A Treatise on the Debate on “Poverty” and “Wealth” in Sufism: Mehmet Zihni Efendi’s Translation of İbrahim Fasîh el- Haydarî’s Treatise Called Şifâü’l-milel ‘an dâi’l-kesel

Abstract

İbrahim Fasîh el-Haydarî (d. 1300/1882) is one of the Ottoman sûfî scholars belonging
to the Naqshbandiyya order. Fasîh el-Haydarî has works in the fields of Literature and
History. Hence, Fasîh el-Haydarî also strived to solve social problems. His treatise titled
Şifâü’l-milel ‘an dâi’l-kesel reveals this aspect of Fasîh el-Haydarî. In the treatise, he
dealt with the problem of laziness, which was the reason for the backwardness of the
Muslim nations, and the issue of work as a solution to this problem.
This article we prepared on Fasîh’s treatise consists of an introduction and two parts.
In the introduction, after giving brief information about the author, we talked about the
purpose of writing the treatise and its importance. We also explained where the copy
containing the Turkish translation along with the Arabic original is located. In the first
part, we evaluated the main points of the topics discussed in the treatise. In the second part,
we published the Ottoman translation of the treatise made by Mehmed Zihni Efendi (d.
1913) as a critical edition. We applied the simple transcription method in our publication.
Accordingly, we wrote the Arabic and Persian words in their original form. We preferred
the current forms of Turkish words and suffixes. We identified the sources where the
author quotes from various works and showed them in footnotes.