We inform both the official authorities and our friends of an important truth:
Our master, from his youth and even from childhood, strongly refrained from the people to preserve the honor of knowledge. He never accepted alms or charity, and as stated in the Second Letter, he also refused gifts. However, in his current old and weak condition, this principle of abstinence has transformed into a disease due to the mercy of God. That is, if he eats a morsel without compensation, he immediately falls ill and cannot eat it.
Our master was not so in need in his youth. At that time, when he lived alone, very little expense was sufficient for him. Now, in a time when he has assigned many of his students and is suffering from several illnesses, the preservation of this principle of abstinence is causing him to fall ill from the divine mercy, due to the free gifts and honors.
Indeed, respect for our master was also considered a spiritual gift, so he strongly avoided the respect and greetings of people. As testified by the biography of his life and the "Lem'as of Old Age," he was superior to his contemporaries and had withdrawn into seclusion in the village of Tillo in Siirt. He locked himself in the tomb of Sheikh Ahmed Hânî in Ağrı Province. When he was captured by the Russians, despite the enthusiasm of about ninety captured officers who listened to his religious lessons, he found a place in a small mosque in the Tatar camp and withdrew into solitude. While living in a tempting and luxurious life such as the Islamic House of Wisdom in Istanbul, he chose to live alone on Yûşâ Hill. When he returned to Van, instead of seeking a joyful life among many old and new students, he locked himself in a cave on Erek Mountain. Finally, when he was sent to prison as a result of the unparalleled oppression he witnessed over thirty years, although the legal isolation period was fifteen days, he was kept in complete isolation for twenty months and even throughout the entire prison term without showing any need to anyone.
All these circumstances show that seclusion has always dominated the nature of our master. However, in his old age, many kinds of help, h
Emirdağ Lâhikası - II
·Mektup 141
·machine translation (qwen3-32b-sre)
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A few days later he went to the town of Vastan, but he stayed there for only about a month for the sake of changing the air. Eventually, in the company of a person named Molla Mehmed, he set out for Bayezid, which is under the jurisdiction of the Erzurum province. It is at this time that his serious and genuine study began.
Until this time, he had been occupied with the disciplines of "Sarf" and "Nahiv," and had studied up to "İzhar." His serious and genuine study under the guidance of Sheikh Mehmed Celalî in Bayezid lasted for about three months. However, it was very strange; for according to the Eastern Anatolian method of teaching, he completed the study of all the books from Molla Câmî to the end. He succeeded in this by studying one or two lessons from each book, and finally ten lessons, and thus abandoned his previous habits.
When his teacher, Sheikh Mehmed Celalî, asked him why he had done this, Molla Said replied, "I am not capable of reading and understanding so many books. These books are like a treasure chest of jewels, and the key is with you. I only ask you to show me what is inside these chests. That is, I want to understand what these books are about, so that eventually I can work on those that are suitable for my nature."
His real intention, however, was not to waste time reading a great number of commentaries and explanations, but rather to demonstrate the creative and critical thinking that was naturally present in him within the framework of madrasa methods, and to bring about a real innovation.
Tarihçe-i Hayat
·Ilk Hayati
·machine translation (qwen3-32b-sre)
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A brief look at his life at that time
First: He began to practice asceticism and self-discipline by following the professions of the Eastern Sages. The Eastern Sages had accustomed their bodies to self-discipline according to the principle of gradualism. But he did not follow this principle of gradualism, and suddenly plunged into self-discipline. As time passed, his body began to weaken because it could not endure the strain. He subsisted on just a piece of bread every three days. Influenced by the theory of the Eastern Sages that "asceticism serves the pure and clear thought," he tried to do the same as them.
Second: Following the principle in Imam al-Ghazali's Ihya' al-'Ulum, which in the perspective of Sufism states "leave what causes doubt for what does not cause doubt," he once even gave up bread and subsisted on herbs.
Third: He spoke very little. He would lock himself in the small tomb of the Kurdish poet and scholar Molla Ahmed Hâni, which people entered with fear even during the day, and sometimes stayed there at night. Because of this, the locals said that Bediuzzaman had been blessed by the grace of Molla Ahmed Hâni. They attributed this behavior to his spiritual excellence.
At that time, he was thirteen or fourteen years old. Then, he decided to meet with distinguished scholars and requested permission from his teacher to visit Baghdad. He put on the attire of a dervish. Intending to travel to Baghdad by wandering through the mountains and forests at night without following the roads, he arrived in Bitlis. In Bitlis, he went to the presence of Sheikh Mehmed Emin Efendi and attended his lessons for about two days.
Tarihçe-i Hayat
·Ilk Hayati
·machine translation (qwen3-32b-sre)