Life Increasing Light
Dear friends, please do not be surprised by the title above. Indeed, I sincerely express my gratitude to our thieving brother, who took the opportunity of the quiet darkness of a deserted night and silently disappeared with some belongings and books from the house of our dear friend. I am sure that you will agree with me in the following lines for these heartfelt thanks.
As many of you are well aware, our dear late Mesnevi-han Şefik Can Hoca (1909-2005) had a short period of illness before he passed away. In those days when we needed the warmth of our friends more than ever, all our relatives were with us with their love, prayers, material and spiritual support; Our doctors tried to do everything they could medically. They served day and night with great devotion to restore our Hodja to his former health. Dr. Tuncer Bey, whom we had not had the opportunity to meet before, also came to the state house to make various examinations related to the health problems of our Hodja Şefik Can. After completing their service, I asked them to stay as long as they had time and that I would like to offer them tea with our other guests in the hall. Dr. Tuncer Bey also accepted my invitation with great pleasure.
Among our guests that day, there was a valuable female pop singer who is very well known to music lovers, a popular actress of our theater, a very popular female DJ of our radios and a respected female writer of our newspapers and magazines. Dr. Tuncer Bey was quite surprised to see these dear friends of the heart, whom Turkey, and therefore themselves, knew very well, sitting dervishly next to Şefik Can Hoca with great decorum and tranquility. Because they had seen and known these ladies in a very different way from the visual and written media.
Dr. Tuncer Bey, who made the utmost effort not to show his astonishment and amazement; after a short while, he could not overcome this curiosity that disturbed him inwardly and asked with great curiosity: "Please forgive me; I am quite surprised to see you here in different emotions and states. How did you meet our teacher Şefik Can? How long have you been in contact with him?"
Dr. Tuncer Bey's astonishment and curiosity increased even more when Ms. Deniz, one of the lady artists of our Turkish Pop Music, said with a sudden reflex and quite excitedly; "A thief brought us here a few years ago"! Before he had a chance to compose himself and say what was going on; the crazy DJ of our radios said again in a crazy way; "Oh my God, how I forgot; we really all came here because of the professional success of a thief! He said.
These words, spoken in a very innocent way, had turned Dr. Tuncer Bey's interest and curiosity into a great riddle. With a last hope, he turned to me and looked at my eyes with astonishment as if to say, "At least say something I can understand.
When Ms. Deniz said, "A thief brought us here", many doors that had been secret in my heart until that day were suddenly opened with a sudden twist, with the violence and effect of this word. In an instant, many storms broke out inside me and dragged me to different lands. Indeed, we had met and come together with these very precious ladies and many other friends of our hearts through a theft incident. The theft, which is a very bad and ugly event that all religions and thoughts reject, had caused such good friendships and beautiful spiritual feelings. I could not help but say silently, "There is evil in what you see as good and good in what you see as evil." I had never experienced this divine secret of Allah Almighty, who says, "In what you see as good, there is evil, and in what you see as evil, there is good." Perhaps for the first time, I was saying so sincerely and sincerely, "O Allah, your wisdom is beyond question.
While I was alone with my own feelings, I came to my senses when Dr. Tuncer Bey said, "Please say something I can understand." Our friends were very right, there was nothing more to say. Indeed, we had met for various reasons stemming from a theft incident. In a very short time we found ourselves in a strong circle of friendship.
In order to better understand this seemingly complicated situation, I started to explain the events from the beginning, without leaving Dr. Tuncer B. in further curiosity.
Sir, one night a thief broke into the house of Mr. Ümit, a dentist whom we had not yet met at the time of the incident in question. When he could not find anything valuable to take away, he took some books from the library along with a few other items and disappeared in the darkness of the night. Mr. Ümit, who found the place in disarray when he came home, immediately notified the authorities in a hurry; In the meantime, he takes a look around with great curiosity. Some of the shelves in the library are empty. When he could not see Tahirü-l Mevlevi's Commentary on the Masnavi, which was left to him as a souvenir, he was deeply saddened. There are many books in the library, but for some reason the thief chose to take only the Mesnevi. Mr. Ümit is very surprised and saddened by what happened. He begins to wait impatiently for the authorities to find his stolen belongings, especially his Masnavi, and return them to him. However, when he did not receive the happy news he was waiting for even after a long time, he accepted everything without caring too much about what he had lost, but he could not digest the fact that Tahiru-l Mawlawi had his commentary on the Masnavi stolen and that he had lost it.
Hoping to find his books in any antiquarian bookstore, he decided to search for his Masnavi himself. After months of long and tiring searches, as he expected, he came across his old friend who was innocently waiting for his owner among the dusty shelves of an old bookstore in Istanbul. With great excitement and joy, he tells the shopkeeper that the Masnavi he is carefully examining in his hand belongs to him, that he has been looking for it for months, the events that have happened to him, and the troubles he has gone through to find it. The bookseller, who appeared to be a middle-aged, deep-thinking and well-educated man, listened to Mr. Ümit calmly and then said: "You are very right to have been after your Masnavi and to have been looking for it for months. Indeed, this work of Tahir al-Mawlawi is very valuable. But I would like to know something. Have you ever read the Mesnevi translation of Şefik Can, who was trained by Tahirü-l Mevlevi and was his student? Do you know Şefik Can?"
