Mulla Jaziri was a Kurdish Mystic, Poem, and Philosopher. He weaved his Sufi experience on Love and Beauty to reveal the manifestation of Being (God) by using the multiple symbols and metaphors in the Kurmanji dialect of Kurdish.
The following couplet reveals how the poet’s mystical thought has profound roots in love:
“The Almighty writes the Love for our destiny from the eternal when sharing the fortunes” (Diwan, Terci-i Bend, 1/5; p.188)
I
All existence emerged from God, whose nature is Beauty, Light, and Love; The uncovering of God with the creation of the universe has reached its climax in man. However, in Jaziri’s experience, the woman reflects all the subtleties in the beauty of God the best.
God was eternal Love and Beauty by itself. As an essence and eternal source of Beauty, He/ She Loves herself at the beginning.
“Husn û mehebbet her hebû Heq ‘aşiqê zatê xwe bû
Muhtacê husnek dî nebû neql û rîwayet pê we da” (Qasida 1/4, p.26)
There was beauty and love ever before/forever; Almighty God was in love with himself/herself.
He/She didn’t need any other beauty; This is how the narrations reached us/how we conveyed them.
In the beginning, the hierarchy of existence was an attribution to the essence of God. Love is the triggering point of existence and the cause of being.
As uttered in the following verses:
“Allah sehergaha ezel yelmûmê ‘işqê şu’le da
Nûra cemala lem yezel zatê tecellaya xwe da” (Q 1/1, p.26)
“Allah lit the candle of love in the eternal morning
He manifested in himself the eternal light of beauty.”
“Zatê muqeddes bû wucûd, coşiş nedabû behrê cûd
Wesf û îdafat û quyûd yek jî tecellayê neda” (Q 1/3 p.34)
“The Almighty was only a Being before the overflowed ocean of generosity,
Not a single entity was with their attributes, particulars, or qualities existed.”
As demonstrated in the following verses, Eternal Light started to reveal and manifest itself upon each form of existence.
“Coşiş ku da deryayê cûd d’ayîneya ismê Wedûd
Carek tecella bû wucûd fûrek ji nûrê jê veda” (Q1/7, p.34)
“Once overflowed, the enormous sea of generosity, reflected in the mirror of Love (God).
Existence appeared out suddenly, and the glare of that light illuminated everywhere.”
The highest form of divine manifestation at the final stage of God’s unveiling himself and his beauty, which is the maxim of this emergence, is a human being or “Hakikat-Muhammadiye” in the image of God Almighty Truth itself.
“Xerqi bûm ez di xema ‘işqê di weqtê seherê bû
Ku tecellayê cemalê li mîsalê beşerê bû” (Terci-i Bend 3/4, p.182)
“It was at dawn; I dived into the sea of love gamut.
The manifestation of Jamal (Beauty of God) was in the form of a Human Being.”
“Bi husna ehsenitteqwîm û zahir sûretê zat î
Nezer dî ‘ellem-el esma’ we batin ‘eynê mir‘at î” (Q, 19/1, p.142)
Oh! Darling! Being created perfectly, you are the image of the holy person in appearance (Zahir); And
If you think through the verse “Allah taught Adam all the names,” the insight of the truth (Batin), you also are the mirror itself.
As can be seen in these lines, From the beginning to the end, the “source of existence is Love, Light, and Beauty.”
And this divine manifestation of the human being is represented by women perfectly rather than by men in Mela’s metaphorical language. The woman is a mirror of the beauty of God. She demonstrates God’s essence. As Ibn Arabi states, God honored women by making his essence (Zat) feminine; so that God represented all his beauty and uncovered all his beautiful names on the mirror of woman.
Mela describes the artistic woman depiction without missing any part of the beauty imagined for a woman. This depiction includes appearances such as the beauty of face, eyes, highness, and some more delicate beauties such as the beauty of walking, glancing, smiling, or the hair style of a woman. Yet all of them are nothing but a metaphorical expression for mythical and spiritual stages. Each of these beauties corresponds to the spiritual experience related to the beauty of God’s Essence, names, attributes, or activities for Jaziri.
