Life Increasing Light

An interview by Güzin Osmancık

"Decency is a crown from the light-u Hüdâ. Wear that crown and be sure of every trouble," says the poet.

Ms. Hayat Nur Artıran is one of the first names that come to mind when it comes to decency. Mrs. Nur is the person our esteemed teacher Şefik Can chose to entrust the spiritual trust he received from a great Mesnevihan like Tahirü-l Mevlevi Hazretleri. Because she is an example to everyone with her grace, sensitivity, love of service, modesty and decency. Şefik Can Hodja thinks that she is the most competent person to carry those spiritual relics. "This is not the work of men and women, it is the work of the heart. Whoever carries that love in his heart, whoever has a heart as vast as the seas, only they can carry the holy relics," says Şefik Hoca.

Ms. Nur is a lady of decency who shines light around her with her knowledge and gives life to those who are devoted to this work like her name. She is the spiritual daughter of our precious teacher Şefik Can, to whom he handed over the postnisha with faith. Here are Hazrat Mevlana and Şefik Can from the language of Nur Artıran...

"When man and woman become one in wahdat, you are that one. When the thousands that make up the traditions disappear, you are the one that remains." - Hazrat Mevlana - Hazrat Mevlana -

OSMANCIK Dear Ms. Nur, could you tell us a little bit about your teacher Şefik Can?

INCREASING My teacher Şefik Can was such a deep sea that it is unthinkable for us to perceive it, let alone express it in the most accurate way. But I would be happy to share what we know to the extent of our comprehension. Our Prophet says "A believer is the mirror of a believer". Such blessed people are blessed mirrors. We need to look at them and correct ourselves. Şefik Can was a very blessed mirror for us to take an example from. Şefik Can's name is mentioned everywhere as a whole with the Masnavi and Hazrat Mevlana. He received his love for Mevlana from his father Tevfik Efendi, who was a Mufti, one of the scholars of the period. He learned Arabic and Persian at an early age. His love for Mevlânâ also started in his childhood. Şefik Can says, "I learned to speak by memorizing Mevlânâ's couplets". Then he started to study under Tahirü "l Mevlevî and reached the love of Mevlevî.

OSMANCIK What does the love of Hazrat Mevlana mean?

INCREASING: Everyone loves Hazrat Mevlana. People from every language and religion love him. There is no one who does not recognize him. Those with open eyes love him by seeing his spiritual state, and those who do not see him love him by feeling his warmth. Therefore, it is very normal for everyone to love him. It is also very normal for our teacher Şefik Can to love Hazrat Mevlana. But the difference is this. He lived Hazrat Mevlana not with his tongue, but as a state. He adopted his life as a morality. Everyone says tolerance, tolerance, tolerance, but when the time comes, they cannot realize it.

OSMANCIK What is Şefik Can's main profession?

INCREASING: He was a very glorious soldier of the Turkish Armed Forces. He was a retired colonel. He was also a teacher and in love with teaching. He used to say. "If I were born a thousand times, I would always be a teacher." One of his professions was teaching literature. He taught especially at Kuleli Military High School and various military schools.

He passed away at the age of 96. He raised students until his last breath. They used to pray as follows: "O my Lord, if I can serve like Mevlana on the path of truth and reality, open the way for me, give me your breath so that I can serve. If I cannot, do not make me wait any longer. But if I knew that tomorrow he would take my life, I would say to him. "My God, I have a Masnavi class tomorrow, let me give it and then take my life." Mevlana and Masnavi were the purpose of my teacher Şefik's life.

OSMANCIK Before he died, he left you the post office. What is the reason for this?

INCREASE: Of course, you all know that these are spiritual responsibilities. Hodja was gracious, kind, Divine Providence manifested itself in this way. Our duty is to fulfill this spiritual responsibility. Like Şefik Can and Tahirü-l Mevlevi, Allah Almighty has assigned every servant with a job in this world. How can this humble one fill the void left by these two Ali Sultans? This is my heart's voice, it is not my place to accept this. To embark on this path is to the extent they allow. If we have a morsel of bread, we share it. Of course there is a zakat for that too. It is our duty to be at their feet, to see their beauty and to share with friends whatever we see.

OSMANCIK The Masnavi begins with "Listen". What is the meaning of this?

