Natural symbolism in Işârî commentaries

The book that holds the title of the most recited and most talked about book of all time is our holy book, the Quran. Since the day it was revealed, its verses and surahs that have always been on the lips of Muslims and have left indelible marks in their hearts and spiritual worlds have been a source of inspiration, wisdom, contemplation and abundance for people. This holy book, which was revealed to the Prophet (pbuh), has a feature that will meet the spiritual needs of all people in every century. For this reason, while books other than the Quran become obsolete, the Quran has always preserved its freshness as it was on its first day because it is a universal book. The Quran has been interpreted in different ways from the day it was revealed to the present day. As a result, different schools of interpretation have emerged over time. One of these schools is the Isharī/Sūfi school of interpretation. The commentaries put forward by the Sufis, who focused on the allusive/esoteric meanings of the verses, have reached an important position and have taken their place in the literature as an independent school of commentary in time. In these commentaries, which are generally categorized as allusive commentary, the commentator thinks that some concrete objects or some events and phenomena mentioned in the verses point to some inner meanings in the spiritual and inner worlds. According to this approach, which imagines man as a small copy of the universe and the universe as a big man, the winds, trees, clouds, rain, seas, mountains, birds, bees, stones, etc. mentioned in the verses are symbols of man's inner world and emotions and conflicts, while the elements in nature are also symbols in which some Sufi concepts come to life. For example, some commentators likening the bee to the person of the seyr-u sülük can be given as an example of this situation. In this study, the interpretations of the verses related to nature in the Isharī/Sûfi tafsir were determined and their comparisons were made among themselves. Our study consists of an introduction, two sections and a conclusion. After some information about Isharī tafsir in general was given in the introduction section, the purpose and importance of our research, some studies conducted on the subject, the scope and method of the research and the sources of the research were included. In the first section, information was given about the definition of Isharī tafsir, its nature, the concepts of Isharī, zāhir and esoteric, the Sufi dimension of Isharī tafsir, its legitimacy, conditions of acceptability, esotericism, the differences between esoteric tafsir and esoteric tafsir, criticisms directed at Isharī tafsir and their evaluation. We have examined the symbolic equivalents of natural beings in the Isharite interpretations, which constitute the main subject of our thesis. Under this heading, we have examined the relationship between symbolism and Isharite interpretation, the symbolic equivalents of inanimate beings and the symbolic equivalents of animate beings. In the conclusion section, we have made a general evaluation of the findings we have obtained. As a result of the findings obtained, the depths of the rich semantic world of Isharite/Sûfi interpretations have been discovered. In particular, the symbolic meanings attributed to the verses related to nature by Isharite/Sûfi commentators have been analyzed and these commentators have been compared with each other.