Osman Fazli


Osman Fazli, was a Jelveti Sufi spiritual guide in 17th-century Ottoman Empire. He spent c.25 years teaching and preaching, and became head Sheikh of the order in Istanbul and led the studies, conversation, meditation, and dhikr. But when he was about 48 it was revealed to him that the Ottoman Empire would fall into ruin, and, although he was of reclusive temperament, felt the only way to care for its population was to be at the Sultan's court. There he was outspoken against many of the Grand Vizier's plans: that they would bring disaster and misfortune, and he was proven right. He spent some years at court but when he declared one Grand Vizier's plan as against the sharia and distorting the Quran, the only way the Vizier could silence him was with exile. Osman Fazli went into retreat but emerged with a different course of action: he was leading a band of Sufis towards the battlefront when he was arrested and exiled for good. Osman Fazli exemplifies the Jelveti way: that following union with Allah he returns and acts in the world. He is hushyar.

Education

Osman Fazli was born 7 July 1632 in Shumnu, today Shumen in present-day north east Bulgaria but then part of the Ottoman empire.
Osman Fazli's father, Seyyid Fethullah, was a learned person of very severe temperament
and educated Osman Fazli himself, however he died when Osman was about ten and the boy ceased studies for a while. But when he heard an itinerant poet praising the value of spiritual knowledge, he was inspired to take up such studies and moved first to Edirne in Thrace to the classes of Jelveti Saçlı Ibrahim.
He was next sent to the main Jelveti tekke in Uskudar, Istanbul whose principal Jelveti Saçlı Ibrahim, a holy ecstatic, had appointed one of his pupils, Zakirzade Abdullah Efendi, as the spiritual guide to seekers. Osman, on meeting Zakirzade, cried: "Now I have found my sheykh." Zakirzade Abdullah, now an old man, replied: "At last a student with real certainty in God has come to us. For so many years we have performed this service here without coming across such strength of spirit as this," later adding that Osman had the natural ‘mashrab’ of Sheykh al Akbar Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi. Because Osman Fazlı exemplified the way of service, all the knowledges were inspired into his heart.

Preaching

Sheikh Zakirzade then sent him to preach, and call to God, the people of Aydos near Edirne. About 1656 Ismail Hakkı was brought before him and he thereafter referred to him as "our student since the age of three".
After 1657 Osman Fazlı received an indication to move north west to Plovdiv on the road to Sofia. There he gave spiritual direction for fifteen years.
Ca.1672 a vision directed him to move to the Kul Cami a very small mosque near the At Pazarı, Fatih district, Istanbul. He found a room nearby and was soon given the post of preacher and imam. Here he took up the private study of Ibn Arabi's works. Within a few years he was giving daily sermons at the Kul Camii, preaching at the Yavuz Selim Mosque on Fridays and preaching at the Süleymaniye Mosque on Wednesdays.
By 1673, age 41, Ozman Fazli had become leader of the Jelveti sect in Istanbul, a Sufi order known for its emphasis on khalwa and individualism. where he guided Muraqaba and led the Dhikr. He also gave public classes and his fame as a Murshid brought students flocking from all over the Empire including, in 1673, young Ismail Hakki who later became Ismail Hakki Bursevi, his heir.

Political matters

Aged c.48 Osman Fazlı had a vision of the fall of the Ottoman Empire and although he was of reclusive temperament and had no inclination for public office, felt destined to step into politics to influence world events. In Islam, those who have union with God are saints, but there are two kinds: One kind remains "annihilated", "drunk with God", the other kind returns to function in this world and is "The Awake" ; and that is the Jelveti way that Osman Fazli followed.
Osman Fazlı stopped teaching and moved to Edirne to enter the court at the Sultan's palace. There, he was most outspoken: he gave frank criticisms of every selfish policy that did not benefit the population. That pleased Sultan Mehmet IV however, in that empire's structure, it was the Grand Vizier who held the power) and authority. In 1682 Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha decided to break the treaty between the Ottoman empire and the Holy Roman Empire by invading Vienna, Osman Fazli strongly argued against it, claiming it could only lead to disaster and misfortune. And he was proved right in his predictions. For in 1683 the Ottoman Empire was subject to the long and disastrous Great Turkish War. After the execution of the Grand Vizier other pashas were appointed to that post in rapid sequence.
In 1687 a rebellion dethroned Mehmet IV in favour of his yet more ineffective brother Suleyman II. In 1688, Janissaries took over Istanbul and the citizens marched on the Topkapı Palace in protest. The sultan pleaded Osman Fazlı to help and he went out bearing aloft the Sancak-i Şerif, the Standard of the Prophet and appealed to their religious sentiment, gained their support, and the rebellion was contained. The sultan then called on Osman Fazlı to take over the Grand Viziership, but he declined.
The Vizierate financed their constant warfare by requisitioning peoples property, and in 1689 Grand Vizier Köprülü Fazıl Mustafa Pasha asked Osman Fazlı and the scholars to find a formula in Koranic law to support this. When Osman Fazlı warned him that it was against the spirit of the Sheriat, and only misfortune come upon those who ‘abused their position by distorting the Holy Law’
The Grand Vizier retorted by banishing him, in an effort to silence him, to Shumnu for three months. And when he returned he did try to keep out of politics and went on retreat in Rumeli Hisar, a village a few miles up the Bosphorus. But he again felt he must proclaim that the requisitions were not legal, and must be opposed, and was leading a band of Sufis towards the battlefront when he was arrested and in 1690 the Grand Vizier exiled him to Cyprus.

Shrine

In 1690 was taken to Famagusta, north east Cyprus. There, all he ate was a piece of bread every evening. He requested his pupil Ismail Hakki come from Bursa: "There is really nothing left behind apart from our wujud ... For eternal life there is no need to remain in the world." He always disliked fame and renown: "Don’t erect a türbe over me; a stone to mark the head of the grave will be enough to provide the opportunity for a prayer." His last request was to be buried in the open countryside around Üsküdar, Istanbul, but his exile did not permit it, so he was buried in the martyrs’ cemetery, Famagusta. Those who were very fond of him built a stone sarcophagus over the grave, and it later came to be enclosed in a simple annexe of a tekke. Now abandoned, the tekke falls into disrepair, though it was rebuilt in 1824.
In Cyprus he is revered by the name Kutup Osman Fazli, meaning he was the spiritual axis of worldly matters.

Teachings

Some of the works written by the master are: