Sibgetullah Arwasi : An Awliya from Bitlis
He is one of the most important scholars of late Ottoman era and he is one of the students of Taha-i Hakkari. He passed away in the year of 1870 and his tomb is located in Gayda village of Hizan district in Bitlis. With the influence of his father he started studying tafsir, hadith, and […]
Concept of Heva: Ardour and overweening ambition according to tasawwuf
Heva means empty, full of air, futile and worthless. It is a concept used by sufis to indicate someone’s nafs, in other words, soul’s inclination towards and dependency on personal desires and lust. If heva overcomes reason in any human being, the person will be under the command of his nafs, thus leading his soul […]
Taha-i Hakkari : An Awliya from Hakkari
He is one of the important awliyas from Anatolia region of the Islamic world and he is considered as a member of “Silsile-i Aliyye”, who is the fortunate group of awliyas whom spent and dedicated their lives to forecasting mankind about the do’s and don’ts of Allah(j.j) He is the 11th grand-son of the great […]
Birgivi : An Awliya of Smyrna
His real name is Muhammad, but he is known after the name of Smyrna’s town of Birgi, where his tomb is located. He was born in the city of Balıkesir in 1521 and passed away in 1573 in the town of Birgi, Smyrna. History remembers him also by the name of İmam-ı Birgivi and he […]
Tafakkur: An Islamic method of epistemology
Tafakkur means to think on a subject very deeply. It is a very humane activity and presumably the only activity that makes human beings superior to other creatures. In Islamic thought it is suggested to think deeply on the things Allah(j.j) has created. There is one ayat in Holy Quran which has effected Prophet Muhammad(saw) […]
Nashuhee Uskudari and three levels in tasawwuf
Nashuhee Uskudari was one the awliyas of Istanbul, in the 17th century. He belonged to the order of the Halwatiyya. He was born in Uskudar district of Istanbul in either 1647 or 1648 and passed away 1718. From early age, his father showed special care for his education, he attended madrasa and studied tafsir, hadith […]
Mushahadee : Observing with the heart
Mushahadee is a tasawwuf concept that is related with an special stage for the “areef” ones. The areef is the one who is occupied with knowing himself to know more about Allah(j.j) in better way. Naturally, this doesn’t mean about “self-actualization”, since tasawwuf studies is exempt from such egoistic and narcissistic terms. A sufi doesn’t […]
Ibrahim Haqqi : An awliya from Erzurum
Ibrahim Haqqi was born in Erzurum in the year of 1703. In his own words he describes his early life as “For twenty-five years I worked hard to study “ilm” and I’ve been in love with Allah since forgetting about the whole world and its affairs and thus I became an areef. Then I left […]
Different degrees of the nafs
In tasawwuf nafs means self, psyche, ego or soul. Some Sufis suggest that there are six degrees of nafs and claim this intellection based on Quranic evidence. Nafs-i-ammara: The kind of nafs that doesn’t care about Allah(j.j) commands and prohibitions and follows mundane pleasures. Nafs-i-lawwama: Here the nafs sometimes follows Allah(j.j) guidelines and feels sorry […]
Ashrafoglu Rumi : An awliya from Nicaea
Ashrafoglu Rumi, who is also known as Ashrafzade-i Rumi is one of the medieval Anatolian mutasawwufs from the city of Nicaea. This city holds a special place in the history of Ottomans since it served in the 14th century as a capital city for the Ottoman empire. The city is also famous for handcrafts and […]