FEAR OF DEATH

The pillar of this world is heedlessness! Flee from it!
The reason is your fear of death! Lift the veil!

Prayer, fame, sex, money, alcohol, travel, amusement—
A futile struggle to forget death! A torment!

No one can overcome the fear of death!
At any moment, you may find yourself alone with yourself!

First, your conscience will call you to account!
Then the grave comes to mind! You cannot keep it away!

Struck by terror, you plunge back into the world!
And the vicious circle begins! Azrael is its leaven!

There is only one way to awaken from this nightmare:
You are placed in a trance for three nights without a break!

A monster suddenly stands before you!
This guardian of Hell is formed from all your misdeeds!

Because you have not yet died, it does not swallow you; it says, “Pass!”
There, the father who put you to sleep leads you to repent!

Then you open your eyes to a magnificent angel:
The essence of the good you have done in every life!

You promise to “continue” serving humanity!
The one who put you to sleep awakens you and returns you to your body!

You have seen Hell and Paradise, even before dying!
ALLAH says: “Those who know and those who do not know are not alike!”

“Die before you die,” the MESSENGER tells everyone!
This does not mean killing ambition! Here is the way:

Within the physical body there is also a transparent body!
“Know that the Creator has built everything in pairs!”

Its lower layer automatically performs mechanical tasks!
In its upper layer dwells one who is conscious, just like a person!

For in the upper transparent layer are memory and the five senses!
As it leaves the lower layer, it says, “Enter the trance! Sleep!”

Mounting this transparent steed, the Spirit travels through every realm!
When the steed returns to the body, call the Life (body) an “EREN”—be sure of it!

An Eren can leave the body in a trance at any moment!
By making the transparent body dense, an Eren knows how to become HIZIR!

If the entire transparent body leaves the flesh, the person dies!
If the transparent body remains but the Spirit departs, that moment is sleep!

The lower transparent layer is joined to the physical body by a cord!
Once it breaks, the flesh cannot be revived—try a thousand times if you wish!

Do not say that Azrael takes the Life (body) of an Eren!
Azrael too is an angel! He bowed before ADAM!

An Eren cuts the cord and joins it again himself!
Those who know weep for Yazid, not for HUSAYN!

When the MESSIAH raised someone, he would say, “He is sleeping deeply!”
People scarcely understood this trance-like sleep!

Yet he had said, “Do not cast pearls before swine!”
“Never reveal to people a mystery they cannot comprehend!”

Love overcame the law! He did his work in the open!
The priest said, “He is the one who will be killed on that cross!”

To raise everyone was the aim of the Spirit of Allah!
The end is bitter for one who rivals Haqq (Lord) in mercy!

Never say, “Haqq (Lord) grants mercy without effort!”
When ADAM purified his Life (body), the Spirit was breathed into him!

The MAHDI was given the “right of universal resurrection”!
“For the people and the Earth have become transparent and worthy of it!”

MUHAMMAD said, “There is no MAHDI other than the MESSIAH!”
ALI said, “I am the second MESSIAH,” and came into love!

M.H. ULUĞ KIZILKEÇİLİ

ANKARA – 15 DECEMBER 1998

(The material written from this point onward has no connection with the author, and the author cannot be held responsible for any errors it contains.)

THE VEIL OF THE FEAR OF DEATH

Introduction: Fear of Separation, Not of Death

The text titled “Fear of Death” does not regard death merely as the end of biological life. At the poem’s center are the human being’s estrangement from their own truth, flight from conscience, distraction through fleeting pleasures, and belief that the self consists solely of the physical body. In this sense, the fear of death is not simply anxiety about the final breath. It is a metaphysical upheaval produced by questions about who a person is, where they came from, and whether they continue to exist beyond bodily life.

The text’s teaching on death can be read on three levels. On the first, death is the physical body’s loss of life. On the second, it is the dissolution of the worldly self, its ambitions, and its misleading identities. On the third, it is the complete severing of an invisible bond thought to connect consciousness and the body. The text does not interpret “dying before death” solely as moral purification; it presents it as experiencing separation from the physical body while still alive. Thus, a concept that usually refers to the transformation of the nafs in Sufi teaching acquires a cosmological and experiential meaning in Kızılkeçili’s metaphysics.

This approach opens a broad field of symbols when compared with religious teachings about death, spirit, purification, judgment, rebirth, an intermediate realm, and resurrection. In making such comparisons, however, two levels must be kept distinct: the historical and institutional teachings of religions, and the original esoteric system that Kızılkeçili constructs from them. The aim here is not to claim that different traditions are identical, but to show where their symbols concerning death converge and where they differ.

I. Is Heedlessness the Pillar of the World?

The text opens with this stark declaration:

“The pillar of this world is heedlessness! Flee from it!”

Heedlessness here is not ordinary ignorance. From the moment a person enters the world, they identify with their body, name, family, social position, and personal history. In time, even though they know these things are temporary, they begin to live as though they will never end. They accept death in theory but never truly confront their own death. What the poet calls “heedlessness” is the condition in which knowledge of death exists in the mind but has not become part of lived experience.

The Qur’an’s description of worldly life as “play and amusement” does not mean that the world is wholly without value. What is criticized is treating the temporary as absolute. Wealth, children, power, and display become veils when they cause people to forget their responsibilities. Kızılkeçili’s concept of heedlessness is related to this understanding: the world becomes a veil not because it conceals truth in itself, but because people put it in the place of truth.

In Sufi thought, ghaflah, or heedlessness, is the heart’s lack of awareness of Allah and of its own origin. Dhikr is more than the repetition of particular words; it is the remembrance of an original bond that has been forgotten. In this framework, remembering death is necessary to make life authentic, not to produce despair. A person who forgets death assumes that time is unlimited and readily spends what they imagine to be limitless. A person who remembers death recognizes that every action carries an irreversible meaning.

The principle of memento mori—“remember that you will die”—in Christian monastic tradition serves a similar purpose. Such remembrance aims to temper pride and call people to moral vigilance, rather than to disparage life. Symbols such as the skull, the extinguished candle, and the hourglass express life’s transience. Their purpose, however, is not to drive people to hopelessness but to show the measure of temporary passions in the face of eternal values.

The Buddhist practice of maraṇasati, or mindfulness of death, rests on the idea that all compounded things are impermanent. A person considers death not as an unexpected disaster arriving from outside, but as the inevitable dissolution inherent in having been born. In this way, the illusion of a “permanent self” underlying the fear of death is called into question. Kızılkeçili’s text accepts an enduring spiritual essence, whereas Buddhism critiques the idea of an unchanging essence. Even so, the two approaches converge in their view that absolute identification with the body and everyday identity can mislead a person.

In Hindu traditions, māyā does not mean that the world does not exist; it points to the deceptive nature of perceiving the world as absolute and independent reality. The Upanishads associate a person’s true essence with ātman, which lies behind bodily and mental changes. The fear of death arises when a person limits their identity to the mortal body. When a person realizes the relationship between ātman and Brahman, death ceases to mean the complete annihilation of being.

Ancient Egyptian religion likewise did not conceive of death as nonexistence. Yet continuity after death was not a simple event that occurred by itself; the order among a person’s name, body, heart, and various spiritual elements had to be preserved. In the judgment after death, the weighing of the heart against the feather of Maat shows the decisive importance of harmony with truth and justice. Knowledge of death is thus inseparable from moral life.

Kızılkeçili’s assertion that “the pillar of the world is heedlessness” sharply expresses a problem shared by these traditions: people know they are mortal, yet live as though they were immortal. In esoteric interpretation, heedlessness is not the absence of knowledge about death, but the failure of that knowledge to transform the self.

II. Forms of Distraction and the Pattern of Forgetting

The text names prayer, fame, sex, money, alcohol, travel, and amusement in the same line:

“Prayer, fame, sex, money, alcohol, travel, amusement!
A futile struggle to forget death!”

The most surprising item in this list is prayer. The others can readily be understood as worldly distractions, whereas prayer is a religious act. By including it, the poet suggests that even worship can become a means of fleeing from truth. If a person prays without confronting their own finitude, mistakes, and responsibilities, prayer may become a means of psychological self-protection rather than an awakening.

Many mystical traditions explain this distinction through the difference between outward form and inward orientation. In Islamic Sufism, the intention behind worship and the transformation it brings about in the heart matter as much as its outward form. Someone who performs the movements of prayer while their heart remains heedless may not yet have realized the presence, humility, and wakefulness that constitute worship’s inward ascent. Kızılkeçili’s criticism is directed at flight from truth under the appearance of prayer, not at prayer itself.

In Christian mysticism, verbal prayer is likewise expected to become prayer of the heart. Repeated words alone may bring about no spiritual change unless consciousness turns toward God. Criticisms attributed to Jesus of those who pray for display also oppose the use of worship as a means of gaining social standing. Thus, although prayer and fame appear to be opposites, they may become parts of the same pattern when used to protect and exalt the self.

In the Bhagavad Gītā, attachment matters more than the outward form of an action. A person may perform even a religious act while attached to its result, the reputation it brings, or a feeling of spiritual superiority. In that case, the act creates a new bond instead of bringing freedom. Buddhist teaching, too, may regard self-centered attachment to virtuous practices as a subtler form of clinging.

Fame, money, and pleasures share the capacity to reinforce a temporary sense of self. The more powerful, visible, and immersed in pleasure a person feels, the farther away they imagine they have pushed the reality of death. Yet none of these things can stop the passage of time. What the poet calls a “futile struggle” is less the pursuit of pleasure itself than the expectation that pleasure will erase awareness of death.

Nor should sexuality be condemned without qualification here. In many religious traditions, sexuality can represent the continuation of life, closeness between partners, or sacred union. In Tantric traditions, the union of masculine and feminine principles can become a symbol of cosmic wholeness. But when sexuality is used to suppress an inner emptiness or to forget death, it functions as a temporary anesthetic. The same applies to money, travel, amusement, and even worship. The text’s central criterion is not what a thing is, but the purpose for which consciousness uses it.

III. Why Do Human Beings Fear Death?

The fear of death has no single source. The body recoils from pain and annihilation. The self does not want to lose the identities it possesses. Conscience fears having to account for past actions. Consciousness perceives the unknown as a threat because it cannot grasp it. A person who loves those close to them fears separation. A believer may fear judgment, while a nonbeliever may fear ceasing to exist altogether.

The text conveys this complex structure through the images of conscience and the grave:

“First, your conscience will call you to account!
Then the grave comes to mind!”

Here, inward judgment precedes divine judgment from beyond the self. Conscience evaluates a person’s actions not only by social rules, but by the truth that the person knows deep within. People cannot wholly conceal from themselves what they have hidden from others. When noise and activity come to an end, suppressed guilt, good deeds left undone, people who have been hurt, and opportunities left unused return to awareness.

The Qur’an’s portrayals of the Last Day describe people’s own bodily members bearing witness, the opening of the record of deeds, and each person’s encounter with what they have done. In an esoteric reading, this testimony means that nothing a being does is ever truly forgotten. A person continues to carry an event lost to conscious memory in the deeper layers of conscience and character. The Last Day is not only a future cosmic event; it is also the removal of every veil covering truth.

In Christianity, the Last Judgment is the revelation of a person’s faith and actions before divine truth. In the Catholic tradition, the examination of conscience allows a person to review their life before death. The final reckoning is thereby brought into everyday life. By passing through a smaller judgment each day, a person prepares for the greater confrontation.

In the Zoroastrian tradition, the soul is said to cross the Chinvat Bridge after death. Good thoughts, good words, and good deeds determine a person’s passage. The bridge widens for the virtuous and narrows for one bound to evil. Alongside its meaning as a cosmic crossing, this symbol can be read as consciousness encountering its own character.

The weighing of the heart in ancient Egypt conveys a similar idea. The heart carries the record of its owner’s life and is tested against Maat’s measure of truth. In accounts of the intermediate state after death in Tibetan Buddhism, one prominent interpretation holds that the peaceful and wrathful beings encountered there are manifestations of consciousness itself. Before facing a court outside themselves, people confront the structure of their own minds.

Conscience in Kızılkeçili’s text is the inward witness at the center of these varied images of judgment. Yet conscience does more than punish. Its true function is to press a person toward change. When guilt paralyzes someone, it becomes another defense of the self; when remorse changes behavior, it approaches repentance.

IV. Azrael as the Leaven of the Vicious Circle

The poet presents a person’s confrontation with the fear of death, followed by a return to worldly distraction, as a vicious circle:

“Struck by terror, you plunge back into the world!
And the vicious circle begins! Azrael is its leaven!”

Here Azrael is not merely the angel who takes life at the final breath. He becomes a transformative principle that brings the reality of death into life. The word “leaven” is especially significant. Leaven changes what it is mixed into; it works invisibly and brings about a new structure. On this reading, Azrael is a force that dissolves an old structure of consciousness and opens the possibility of new understanding.

In Islam’s primary sources, the angel of death takes lives by Allah’s command. The name “Azrael” does not appear in the Qur’an, which uses the expression “angel of death.” The name Azrael became widespread in later Islamic culture. Kızılkeçili turns this traditional figure into a principle operating in both psyche and cosmos. Every experience of mortality, every loss, illness, and major change can be read as a touch of Azrael, because each breaks the self’s claim to permanence.

In Hindu thought, death is personified by Yama. Yama is associated not only with dominion over death but also with order and justice. In the Katha Upanishad, the young Nachiketas asks Yama what happens after death. Yama offers him temporary pleasures; Nachiketas rejects them and seeks enduring truth. There is a clear resemblance between this account and Kızılkeçili’s poem: pleasures offered as an escape from the question of death do not satisfy the seeker, who wants to learn the mystery of death directly.

In Greek mythology, Thanatos personifies death, while Hermes guides souls on their journey to the other world. Hermes’ role as a guide of souls presents death as passage into an unknown realm, as well as an end. In Christian art, the Archangel Michael’s weighing of souls bears symbolic similarities to scenes of weighing involving Anubis in ancient Egypt. Across traditions, death becomes more than biological dissolution: it is represented as a principle that orders, separates, weighs, or guides a passage.

Azrael in this text is not an enemy either. Later in the poem, he is described as an angel who bowed before Adam. The angel of death is therefore understood as working against a person’s temporary shells, rather than against their true essence. The feared figure is, in fact, a teacher who puts an end to the person’s false claim to immortality.

V. Three Nights and Initiatory Death

One of the text’s most striking passages is:

“There is only one way to awaken from this nightmare:
You are placed in a trance for three nights without a break!”

This statement should be read within the text’s symbolism of initiation, rather than as a practical method or medical recommendation. Prolonged trance, sleep deprivation, hyperventilation, psychoactive substances, and unsupervised rituals can pose serious physical and psychological dangers. In a comparative esoteric interpretation, the poem’s “three nights” are better understood as a pattern in which an old identity dissolves, remains in an intermediate state, and returns with renewed consciousness than as instructions for a ritual.