“Reng rengi husnê sûretan neqş û nigarên destxetan
Bala û bejn û qametan şîrînleban pur xende da” (Q 1/32p.30)
“There are colorful/variegated beauties, handmade embroidered figures
They have a lot of laughter, tall, sweet-lipped beauties.”
“Şîrînlebên qed neyşeker sîmînberên nazikbeşer
Zulfan sitar bû roj di ber; biskan li miskê te‘ne da” (Q 1/33 r.30)
“Sweet-lipped, sugarcane tall, silver-breasted Nazanin/Beauties
The lovelock(zulfs) has covered the sun behind them, bangs/curl in musky scattering.”
Many verses explain Jaziri’s purpose clearly to recite women’s beauty. Below are only two of them.
“Wellah ji herdu ‘aleman min husnê canan e xered
Lew min ji husna dilberan her sun‘ê Rehman e xered” (Ghazal, 86/1 p.456)
“I swear (by Allah) that my aim for both worlds is only the Beauty of the Beloved (God)
My aim from the beauty of the Dilbers (women) is to contemplate the sublime art of Most Gracious Allah.”
“Ne cemala te tecellî bikirit
Me ji xûban bi cemalê çi xered” (G 41/9 p.65/328)
“If it is not your beauty that manifested itself and appeared,
What is the need to talk about the beauty of the charming?”
II
As the woman is a mirror of the Beauty of God, the various religious experiences are also nothing more than different manifestations of Truth (God).
All religions are different phenomena and manifestations of the same Truth. For Mela, the way to do this is through Heart and Love.
With this regard, many verses reflect al-Jaziri’ trans-religious views.
Church, synagogue, mosque are different places of the manifestation of divine prowess.
The experience of religion through which the union with God takes place is also of secondary importance.
On the path of Vahdet’ul Wucûd (Unity of Being) raced the Hallac al-Mansour, in Jaziri’ s viewpoint, the goal of all religions or ma’rifa (wisdom) is only to attain the Absolute Truth to unite with Her/Him.
He recites his way as below.
“Hostayê ‘işqê dil hevot ser ta qedem hingî disot
Remz a (ene’l-heqq) her digot bawer bikin Mensûr e dil” (G 55/3 p.88)
“Invaded The Master of Love the heart, burned from head to toe at that moment.
Recited the secret of the ‘Ene’l Haq’(I am the Truth); Believe that the Heart is Mansur today.”
In the following verses, Mela declares that the way of Love (and mystical wisdom), which unites man and heart with God over all religions including Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, defends God’s Unity.
“Hin ji nik dêrê ve tên qesta kenifltê hin dikin
Ney ji van im ney ji wan im min derê xemmari bes” (G 36/4 p.314)
“Some come from the church, and some go to the synagogue
I am neither of them; the door of the Tavern is enough for me.”
(Tavern: in mystical language, used for Dergah, the place where Mystic enlightenment by divine wisdom)
“Dil geşt e min, ji dêrê naçim kenişteyê qet
Mihraba wê bi min ra wer da biçîne Laleş” (G 37/3 p.318)
“The heart is pleasant; it doesn’t want to go to the church or the synagogue anymore.
The Altar (Mihrap) of the beloved is with me; let’s go, if you want, to Lalish for worship.”
(Lalish: a Holy Center of Yezidis in the North of Mosul in Iraq which is accepted as a Heretical Kurdish Religion/Sect as opposed to the Orthodox Islamic schools of thought. )
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Ibrahim Bor is a visiting professor at the MELC department at Indiana University. He obtained his Ph.D. in Philosophy of Religion. He is continuing his studies in the philosophy of religion, philosophy of language, and Kurdish studies.
Contact Info: ibor@iu.edu; ibrahimbor@gmail.com
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