Kuran and Sufi poetry

Abstract

After recitation of Kuran that is considered the greatest miracle of our beloved prophet who was sent as a mercy to the world sufi poetry began to thrive. The poets who admired rhetoric and fluency of our holy book were trying to say poetry about wisdom in accordance with special messages given to the poets in sura Al-shu’ara’ and convey the internal nature of Islam to society in their works. Usually, this great literary case was breaching out some directions:1) In point of poetic works based on Kuran alphabet; the forms, being dotted and undotted , grammatical features, wise meaning of letters, range of images , metaphors and similes was being made. Especially, some sufi works concerned meaning and content given to Kuran letters with influence of “ Esrarul-Huruf” by Ibni Arabi and other works in this topic began to appear. In sufi poetry we also often see codifying of many words their letters and giving of them in attributes appropriate to every letter. In terms of forms, letters were used to as elements of mimesis and as subject in literary works . For instance, sweetheart’s figure is liken to “ elif” for its flattness. Sweetheart’s mouth is described like letter mim and her eyebrows are shown like letter nune. As human’s face is likening to Kuran, each line of face is assimilated to different ayes.2) Define meaning and content are expressed by means of alliteration –association of sound and harmonies in Kuran. For example, in sura Adiyat the majority of dal and ta sounds resembles the sound of feet of war-horses that were mentioned in the sura, the sounds which make vibration effect in sura Zilzal reminds of earthquake. This feature did not escape poets’ attention. We see very beautiful examples of associations of sound and harmony at activities of poets such as Mevlana, Fuzuli, and Yunus Emre. 3) Stories based on Kuran tales and references to these tales in the poem. Turkish Sufi poets mostly wrote works concerned tales that were about prophets’ lives such as Yusuf, Suleyman, Davus, Musa, Isa and etc. in Kuran, and they used characters such as Hazreti Musa, Isa, and Meryem in order to express sufistic meanings, divine truth. 4) Esoteric meaning, comments, and interpretations of Kuran have been described with poetic language. For instance, Yunus Emre translated into Turkish language and describes in poetic language the suras el-gasiye, en-Nebe, en Naziat and other surahs that tell of judgement day and its horrors in order to prevent people from sins. Pamphlets written in poetic form in order to explain Kuran philosophy, Islamic morals. Definite steps of sufistic journey, various religious-philosophic issues to readers, especially adherents. 5) Sufi treatises written by the poets of Sufi sect in order the readers, especially the Sufi followers to easily understand and remember the philosophy of the Noble Quran, morality of Islam, some stages and points of the 2 mystical journey, and different religious and philosophical issues. These treatises contain many examples from the Noble Quran.