The number three frequently symbolizes transition and completion in the history of religions. In Christianity, the three-day interval between the Messiah’s death and resurrection represents a passage from an old existence into a new one. Jonah’s three days inside the great fish have been associated with the image of a dark womb or grave. The Prophet Muhammad’s retreat at Hira in the Islamic tradition cannot simply be reduced to a three-night pattern; nevertheless, solitude and withdrawal before revelation mark a transition from an earlier way of understanding to a new mission.

In accounts of shamanic initiation, a candidate is said to be dismembered by spirits, have their bones reassembled, and be born with a new body. These accounts are understood here not as historical reports of physical events, but as symbolic expressions of the death of the candidate’s former social identity and rebirth into a sacred role. The candidate is no longer considered an ordinary person; because they are believed to have passed through the realm of death, they gain the authority to deal with illness and spiritual crises.

It was thought that initiates into the Eleusinian Mysteries gained a different hope concerning their fate after death. Although the ritual’s details were kept secret, the themes of darkness, searching, loss, and reunion are evident in the account of Demeter and Persephone. Persephone descends to the underworld and returns, but her return is no simple restoration of her former state. She now belongs to both worlds.

In Mithraic and Orphic traditions, purification before death, symbolic passage, and remembrance of the soul’s celestial origin are also significant. The Orphic gold tablets give the deceased words to recall their identity and the path they should follow. In these traditions, salvation rests on remembering one’s origin during life, rather than learning it for the first time at death.

Kızılkeçili’s three-night trance is an original interpretation of this broad pattern of initiation. On the first night, the person’s habitual consciousness dissolves. On the second, they confront their shadow—the wrongs they have suppressed. On the third, they encounter the essence of their good deeds and accept a new mission. The three nights thus represent stages of dissolution, judgment, and reintegration more than a chronological span.

VI. The Zebani: A Monster from Outside or a Shadow Born Within?

The monster that appears before the person is described in the text as follows:

“This Zebani is formed from all your misdeeds!”

This line interprets a guardian of Hell as a being formed from a person’s own actions. In traditional Islamic understanding, the zebanis are attendants associated with Hell. The Qur’an speaks of angels set over Hell. Kızılkeçili’s esoteric reading, however, turns an external figure into a psychological and energetic composite: people cannot cast their misdeeds outside themselves and thereby be rid of them. Every wrong they commit takes shape within their consciousness and eventually confronts them.

A meaningful parallel can be drawn here with Tibetan Buddhist accounts of the bardo. In some interpretations, the frightening figures seen after death are projections of the mind itself. A person may find freedom by recognizing that these figures arise from their own consciousness; if they take them for absolute enemies outside themselves, they are overcome by fear. This resemblance does not mean that the two teachings are the same. Tibetan Buddhism does not accept the idea of an unchanging soul, whereas Kızılkeçili explicitly maintains a conception of the Spirit and a transparent body.

In the Zoroastrian tradition, a person is said to meet their own daēnā after death. To someone who has lived well, the daēnā appears as a beautiful young woman; to someone who has lived badly, she appears as an ugly and frightening being. This figure embodies the person’s belief, conscience, and actions. Kızılkeçili’s pairing of the Zebani and the angel closely resembles this pattern: misdeeds are personified as a monster, and good deeds as a beautiful angel.

Ammit, the ancient Egyptian figure who devours a heart weighed down by wrongdoing, has a similar symbolic function. Combining features of a crocodile, lion, and hippopotamus, this being represents the danger that a person who has not lived in accordance with truth may lose their wholeness after death. The Zebani in the text does not immediately swallow the person, because the experience is taking place during life. Being told to “Pass” shows that there is still time for transformation.

In Christian iconography, demonic figures often represent the power of sin over a person. In medieval depictions of Hell, terrifying creatures embody the consequences of sins. The punishments in Dante’s Divine Comedy are not arbitrary: a person’s choices in this world become visible in the next. People experience the truth of what they have chosen.

In Jungian psychology, the “shadow” is defined as the collection of qualities a person does not accept as part of their conscious image of themselves. The shadow does not consist only of evil; it may also contain rejected strength, creativity, and emotions. But when it is wholly excluded from consciousness, it can return destructively. Kızılkeçili’s Zebani is not identical to Jung’s shadow. It serves a similar function, however, when a person’s unacknowledged moral darkness confronts them as though it were an independent monster.

The text’s central message is clear: Hell is not a punishment wholly alien to the human being. People may prepare the substance of their own Hell through their actions. This approach tends to read divine justice as a law of existential consequence rather than merely as punishment imposed from outside.

VII. Repentance, Confession, and Purification

The person who encounters the monster is led to repent:

“There, the father who put you to sleep leads you to repent!”

The word “father” deliberately evokes associations across religions in the poem. Although this figure may bring a Christian priest to mind, it need not refer only to a particular church official. He can also be read as the guide who directs an initiation, a murshid, a spiritual father, or a guide of souls.

In Islam, repentance is more than a verbal acknowledgment of guilt. It calls for abandoning the wrongdoing, feeling remorse, resolving not to repeat it, and, where another person’s rights have been violated, making amends. Genuine repentance therefore entails a change in future behavior. The person in the text does more than look back on the past: they promise to continue serving humanity. The truth of their repentance will be tested by how they live after returning.

In Christianity, confession and repentance bring sin into the light of truth instead of keeping it concealed. In Catholic sacramental understanding, the priest serves as an intermediary in the ministry of forgiveness, while God is the one who forgives. In Eastern Christianity, a spiritual father can be understood as a guide who diagnoses an illness and helps bring about healing. Kızılkeçili’s father, too, appears less like a punitive judge than a figure who guides consciousness through a rehearsal of death.

In Judaism, teshuvah means “return.” Through wrongdoing, a person has departed from their proper direction; repentance turns them back toward God and a righteous life. This concept can also be linked symbolically to the return to the body in Kızılkeçili’s text. The person does not merely return to their physical body; they return to the world having promised to follow the right path.

In Zoroastrianism, the threefold principle of good thoughts, good words, and good deeds shows that purification is not merely a mental acknowledgment. In Hindu traditions, karma is the principle that actions produce consequences. In Buddhism, actions shaped by intention create conditions for future experiences. These systems are not identical, but they agree that human action carries existential weight.

The scene of repentance in the text is not an erasure of the past. It is a transformation of the person’s relationship with the past. If they deny the actions that formed the Zebani, the monster retains its power over them. If they acknowledge those actions and seek to make amends, the same energy can be redirected toward service. Esoteric purification does not ignore the substance of wrongdoing; it brings it into the light of consciousness so that it can be transformed.

VIII. The Angel Formed from Good Deeds

After the frightening figure, a beautiful angel appears:

“Then you open your eyes to a magnificent angel:
The essence of the good you have done in every life!”

The Zebani is the essence of misdeeds, while the angel is the essence of good deeds. A person’s moral life thus gives rise to two symbolic bodies. No action disappears entirely; each becomes part of the person’s being. Wrongdoing assumes a frightening shape, while goodness takes a form that guides, protects, and beautifies.

The Zoroastrian teaching of the daēnā is one of the closest historical parallels to this scene. The beautiful figure who appears before a virtuous person tells them that she is their own good thoughts, words, and deeds. Goodness is therefore not a reward bestowed from outside, but the sum of a person’s life appearing as beauty within their own being.

The idea that deeds take form on the Last Day appears in various works of Islamic mystical thought. Qur’anic verses stating that people will find what they have done present before them have been interpreted to mean that actions become realities confronting their doers. Paradise and Hell are not only external destinations; they are also revelations of human deeds and divine judgment.

In Christian tradition, the idea of a guardian angel expresses God’s care for a person. The angel in this text, however, is formed directly from the person’s good deeds. In this respect, it resembles an integrated image of the moments when the person lived in accordance with truth more than an independent heavenly being. In Platonic and Neoplatonic thought, the soul’s orientation toward the good makes it resemble its own divine origin. Beauty here is not merely aesthetic; it is harmony in being.

Buddhist traditions have a concept of “merit” arising from virtuous actions. This merit, however, is not considered the possession of an enduring soul; within a network of causes and effects, it influences future experiences. Kızılkeçili’s angel has a more personal and enduring essence. Even so, the idea that goodness transforms the quality of a person’s existence provides common ground.

This paired encounter does not define a person solely by wrongdoing. They confront their darkness, but then see their capacity for goodness. Seeing only the Zebani could lead to despair; seeing only the angel could lead to self-deception. A true reckoning requires seeing both. People must accept responsibility for the wrongs they have committed while remembering that they still have the power to continue doing good.

IX. The Promise to Serve Humanity

The condition of the person’s return in the text is service to humanity:

“You promise to ‘continue’ serving humanity!”

Here, “continue” does not mean continuing the former way of life. It means sustaining goodness, completing an unfinished task, and extending one’s existence beyond personal gain. A person who returns from an experience of death understands that life belongs to more than themselves. They must use their second life to benefit others.

The bodhisattva ideal of Mahayana Buddhism can be compared with this thought. A bodhisattva does not seek only their own liberation; they choose to work compassionately until all sentient beings are free. Kızılkeçili’s emphasis on “service to humanity” turns salvation from an individual privilege into a social and cosmic responsibility.

In Christianity, the Messiah’s self-sacrifice in service to humanity also offers his disciples an ethic of service. Greatness is measured by serving, not by ruling. The teaching of death and resurrection does not remain merely an event in the Messiah’s life; it calls on believers to leave behind their former selves and live a new life in love.

In Islam, service to others is associated with seeking Allah’s pleasure. In the Sufi tradition, service to people is not separate from service to Haqq (Lord). Yet service loses its spirit when it becomes a means of enlarging the self and claiming superiority. The assertion “I have been saved, and I will save others” can give rise to a new form of pride. Genuine service becomes possible when a person steps away from the center.

In the Sikh tradition, seva is the principle of serving without expecting a return. The communal kitchen known as langar is a concrete form of service that crosses social divisions. Karma yoga in Hindu traditions likewise teaches people to carry out their duties without attachment to the results of their actions. Service thus becomes a way of living in the world without being bound by it, rather than a way of fleeing it.

The text’s teaching on death therefore aims at a return to the world with a different consciousness, not at abandoning the world. A person who has seen death does not come to hate life; they love it more responsibly. Knowing that life is finite does not diminish service. On the contrary, it makes every opportunity to do good irreplaceable.

X. Seeing Paradise and Hell Before Death

The poem summarizes the initiatory experience as follows:

“You have seen Hell and Paradise, even before dying!”

Seeing Paradise and Hell before death does not annul traditional belief in the hereafter. In Kızılkeçili’s system, realities associated with life after death are thought to have counterparts that can be experienced during life. A person may taste the fire of Hell in their conscience and the peace of Paradise in a state of love and wholeness.

Qur’anic expressions that suggest Hell can be seen through certain knowledge have been associated with inward witnessing in Sufi interpretations. The account of the Mi‘raj is also among the strongest Islamic examples of knowledge of the other world before death, insofar as the Prophet Muhammad sees scenes of Paradise and Hell. Prophetic experience, however, cannot be equated with just any mystical experience. Kızılkeçili’s reading extends the symbolism of the Mi‘raj esoterically to the transformation of human consciousness.

Dante’s journey is likewise presented as a passage through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise while still alive. This literary journey traces the soul’s recognition of sin, purification, and turn toward divine love. In Hell, Dante does not merely observe the punishments of others; he also encounters the consequences of his own mistaken inclinations.

Tibetan teachings on death seek to acquaint living people with the process of dying in advance. The aim is for them not to regard experiences believed to arise at the moment of death as wholly unfamiliar. Ancient Egyptian funerary texts guide the deceased while also shaping the living person’s awareness of death. Orphic tablets are brief guides intended to help the soul remember its identity after death.

The shaman’s journeys through the underworld and the heavens help a community make sense of death and illness. The shaman’s task is not to tour the other world for its own sake, but to return with healing and knowledge. In the text, too, the person promises to serve humanity after seeing Paradise and Hell. The value of the experience should be measured by the moral change that follows their return, rather than by extraordinary visions.

XI. “Are Those Who Know Equal to Those Who Do Not Know?”

The poem uses a Qur’anic expression:

“Those who know and those who do not know are not alike!”

Knowing here does not mean book learning alone. Someone may read hundreds of works about death without grasping their own mortality at the level of lived existence. By contrast, someone who undergoes a great loss, an illness, or a searching examination of conscience may allow the knowledge of death to inform their entire life. The text advocates a passage from theoretical to experiential knowledge.

The distinction among ‘ilm al-yaqīn, ‘ayn al-yaqīn, and ḥaqq al-yaqīn in Islamic mystical thought is significant here. Knowing from a report that fire exists is one thing; seeing it is another; directly feeling its heat is something else again. Conceptually knowing about death can be understood as one level of knowledge, inwardly seeing the truth of mortality as a level of witnessing, and being transformed through the lived recognition that the self is impermanent as a level of realization.

In Gnostic traditions, saving knowledge is not ordinary information but the remembrance of humanity’s divine origin. The Greek word gnōsis denotes direct understanding that transforms the relationship between the knower and what is known. In the Upanishads, too, true knowledge differs from the accumulation of information about the external world: it is the knowing subject’s recognition of itself. A person who “knows ātman” does not merely learn a new concept; their understanding of who they are changes.

In Buddhism, wisdom is not simply memorizing teachings on impermanence and the absence of a fixed self. These must be seen directly. In the Zen tradition, clinging to concepts is likened to looking at a finger pointing at the moon and missing the moon itself. An emphasis on direct experience, however, does not mean abandoning reason or critical judgment. False spiritual claims, illusions, and psychological crises can also be mistaken for “special knowledge.” Traditions have therefore considered experience together with ethics, discipline, and guidance.

For Kızılkeçili, the person who knows is an Eren. Their knowledge consists not merely in speaking about death, but in consciously recognizing its threshold. Yet such knowledge does not grant them unlimited authority over others. The measure of genuine knowledge is not the ability to inspire fear, demand obedience, or make extraordinary claims. It is service to humanity, compassion, honesty, and freedom from ego.

XII. “Dying Before You Die”

The central point of the text is this saying:

“‘Die before you die,’ the MESSENGER tells everyone!”

The saying “die before you die” is widely used in Sufi literature. Its attribution to the Prophet Muhammad, however, should not be presented as though it were established by an unquestionably authentic hadith. In the Sufi tradition, it generally means freeing oneself from blind dependence on the desires of the nafs, surrendering one’s will to the divine will, and calling oneself to account before the final reckoning.

Kızılkeçili finds this traditional meaning insufficient and says:

“This does not mean killing ambition! Here is the way:
Within the physical body there is also a transparent body!”

Here the poet moves from metaphorical death to an experienced separation. In his account, dying before death means that the Spirit, or the conscious transparent body, leaves the physical body and travels through other realms. This interpretation does not speak for classical Sufism as a whole; it is Kızılkeçili’s own metaphysical model.

Even so, the two interpretations are not wholly disconnected. Extraordinary experiences claimed without a transformation of the nafs may increase pride. For this reason, Sufism has often regarded the pursuit of miracles and mystical disclosures as secondary. The aim is not extraordinary states, but steadfastness on the right path. Even if someone claims to have had an out-of-body experience, its spiritual value is doubtful if they do not become more compassionate, just, and honest.