Mr. Ümit says: "No, I do not know such a person, nor have I read his work." Without saying anything else, the bookseller said very firmly: "I believe you, the Masnavi you have is yours. I don't want to say that it came here as a result of theft, but as you can see, your book is here in this shop as a result of a mistake. Since it is yours, of course I will return it. But before I return your Masnavi, I have a request from you. First of all, I ask you to fulfill it." Mr. Ümit, with the joy of having his Masnavi back, thought that the bookseller wanted some money, and in order to comfort the seller, who he thought was being very understanding and kind to him, he said, "I understand you very well. Please tell me without hesitation. How much do you want in return?" The bookseller: "No, you misunderstand! It is not money I want. I don't want such a thing from you"! Mr. Ümit was quite surprised by this answer. "But, what else can I do for you?" he says and starts to wait with curiosity for the answer. The bookseller said: "Please do not worry. My request is not so difficult that it cannot be done. I will give you the Mesnevi translation of Şefik Can, the student of Tahirü-l Mevlevi whom I have just mentioned, and I will keep your Mesnevi until you read it and bring it back to me. When you read the Masnavis I have given you and return them to me, I will give you your own Masnavi." Mr. Ümit accepts this offer without a second thought with the joy of having his book back in a very easy way without any difficulty. He leaves his own Mesnevis, which he found with great difficulty, there with the sadness of a father parting with his child. He embraces the books that the bookseller hands to him with the relief of winning a great struggle and the joy of accomplishing a difficult task and comes home. With the dream to fulfill his promise and to have his own Masnavi as soon as possible, he started to read Şefik Can's translation of the Masnavi with great effort, day and night, at every opportunity he found. What started as a compulsory duty of reading books turned into a great interest and admiration.
In the following days, he could not contain the love and affection that boiled in his heart with the inspiration he received from the Masnavi, and without even realizing it, he told his relatives, his wife and friends about the events he had experienced in the last days, and recommended the Masnavi to them with great enthusiasm. One of his friends with whom he shared these intense spiritual feelings and excitements was Mr. Burhan, a young architect. The stories of this close friend, who has always impressed him with his personality and behavior since his childhood, and the divine love and excitement he experiences, draw him into a mystical mystery that takes place today. Burhan Bey, who was caught in the waves of this enthusiastic flood flowing from the sea of Mevlana, bought a Masnavi as soon as possible and started to read it. Thus, he became acquainted with Hz. Mevlana and the Masnavi for the first time. They say that whatever is inside the cube seeps out. Mr. Burhan shares his spiritual enthusiasm, which he could not fit into his body cube, with his close circle and with his childhood friend Mrs. Deniz. They came together from time to time and started to read Masnavi together. Thus, Mrs. Deniz, who discovered a different way of living and thinking outside her own world, opened up many vast horizons in her heart that she had never felt or known before. Mr. Burhan, on the other hand, seems to be living in another world in these days, which are a very important turning point for him. In these very special days of spiritual serenity and conversation, while trying to watch life from a different perspective through the new windows opened in his heart, he encounters Mr. Selim, an old school friend, among the crowded streets of Istanbul. He mentions to this friend about his book, which he never puts down, and with great sadness laments how much he wishes he could have seen Şefik Can and kissed his blessed hands that prepared the Masnavi for us in such a unique beauty. Mr. Selim is quite surprised by this sudden change in his childhood friend, but gives him a very surprising answer that he will never forget throughout his life. "If you really want to meet Şefik Can Hodja and benefit from him, we can fulfill this desire together. This desire of yours is not something that will not happen", and he dragged Mr. Burhan into a great excitement and happiness. Selim Bey, who did not know Şefik Can Hodja at all, but had often heard of him from his close relative Mrs. Gönül, called this lady without delay and told her that he and an old school friend wanted to meet Şefik Can Hodja and asked her to make an appointment for them.
It was a few years ago; Mrs. Gönül, a former student of our teacher Şefik Can, called me and told me about these two gentlemen and asked for an appointment to meet. Thus we met Mr. Burhan and Mr. Selim. When Mr. Burhan mysteriously told Mr. Umit, the owner of the stolen Masnavi, who is like the cause of all these divine manifestations, about this very important day for him, as if he was foretelling from beyond, as you can imagine, Mr. Umit came to Şefik Can Hodja with great excitement as soon as possible and had the happiness of meeting and meeting. As a result, this chain-like chain of meeting and getting acquainted went on and on. These valuable friends you see are just a few of the links in that chain.
Our DJ friend interjected: "It is really very interesting, the Mesnevis stolen by a thief have brought us these very valuable friendships. Our Prophet Mevlana donated his divine love to us with a thief. All of our lives suddenly changed. He brought us indispensable beauties, peace and bliss. He enabled us to recognize true happiness, true friendships. Allah taught us about His existence, His unlimited power and strength, and our helplessness in the face of this divine power by making a thief the reason." He expressed his feelings in a very sincere way.
While thanking Allah Almighty for granting us these precious friendships and unique material and spiritual beauties, we also felt like thanking our thief brother with great sincerity and sincerity for being instrumental in making us experience all these things.
Dr. Tuncer Bey's astonishment and curiosity, this story of our friendship that went back to the past, turned into a great contemplation. Because what was said was not a mystical imagination, but real life itself. As actors in this world theater, we felt our roles in this play, our author and director, so close to us and within us that we all suddenly fell into a deep silence.
