COMMENTARY 1

FIND truth, my soul, and do not flee away

From light that pains the darkened eye with day.

Is man the gauge of right and wrong, one man

Who rules, the erudite or strong, who can

Impose by arm or reason his own will,

Or even the free soul that's standing still?

I think not, my experience shows me

That human search has limits it can be.

If I am limited, it does not follow

That there is greater in the world to wallow.

But if there is One violent Beloved,

He may extend a hand, though it be gloved,

A hand of revelation in my need,

A word of knowledge and a loaf to feed

The soul whose barren corners lack the light

To know the right from wrong at the first sight.



“Find Truth.” The book begins by establishing the goal of the seeker. In the thought of Hajji Bektash Wali, the faithful are divided into four types of people. The first is the great mass of the faithful, the people of air, whose concern is for shariat, or the application of divine law in day to day life. The second is the people of fire, those who join a mystical order, a tariqat, as they burn with love for God and consequently for their fellow human beings. The third is the people of water, of ma’rifat, those who have a direct awareness of God and creation. The fourth is the people of earth, of haqiqat, reality, or truth, whose self-awareness has been effaced in the true Self, who is the one true God.

Hierarchical Sufism recognizes these four groups, but turns the Aristotelian progression around, making a ladder of development from earth to air, and a long practice of spirituality to reach from the beginning place on earth to the goal of the rare saint who achieves the portal of air, which is ascribed to haqiqat. Hajji Bektashi Wali takes the opposite point of view, and suppresses the ladder of spiritual development. The great and high goal of spiritual achievement for him is simply the earth upon which all people stand.

The Beloved and I is an invitation to join Hajji Bektash in finding truth right here where every human being is on the earth, rather than as the ultimate goal of a long spiritucal practice. So it begins with the words “find truth.” This could of course be construed as an invitation to enter upon the path of the rare saint, who climbs to the top of the ladder. But it is not. It is rather the affirmation that the center of truth is found here and now where the muddy footprints of the Creator appear on the first pages of the book of life.

The affirmation that haqiqat, or truth, or reality, is already in the hands of every individual also implies that the four groups of people are only identified by the most prominent aspect of their experience in focusing on divine law, divine love, divine awareness, or divine truth. Every individual is made up of a unique combination of all four mystical experiences, just as every body contains the elements of air, fire, water and earth. Each individual moves among these elements of law, love, awareness and truth in her own unique pattern. No leaf on the tree is identical to any other.

“My soul.” The concept of the immortal soul is common to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as well as to many other religious traditions. Classical Bektashism contains a strong oriental strain that affirms reincarnation. This book addresses the doctrine of anthropology as a logical extension of Hajji Bektash’s spiritual democracy and his rejection of hierarchy and spiritual progress. The concept of spiritual progress appears to be grounded in Gnosticism, with its idea that a spark of pure spirit is imprison in evil matter and must escape through a spiritual process. Hajji Bektash’s spiritual democracy and reversal of the elements to make earth correspond to truth, implies a different anthropology. His concept of the soul is an earthy one, affirming the early Semitic simplicity. The living soul is a mortal, physical object, the united breath and body that makes up a living being. The nafs or nephesh is thus something to be embraced. Truth is found in the very nafs itself. If it were not so, it would be futile to say “Find truth, my soul.”
Spirituality is not an escape into rarified air, but rather the recognition that the most earthy things are acts of divine creation, reality, truth, of infinite value.