In Christianity, Paul’s teaching on the death of the “old self” and the birth of a new person in the Messiah describes a moral and spiritual transformation before biological death. Baptism enacts the symbolism of death and resurrection through immersion in water and emergence from it. A person dies to an old order of sin and is born into a new life.

In Hindu yoga traditions, overcoming an identity centered on the ego is connected with recognizing one’s true essence. In Buddhism, the dissolution of the illusion of a fixed self undermines the basis of the fear of death. In shamanic initiation, an old identity is broken apart and the candidate is born into a new role. In alchemy, nigredo, the stage of darkening and dissolution, expresses the idea that a new wholeness cannot be formed without the death of an old form.

Across these traditions, “death before death” has a common pattern: an old identity dissolves, the person encounters darkness or emptiness, and then returns with a broader understanding of self and responsibility. They differ in how they explain this process at the level of being. Some traditions accept that the soul leaves the body; others explain the process as a transformation of mind; still others reject the idea of an unchanging soul.

XIII. The Teaching of the Transparent Body

According to the text, a second, transparent body exists within the physical body:

“Know that the Creator has built everything in pairs!”

This idea is an example of a layered understanding of the human being, one that does not reduce a person to flesh, bones, and a nervous system. Kızılkeçili divides the transparent body into two layers. The lower layer performs mechanical and automatic tasks; memory, the senses, and conscious personality are located in the upper layer. The invisible body is thus divided into a function that sustains life and a function of consciousness.

Islamic thought has no single model of the relationship among the Spirit, the nafs, the heart, the innermost self, the intellect, and the body. The Qur’an emphasizes the limits of human knowledge concerning the nature of the Spirit. Nevertheless, Sufi and philosophical traditions have developed concepts such as the subtle body, the imaginal body, and the intermediate form. In Illuminationist thought and traditions associated with Ibn Arabi in particular, the imaginal world is not mere fantasy but an intermediate realm in which spiritual realities take form.

The “mundus imaginalis,” Henry Corbin’s term in his work on Iranian spirituality, describes an intermediate realm between sensory matter and pure intellect. Bodies in this realm are not material, but neither are they entirely abstract. Kızılkeçili’s transparent body can be compared with this teaching of the imaginal body, although his two-layer model of mechanical and conscious functions is a distinctive scheme.

In ancient Egyptian accounts of the person, human existence is explained through elements such as the ka, ba, akh, shadow, name, and body. The ka is associated with life force; the ba with the mobile aspect of personality; and the akh with an effective and luminous existence after death. It would be inaccurate to equate these directly with the modern idea of an “astral body.” Comparison is possible, however, insofar as the human being is not understood as having only one layer.

Hindu traditions speak of physical, subtle, and causal bodies. The subtle body, called sūkṣma śarīra, is associated with the mind, senses, and vital energies. When the gross body dissolves at death, the subtle structure linked to karma is thought to continue. Although the details vary among schools of Vedanta, they accept a principle of consciousness beyond bodily identity.

In Tantric and yogic systems, concepts such as nāḍī, cakra, prāṇa, and kuṇḍalinī form parts of a subtle-body map. They should not be treated as exact equivalents of nerves or glands in modern anatomy. The traditional body map is a symbolic and practical system that gives meaning to experiences of meditation and ritual.

Tibetan Buddhism has subtle-body teachings concerning channels, winds, and drops. These teachings, however, are not based on an enduring soul. In Chinese thought, qi is one of the basic concepts used to explain vitality and processes of change. Daoist inner alchemy treats the body as a small universe between heaven and earth.

In Neoplatonism, the soul is the principle that gives life to the body without being identical to it. The theurgic traditions of Late Antiquity speak of a vehicle or carrier of the soul. Jewish mysticism distinguishes spiritual levels such as nefesh, ruach, and neshamah. Christian thought distinguishes body and soul and, in some interpretations, spirit; mainstream teaching, however, locates humanity’s ultimate hope in the resurrection of the body, not solely in the soul’s escape from it.

Kızılkeçili’s concept of the transparent body has thematic connections with all these systems. From the standpoint of contemporary science, however, a transparent body that separates from the physical body and travels independently is not accepted as a verified phenomenon. Out-of-body experiences are studied as subjective experiences with neurological, psychological, and cultural dimensions. The task of esoteric interpretation is to understand the symbol’s function in the text, not to present a claim of belief as a scientific finding.

XIV. The Principle of Pairs

The idea that “everything has been built in pairs” draws on the Qur’anic theme of creation in pairs. Night and day, male and female, earth and heaven, and life and death are interpreted as signs of cosmic order. Kızılkeçili applies this principle to the human body: the visible body has an invisible counterpart.

The opposition between good and evil is strong in Zoroastrianism, but this moral duality differs from Kızılkeçili’s pairing of the physical and transparent bodies. In Daoism, yin and yang are not absolute enemies that must destroy each other; they are complementary poles in a process of change. Sāṃkhya philosophy distinguishes puruṣa, the principle of consciousness, from prakṛti, the principle of nature. The Platonic tradition distinguishes the sensible world from the intelligible world.

Kızılkeçili’s principle of pairs does not become a rigid dualism. The physical and transparent bodies are not two wholly separate beings, but the dense and subtle aspects of a whole human being. One enables earthly experience; the other enables consciousness and passage between realms. The human being is where these two levels meet.

The poem’s pairing should not, however, be read only as a multiplication of bodies. Every outward reality has an inward counterpart. There is an inward death corresponding to outward death, a reckoning of conscience corresponding to the outward Last Day, a state of peace corresponding to outward Paradise, and a fire of guilt and separation corresponding to outward Hell. Esoteric interpretation does not reject the outward meaning; it asks how that meaning is repeated within the human being.

XV. The Lower and Upper Layers

The poet associates the transparent body’s lower layer with automatic functions and its upper layer with conscious personality. This distinction does not correspond exactly to the concepts of modern neuroscience, but it reflects an old insight into the difference between automatic and conscious processes in human experience.

Breathing, heart rhythm, digestion, and reflexes largely continue without conscious control. Many habits also become automatic. Attention, decision-making, self-evaluation, and planning, by contrast, are associated with conscious personality. Kızılkeçili carries this observation into a metaphysical model of the body.

The Aristotelian tradition distinguishes vegetative, animal, and rational levels of soul. The vegetative soul accounts for nourishment and growth; the animal soul for sensation and movement; and the rational soul for thought. Islamic philosophers developed this classification further in their accounts of the soul’s faculties. Kızılkeçili’s lower and upper transparent layers recall this older teaching about faculties.

Kabbalah distinguishes levels of soul such as nefesh, ruach, and neshamah. Nefesh is associated with vitality and action; ruach with emotional and moral personality; and neshamah with higher understanding. It would not be historically accurate to match these directly with the poem’s two layers. The division of human existence into vitality, personality, and transcendent understanding is nevertheless a shared theme.

In the poet’s account of sleep, the system he calls the “lower layer” remains with the body while the conscious aspect withdraws to another level. Traditional cultures have therefore often called sleep a little death. The Qur’anic statement that Allah takes souls at death and those who do not die during their sleep establishes a resemblance between sleep and death. The difference is that the soul for which death has been decreed is held, while the other is sent back until an appointed time.

This verse provides an important basis for Kızılkeçili’s account of sleep. The poem, however, interprets it through a more detailed mechanism of the transparent body. Those details are not directly stated in the verse; they belong to the poet’s esoteric synthesis.

XVI. The Spirit Mounts the Transparent Steed

The poem likens the transparent body to a horse:

“Mounting this transparent steed, the Spirit travels through every realm!”

Throughout history, the horse has symbolized movement, power, nobility, and passage between worlds. In some cultures, a shaman’s drum is interpreted as the horse that carries the shaman on a spiritual journey. In the Islamic account of the Mi‘raj, the Buraq carries its rider between the earth and celestial destinations. Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek mythology, represents ascent from earth to heaven and inspiration. In Indian tradition, the horse is associated with vital force and cosmic power.

Kızılkeçili’s transparent body is not the Spirit itself; it is the Spirit’s vehicle. This distinction matters. The horse and its rider are not the same. The transparent body may carry the senses, memory, and personality, but the Spirit is the higher principle that directs it. The human being thus has a threefold structure: physical body, transparent vehicle, and Spirit.

The analogy of the winged horses and charioteer in Plato’s Phaedrus also describes different powers of the soul. The charioteer represents reason, while the two horses represent higher and lower inclinations. In Kızılkeçili’s account, however, the transparent body is not simply a lower power; it is the means of movement among realms.

Hindu texts contain analogies in which the body is a chariot, the senses are horses, the mind is the reins, the intellect is the driver, and the true self is the passenger. Such an analogy teaches that a person’s different elements must be guided in harmony. Uncontrolled senses draw the horses in the wrong direction; discernment brings the journey to its destination.

Symbolically, mounting the transparent steed means learning to recognize one’s own means of consciousness. The Spirit’s journey should not be imagined as ordinary travel through outer space. The “realms” may be degrees of consciousness, layers of being, moral conditions, and horizons of understanding. The Eren’s travels are a journey toward recognizing the different forms of truth.

XVII. Who Is an Eren?

According to the text, when the transparent steed returns to the body, the person is called an Eren. An Eren is someone who has gained knowledge of the boundary of death and returned. In the Turkish Sufi tradition, an eren is a person who has reached spiritual maturity and possesses sainthood and wisdom. The word is related to the verb ermek: to reach, to attain, and to come to maturity.

In the poem, however, being an Eren is explained not only through moral maturity but also through the ability to separate consciously from the body. This is Kızılkeçili’s redefinition of the traditional concept within his metaphysics. In his account, the Eren understands the mechanism of death, is not enslaved by fear, and can use the transparent body consciously.

Structural similarities can be drawn among the shaman, yogi, Sufi saint, Christian mystic, and Daoist immortal. Each is associated with a field of experience thought to extend beyond everyday consciousness. Their historical roles and religious foundations nevertheless differ. The shaman engages with spirits on behalf of a community; the yogi practices disciplines of liberation; the Sufi advances through devotion and nearness to Allah; and the Christian mystic speaks in terms of grace and union with the Messiah.

Within the poem as a whole, the measure of an Eren lies in their good deeds before it lies in any extraordinary ability. The beautiful angel who appears during the rehearsal of death is formed from their acts of service. Someone who harms others, grows proud, and uses claims to truth for personal power fails the text’s moral test, however many extraordinary experiences they recount.

XVIII. Becoming Hızır and Making Transparency Dense

The poem says that an Eren can become Hızır by making the transparent body dense:

“By making the transparent body dense, an Eren knows how to become HIZIR!”

Hızır is a mysterious figure associated in Islamic culture with the water of life, hidden knowledge, unexpected help, and guidance. Without naming him explicitly, the Qur’an tells of “a servant from among Our servants” who teaches Moses the hidden wisdom of events he has witnessed. Later tradition identified this figure as Hızır.

In Kızılkeçili’s interpretation, Hızır is less a single historical person than a spiritual station attained by an Eren who can make the transparent body visible or effective. “Becoming Hızır” thus signifies the ability to appear in a time of need, pass between different realms, and serve as a means of divine help.

Comparisons have been drawn between Hızır and Elijah in Jewish tradition. Both may be understood as holy figures who appear unexpectedly, offer guidance, and whose influence in the world has not yet ended. Christian accounts of saints appearing in distant places or offering help have similar structures of popular belief. Teachings on conscious rebirth and the “rainbow body” in Tibetan Buddhism reflect ideas about holy persons who transcend ordinary bodily limits.

In Daoist tradition, immortals are described as sages who have transformed their bodies and spirits through inner alchemy. The siddha of Indian traditions is likewise regarded as a person who has attained extraordinary abilities through spiritual discipline. Yogic texts, however, also warn that such abilities can distract a person from liberation.

The deeper meaning of becoming Hızır is not a display of physical visibility. Hızır personifies help that reaches someone in need. Even if an Eren makes the transparent body dense, they should use this ability for service rather than self-proving. Otherwise, a claim to spiritual maturity turns into a desire for fame, and the person falls back into the pattern of heedlessness criticized at the beginning of the poem.

XIX. Sleep, Death, and the Spirit

The poem distinguishes sleep from death as follows:

“If the entire transparent body leaves the flesh, the person dies!
If the transparent body remains but the Spirit departs, that moment is sleep!”

In this model, death is explained as the transparent body’s complete separation from the physical body, while sleep is the temporary withdrawal of the Spirit or higher principle of consciousness. The lower transparent layer sustains bodily order. The sleeping body thus remains alive while consciousness ceases its ordinary activity.

In the history of religions, sleep has often been regarded as death’s sibling or lesser form. In Greek mythology, Hypnos and Thanatos are brothers. The Qur’an draws a parallel between sleep and death through the taking of souls. In Jewish morning prayers, waking from sleep is understood in terms of the soul’s restoration and renewed divine trust. Christianity sometimes describes death through the analogy of sleep and resurrection as an awakening.

Hindu thought distinguishes waking, dreaming, deep sleep, and a fourth state of consciousness beyond them. In the Māṇḍūkya Upanishad, deep sleep is a condition in which the objects of ordinary consciousness disappear, although ignorance has not been wholly overcome. Turīya is the transcendent consciousness underlying waking, dreaming, and deep sleep.

Tibetan dream yoga connects the preservation of awareness during dreams with preparation for the process of dying. The Sufi tradition has a broad literature on truthful dreams, the imaginal realm, and spiritual signs. It has also repeatedly emphasized the need to distinguish dreams from revelation and ordinary imagination from mystical disclosure.

Modern science studies sleep as an essential process consisting of distinct physiological stages in the brain and body. Dreaming is associated with memory, emotional regulation, and neural activity. Kızılkeçili’s explanation in terms of the Spirit’s departure is not a scientific model of sleep; it belongs to the poem’s metaphysical account of the human being. Comparative interpretation should address these two levels of explanation without confusing them.

XX. The Silver Cord

The text says that a cord joins the lower transparent layer to the physical body and that, once the cord breaks, the body cannot be revived:

“The lower transparent layer is joined to the physical body by a cord!
Once it breaks, the flesh cannot be revived!”

The image of the cord has been associated especially with the “silver cord” being broken in the Book of Ecclesiastes. In that book’s historical context, the phrase is part of a poetic depiction of old age and death. Later esoteric movements interpreted it as an invisible bond between the astral and physical bodies.

In Theosophy and modern Western esotericism, the “silver cord” is described as the line that keeps the subtle body connected to the physical body during astral travel. Return is possible so long as the cord remains intact; its breaking signifies physical death. Kızılkeçili’s poem has a clear affinity with this modern esoteric understanding.

Islam’s primary sources contain no standard teaching called the “silver cord” that describes a bond between Spirit and body. They do, however, address the separation of Spirit and body at death, their temporary relationship during sleep, and questions concerning the intermediate body. The poet combines Islamic ideas about Spirit with the cord symbol of Western esotericism to create his own synthesis.

The analogy of the umbilical cord clarifies the symbol’s deeper meaning. A child is nourished through the umbilical cord in the mother’s womb; when the cord is cut at birth, the child enters another way of life. Physical death can similarly be imagined as birth from the womb of this world into another level of existence. The silver cord, in this reading, symbolizes the link between two worlds as well as a proposed mechanism of death.

