Ehl-i beyt’in gizemli mirası cifir ve Türkçe cifir metinlerinden örnekler

Abstract

Throughout history, mankind have always been curious about creation, death, and the future. This curiosity has led human beings to pursue what is absolutely unknown. The curiosity of mankind to the future has resulted in the frequent processing of the concept of “cifir” in the Islamic world and especially in Shia. The mysterious information that the Messenger Muhammad entrusted to the members of Hazrat Ali and Ahl al-Bayt drawed the attention of many scholars and authors. As a result, it is thought that future can be known with the reference of works which are generally believed to belong to Hazrat Ali and Cafer-i Sadiq. According to the Shii tradition, Hazrat Ali had works titled al-Cifr and al-Jami'i which contained information on the future. The cifir, which means “sheep's skin”, is, according to some, the treasury of secrets that Hz. Muhammad wrote to a sheep or camel's skin and handed it to Hazrat Ali. The Qur'an says that the future is known only by Allah. Some people, however, thought that the people who were beyond their own self would reach this knowledge. Many works on prophecy in Turkish culture and belief history exists. Some of them are written in such a way that show literary characteristics. In addition, many pen writers have written literary works, as well as prophetic books or treatises. The fact that some of the texts about the prophecy are verse shows the function of poetry when the divine secrets are expressed. In this study, some of the works written in Turkish will be mentioned. Examples from the work of prophecy will be given and some critics will be made about the subject. Thus, the boundaries of the tradition of prophecy will be drawn in Turkish cultural history and the method that this will follow will be revealed. © 2018 Gazi Universitesi, Turk Kulturu ve Haci Bektas Veli. All rights reserved.