An Analysis of the Ghazal with the Rhyme “Understand Us” in Niyāzī Misrī’s Dīwān in Terms of Comprehension

Abstract

Notions such as understanding, knowledge and consciousness have a large effect in our lives. Throughout history, there have been people who were persecuted, isolated, or even killed for defending their own truth. In addition, many people who served in the field of Sufism and took it on as their duty to guide people through conversations and written works, mostly complained about not being understood properly. Niyāzī Misrī (d. 1105/1694), a passionate and enthusiastic Sufi, who was one of the leading figures in the seventeenth century and whose influence has survived through the centuries, also complains about not being understood in many of his works. Among them, the most striking one is the ghazal with the rhyme “understand us”. In our study, we wanted to discuss this ghazal in terms of comprehension. By examining the information given by the Akbarian author, about people who understand and those who do not, we tried to emphasize that this situation is due to differences of the levels of comprehension. We tried to explain how the heart’s knowledge, which is an abstract experience, can be reduced to concrete words and how it can reveal and cover the meaning. As a result, we saw that the rational mind, which is necessary for daily life, is not capable of comprehending abstract concepts, and for this, a heart that has evolved through training and reached an intellectual level is required. This journey, which can be called the evolution of the mind, is revealed from the point of view of Niyāzī Misrī in this study, which can be considered as a kind of commentary.

Keywords

• niyāzī misrī
• sufism
• understanding
• conciousness
• truth
• mind
• heart
• ma‘rifa
• perfect human being