The claim that a person can cut and rejoin their own cord is one of the most radical elements of Kızılkeçili’s system. It departs from mainstream understandings of death in historical religions. On a symbolic level, it expresses the Eren’s mastery over the fear of death, ability to move between states of consciousness, and familiarity with the boundary between life and death. It should not be interpreted as justifying lethal acts, suffocation, substance use, sleep deprivation, or experiments that harm the body.

XXI. Azrael’s Bow before Adam

The poet says:

“Do not say that Azrael takes the Life (body) of an Eren!
Azrael too is an angel! He bowed before ADAM!”

The Qur’an relates that Allah commanded the angels to bow before Adam and that Iblis defied this command. Because the verses refer to the angels collectively, the poet includes Azrael among those who bowed. From this, he concludes that the human being’s true essence holds a rank above the angel of death.

Bowing here does not mean worship. It signifies obedience to the divine command and recognition of the divine trust given to Adam. The human body is mortal, but it is understood to bear knowledge of the names and a divine breath. The angel of death may govern the body’s end, but he is not an enemy of the human being’s divine essence.

In this interpretation, the Eren is one who knows Adam’s secret. An Eren does not fear Azrael because they understand death’s place within the divine order, not because they have conquered death. They do not fight Azrael; they recognize his task. Death appears hostile because human beings cannot know what it holds. For the angel, death is a duty; for the human being, it is a passage.

In Christianity, angels are also described as spiritual beings appointed to serve human beings. The hierarchy of humans and angels has nevertheless received differing theological interpretations. The Messiah’s assumption of human nature is a central teaching that elevates the sacred value of humanity. In Jewish tradition, the creation of human beings in the image of God gives human life a particular value.

For Kızılkeçili, Adam is not only a single historical individual but also the personal essence within every human being. The angels’ bow before Adam therefore becomes more than a cosmic event that occurred once in the past: it means that the powers of the cosmos serve the divine potential within humanity. This rank does not, however, sanctify every action of a biological human being. What receives the bow is the essence that bears the divine trust, not the pride of the ego.

XXII. Reversing Death through Husayn and Yazid

The text’s most striking moral judgment is:

“Those who know weep for Yazid, not for HUSAYN!”

This does not mean that Husayn’s suffering is unimportant. The poet stresses the difference between outward and inward defeat. Husayn was killed in body, yet lives on in truth, fidelity, and moral worth. Yazid appeared to retain political power, but because he lost his moral essence, he is the one who is truly dead. One who possesses spiritual understanding can therefore be confident of the oppressed person’s enduring worth while grieving the oppressor’s spiritual fall.

In Shi‘i thought, Karbala is a historical and metaphysical confrontation between truth and falsehood. Husayn’s martyrdom is not a defeat but the highest expression of fidelity to truth. Sufi interpretations also read martyrdom as a sign of life beyond the nafs and the body. The Qur’anic teaching that those killed in the way of Allah should not be regarded as dead is foundational to this understanding.

There is a structural resemblance here to the symbol of the cross in Christianity. Seen from outside, the cross signifies humiliation and defeat; from the standpoint of faith, it opens onto fidelity, sacrifice, and resurrection. Socrates’ death likewise became an example of accepting bodily death rather than abandoning philosophical truth. In Hindu tradition, the theme of relinquishing personal gain for fidelity to dharma carries a similar moral reversal.

“To weep for Yazid” does not mean to excuse an oppressor. It means grieving the choice that destroyed his human essence. Justice requires holding oppression to account; compassion recognizes that the wrongdoer has also driven their own soul toward ruin. Compassion need not become an excuse for injustice, and justice need not be reduced to a desire for revenge.

XXIII. The Messiah’s Words, “He Is Sleeping”

The text relates accounts of the Messiah raising the dead to its teaching on trance:

“When the MESSIAH raised someone, he would say, ‘He is sleeping deeply!’”

The Gospels use the expression “she is not dead but sleeping” concerning Jairus’s daughter. In the account of Lazarus, death is initially described in the language of sleep, and its meaning is then explained. Mainstream Christian interpretation understands these words as expressing the temporary nature of death and the Messiah’s power to raise the dead. Kızılkeçili interprets the events differently: the person raised was in a deep trance rather than definitively dead, and the cord had not yet broken.

This is the poem’s esoteric interpretation, not a historical-critical or mainstream theological explanation. The poet understands the miracle not as a complete suspension of natural law, but as the use of a law governing Spirit and body that is not yet known. Because the Messiah knew this law, he called what people mistook for death a deep sleep.

Some esoteric traditions similarly seek to explain miracles as applications of hidden laws of nature. In a Hermetic view, the universe is ordered; insofar as a sage knows its unseen principles, the sage may perform acts that appear miraculous to others. Such an approach does not, however, establish the physiological condition of figures in historical texts.

The texts cannot scientifically determine what physiological state Lazarus or Jairus’s daughter was in. Kızılkeçili’s trance reading is an interpretation of belief and symbol. Its inward meaning is that some thresholds we take to be death may instead be a sleep of transformation. A person may reawaken a spiritual part of themselves that, in despair, they had declared dead.

XXIV. “Do Not Cast Pearls before Swine”

The poet understands the Messiah to have said that hidden knowledge should not be disclosed indiscriminately:

“Never reveal to people a mystery they cannot comprehend!”

The saying about not casting pearls before swine has been interpreted as a warning against offering what is sacred without discernment to those who would devalue or misuse it. Esoteric traditions see in this principle a basis for gradual instruction and the keeping of secrets.

In ancient mystery schools, teachings were conveyed according to stages of initiation. Historical instruction in Kabbalah attached importance to a student’s moral and intellectual preparation. Sufism has the idea that each saying has those qualified to receive it. In Buddhist tantra, some practices are not taught without authorization and guidance. In Hindu traditions, a guru gives instruction according to a student’s capacity.

The reason is not solely elitism. Some teachings can be misunderstood when taken out of context, become instruments of self-aggrandizement, or place a person under psychological strain. Powerful symbols may produce fear, grandiose ideas, or fixation in an unprepared mind. Yet the principle of secrecy can also be misused to shield authority from scrutiny. “You cannot understand” can serve manipulation as easily as genuine education.

In a sound esoteric approach, secrecy calls for maturity, not blind obedience. A teaching derives its value from bringing people closer to truth and goodness, not from being hidden. Kızılkeçili’s image of being unable to “digest” a mystery is significant in this respect. However valuable a food may be, it can cause harm if a person cannot digest it. Likewise, a metaphysical teaching can become a burden without moral preparation and mental balance.

XXV. Love Overcoming the Law

The poem says:

“Love overcame the law! He did his work in the open!”

The tension between law and love is a major question in the history of religions. Law establishes order, justice, and limits; love allows a person to be regarded through mercy and forgiveness, not solely according to what they deserve. But if love’s triumph over law means the disappearance of justice, oppression is concealed. On a deeper reading, love does not abolish the law; it fulfills at a higher level the good toward which the law aims.

In Christianity, Paul’s comparison of law and grace teaches that people cannot attain salvation merely by following rules; they need divine grace. Jesus’ acts of mercy show that the law exists for human beings and that love realizes its essence. “Love,” however, is not arbitrary tolerance that removes responsibility.

In Islam, mercy and justice are not opposing divine wills. Allah’s mercy encompasses all things, but human actions are not left without consequences. The door of repentance is open, yet repentance does not grant permission to continue doing wrong. Kızılkeçili’s warning, “Do not say that Haqq (Lord) grants mercy without effort,” upholds this balance.

In Mahayana Buddhism, compassion and wisdom are considered together. Compassion without wisdom can mislead; wisdom without compassion can become cold detachment. In Jewish mysticism, the balance between the powers of mercy and judgment matters to cosmic order. The right and left pillars of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life symbolize harmony between expansion and restraint.

According to Kızılkeçili, the Messiah openly put love into practice and was therefore perceived as a threat by those protecting the interests of the established order. Raising the dead means more than returning a deceased person to life; it also means giving someone abandoned to despair a new possibility. When love does this, it passes beyond the rigid law’s verdict that “it is over.”

XXVI. Ruhullah’s Aim of Raising the Dead

The poet calls the Messiah Ruhullah and says that his aim was to raise everyone. Islamic tradition gives Jesus a special place as a spirit and word from Allah; in Islamic theology, however, these expressions do not mean that he is divine. Christianity explains the Messiah’s identity and life-giving role quite differently, within the frameworks of incarnation and the Trinity.

Rather than simply combining these two theological systems, Kızılkeçili makes Jesus’ power to raise the dead a key to esoteric interpretation. The Messiah is the principle that awakens spiritual life within the human being. The inward counterpart of raising the dead is the renewal of someone whose conscience has grown dull, who has lost hope, or who has become estranged from their own essence.

The Qur’an expressly states that Jesus raised the dead by Allah’s permission. This qualification emphasizes that the power did not belong to Jesus independently. The poet’s warning that “the end is bitter for one who rivals Haqq (Lord) in mercy” recalls the same limit. If a spiritual guide, healer, or saint puts themselves in the place of the source, they fall from service into the rule of ego.

In Christianity, the Messiah’s power to raise the dead is a manifestation of God’s life-giving love. The words “I am the resurrection and the life” concern not only miracles in the past, but ultimate victory over death. Kızılkeçili links this ideal of universal resurrection to his teaching on the Mahdi, forming a new synthesis concerning the end of history.

XXVII. The Relationship between Effort and Mercy

The text warns:

“Never say, ‘Haqq (Lord) grants mercy without effort!’”

At first sight, this line seems to make divine mercy dependent on human labor. Mercy, however, is not simply a wage that can be earned. The poet’s aim is not to diminish mercy, but to prevent the expectation of mercy from turning into irresponsibility. A person should not seek refuge in the language of forgiveness while making no change, failing to repair the harm they have caused, and neglecting to purify the self.

In Islam, deeds alone cannot save a person independently of Allah’s mercy; this does not mean that deeds are unimportant. Faith, intention, action, and mercy cannot be severed from one another. In Christianity, different denominations explain the relationship between grace and works in different ways, but genuine faith should bear fruit that transforms life.

In Hindu thought, the paths of discipline, knowledge, devotion, and action help a person move beyond ignorance. In Buddhism, liberation calls for sustained attention, ethical conduct, and the practice of wisdom. In Zoroastrianism, good thoughts, words, and deeds constitute cooperation with cosmic order. Each tradition expresses in its own terms that transformation is not passive waiting.

The “effort” in the text does not mean inflicting suffering on oneself. Hatred, extreme austerity, and putting the body in danger cannot be treated as necessary paths to purification. Effort means facing oneself honestly, correcting mistakes, changing habits, and serving others. Mercy is the divine opening that exceeds these limited efforts.

XXVIII. The Spirit Breathed into Adam

“When ADAM purified his Life (body), the Spirit was breathed into him!”

In the Qur’an, Adam’s creation and the breathing of the Spirit into him are connected with the special position of the human being. The poem interprets this not only as a historical act of creation at the beginning, but also as a process that can recur within every person. When Life (body) is purified, the activity of the Spirit becomes apparent.

In Kızılkeçili’s terminology, Life (body) and Spirit are not the same. Life (body) represents bodily and psychological vitality, while Spirit represents a higher divine source. A person can be biologically alive yet be regarded as spiritually unawakened. Purification does not mean acquiring a Spirit from outside; it means removing the veils that obscure the breath already given.

In the Jewish and Christian creation account, God’s breathing the breath of life into the human being’s nostrils makes that person a living being. The Hebrew ruach, Greek pneuma, Latin spiritus, and Arabic ruh carry associations with breath, wind, and invisible vitality. The prāṇa of Indian traditions and qi in Chinese thought belong to different conceptual systems, but they share the idea of an unseen movement that sustains life.

Breath is invisible, but its effects are clear. In the poem, Spirit likewise appears as a principle that cannot be seen directly but whose effects can be felt in consciousness, conscience, and a movement beyond oneself. Overcoming the fear of death involves recognizing breath not only as the body’s exchange of oxygen, but also as a sign of a source of life that exceeds the individual.

XXIX. The Right of Universal Resurrection Given to the Mahdi

The final part of the poem moves from an individual experience of death to cosmic resurrection:

“The MAHDI was given the ‘right of universal resurrection’!”

In Islamic eschatology, the Mahdi is an expected guide associated with the restoration of justice. The subject is understood differently among denominations and traditions. In Twelver Shi‘ism, the Mahdi is the twelfth Imam in occultation. In Sunni tradition, belief in the Mahdi appears in hadith and eschatological literature, although interpretations of the details vary.

Kızılkeçili does not limit the Mahdi’s task to political justice. He assigns him a role in “universal resurrection.” This resurrection is connected with the people and even the Earth becoming transparent. The Mahdi is therefore less an extraordinary person who restores individual dead bodies to life than the bearer of a messianic principle that brings about a collective transformation of consciousness.

In Judaism, expectation of the Messiah is linked to justice, peace, and the end of exile. In Christianity, the Messiah’s second coming is associated with the resurrection of the dead and final judgment. In Zoroastrianism, the Saoshyant plays a role in the renewal of the world and the resurrection of the dead. In Hindu traditions, Kalki is described as a manifestation of Vishnu who will restore order at the end of a corrupt age. In Buddhist tradition, Maitreya, the future Buddha, will reveal the Dharma anew after a period in which it has been forgotten.

These figures do not have the same historical origins, theological standing, or roles. They do, however, represent a hope that an age of corruption will not endure forever. Even if humanity remains in darkness, order can be renewed. Kızılkeçili synthesizes these expectations around a unity of Mahdi and Messiah.

XXX. The Earth Becoming Transparent

“For the people and the Earth have become transparent and worthy of it!”

Becoming transparent is one of the poem’s most distinctive ideas. What is transparent does not block the light; it lets light pass through. For people to become transparent means that the veils of ego, falsehood, fear, and self-interest grow thin. For the Earth to become transparent does not mean that matter disappears, but that matter comes to possess a quality that no longer conceals spiritual meaning.

The “new heaven and new earth” described in the New Testament express the renewal of creation as a whole. In the Zoroastrian teaching of frashokereti, the world is purified of evil and creation attains its final perfection. Islamic descriptions of the Last Day speak of the Earth being changed into another earth and the heavens into other heavens, expressing cosmic transformation.

Descriptions of pure lands in Mahayana Buddhism present the relationship between awakened consciousness and its surroundings in different ways. In some interpretations, a pure land is a realm beyond oneself; in others, it is a way the world appears to purified consciousness. Hindu cosmology has its cycles of ages and the arrival of a new order. Kızılkeçili’s transparent Earth can be considered alongside these images of renewal.

Transparency is also an ethical principle. A society governed by concealed interests, lies, and exploitation is opaque. As truth, justice, and accountability increase, society becomes more transparent. Cosmic transparency therefore need not be awaited solely as a metaphysical change in matter. The exposure of systems of oppression that people have concealed from one another is also a social form of the Last Day.

