, nûcûm [astronomy], medicine and pharmacy in addition to the education he received in religious sciences such as tafsir, hadith, kalam, and fiqh. Attâr may also have studied these mental and experiential sciences in Nishapur, which was the science and wisdom center of the period. The fact that Attâr extensively mentioned Abu Said Ebu’l-Hayr in his masnavi works such as Asrār-Nāma, Ilāhī-Nāma, and Mantiq-ut-Tayr has led researchers to think that Attâr might have accepted this person as a spiritual leader or sheikh. This idea is associated with Attâr being Uwaisi and that he’d been accepted as a student and disciple of great figures such as Mansur al-Hallaj (d. 309/922), Abu Sa’id Abu’l-Khayr, and Sanā-ī Gaznavi (d.525/1131).
This study uses the samples taken from Attâr’s rubai poetry book Mukhtār-Nāma, which contains 2,088 rubai in 50 chapters and is one of eight of Attâr’s works confirmed to belong to him. The study attempts to evaluate the concept of the partial mind in Attâr’s poems by focusing on the concept of mind in the context of Sufi thought.
In conclusion, when considering the general and partial classifications of the mind that have been made in Sufi thought, Attâr saw the partial mind as an obstacle on the way to achieving real sense and ingenuity, which is in line with the early Sufis. Although he criticizes the concept of mind in some of his rubai, one must know that the partial mind is what he means in his works.