INCREASING It is very important. Hazrat has a Divan-ı Kebir couplet. He said, "When Allah Almighty distributed love in this world, He gave nine tenths to me and one tenth to all lovers." Of course, he himself said in his Masnavi, "Masnavi is the commentary of the Qur'an". That is why it is translated as "Listen" or "Hear". If it starts with "Listen", of course this is of great importance. He explains it as follows. "The animal feeds on the mouth, the human feeds on the ear." Because all the food we eat only feeds our nafs, it has nothing to do with the soul. Here I have a sacred divine trust. It is necessary to feed it too. The way to feed our soul is to listen. Reading the Qur'an is sunnah, listening to it is obligatory.

The ear of the head hears, the ear of the heart hears. This is to be able to hear from the heart. You have made your ear such a garbage dump that you have blocked all the paths from the ear to the heart. Keep your ear clean, don't fill it with garbage. Ablution cleans the ears of the head, and listening cleans the ear of the heart. Another way of hearing is to block the ear to empty words. Every word finds a place in the body and settles there. Here, with ablution, we wash the physical ear. But how do we wash and cleanse the inner ear? We clean it by plugging our ears to empty words.
In another part of the Masnavi, it says: "Close your ear to empty words, plug it with cotton so that you will not hear."

OSMANCIK What does "Sema" mean?

INCREASING: When we say Sema, people perceive it as people spinning. Actually "Sema" comes from "semi", "he who hears". There is music in sema. Sema is performed with music. Many famous musicians were trained in Mevlevihanes. Music is a worship, but which music? According to Hazrat Mevlana, music symbolizes the voice of Allah Almighty. During the whirling dervish ritual, the whirling dervish hears the voice of Allah Almighty, becomes ecstatic and begins to whirl and whirl.

OSMANCIK: Why did the Sema symbolize the voice of Allah?

THE INCREASER: In the 172nd verse of Surat al-Araf, in the address "Elestu bi Rabbekum", He said, "Am I not your Lord?" And all souls say "bela". "Yes, you are our Lord," they affirm. His Holiness Mevlana says, "If there is a person who does not hear that voice and see that beauty on that day in Kâlu bela, I am an unbeliever". This is such a great oath. This means that everyone who was created and will be created in that Elest address has seen the beauty of Allah Almighty.

OSMANCIK: It is impossible to talk about Hazrat Mevlana without mentioning Mevlevi music. What is the place of music in Islam?

INCREASING: You know how they say that music is the food of the soul, well, our pir says that the pleasure from music is as if the soul has heard the voice of its Lord at Elest, it remembers His voice, it is ecstatic remembering that moment, and it becomes happy and starts the sema. It is mentioned in the Masnavi as follows. The people of the heart have taken the melodies of music from the rotation of the sky and the sound of the rosary of the angels in the sky. The Dede Efendis, Zekayi Dedes and Itri both opened their hearts to Hakk and gave their ears to Allah. "If that sky had not been in love, if it had not turned from its love, its head would have turned and fallen to the ground," says the pîr. The sky is in love, while the sky is spinning with love, it also has a dhikr. Is there a particle in the universe that does not remember Allah? It is already a Quranic verse. Everything created remembers Allah with their own language. Everything remembers Allah with their own language, says His Eminence Muhittîn Arabi. And he says I hear the dhikr of the sky. He says this in the Masnavi couplet. That is why some people have tolerated music and some have not.

What is called music increases the love of the lover and the mischief of the transgressor. It depends on the intention with which you listen. Hazrat Mawlana says: "I hear in the voice of Ut the voice of Ente Hasbi, Ente Kâfi ya Vedud" (O beloved, you are enough for me, you are sufficient for me, I do not want anything else).

OSMANCIK: Is the sound of the lute divine like the sound of the ney?

INCREASING: First of all, the oud was invented by al-Farabi. At that time many people were against it. They said, "This is something that pleases the ego, this is an instrument of the devil." Hazrat Farabi says, "I will prove it to you." And he advises, "Feed the camels salt for 40 days and do not give them any water." "After 40 days, bring the camels to the water's edge and I will play my oud. If the camels do not drink water, my oud is Rabbanic. If the camels attack the water, my lute is satanic." But none of the camels drank water when they heard the sound of the oud. Then Hazrat Farabi says, "Here, when the animal was an animal, it could hear the voice of Rahman in my oud, but you could not hear it even though you are human beings." Of course, those who have hearing in the head ear understand this. When the animal was an animal, it lifted its head from the grass when it heard the kaval, but you, the equal creature, could not lift your head from the grass.

OSMANCIK: Did His Holiness Mevlana say anything about health in his Masnavi?

INCREASING: Doesn't he ever say that? They have many sayings on this subject about eating less. I say to those who want to lose weight, take the Masnavi and read it until you go to a dietician. Hazret says, "Eating little is the sultan of medicines." You can cure all your diseases by eating less. Great guardians and the Prophet always followed this.