XXXI. The Saying “There Is No Mahdi Other than the Messiah”

The poem approaches its conclusion with these words:

“MUHAMMAD said: ‘There is no MAHDI other than the MESSIAH!’”

This saying has been debated in hadith literature. Hadith scholars have differed considerably in their assessments of the report “There is no Mahdi other than Jesus”; many have regarded it as weak, while others have interpreted it in different ways. The statement should therefore not be presented as an undisputed and certain saying of the Prophet.

For Kızılkeçili, however, the report’s esoteric function matters more than the historical debate over its authenticity. The poet understands the Mahdi and the Messiah not as two independent saviors, but as two manifestations of the same life-giving truth. The Mahdi is the principle that guides, and the Messiah the principle that raises to life. True guidance leads to resurrection; true resurrection follows the path of guidance.

In widely held accounts of Islamic eschatology, the Mahdi and Jesus are distinct persons who both play roles in events at the end of time. The poem’s interpretation, which identifies them with one another, differs from that mainstream account. At an inward level, however, Mahdi and Messiah can be read as a unity of two functions: guiding people onto the right path and giving them spiritual life.

This unity should not mean reducing religions to a single form. Islam and Christianity have fundamental theological differences concerning the identity of Jesus. Comparative esotericism distorts historical realities when it overlooks those differences. A sounder approach preserves each tradition’s own language while showing how the themes of resurrection, hope, justice, and transformation echo across them.

XXXII. Ali as the “Second Messiah”

The poem’s final line is:

“ALI said, ‘I am the second MESSIAH,’ and came into love!”

The historical source of this statement attributed to Ali requires separate examination. Rather than accepting it as a verified saying, it is more appropriate to consider it Kızılkeçili’s symbolic rendering. In the poet’s system, Ali represents sainthood, inward knowledge, courage, justice, and love. The expression “second Messiah” does not simply identify Ali with the Messiah of Christian theology; it presents him as the manifestation of life-giving spiritual authority within Islam.

In Shi‘i and Sufi traditions, Ali is regarded as a gate to knowledge, a source of spiritual authority, and a central figure in spiritual lineages. His sword, Zulfiqar, symbolizes not only physical battle but also the spiritual discernment that separates truth from falsehood. While the Messiah heals the sick and raises the dead, Ali’s spiritual authority revives hearts that have died in ignorance.

“To come into love” cannot be reduced here to emotional excitement. Divine love is the power to move beyond the ego and enter the service of truth. Messianic resurrection and the spiritual authority associated with Ali meet in love. One represents the breath of life, the other knowledge of truth. Breath without knowledge lacks direction; knowledge without love remains dry.

Kızılkeçili’s synthesis makes Muhammad a symbol of prophethood, Ali of spiritual authority, the Messiah of resurrection, and the Mahdi of universal guidance. Within the poem’s metaphysical world, these figures are not possessions of separate religions in conflict with one another. They are different functions and manifestations of a single truth.

XXXIII. The Psychological Dimension of the Fear of Death

Although the text constructs a metaphysical system, the psychological dimension of the fear of death should not be overlooked. People fear not only the unknown but also an unfinished life. Words left unsaid, relationships left unrepaired, duties postponed, and possibilities left unexplored make the thought of death harder to bear.

Accepting death does not mean wishing for it. A healthy awareness of death can strengthen a person’s connection to life. When people recognize that their time is limited, they can rearrange their priorities. They may withdraw from displays they maintain without caring for them, unnecessary conflicts, and meaningless rivalries. They may become more open with those they love and see their profession as a field of service, not only a means of earning a living.

Psychologically, the trance scene in the text can be read as an intense ritual of confrontation. The Zebani represents suppressed guilt, while the angel represents good deeds that have been forgotten. The guide helps the person emerge from this encounter without falling apart. The promise to serve humanity reconnects the experience with social life.

If severe anxiety about death causes panic, depression, sleeplessness, or loss of everyday functioning, however, it should not be regarded solely as a metaphysical test. Seeking psychological and, when needed, psychiatric support does not conflict with spirituality. A human being is a whole comprising body, mind, and a world of meaning. Scientific support and a religious or spiritual search for meaning need not be enemies.

XXXIV. Death as a Moral Teacher

Death is an equalizer. Wealth, position, fame, and power provide no lasting privilege before it. Yet the poem’s message is not that actions are worthless because “everyone will die anyway.” On the contrary, death’s inevitability makes every choice more consequential.

If people lived without limit, they could postpone doing good indefinitely. Mortality lends urgency to decisions. An apology left unspoken today may be impossible tomorrow. An opportunity to help that is missed today may never return. Someone suffering injustice today may not live until tomorrow. Death is thus not only the boundary that ends life; it is also the boundary that brings life’s value into focus.

Stoic thinkers likewise advised accepting death as part of the order of nature and focusing on moral conduct within one’s control. Marcus Aurelius argued that remembering mortality should not turn a person away from their duties. Epictetus taught that we cannot fully control external events, but we can work on our responses to them.

Kızılkeçili’s approach is more metaphysical than Stoicism: it accepts teachings about the Spirit, transparent body, cord, and other realms. The practical consequence of the two approaches is nevertheless similar: look at death instead of fleeing from it, free life from empty display, and do the work that needs to be done.

XXXV. The Relationship between Hell and Conscience

The text treats Hell not only as a place in the future, but also as a state of consciousness in which misdeeds gather and surround a person. The torment of conscience foreshadows Hell in this world. It would be wrong, however, to treat all psychological suffering as punishment for wrongdoing. Mental illness, trauma, and anxiety disorders are not direct evidence of moral evil.

In esoteric interpretation, Hell follows from a person’s separation from truth. Someone who lies does more than deceive another person; they also divide their own consciousness. Someone who commits oppression does more than harm a victim; they also damage their own capacity for compassion. Someone governed by pride does more than diminish others; they also narrow their own capacity to learn the truth. In this way, every wrongdoing produces its own form of Hell.

In Dante’s Hell, sinners often experience an enduring form of the attitudes they chose in life. In Buddhist depictions of hell, intense anger and hatred are associated with particular realms of existence. In Hindu and Jain traditions, the consequences of karma may be experienced in hellish realms. In Islam and Christianity, Hell is connected with divine judgment and human responsibility.

Kızılkeçili’s teaching about the Zebani brings these different understandings together through the idea that a person’s actions take visible form. Hell is not an alien order in which people are punished arbitrarily, but a visible consequence of their separation from truth. At the same time, reducing divine judgment entirely to psychology would diminish the poem’s cosmic dimension. In the poem, the inner and outer worlds mirror one another.

XXXVI. The Relationship between Paradise and Service

The angel’s formation from a person’s good deeds suggests that Paradise is not a passive reward. Through love, sacrifice, justice, and service, people begin to prepare its substance while still in this world. Every good deed increases the Spirit’s transparency. The person places fewer veils between themselves and truth.

In Islam, Paradise is the abode of eternal happiness entered through Allah’s mercy. Deeds matter, but its blessings are not merely the mechanical return on human effort. In Christianity, union with God and divine presence are central. Buddhist nirvana is not identical to Paradise; it concerns the extinguishing of craving, hatred, and ignorance. Hindu mokṣa is liberation from the cycle of rebirth.

These differences must be preserved. Still, all these traditions distinguish genuine happiness from the accumulation of ordinary pleasures. Paradise is not unlimited consumption by the self; it is the end of separation and fear. Kızılkeçili gives this idea visible form through the angel of good deeds. A person who does good does more than earn a future reward: they become a more beautiful form of being.

XXXVII. From the Fear of Death to Knowledge of Death

The poem’s path of transformation begins with fear, continues through knowledge, and is completed in service. At first, the person flees from death. Then conscience and the thought of the grave catch up with them. They confront their darkness, see the essence of their goodness, and return to the world. Knowledge of death now serves to make them conscious of their task in the world rather than to detach them from it.

The process can be summarized as follows.

The first stage is denial. The person covers death with entertainment and activity. The second is upheaval: conscience can no longer be silenced. The third is descent, when the person encounters the Zebani within. The fourth is repentance: they acknowledge their darkness. The fifth is remembrance, when the angel formed from good deeds appears. The sixth is a covenant: the person promises to serve humanity. The seventh is a transformed life. They return to the world with a different awareness and with the responsibility of an Eren.

The poem does not explicitly number these seven stages, but they can be discerned in its movement. Seven is associated with completion and cosmic order in many traditions. There is no need, however, to force a numerical scheme onto the poem; it is enough to recognize its unfolding pattern of transformation.

XXXVIII. The Human Being in Kızılkeçili’s Metaphysics

The text’s view of the human being is neither solely materialist nor a simple dualism that sets Spirit against body. The human being has several layers. The physical body is the instrument of life in this world. The lower transparent layer sustains vital order. The upper transparent layer is the domain of memory, sensation, and personality. The Spirit is a higher principle capable of traveling among realms. During life, the cord binds these layers together.

Moral actions also become part of this structure. Wrongdoing forms the Zebani, and good deeds form the angel. A person does not merely live with a spiritual structure already given to them; through their choices, they also shape the forms they will encounter after death. This thought places freedom and responsibility at the center.

Nor is the human being only an individual. The final resurrection entails the people and the Earth becoming transparent. One person’s salvation is insufficient. The state of an Eren remains incomplete unless it leads to service to humanity. The figures of the Mahdi and the Messiah join individual spiritual attainment to universal transformation.

XXXIX. The Text’s Interreligious Horizon

“Fear of Death” gathers symbols from different traditions into a single poetic system. From Islam it draws Azrael, Adam, the Messenger, Hızır, Husayn, the Mahdi, and Ali; from Christianity, the Messiah, the father, resurrection, and a Gospel saying; from Western esotericism, trance, the transparent body, and the silver cord; and from ancient initiations, the three nights and the rehearsal of death.

This combination is not the historical teaching of one religion. It is a syncretic and esoteric interpretation. The poet places differences of origin in the background and attends to the symbols’ shared functions. Azrael represents passage; the Zebani, the shadow; the angel, the essence of goodness; the Messiah, resurrection; the Mahdi, collective transformation; Ali, spiritual authority; and Hızır, help that passes between realms.

The task of a comparative reading is not to declare that “all religions are, in fact, entirely the same.” Such a claim would erase what is distinctive about each tradition. A more accurate statement is that religions give different accounts of what exists and what happens at death, while developing symbols that approach one another on the subjects of human mortality, moral responsibility, purification, and the need for transformation.

XL. Conclusion: Lifting the Veil

The command at the beginning of the text is to “lift the veil.” The veil is not death itself, but a mistaken awareness of death. People suppose that thinking about death will make life meaningless. The poem argues the reverse: when death is ignored, life becomes a series of distractions; when death is understood, life becomes service.

Lifting the veil does not mean proving that one is immortal. It begins with accepting mortality: seeing that the body has limits, time cannot be recovered, and actions have consequences. It then means exploring a spiritual possibility that does not confine the self to the body. Finally, it means turning this knowledge toward goodness rather than display.

The Zebani and the angel are not two wholly separate destinies, but two aspects a person nourishes at every moment. Every wrongdoing enlarges the dark form; every good deed strengthens the beautiful one. Repentance does not erase the past, but it changes the direction of the future. The true answer to the fear of death is not denying death, but building a life one need not be ashamed of when facing it.

Kızılkeçili’s interpretation of “dying before you die” extends the classical Sufi understanding of the death of the nafs through a teaching about the transparent body and journeys of consciousness. This extension is the poet’s personal metaphysics; it is not identical with mainstream Islamic teaching. A strength of his thought is its connection between knowledge of death and ethical service. Its debatable aspect is its presentation of subjective accounts of trance and out-of-body experience as definite cosmic mechanisms. The text is most fruitfully read as a symbolic account of initiation and confrontation with one’s own darkness, rather than as instructions for dangerous physical practices.

By the end of the poem, death is no longer an absolute enemy to be feared. Azrael becomes an angel serving the divine order; the grave, the threshold of a second birth; the Zebani, a mirror of misdeeds; the beautiful angel, the essence of good deeds; the Messiah, the life-giving breath; the Mahdi, collective awakening; and Ali, knowledge of love and spiritual authority.

Consciousness thus stands against the fear of death in place of reckless courage. A person finds freedom by bringing their life into accord with truth, not by challenging death. One who knows death does not flee from life. On the contrary, they regard every breath as a trust, every encounter as a test, and every good deed as a door opening onto eternity. This is the text’s final call: do not plunge into the world to forget death; remember death and illuminate the world.

Academic and Explanatory Glossary for “Fear of Death”

The terms in this glossary are explained primarily according to their distinctive meanings in M. H. Uluğ Kızılkeçili’s text. Connections with traditional Islam, Sufism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Western esotericism are made for comparative purposes. Interpretations particular to this text should not be treated as wholly identical with the established teachings of those traditions.

A

Adam

In Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, Adam represents the first human being. In Kızılkeçili’s metaphysics, he also represents the personal essence that bears the divine breath within a human being. The angels’ bow before Adam is interpreted as cosmic respect directed toward the divine trust and the substance of consciousness carried within humanity, rather than toward the biological human being. Adam therefore signifies both the beginning of humanity and an example of the maturity each person is called to attain.

Adamic essence

The original center that lies deeper than a person’s social identity, body, habits, and temporary self. In Kızılkeçili’s system, it is this essence, rather than the everyday ego, before which the angel of death bows. The concept can be related to Sufi ideas of the “Perfect Human Being” and the “reality of the human being.”

Covenant

The binding spiritual promise a person makes after a metaphysical confrontation. In the text, after encountering the Zebani and the angel of good deeds, the person promises to “continue” serving humanity. The covenant is more than a spoken declaration: it is an existential decision that turns knowledge of death into moral responsibility.

Lower transparent layer

In Kızılkeçili’s teaching on the invisible body, this is the lower level associated with the physical organism’s automatic and vital activities. According to the poem, it is joined to the physical body by a cord and can sustain the organism’s vital order even when the conscious spiritual principle withdraws. It can be compared only by analogy with the Aristotelian “vegetative soul,” vital energy in Indian tradition, and involuntary bodily processes in the modern sense.

Deeds taking form

The idea that a person’s good and bad deeds do not disappear, but take visible form in an experience of death or trance. In the text, misdeeds appear as the Zebani and good deeds as a beautiful angel. The concept expresses that actions have consequences not only in the outside world but also within a person’s spiritual constitution.

Intermediate state

A threshold thought to lie between ordinary and transformed consciousness, life and death, or an old and a new identity. It can be compared with concepts such as barzakh, bardo, Araf, and the darkness of initiation in the history of religions. Kızılkeçili’s description of a three-night trance also forms a model of such an intermediate state.

Consciousness at the threshold of Araf

A threshold of consciousness at which a person confronts their good and bad deeds without yet experiencing definitive salvation or condemnation. Although the word “Araf” does not appear explicitly in the poem, the encounters with the Zebani and the angel suggest an intermediate field of judgment. There, the person surveys the past but has not yet lost the possibility of change.

Purification

The process of clearing Life (body), conscience, and the structure of consciousness of the effects of misdeeds, selfish passions, and misleading identifications. Purification is not merely ritual cleansing. It is a moral transformation brought about through remorse, changed behavior, making amends, and service to humanity. In the text, it is among the conditions for the Spirit to become active.

