The Fifth Matter
Just as the manner in which a speech is composed (suret‑i terkib) indicates the speech’s main aim; so too the allusions of its secondary meanings and of its styles indicate the speech’s subsidiary aims and purport, and enliven it; it is in these that the speech’s richness and scope lie.
For allusions and hints are a powerful source stimulating slumbering imaginings and by exciting their silent aspects, elicit praise and appreciation in the furthest corners of the heart. Yes, hints and allusions are for promenading and beholding the sides of the path; they are not for purposeful demanding and disposal. This means that the speaker is not answerable for them. If you wish, enter into the following lines, for they contain points worthy of note.
Behold the beard of an aged man who, seated on his high‑spirited horse, wants to appear youthful to a coy young maid; you’ll find numerous keys to rhetorical eloquence. Open the gates, and listen: She said: “You’re old and grey!” I replied: “I’m not! The white dust risen from beneath the pounding hooves of calamitous time has rested on my beard."
Then I said: “Fear not the shining white of my beard, for like beaming light, it is the smile of thought and fine art which, having melted in the brain, have found a channel in the beard and shown themselves.”
Then, “Your eyes slumbered in the dark night of youth; You awoke only in the morn of old age.”
“While seeking a javelin, morning struck my horse’s brow with its white hand. To avenge itself, my horse caught up with the fleeing morn, struck it to the ground and stamped on it with its four hooves. My horse is high‑spirited!”
Then: “Like my beloved’s sash, my heart is heaving and rustling; but like her bracelet, her heart is as still and silent. This means that just as her waist is slender and wrist is thick, so my heart is eager while hers is unresponsive. Therefore, beauty has struck passion, remoteness, and eagerness with one stone.”
Then, “Like the Yemeni merchant, the rainwater floods have swept their goods and loads to the thorny desert. It is like this: A merchant arrives at a village in the evening and that night the villagers buy his colourful wares, then in the morning they all emerge from their houses attired in various colours. The village shepherd, even, has a red kerchief tied round his head. Similarly, like the flood swept the goods over the desert, through chemical reactions resembling secret trade, the colourful dresses of the coy beauties, the flowers, are bought and sewn. Even, the thorny mountain flower, kefne, the flowers’ shepherd, displays its red head.”
Also, “Loyalty has withdrawn to the cave of non‑being; the storm of tyranny has begun to erupt; a long distance has opened between word and action.”
If you do not want to go far off, take a look at what preceded this Article (Makale); you will find many pieces which are examples of this. For example, “The key to the evidences for the verses’ inimitability and the discloser of the secrets of eloquence are [derived] only from Arabic rhetoric. Not from Greek philosophy.”
Or take a look at the Indication in the Conclusion of the First Matter of the First Article. Thus: “The code of natural laws (şeriat‑ı fıtriyye) ruled that the ecstatic guest, the globe of the earth, should remain in the ranks of the stars that follow the sun and should not quit them. For together with its spouse, the earth declared: We come in obedience. As for obedient worship, it is worthier in conjunction with the community.”
These examples point to such levels before and beyond them that beyond them, further levels appear faintly.