HACI BEKTAŞ VELİ’NİN TASAVVUF DÜŞÜNCESİNDE MARİFET VE ARİFLER

Hacı Bektaş Veli is a person who had important effects on the formation of the religious and mystical thought of Anatolia. Understanding his ṣūfī thought and mission is important for analyzing the Turkish- Islamic thought. The concept of maʿrifa (interior knowledge) forms the basis of Hacı Bektaş’s ṣūfī thought. In this context, the present study focuses on the emphasis on adherence to Sharia on the way to maʿrifa in his ṣūfī thought, the sect and maʿrifa maqāms obtained with the implementation of the Sharia, then the heart as a mean of attaining maʿrifa, and finally the ʿarīfs as a class that has attained maʿrifa. Thus, the place and importance of maʿrifa in the epistemology of Hacı Bektaş Veli was determined. It was also possible to compare him with the ṣūfī tradition he was attached. Maʿrifa, which is more valuable than the knowledge obtained by reason and transmission in ṣūfism, is the key concept of Hacı Bektaş Veli’s ṣūfī thought and epistemology. Hacı Bektaş Veli designed the ṣūfī education system in line with the idea of four doors and forty-maqāms. The murīd (disciple), who started his ṣūfī progress with the Sharia gate, reaches the maʿrifa maqāms after the ṭarīqa gate. Thus, while educating his nafs (soul), he also finds the opportunity to open the curtains of the ghayb (unknown) world by purifying his nafs. In this process, a murīd who follows the path of ṣūfism acquires the qualifications of being an ʿābid (worshipper), zāhid (renunciant), ʿarīf (wise) and muhib (admirer). In this context, the ʿarīf is in a position ahead of the ʿābids and zāhids in terms of the distance he has covered in reaching the maʿrifatullah. According to Hacı Bektaş Veli, God created people only so that they could know themselves. In terms of reaching this goal, the ʿarīfs are superior to the ʿālims (religious scholar), just as they are superior to the ʿābids and zāhids. In other words, the knowledge of maʿrifatullah is superior to the knowledge obtained through the mind, and the ʿarīfs who have this knowledge are also in a superior position to the ʿālims. According to Hacı Bektaş, Veli attaining maʿrifa is only possible through having a life in line with Allah’s will. In this context, it is possible to say that Hacı Bektaş Veli is a representative of the Sunni ṣūfī tradition in Anatolia, based on the understanding of maʿrifa shaped by the transfer of Sharia to life.