The Earth becoming transparent

The world’s transformation into a state in which matter and society no longer veil divine truth, rather than the material disappearance of the world. Its cosmological dimension expresses the renewal of creation; its social dimension, the exposure of lies, oppression, and concealed interests. Kızılkeçili links universal resurrection to the people and the Earth reaching this state of maturity.

Astral body

In Western esotericism, a subtle body believed to accompany the physical body and to be used in out-of-body journeys. It resembles Kızılkeçili’s “transparent body,” although the two are not entirely identical. The poet’s model has its own structure of lower and upper transparent layers.

Astral travel

An esoteric experience in which consciousness or a subtle body is believed to leave the physical body temporarily and experience other places or levels of being. The Spirit’s journey through the realms “mounted on the transparent steed” recalls this idea. From a scientific standpoint, the independent travel of a spiritual body is not a verified phenomenon; it remains a claim concerning subjective experience and belief.

Heedlessness

The condition of knowing intellectually that death is inevitable while living as though one will never die. For Kızılkeçili, heedlessness is the “pillar” of the world: the fundamental failure of awareness that sustains a pattern of worldly attachment. It can be compared with ghaflah in Sufism, avidyā in Buddhism, and inauthentic life in existentialist thought.

Azrael

The name used for the angel of death in Islamic culture. The Qur’an refers to the “angel of death” rather than naming him Azrael. In the text, Azrael is more than a being who takes Life (body): he is a cosmic principle that reminds people of mortality, transforms their fear of death, and acts as the “leaven” of a vicious circle. As one of the angels who bowed before Adam, he is understood not as an enemy of the divine essence within the human being, but as an agent serving the divine order.

Azrael’s leaven

The poem’s distinctive metaphor for the thought of death entering human consciousness and beginning to transform an established understanding of life. Just as leaven changes the substance into which it is mixed, remembrance of Azrael dissolves a person’s false sense of security. If the person suppresses this call and plunges back into worldly distractions, however, the fear of death produces a vicious circle instead of awakening.

B

Inner resurrection

The awakening to truth of a person whose conscience and spiritual understanding have grown dull, as distinct from the physical restoration of a dead body to life. The Messiah’s life-giving function has both physical and inward meanings in the text. The sign of inner resurrection is moral change and service, rather than an extraordinary experience.

Esoteric interpretation

A method of reading sacred or symbolic texts that attends not only to their literal meanings but also to their inward layers concerning human consciousness and cosmic order. In “Fear of Death,” figures such as the grave, Azrael, the Zebani, the angel, the Messiah, and the Mahdi can be read both as beings or figures of religion and as principles of a person’s inner world.

Out-of-body experience

A subjective experience in which a person feels that their consciousness or point of perception is outside their physical body. Religious traditions may understand it as spiritual travel; modern psychology may examine it in relation to neurological and dissociative processes. Kızılkeçili interprets the experience as an actual separation within his teaching on the transparent body.

Death of the ego

The dissolution of the everyday ego’s claim to be the absolute center. This does not mean biological death; it means moving beyond an identity grounded in ambition, pride, and the physical body alone. Although the text interprets “dying before death” more specifically as a separation involving the transparent body, the death of the ego remains the moral foundation of that process.

Barzakh

In Islamic thought, an intermediate boundary that both separates two domains and relates them to each other. The term is also used for the state of existence between death and resurrection. Kızılkeçili’s account of trance, the transparent body, and travel between realms can be compared with ideas of existence in barzakh, although the poem’s details are not identical with classical teachings about it.

Conscious return

A person’s return to physical life after a spiritual or initiatory journey. This does not mean resuming their former life without change, but turning the knowledge of death they have gained into service to humanity. In the text, the guide who awakens the person and returns them to the body directs this return.

The great death

The irreversible severing of the bond between the physical body and the transparent structure. This distinguishes it, within the text’s own system, from sleep or trance, which might be called a “small death.” The breaking of the cord represents the end of the possibility of returning to biological life.

C–Ç

Life (body)

In Kızılkeçili’s terminology, the principle that sustains the body’s vital and psychological existence but is understood as distinct from the Spirit. Life (body) is connected with physical life and personal existence; the Spirit is a higher substance of consciousness linked to a divine source. The words “When Adam purified his Life (body), the Spirit was breathed into him” make this distinction clear.

Paradise

In its traditional sense, the abode of happiness after death. In an esoteric sense, it is a state of consciousness formed through a person’s good deeds, peace of conscience, and harmony with divine truth. In the text, the person can see Paradise before dying through the beautiful angel formed from their good deeds.

Hell

In a religious sense, the realm of suffering associated with divine judgment. In the text’s esoteric interpretation, it is the frightening form taken by a person’s misdeeds as they gather within consciousness. Hell is treated less as an arbitrary punishment imposed from outside than as an existential consequence of separation from truth and of moral actions.

Corpse

The physical form left behind when the spiritual and vital principles withdraw. In the poem, the person’s being “returned to the corpse” does not diminish the value of the body. It signifies a return from a spiritual journey to one’s task in the world.

Chinvat Bridge

In Zoroastrianism, the bridge of judgment crossed by the soul after death. Widening for the virtuous person and narrowing for one who has done wrong, it symbolizes a person’s encounter with the consequences of their own thoughts, words, and deeds. It has a functional resemblance to the encounters with the Zebani and the angel in the text.

D

Daēnā

A Zoroastrian concept carrying meanings that include religion, conscience, spiritual vision, and a person’s own moral self. After death, it is said to appear to a good person as a beautiful young woman and to a bad person as a frightening figure. This teaching offers a close point of comparison with the poem’s pairing of the angel of good deeds and the Zebani formed from misdeeds.

The promise to continue

The spiritual commitment made by a person who has passed through a metaphysical confrontation to keep serving humanity. “Continue” means making goodness an ongoing duty, rather than returning to old habits. Without this promise, knowledge of death would remain merely a private extraordinary experience.

Resurrection

The return of a being from death or a deathlike state of unconsciousness to life. It carries at least three meanings in the text: the restoration of a body to life, the awakening of spiritual consciousness, and the collective renewal of humanity and the Earth. The Messiah is associated with an individual life-giving function, and the Mahdi with a universal one.

Life-giving breath

The power of the divine Spirit or a messianic influence to restore life to what is dead or has grown inert. The concept can be compared with associations between breath and spirit in the Hebrew ruach, Greek pneuma, and Arabic ruh. In Kızılkeçili’s system, the power to raise to life is not a personal power independent of divine permission and mercy.

Worldly numbing

A person’s reliance on fame, money, sexuality, alcohol, entertainment, travel, or superficial religious practices to avoid confronting the fear of death and the demands of conscience. The criticism is directed at using these things to flee from truth, rather than at all of them in themselves.

The veil of prayer

The use of prayer to suppress fear, avoid responsibility, or project an image of spiritual superiority instead of seeking inward transformation. The text’s distinctive criticism is that even a religious practice can become part of heedlessness when separated from intention and awareness.

E

People of Truth

An explanatory term for people who possess more than conceptual knowledge of death and have come to understand mortality and responsibility through lived experience. The “ones who know” in the text see the inward consequences of events more clearly than their outward appearance.

Eren

In the Turkish Sufi tradition, an Eren is a person who has attained spiritual maturity. In Kızılkeçili’s metaphysics, an Eren is believed capable of consciously separating from the physical body through the transparent body, traveling among realms, and returning. Service to humanity is presented as the moral measure of an Eren; knowledge of the mechanism of death is the metaphysical measure.

Threshold consciousness

A state at the boundary between everyday awareness and death, sleep, trance, or mystical experience. Because an old identity is dissolving and a new understanding has not yet become established, it holds the possibility of both danger and transformation.

Esoteric anthropology

The study of the human being as a layered existence made up of Life (body), Spirit, subtle bodies, levels of consciousness, and invisible bonds, rather than the physical body alone. “Fear of Death” constructs a distinctive esoteric anthropology from the physical body, the lower and upper transparent layers, the Spirit, and the cord.

Esoteric death

A departure from a person’s ordinary state of self in which they confront invisible realms and return with altered consciousness, as distinct from biological death. It is related to initiatory death, the death of the ego, and the rehearsal of death.

F–G

Awareness of mortality

An inward understanding that the body, time, social position, and worldly opportunities are limited. Awareness of mortality is a form of wakefulness that heightens the value of life and moral responsibility, rather than a form of pessimism.

Ghaflah

A state of forgetting Allah, death, conscience, and the human being’s original task. It is the Sufi counterpart of what the text calls “heedlessness.” Ghaflah is less a lack of information than a failure to live according to a truth one already knows.

Ghayb

The realm that cannot be perceived directly by the senses but whose existence is accepted in religious and metaphysical teachings. Spirit, angels, life after death, and barzakh belong to the ghayb. The text interprets it as a realm of existence that can be experienced through the transparent body.

Universal resurrection

The spiritual transformation of all humanity and the Earth, rather than the raising of a single individual. The text associates this authority with the Mahdi. The concept describes individual salvation extending into social and cosmic renewal.

Gnostic knowledge

Direct recognition of one’s divine origin, rather than the mere acquisition of information about the external world. The text’s assertion that those who know and those who do not know are not alike emphasizes the distinction between theoretical information and transformative spiritual understanding.

The shadow

A psychological term for the dark inclinations a person does not wish to accept, suppresses, or projects onto others. The Zebani cannot be reduced to the Jungian shadow, but the two can be compared insofar as a person’s misdeeds confront them as though they had taken on an independent form.

Silver cord

In Western esotericism, an invisible bond believed to exist between the physical body and the astral or subtle body. In the text, it connects the lower transparent layer to the physical body; its breaking signifies irreversible physical death. This is not a scientifically verified anatomical or physiological structure.

H

Knowledge of truth

Knowledge of death, Spirit, and the human being’s original nature gained at an existential level, rather than merely through thought. Such knowledge should lead a person toward humility and service, not greater pride or self-display.

The people becoming transparent

The purification of individual and collective identity from the structures of falsehood, fear, self-interest, and violence that conceal truth. It is presented as a social condition of universal resurrection. The concept signifies the disclosure of hidden truths and humanity’s preparation for a higher level of consciousness.

Reckoning

A person’s confrontation with the moral consequences of their thoughts, words, and actions. In the text, reckoning is not an entirely external tribunal that begins only after death; it is an inward judgment that begins in this world through conscience.

Hızır

In Islamic culture, a mysterious figure associated with hidden knowledge, the water of life, unexpected help, and divine guidance. Kızılkeçili interprets Hızır not only as a historical person but as a station attained by an Eren who can make the transparent body dense and become visible in a time of need.

Becoming Hızır

An Eren’s making their transparent existence effective or visible in order to offer help across realms. Its deeper moral meaning is to become a means of mercy that reaches someone in need at the right time, rather than to display extraordinary personal powers.

İ

Second birth

A person’s return to life with new awareness and a moral task after the dissolution of an old pattern of selfhood. It can be compared with rebirth in Christianity, spiritual awakening in Sufism, shamanic initiation, and the symbolic patterns of death and resurrection in mystery traditions.

Second Messiah

The station of life-giving spiritual authority attributed to Ali in the text. Rather than identifying Ali historically or in his nature with Jesus Christ in Christian theology, the term presents him as the bearer of a second messianic function: reviving hearts through knowledge, justice, and love.

Divine breath

The creation symbol referring to Allah breathing of His Spirit into Adam. For Kızılkeçili, this breath is the source of a human being’s capacity for consciousness, spiritual understanding, and maturity beyond biological existence. The words about the Spirit being breathed into Adam after his Life (body) was purified are interpreted as the divine breath becoming active within him.

Initiation

A process of passage through which a person symbolically dies to an old identity and is born into new knowledge, a new task, and a new standing within a community. Kızılkeçili’s sequence of a three-night trance, confrontation with the Zebani, vision of the angel, and promise of service forms a pattern of initiation.

Initiatory monster

The personified form of a candidate’s fear, guilt, and suppressed misdeeds during a ritual or visionary experience. Its counterpart in the text is the Zebani. It is overcome through recognizing and acknowledging wrongdoing and repenting, rather than through physical combat.

Initiatory death

The symbolic dissolution of an old self before biological death occurs. Its purpose is moral transformation through confronting one’s past, not curiosity about death or dangerous trials.

Service to humanity

The principal moral test of metaphysical knowledge and mystical experience. According to Kızılkeçili, a person who experiences death before dying returns to the world to continue serving humanity, not solely for personal salvation.

The secret of the pearls

Esoteric knowledge associated with the Messiah’s saying, “Do not cast pearls before swine.” Disclosing it to someone unprepared may lead to misunderstanding or misuse. Here, secrecy requires the student to attain the moral and intellectual maturity needed to understand the knowledge; it is more than withholding information at someone’s whim.

Spiritual understanding

A direct grasp of truth that transforms a person and goes beyond reasoning and knowledge received from others. In the text, speaking about death is knowledge; overcoming the fear of death and turning toward service is spiritual understanding.

The angel of good deeds

The beautiful form in which the good deeds performed by a person over their various lives appear before them. It represents a positive image formed through divine grace and the person’s moral effort. It can be compared with the beautiful figure in the Zoroastrian teaching of the daēnā.

K

The cycle of the nightmare

A recurring pattern in which fear of death rises, the person briefly confronts their conscience, becomes terrified, and seeks refuge again in worldly distractions. Because the person does not transform the source of the fear, the process begins again.

The weighing of the heart

In ancient Egyptian teachings on death, the deceased person’s heart is weighed against the feather of Maat. It symbolizes measuring a life against truth and justice. It offers a point of comparison with the examination by conscience and the taking of visible form by deeds in the text.

Karma

In Indian religions, the principle that intentional actions produce consequences. Kızılkeçili’s account of misdeeds becoming the Zebani and good deeds becoming an angel can be compared with karma, but the Islamic idea of reckoning and the teaching of karma are not theologically identical.

Vicious circle

A person’s repeated suppression of the fear of death through worldly pleasures instead of resolving it. Azrael is the “leaven” of this circle in the text: remembrance of death offers a chance for transformation, but heedlessness turns it into another cycle of escape.

Rejoining the cord

The reconnection of the transparent body to the physical body and the return to life after a spiritual journey. The text claims that an Eren can consciously control this process. Symbolically, it means rejoining everyday responsibilities after a transcendent experience.

Severing the cord

The breaking of the bond of life between the physical and transparent bodies. In the text, it marks the irreversible threshold of actual death. Metaphorically, it can also signify the end of a bond with an old identity.

Cosmic womb

An interpretation of worldly life as a space of gestation in which the Spirit prepares for another level of existence. In this context, the silver cord can be likened to a fetus’s umbilical cord, and death to a second birth from the womb of the world.

Cosmic transparency

The direct visibility of truth as the veils among matter, Spirit, humanity, and the Earth grow thin. It expresses universal transformation beyond individual enlightenment.

Little death

Sleep, trance, ecstasy, or the dissolution of the ego: deathlike states from which return remains possible. The concept can be related to parallels drawn between sleep and death in Islamic culture. Unlike the great death, the bond of life with the body does not break completely.

