Abstract
A Journey From The Hadith Referring to The Utterance “Allah Has Created Adam In The Image of His Own”, Which Constitutes The Basis of Islamic Sufism Theory, to Myths With Reference to Ottoman Literary Texts
When sources to breed classical Turkish poetry are
considered, Islamic sources such as the Kor’an (Qur’an),
hadiths and hermeneutic texts are the first to mention,
which are followed by Sufism, the prophet Mohammad and
the lives of the evliya (saints), Persian mythology and
domestic materials. Undoubtedly, all of the above mentioned
sources are prominent cultural components that have
deeply influenced classical Turkish poetry and their
influences can directly be traced in literary texts.
Islamic Sufism has a great influence on Ottoman
literature although there have been arguments about the
origins of Islamic Sufism and the inspiring sources. This
influence can be traced not only in the texts which celebrate
the joy of endeavours to make a mystical feeling a lifestyle
and advise such a lifestyle, but also in those which human
love and the beloved are explicitly mentioned from an
aesthetical viewpoint. Therefore, the effect of Islamic Sufism on Ottoman literature should not be considered
restricted to Sufi texts that have been written with a
propagandist approach.
The hadith referring to the utterance “Allah has created
Adam in the image of His own” is one of the foundations
of the idea of fate in Islamic Sufism, glorifying humanity
with an emphasis that man is the most honourable creature.
This hadith has led to arguments among theologists
and they have questioned the reality of the hadith. The
study does not cover the assessment of the hadith in view
of hadith studies. In this paper, it is attempted to point out
the similarities between the idea of “Allah has created
Adam in the image of His own”, which is the core of the
argument, and myths of creation in the Middle Eastern
myths and the mythological influence on mystical understandings.
Keywords
Ottoman Literature, myths of creation, Islamic Sufism, the hadith referring to the utterance “Allah