THE PROBLEM OF SPIRITUAL ASCENT IN THE STORY ABOUT HASAN AL-BASRI AND RABI"A AL-"ADAWIYYA BY THE TATAR SUFI POET ABULMANIKH KARGALY
Alsou Akhmadullovna Khasavnekh,
G.Ibragimov Institute of Language,
Literature and Art of the AS RT,
11 Sheinkman Passage, Kazan, 420111, Russia,
alise_12345@mail.ru.
The article analyzes the work by Sufi poet A.Kargaly “Khikayatel Avyl” (“First Story”1) from the poet’s collection, which consists of ten separate narratives. It is here that the distinctive aspects of A.Kargaly’s interpretation of F.‘Attara famous story are revealed, the latter is included in the poetry collection “Mantiq at-tayr” (“Language of Birds”), which tells us the story of the great mystics of the East: Hasan al-Basri and Rabi‘a al-‘Adawiyya, portrayed against the background of a wide variety of Sufi images and symbols. Some of the images acquire an original interpretation as they are written by a Tatar author. There are Quranic episodes of Yaqub and his son Yusuf, Karun and Pharaoh of Egypt in the second part of A.Kargaly’s work, conventionally referred to as “the author's digression”, to support the themes of the love for the Almighty Allah and the transitory nature of earthly goods. The research traces the consonance of the content of a number of Quranic terms found in A.Kargaly’s work with the texts from the Holy Scriptures of Muslims. In the final part there is a story about Ansar and Muhajir borrowed by a Tatar author from Muslim Hadith, that is also presented to the reader in the author's original interpretation: though the episode does not mention any names or places, some fictional details are included, the story line is also changed, etc. The research is also aimed at identification and explanation of the above-mentioned points in terms of overall semantic orientation of A.Kargaly’s narration. The artwork by the Tatar author is of a syncretic character: the story includes additional Quranic episodes to continue the development of the theme of the impermanence of the material world, the episodes serve as thematic digressions of the main story of Hasan Basri and Rabi‘a al- ‘Adawiyya. “Khikaytel Avval” (“First Story”) is a sort of quintessence of A.Kargaly’s poetry collection, since, in addition to the main story about the two mystics of the East, the author incorporates a large number of different plots, instructive stories from Quran and Hadith and resorts to contamination. Due to all these, in this particular story there are all major ethical issues and motifs, raised in all other nine stories of the collection.
Key words: Sufism, Hasan al-Basri, Rabi‘a al-‘Adawiyya, original interpretation, Quranic episodes.