M

Death as leaven

Death awareness as an active element that transforms a person’s existing way of being from within. In this distinctive metaphor, death does more than bring something to an end: it ferments consciousness and makes a new understanding possible.

Mahdi

In Islamic eschatology, an expected guide associated with guidance, justice, and renewal in the last days. In Kızılkeçili’s metaphysics, the Mahdi is not only a person who establishes political justice, but also the bearer of the authority to bring about “universal resurrection” encompassing the people and the Earth.

Unity of Mahdi and Messiah

An esoteric view in which the functions of guidance and resurrection come together in the same divine truth. The text uses the report “There is no Mahdi other than Jesus” in support of this unity. This interpretation differs from the widespread account in Islamic eschatology that treats the Mahdi and Jesus as two distinct persons.

Angelic essence

The luminous whole formed within a person’s spiritual character by their good deeds, compassion, and service. It appears as a beautiful angel at the threshold of death. It joins an innate capacity for goodness with the moral qualities gained through deliberate action.

Messiah

In Christianity, a term expressing Jesus’ identity as savior; in Islam, it refers to Jesus as a distinguished prophet and the Messiah. In Kızılkeçili’s text, the Messiah is primarily a cosmic function that awakens people from deathlike states, revives those who are spiritually dead, and reveals divine mercy.

Messianic consciousness

A life-giving consciousness that awakens hearts that have died, offers renewed life to those who have been excluded, and places love above rigid judgment. Beyond the historical identity of any one person, the term is used as a universal principle of mercy and spiritual renewal.

Messianic resurrection

The act of restoring a person to life not only biologically, but also morally, in conscience, and spiritually. Kızılkeçili reinterprets the Gospel accounts of raising the dead through his teaching on “deep sleep” and trance.

Awareness of the grave

An inward confrontation in which a person realizes that death is personal and unavoidable. In the text, thinking of the grave is not pessimism, but a powerful means of breaking everyday heedlessness.

Imaginal realm

In Islamic philosophy and spiritual thought, an intermediate realm of being thought to lie between the material world and purely intellectual realities, where meanings take form. The appearances of the transparent body, the Zebani, and the angel of good deeds can be compared with this realm. The imaginal realm is not identical with ordinary fantasy or private delusion.

Mystical rehearsal of death

A person’s symbolic or visionary experience of death, reckoning, and rebirth while still alive. The text’s three-night trance is an example. The term describes the narrative pattern of initiation in the text, not dangerous physical practices.

N–Ö

Nafs

The psychological aspect of a person associated with desire, anger, self-protection, possessiveness, and self-centeredness. Sufism aims to discipline and transform it, rather than simply destroy it. Kızılkeçili does not consider abandoning the nafs’s ambitions a sufficient explanation of “dying before death”; he also adds the transparent body’s journey.

Breath

The act of breathing life into something; in a metaphysical sense, the giving of life and consciousness. The breathing of the Spirit into Adam signifies humanity’s divine origin and spiritual capacity.

Dying before you die

In its Sufi sense, moving beyond a life centered on the nafs, calling oneself to account before the final reckoning, and surrendering one’s will to divine truth. In Kızılkeçili’s distinctive interpretation, it also includes separating from the physical body by means of the transparent body and seeing, during life, realms thought to be encountered after death.

Knowledge of death

More than theoretical acceptance that death exists, it is an awareness of mortality that transforms a person’s values and actions. Someone who attains this knowledge does not flee the world; they carry out their service within it more consciously.

Threshold of death

The boundary between everyday consciousness and irreversible death. The text considers trance, deep sleep, and temporary separation of the transparent body in relation to this threshold.

Fear of death

A layered anxiety arising from the possible destruction of the body, loss of personal identity, an unknown realm, reckoning, and separation. The text treats it as a major reason for worldly distraction. The fear can be overcome through confrontation with conscience and transformation, rather than denial of death.

Angel of death

In the Qur’an, the angel charged with taking people’s lives. For Kızılkeçili, this is not only the attendant of the final breath, but also an Azrael-like principle that awakens people through signs of mortality throughout life.

Wakefulness toward death

Using limited time consciously and responsibly, rather than living in fear because one might die at any moment. It can be compared with Buddhist mindfulness of death, Christian memento mori, and the Sufi practice of rābiṭa-i mawt.

Means of escape from death

The use of fame, money, sexuality, alcohol, travel, amusement, and even superficial prayer to suppress thoughts of death. The claim is not that these things are inherently evil, but that they foster heedlessness when used as means of escape.

Essence

The original center of a person’s being behind bodily, mental, and social identities. In the text, it is related to the Adamic and spiritual principle. Discovering one’s essence does not mean treating the everyday ego as divine; it means recognizing the divine trust within oneself.

P–R

Father

The spiritual guide who places the person in a trance, leads them to repent, and returns them to the body. Although the word evokes a Christian priest, the figure also combines the roles of a murshid, an initiator, and a guide of souls.

Veil

A general term for the heedlessness, fear, attachments, mistaken identifications, and conceptual limits that stand between a person and truth. To “lift the veil” means confronting the realities of death and the human being’s spiritual structure.

Psychopomp

A figure believed to guide souls through death or passage between realms. Hermes, Anubis, and some depictions of angels serve psychopompic functions. The father and Azrael in the text approach this role in different ways.

Mercy

Divine compassion, forgiveness, and life-giving power. Kızılkeçili does not treat mercy as a privilege free of responsibility or effort. Though mercy cannot be reduced to human effort, it should be met with purification, repentance, and service.

The balance between mercy and effort

The complementary relationship between divine grace and human moral effort. Expecting mercy without effort may lead to irresponsibility; forgetting mercy and relying only on effort may lead to spiritual pride.

Guide

The person who leads a candidate through the dark confrontation of initiatory death and back into life. A true guide’s task is to awaken the candidate’s conscience and responsibility, not create dependence.

Spirit

In Kızılkeçili’s metaphysics, a higher principle of consciousness distinguished from the body, Life (body), and the transparent body. It can use the transparent body as a vehicle to travel through the realms. The Spirit is connected with the divine breath and humanity’s transcendent origin.

The breathing of the Spirit

A metaphysical process describing the activation of higher consciousness within a person after Life (body) has been purified. The breathing of the Spirit into Adam at creation is read as an inward event repeated in each person’s spiritual birth.

Ruhullah

A title used for Jesus, carrying meanings such as “a Spirit from Allah” or “the Spirit of Allah.” In Islamic theology, it does not mean that Jesus is divine. In the text, it emphasizes the Messiah’s functions of giving life, awakening, and raising the dead.

Spiritual twin

The physical body’s invisible or transparent counterpart. It follows from applying the principle that “everything is created in pairs” to the human being. The spiritual twin is not the Spirit itself, but a subtle vehicle the Spirit can use.

Spiritual transparency

A purified state of consciousness in which ego, falsehood, and fear no longer veil divine light. Becoming transparent does not mean disappearing; it means ceasing to obstruct the passage of truth.

S–Ş

Bowing

Traditionally, an act of worship and surrender to Allah. The angels’ bow before Adam, however, is interpreted not as worship but as obedience to the divine command and recognition of the trust placed within humanity. In the text, it supports the idea that even the angel of death serves the Adamic essence.

Love surpassing the law

Mercy’s opening of a new possibility for life where a rigid judgment has declared an end. Surpassing the law here does not abolish justice; through love, it fulfills the law’s ultimate purpose of goodness and renewal.

Discipline of secrecy

The principle that esoteric knowledge should not be given indiscriminately to people lacking the moral and intellectual preparation to understand it. It is associated with the Messiah’s saying, “Do not cast pearls before swine.” Because this principle can be misused to make authority unquestionable, it requires ethical scrutiny.

Transparent steed

The poem’s name for the transparent body used by the Spirit to move through different realms. The difference between steed and rider shows that the Spirit and subtle body are not the same. The steed is the vehicle; the Spirit is the rider who gives it direction.

Transparent body

An invisible human structure believed to exist within, or in connection with, the physical body. In the text, its lower layer carries automatic vital functions, while its upper layer carries memory, the senses, and conscious personality. The Spirit uses this body to leave the physical body and travel through other realms.

The transparent body becoming dense

The normally invisible subtle body becoming denser, more effective, or visible. The text regards this as the basis of the ability to become Hızır. Symbolically, it can also mean turning spiritual knowledge into concrete service and action.

Transparency

A quality of being and consciousness that lets light pass through and does not obstruct truth. At an individual level, it signifies purified awareness; at a social level, the end of falsehood; and at a cosmic level, the Earth’s disclosure of its spiritual meaning.

Consciousness of martyrdom

The understanding that physical death does not necessarily mean moral or spiritual defeat. In the example of Husayn, the body is killed but fidelity to truth lives on. The deeper loss belongs to the oppressor, who destroys their own spiritual essence.

T

Trance

A state that differs from ordinary waking consciousness through changes in attention, the perception of time, awareness of the body, or the sense of self. Kızılkeçili’s text presents it as the entry point to an experience of death before dying. Its reference to “three nights,” however, should be read as initiatory symbolism, not as safe or verified instructions for a practice.

Trance sleep

A state that appears from outside to be death or deep unconsciousness, although the bond between Spirit and body is believed to remain intact. The poet uses this idea to interpret those raised by the Messiah. It is a religious and esoteric interpretation, not a medical diagnosis of historical cases.

Repentance

Recognizing a wrong, regretting it, abandoning it, and, where possible, repairing the harm caused. In the text, repentance follows the encounter with the Zebani and is completed by the promise to serve humanity. It therefore changes the direction of a life rather than merely asking for forgiveness in words.

Three nights

An initiatory period symbolizing the dissolution of an old identity, confrontation with darkness, and rebirth in a renewed state. It can be compared with the Messiah’s resurrection, the account of Jonah, and three-part passages in some mystery traditions. In the text, it functions as a symbol of completion as well as a period of time.

Upper transparent layer

The level in Kızılkeçili’s subtle-body model believed to contain memory, the five senses, and conscious personality. It is thought to sustain individual awareness during an experience of separation from the physical body. In this respect, it differs from the automatic functions of the lower transparent layer.

Sleep

A state in which the Spirit or conscious principle temporarily withdraws while the bond between the physical body and the vital transparent layer remains. In the text, its difference from death is the preservation of the connection that permits return. This metaphysical account does not replace the scientific physiology of sleep.

V–Y

Conscience

The inner witness that evaluates a person’s thoughts and actions against their own deep moral knowledge. In the text, conscience is the first to question a person when the fear of death arises. It thus becomes the beginning, in this world, of the reckoning of the hereafter.

The last judgment of conscience

The disclosure within a person of all the actions they have hidden or forgotten. It can be understood as an individual counterpart to the cosmic Last Day. Excuses and defenses of the self collapse, leaving the person alone with their own truth.

The court of conscience

A person’s questioning by their own inner witness before any external judge. Deeds taking visible form are the symbolic appearance of this court. The Zebani bears witness to wrongs and the angel to good deeds.

Mercy beyond the law

Divine compassion that offers a new possibility of transformation where justice has pronounced a definitive end, without abolishing justice itself. Messianic resurrection is regarded as an expression of this mercy. Mercy is not an escape from responsibility, but an opportunity for a repentant person to begin again.

Reincarnation

The teaching that, after death, a Spirit is born in another physical body. The text’s expression “the good you have done in every life” can be read as an explicit allusion to this idea. It is associated with Hinduism, Buddhism, and some esoteric traditions; it is not the same as mainstream Islamic teaching on a single earthly life and resurrection.

Weeping for Yazid

A paradoxical expression of grief for the spiritual loss of a person who chose oppression, beyond Husayn’s outward death. It does not excuse the oppressor; it emphasizes that wrongdoing also destroys the perpetrator’s own spiritual being. Husayn lives through fidelity to truth, while Yazid loses inwardly despite his worldly power.

Z

Effort

The moral work of purification, repentance, self-discipline, making amends, and service. In the text, effort does not mean harming oneself or inflicting bodily suffering. It is the deliberate work needed to keep the hope of mercy from becoming an excuse for irresponsibility.

Zebani

A term associated with the attendants of Hell in Islamic tradition. In Kızılkeçili’s distinctive interpretation, it is the terrifying being formed from all a person’s misdeeds, which confronts them during trance or at the threshold of death. The Zebani is not an arbitrary punishment added from outside, but the embodied sum of a darkness the person has denied.

Becoming a Zebani

The construction of one’s own dark form through repeated wrongdoing, oppression, lies, and the silencing of conscience. Each wrong feeds this form; repentance, making amends, and service weaken its hold.

The teaching of opposing forms

The view that a person’s moral actions produce two contrasting appearances: misdeeds become the Zebani, and good deeds become the angel. This pairing shows that a person consists neither solely of their faults nor solely of their virtues; they must confront themselves as a whole.

Zuhd

Breaking the hold of temporary values over a person, rather than abandoning the world altogether. Properly understood, the text’s awareness of death approaches zuhd: a person does not treat money, fame, and pleasure as absolute, yet does not flee from the task of serving in the world.

Bibliography

1. Primary text examined

Kızılkeçili, M. H. Uluğ. “Ölüm Korkusu” [“Fear of Death”]. Ankara, 15 December 1998. Unpublished/personal poem.

2. Primary religious texts

Islam

The Qur’an. Especially al-Baqarah 2:28, 2:30–34; Āl ‘Imrān 3:169; al-Nisā’ 4:97; al-An‘ām 6:60; al-A‘rāf 7:11–18; al-Ḥijr 15:28–44; al-Isrā’ 17:85; al-Kahf 18:60–82; al-Anbiyā’ 21:35; al-Ḥajj 22:5–7; al-Mu’minūn 23:99–100; al-Sajdah 32:9–11; al-Zumar 39:42; Qāf 50:19–22; al-Wāqi‘ah 56:83–87; al-Ḥashr 59:18; al-Mulk 67:2; al-Qiyāmah 75:2, 13–15; al-Takwīr 81:1–14; al-Infiṭār 82:5; al-Fajr 89:27–30; al-Zalzalah 99:6–8; and al-Qāri‘ah 101:6–11.

Al-Bukhārī, Muḥammad ibn Ismā‘īl. Al-Jāmi‘ al-Ṣaḥīḥ. Edited by Muḥammad Zuhayr ibn Nāṣir al-Nāṣir. 9 vols. Beirut: Dār Ṭawq al-Najāt, 2001.

Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj. Al-Jāmi‘ al-Ṣaḥīḥ. Edited by Muḥammad Fu’ād ‘Abd al-Bāqī. 5 vols. Beirut: Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-‘Arabī, n.d.

Abū Dāwūd, Sulaymān ibn al-Ash‘ath. Sunan Abī Dāwūd. Edited by Shu‘ayb al-Arnā’ūṭ and Muḥammad Kāmil Qaraballī. 7 vols. Damascus: Dār al-Risālah al-‘Ālamiyyah, 2009.

Al-Tirmidhī, Muḥammad ibn ‘Īsā. Al-Jāmi‘ al-Kabīr: Sunan al-Tirmidhī. Edited by Bashshār ‘Awwād Ma‘rūf. 6 vols. Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1996.