Our religion says, "Eat, drink, do not waste." We misunderstand this. We buy 1 kilo of food, eat half of it and throw half of it in the garbage, and we say this is waste. That is not waste. The real waste was said by Hazrat Najmeddin-i Kübra, Hazrat Mevlana's mentor. "Eating once a day is normal, twice is too much, three times is waste. The men of Allah are not Allah, but they are not something other than Allah. Why is it a waste? If a person needs 1500 calories a day and gets 3000 calories, what is that not wasteful? Hazrat pîr says in the Masnavi, "If you eat fatty, honeyed food, you will be deprived of spirituality. If you want to have spirituality, you must first wean the devil. Food should not be a goal, only enough to sustain this body. What we take from the mouth does not benefit our soul at all, on the contrary, it dulls us, imprisons us, traps us in the ego of our self. When the body is underfed, the soul is free.

OSMANCIK: What does it mean for the soul to be free?

THE INCREASER: The soul has come from beyond, it is a stranger in this world. They say, "Help the strangers." We understand it as helping outsiders, refugees. This is the physical dimension. And then there is the subtle dimension. The zahir is the shadow of the west. Because the nafs belongs to this world, it is sovereign and powerful in its own house. The meaning is to help it and take care of it. Take care of your soul first. What does it mean to protect the soul? The Sunnahs of the Prophet are the lights that show us the way. Hazrat Mevlana, Ahmad Er-Rufai, Hazrat Abdul Qadir Geylani, Hazrat Juneydi Baghdadi, Hazrat Bayezid-i Bestami, all of them were people whom Allah loved His servants very much and sent them a sultan, a light in every age so that His servants could find their way. Allah sent Prophet Muhammad to this world as a great divine mercy, but the great guardians who were the heirs of Prophet Muhammad also came to this world as mercy. They are the most beautiful guardians who guide us to take care of our souls.

"Here we are again, surrounded by Shams, but where are the Mevlana's to see him?"

Don't say the city of love is empty. No one's place remains empty. Allah gives birth to a prophet's heir every year. He says, "I will not wrong you until I inform you of something." "He says, "I have informed you so that you will not say, 'We did not know, our parents did not know, we were an ignorant people, we did not know. There is a condition in Islam that what the tongue says, the heart will confirm. This is to adopt this state. It is to adopt the morals of our Prophet.

OSMANCIK: Is this world a test for people?

THE INCREASER: Yes, now we call the world a world of trials. Allah, who creates His servant, knows very well what His servant is. And He informs us what we are. And He says, "O my servant, you have not been wronged and you will not be wronged." The Qur'an says, "Allah is one." No one says that Allah has become two. Hazrat Mawlana said: "Nobody argues about the oneness of Allah, nobody says anything, but they argue about His beloved servants and the prophet." One does not equate oneself with Allah, one accepts His oneness in advance, but one equates prophets and great guardians with oneself. He says, "He is a human being like me, why should he be a prophet?" He sees them in their human form. They cannot understand because of the blindness of their eyes. There is a reed that is empty, there is a reed that is full of sugar. There are two bees, one makes honey. One stings many times. But both are bees.

OSMANCIK: According to Hazrat Mevlana, what is faith in the oneness of God?

INCREASING: Hazrat Mawlana explains this as follows. "Allah is not one by saying Allah is one. To believe in His oneness, when you say goodbye to accidents and calamities, it means that you believe in His oneness. When you say goodbye to everything that happens to you, when you know everything is from Allah and you say goodbye patiently, that is believing in His oneness. When you know everything from the servants and expect everything from the servants, when you see Allah Almighty as if He is watching us from the sky, when you do not show patience and consent to the troubles that come to you as you think, then you have not said that Allah is one. Of course, the tongue says Allah is One, but even if the tongue says it, the heart does not confirm it.

OSMANCIK: What is the first thing a dervish is taught in a tekke?

INCREASING: In a tekke, a dervish is first taught to say "ayvallah". No matter what. "Will you drink water?" "Eyvallah", "Will you sit?" "Eyvallah", "Will you eat?" "Eyvallah", "Will you not eat?" "Eyvallah..."

So one day, even if your tongue says it, your heart will surely say 'ayvallah' and affirm it.

This is also a Quranic verse "Whatever happens to you comes from your hand. Troubles are divine mercy. Because patience is involved.

