THE DREAMS/VÂKIAT SEEN THROUGHOUT “SAYR-U SULŪK” IN NIYAZI-I MISRI’S BOOK CALLED “RISÂLE-I ETVÂR-I SEB’A” / NİYAZÎ-İ MISRÎ’NİN “ETVÂR-I SEB’A” ADLI RİSÂLESİ’NDE SEYR Ü SÜLÛK’UN EVRELERİNDE GÖRÜLEN RÜYÂ/VÂKIÂT

The works related to “Atwār-ı Sab'a” are the sources of Sufism which touch on the phases of the “sayr-u sulūk” (phases of adherence in the spiritual training peculiar to Sufism). One of the works written about “Atwār-ı Sab'a” in Khalwatiah tradition is Niyazî-i Mısrî's book called “Risālah on Atwār-ı Sab'a”. Niyâzî-i Mısrî wrote down his book named “Etvâr-ı Seb'a” in conformity with the Halwati tradition as a guiding light in spiritual progress of dervishes (disciple), and as a prospectus in the interpretation of the dreams they see. In this book, about which no independent study has been detected, are discussed the dreams seen by the dervishes throughout “sayr-u sulūk”. This paper introduces Mısri's interpretations on the meaning of the dreams and intuitions the dervishes happened to see through the phases of their spiritual evolution. In terms of Sufi culture, dream is very important for the spiritual life of a dervish. The spiritual status of the dervish rises if he sees good dreams. He descends from the spiritual status if he sees bad dreams. According to the Halveti Sufis, his dreams are some signs in terms of spiritual growth. And each animal seen in dreams has a special meaning for that stage. Therefore, Halveti Sufis have loaded symbolic meanings of the adjective to the animals seen in dreams and interpreted them as the adjectives of nafs/soul. According to the sufis (islamic mystic) adopted the notion that the stages of man's material creation “seeing that He has created [every one of] you in successive stages'' (Nûh, 71/14) verse, expresses not only human physical development stages, but there are also stages of spiritual development. Hence it is accepted that human supplies his spiritual development in seven stages. The first of these, Misri "circle-i emmare" is performed as is the nafs-i ammara (Commanding Nafs) treatise in order to be included in the nomenclature and other explanations of order, respectively. According to Misri these are: the Coercive Circle (commanding nafs), the circle of condemnation (self - condemning nafs), the circle of inspiration (inspirated nafs), the circle of satisfaction (satisfied nafs), the circle of content with God (consenting nafs), the circle of being loved by God (pleased nafs by God), and the circle of pureness (perfected naps). Niyâzî-i Mısrî points out that the nafs (psyche) is given a name, in its struggle with its desires, appropriate to the stage in which it is. Therefore, Misri in the Work, says an order corresponding to the order of the nafs/soul of each and every circle as separate articles in a circle as he arranged according to the order being seen in a dream.