No worship has reached the level of patience. They can cross all paths with patience. In patience there is endurance, there is forced endurance of an event you don't want. But when you consent to it, there is consent. You see the essence of everything, you see the end of everything. If we cannot solve an event, we say there is a reason. But the one who comes to the place of consent knows the reason and is patient. The door to be opened here is the door of consent. When you reach that state, you don't have to be patient.

You know how we always say. "There must be a reason". The one who comes to the place of consent knows why he says so. Then there is no need for patience. That thing called trouble used to come first to the prophets, then to the guardians, then to the people. When Allah was distributing calamity, they would open their hands and say, "Allah, give it to me.

OSMANCIK: If a calamity befalls us when we least expect it, should we be grateful for that too?

INCREASING: Hazrat Mawlana says in his Masnavi: "If a calamity comes to you when you least expect it, prostrate yourself to it. For surely every calamity goes away leaving you with great gifts." Think about what happened to our Prophet. Prophet Zakariya was cut with a saw, Prophet Hasan was beheaded, Prophet Hussein was poisoned. So it is endless to count. Was Allah not able to make them live in palaces? Or was the Prophet not able to live like Karun?

OSMANCIK: His Holiness Mevlana is loved by everyone. But it is perceived as if he practiced a belief outside of Islam?

N. ARTIRAN: Unfortunately, both at home and abroad, Hazrat Mevlana is seen as outside of Islam. As if he has his own school, his own philosophy, his own thoughts. First of all, Mevlânâ has no philosophy, everything he says is like the Koran. He has made it to everyone's liking, he has softened and moderated Islam. There are 25 thousand Mesnevi couplets and 50 thousand Divan Kebir couplets. When you ask him to summarize his 70 thousand couplets, he says with peace of mind, "I am the servant and slave of the Qur'an, I am the soil of the ground on which the Prophet Muhammad treads. Whoever understands anything from my words other than me and transmits that word, I will be sued in Huzur-u İlahi from the transporter in Huzur-u İlahi." Every word he says is from the provisions of the Qur'an. However, 1500 verses have been commented in Masnavi. By giving verse numbers, as many hadiths have been commented. Other verses have been commented on in secret. It is the opinion of the one who sees this differently.

OSMANCIK: Why is there a different understanding when it comes to Hazrat Mevlana and a different understanding when it comes to Hazrat Muhammad?

INCREASING: Hazrat Mevlânâ exhibits the Muhammadan ethics in the most elegant way. If one were to ask what Mevlevism is, one could say, "It is the most elegant and naive way of living Islam". If Hazrat Mevlânâ is accepted by all societies, it is a sign that he has adopted the Prophet's ethics in the most beautiful way. But there is a source for this. Our Prophet is the light of the universe. You cannot even look up at the sun. The Holy Prophet is the light that gives light even to that sun. If there was no Muhammadan light in the sun, would it be possible for grass to grow on the earth with its light? The Master of the Universe is such a great light that not everyone's eyes can bear to see it. Our Prophet says, "O Lord, why do these servants not recognize me when I have so much divine light in me?" You are such a divine light that it takes a price to see you. If we were really the ummah of Hazrat Muhammad, would we be like this today? He said that my ummah is the giving hand, not the receiving hand. Who is the giving hand today? Is there any country in the world today that says we are the ummah of Muhammad and lives hand in hand, heart to heart, brother to brother?

OSMANCIK: People are fond of the world today. What is the world to the servant?

INCREASER: The world is everything that takes you away from Allah. The world is like the sea. Man is a ship, but if you take water on board, the ship will sink. So do not take the worldly goods to your heart. Islam is balance. You will establish balance. Muhammad came to the Islamic world as zakat. Being the ummah of Muhammad means unity. The believer must be vigilant, our prophet says. When saying Allah, Allah, Allah, he should adopt the way of the prophet and his morals as morals without being far away from the truth of Allah. Everything has a Batin and a zahir.

OSMANCIK: What was the greatest characteristic of the Companions?

INCREASING The greatest characteristic of the Companions is that they grew up with conversation. Conversation is very important. Hazrat Mevlana said "listen" in the Masnavi. For those who realize the power and might of Allah Almighty, there are 100 kinds of prayer, 100 kinds of ruku, 100 kinds of prostration. Of course, the five daily prayers are prayers. But conversations are also prayers.

OSMANCIK What does Mesnevihan mean?

INCREASER: It means one who reads the Masnavi. He is the one who has read and understood the Masnavi the best and interprets it the best. Our teacher Can is the best Mesnevi reader. They were gracious enough to leave this to this poor man. We have spiritual conversations. Anyone who is interested can learn the Masnavi in these classes.