Ibn Mājah, Muḥammad ibn Yazīd. Sunan Ibn Mājah. Edited by Shu‘ayb al-Arnā’ūṭ et al. 5 vols. Damascus: Dār al-Risālah al-‘Ālamiyyah, 2009.

Mālik ibn Anas. Al-Muwaṭṭa’. Edited by Bashshār ‘Awwād Ma‘rūf and Maḥmūd Muḥammad Khalīl. Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risālah, 1992.

Judaism and Christianity

Kitâb-ı Mukaddes: Eski ve Yeni Antlaşma [The Bible: Old and New Testaments]. Istanbul: Kitabı Mukaddes Şirketi, current edition.

Passages especially relevant to the text:

• Genesis 2:7: The breath of life breathed into the human being.

• Ecclesiastes 12:1–7: Death, the body’s dissolution, and the image of the “silver cord.”

• Job 14 and 19: Death and hope for renewed life.

• Daniel 12:1–3: The resurrection of the dead.

• Ezekiel 37:1–14: The raising of the dry bones.

• Matthew 7:6: “Do not cast pearls before swine.”

• Matthew 9:18–26; Mark 5:21–43; Luke 8:40–56: The raising of Jairus’s daughter and the statement that she is “sleeping.”

• John 11:1–44: The death and raising of Lazarus.

• Romans 6:1–11: The death of the old self and birth into new life.

• 1 Corinthians 15: The teaching on resurrection.

• Revelation 20–22: Final judgment, resurrection, and a new heaven and new earth.

Charlesworth, James H., ed. The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. 2 vols. New York: Doubleday, 1983–1985.

Metzger, Bruce M., and Michael D. Coogan, eds. The Oxford Companion to the Bible. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Zoroastrianism

Humbach, Helmut, Josef Elfenbein, and Prods O. Skjærvø. The Gāthās of Zarathushtra and the Other Old Avestan Texts. 2 vols. Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, 1991.

Malandra, William W., trans. An Introduction to Ancient Iranian Religion: Readings from the Avesta and Achaemenid Inscriptions. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1983.

West, E. W., trans. Pahlavi Texts. 5 vols. Sacred Books of the East, vols. 5, 18, 24, 37, and 47. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1880–1897.

Darmesteter, James, trans. The Zend-Avesta. 3 vols. Sacred Books of the East, vols. 4, 23, and 31. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1880–1887.

These sources can be used for the Chinvat Bridge, individual judgment after death, the daēnā, the embodiment of good and bad deeds, and the world’s final renewal, known as frašō.kərəti/frashokereti.

Hinduism

Olivelle, Patrick, trans. The Early Upaniṣads: Annotated Text and Translation. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Olivelle, Patrick, trans. The Upaniṣads. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Sargeant, Winthrop, trans. The Bhagavad Gītā. Revised ed. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2009.

Edgerton, Franklin, trans. The Beginnings of Indian Philosophy: Selections from the Rig Veda, Atharva Veda, Upaniṣads, and Mahābhārata. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965.

The Katha Upanishad is a key comparative text, particularly for Nachiketas’s encounter with Yama, the god of death, his rejection of temporary pleasures, and his questions about existence after death.

Buddhism and Tibetan teachings on death

Bodhi, Bhikkhu, trans. The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Saṃyutta Nikāya. 2 vols. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2000.

Ñāṇamoli, Bhikkhu, and Bhikkhu Bodhi, trans. The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Majjhima Nikāya. 3rd ed. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2005.

Walshe, Maurice, trans. The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Dīgha Nikāya. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995.

Gyurme Dorje, trans. The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Liberation by Hearing in the Intermediate States. Edited by Graham Coleman and Thupten Jinpa. London: Penguin Classics, 2005.

Cuevas, Bryan J. The Hidden History of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

3. Death, Spirit, barzakh, and the hereafter in Islam

Günther, Sebastian, and Todd Lawson, eds. Roads to Paradise: Eschatology and Concepts of the Hereafter in Islam. 2 vols. Leiden: Brill, 2017. This work examines Paradise and Hell, salvation, punishment, judgment after death, and different Islamic understandings of eschatology across disciplines. Brill book page and Cambridge review.

Smith, Jane I., and Yvonne Y. Haddad. The Islamic Understanding of Death and Resurrection. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1981.

Lange, Christian. Paradise and Hell in Islamic Traditions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.

O’Shaughnessy, Thomas J. Muhammad’s Thoughts on Death: A Thematic Study of the Qur’anic Data. Leiden: Brill, 1969.

Al-Ghazālī. The Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife: Kitāb Dhikr al-Mawt wa-mā Baʿdahu. Translated by T. J. Winter. Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 1989.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah. Kitāb al-Rūḥ. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyyah, various editions.

Nasr, Seyyed Hossein, Caner K. Dagli, Maria Massi Dakake, Joseph E. B. Lumbard, and Mohammed Rustom, eds. The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary. New York: HarperOne, 2015. This comprehensive English-language work bringing together the classical heritage of Qur’anic interpretation was published by HarperOne in 2015. Book information.

Öztürk, Yaşar Nuri. Kur’an-ı Kerim ve Sünnete Göre Tasavvuf. Istanbul: Yeni Boyut, various editions.

Topaloğlu, Bekir. “Âhiret.” Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi. Vol. 1. Istanbul: TDV Yayınları, 1988.

Yavuz, Yusuf Şevki. “Azrâil.” Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi. Vol. 4. Istanbul: TDV Yayınları, 1991.

Yavuz, Yusuf Şevki. “Ruh.” Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi. Vol. 35. Istanbul: TDV Yayınları, 2008.

Yavuz, Yusuf Şevki. “Ba‘s.” Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi. Vol. 5. Istanbul: TDV Yayınları, 1992.

4. “Dying before death,” the nafs, and spiritual transformation in Sufism

Ibn al-‘Arabī, Muḥyī al-Dīn. Al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyyah. Edited by ‘Uthmān Yaḥyā. Cairo: al-Hay’ah al-Miṣriyyah al-‘Āmmah lil-Kitāb, 1972–1992.

Ibn al-‘Arabī, Muḥyī al-Dīn. Fusûsu’l-Hikem. Translated and annotated by Ekrem Demirli. Istanbul: Kabalcı/Yazma Eserler Kurumu, various editions.

Chittick, William C. The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al-ʿArabi’s Metaphysics of Imagination. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989.

Chittick, William C. Imaginal Worlds: Ibn al-ʿArabi and the Problem of Religious Diversity. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994.

Rūmī, Jalāl al-Dīn. Mesnevî-i Ma‘nevî. Edited and translated by Abdülbâki Gölpınarlı. Istanbul: İnkılâp Kitabevi, various editions.

Al-Qushayrī, ‘Abd al-Karīm. Kuşeyrî Risalesi. Edited and translated by Süleyman Uludağ. Istanbul: Dergâh Yayınları, various editions.

Al-Hujwīrī, ‘Alī ibn ‘Uthmān. Keşfü’l-Mahcûb: Hakikat Bilgisi. Edited by Süleyman Uludağ. Istanbul: Dergâh Yayınları, various editions.

Schimmel, Annemarie. Mystical Dimensions of Islam. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1975.

Schimmel, Annemarie. İslamın Mistik Boyutları. Translated by Ergun Kocabıyık. Istanbul: Alfa Yayınları, various editions.

Knysh, Alexander. Islamic Mysticism: A Short History. Leiden: Brill, 2000.

Sands, Kristin Zahra. Sufi Commentaries on the Qur’an in Classical Islam. London: Routledge, 2006.

Demirli, Ekrem. İslam Metafiziğinde Tanrı ve İnsan. Istanbul: Kabalcı Yayınları, 2009.

Uludağ, Süleyman. Tasavvuf Terimleri Sözlüğü. Istanbul: Kabalcı Yayınları, various editions.

Methodological note on the saying “Die before you die”

The saying mūtū qabla an tamūtū, meaning “Die before you die,” is widespread in Sufi literature. It is not, however, found in the principal collections of authentic hadith as an undisputed hadith with a sound chain of transmission. In academic writing, the cautious description should be:

“The well-known saying transmitted as a hadith in the Sufi tradition or attributed to the Prophet.”

Al-‘Ajlūnī, Ismā‘īl ibn Muḥammad. Kashf al-Khafā’ wa-Muzīl al-Ilbās. 2 vols. Beirut: Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-‘Arabī, 1351 AH/1932.

‘Alī al-Qārī. Al-Asrār al-Marfū‘ah fī al-Akhbār al-Mawḍū‘ah. Edited by Muḥammad al-Ṣabbāgh. Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1986.

Yılmaz, Mehmet. Kültürümüzde Âyet ve Hadisler. Istanbul: Kesit Yayınları, various editions.

5. Comparisons concerning the imaginal realm, spiritual body, and transparent body

Corbin, Henry. Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth: From Mazdean Iran to Shiʿite Iran. Translated by Nancy Pearson. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977; 2nd ed., 1989. This work examines ideas about the spiritual body and celestial Earth from Mazdean Iran to Shi‘i spiritual thought. Book information.

Corbin, Henry. Alone with the Alone: Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn ʿArabi. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997.

Corbin, Henry. The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism. Translated by Nancy Pearson. New Lebanon, NY: Omega Publications, 1994.

Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993.

Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. Knowledge and the Sacred. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989.

Rustom, Mohammed. The Triumph of Mercy: Philosophy and Scripture in Mullā Ṣadrā. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2012.

Rahman, Fazlur. The Philosophy of Mullā Ṣadrā. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1975.

van Lit, L. W. C. The World of Image in Islamic Philosophy: Ibn Sīnā, Suhrawardī, Shahrazūrī and Beyond. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017.

Kingsley, Peter. Ancient Philosophy, Mystery, and Magic: Empedocles and Pythagorean Tradition. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995.

Katz, Steven T., ed. Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978.

“Transparent body” is not a standard technical term taken directly from classical Islamic sources. In academic work, it should be defined as “Kızılkeçili’s distinctive subtle-body model” and only compared with Corbin’s concepts of the “spiritual body” or “imaginal body.”

6. The silver cord, astral body, and Western esotericism

Hanegraaff, Wouter J. New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought. Leiden: Brill, 1996.

Hanegraaff, Wouter J., ed. Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism. 2 vols. Leiden: Brill, 2006.

Faivre, Antoine. Access to Western Esotericism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994.

Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas. The Western Esoteric Traditions: A Historical Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Hammer, Olav. Claiming Knowledge: Strategies of Epistemology from Theosophy to the New Age. Leiden: Brill, 2001.

Besant, Annie. Man and His Bodies. London: Theosophical Publishing Society, 1896.

Leadbeater, C. W. The Astral Plane: Its Scenery, Inhabitants and Phenomena. London: Theosophical Publishing Society, 1895.

Powell, Arthur E. The Astral Body and Other Astral Phenomena. London: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1927.

Crookall, Robert. The Study and Practice of Astral Projection. London: Aquarian Press, 1960.

The last four works are primary sources written from within modern esotericism, rather than secondary academic studies. They should be used to show the historical development of the “silver cord” teaching, not cited as scientific verification of it.

7. Scientific study of out-of-body and near-death experiences

Blackmore, Susan J. Dying to Live: Near-Death Experiences. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1993.

Blanke, Olaf, Theodor Landis, Laurent Spinelli, and Margitta Seeck. “Out-of-Body Experience and Autoscopy of Neurological Origin.” Brain 127, no. 2 (2004): 243–258.

Blanke, Olaf, Stéphanie Ortigue, Theodor Landis, and Margitta Seeck. “Stimulating Illusory Own-Body Perceptions.” Nature 419 (2002): 269–270.

Agrillo, Christian. “Near-Death Experience: Out-of-Body and Out-of-Brain?” Review of General Psychology 15, no. 1 (2011): 1–10.

Mobbs, Dean, and Caroline Watt. “There Is Nothing Paranormal about Near-Death Experiences: How Neuroscience Can Explain Seeing Bright Lights, Meeting the Dead, or Being Convinced You Are One of Them.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 15, no. 10 (2011): 447–449.

Greyson, Bruce. “The Near-Death Experience Scale: Construction, Reliability, and Validity.” Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 171, no. 6 (1983): 369–375.

Greyson, Bruce. After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond. New York: St. Martin’s Essentials, 2021.

van Lommel, Pim, Ruud van Wees, Vincent Meyers, and Ingrid Elfferich. “Near-Death Experience in Survivors of Cardiac Arrest: A Prospective Study in the Netherlands.” The Lancet 358, no. 9298 (2001): 2039–2045.

Parnia, Sam, et al. “AWARE—AWAreness during REsuscitation: A Prospective Study.” Resuscitation 85, no. 12 (2014): 1799–1805.

Parnia, Sam, et al. “AWAreness during REsuscitation—II: A Multi-Center Study of Consciousness and Awareness in Cardiac Arrest.” Resuscitation 191 (2023): 109903.

Martial, Charlotte, et al. “The Near-Death Experience Content (NDE-C) Scale: Development and Psychometric Validation.” Consciousness and Cognition 86 (2020): 103049.

These publications investigate the subjective reality of out-of-body and near-death experiences; they do not establish the objective existence of a “transparent body” or “silver cord.”

8. Fear of death and the psychology of death

Becker, Ernest. The Denial of Death. New York: Free Press, 1973.

Yalom, Irvin D. Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2008.

Kübler-Ross, Elisabeth. On Death and Dying. New York: Macmillan, 1969.

Neimeyer, Robert A., ed. Death Anxiety Handbook: Research, Instrumentation, and Application. Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis, 1994.

Tomer, Adrian, Grafton T. Eliason, and Paul T. P. Wong, eds. Existential and Spiritual Issues in Death Attitudes. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2008.

Solomon, Sheldon, Jeff Greenberg, and Tom Pyszczynski. The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life. New York: Random House, 2015.

Greenberg, Jeff, Tom Pyszczynski, and Sheldon Solomon. “The Causes and Consequences of a Need for Self-Esteem: A Terror Management Theory.” In Public Self and Private Self, edited by Roy F. Baumeister, 189–212. New York: Springer, 1986.

Wong, Paul T. P., Gary T. Reker, and Gina Gesser. “Death Attitude Profile–Revised: A Multidimensional Measure of Attitudes toward Death.” In Death Anxiety Handbook, edited by Robert A. Neimeyer, 121–148. Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis, 1994.

Florian, Victor, and Mario Mikulincer. “Fear of Death and the Judgment of Social Transgressions: A Multidimensional Test of Terror Management Theory.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 73, no. 2 (1997): 369–380.

9. Conscience, the shadow, and symbolic confrontation

Jung, C. G. Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self. Translated by R. F. C. Hull. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1968.

Jung, C. G. The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. 2nd ed. Translated by R. F. C. Hull. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969.

Jung, C. G. Psychology and Religion: West and East. Translated by R. F. C. Hull. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969.

Neumann, Erich. Depth Psychology and a New Ethic. Translated by Eugene Rolfe. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1969.

Eliade, Mircea. Rites and Symbols of Initiation: The Mysteries of Birth and Rebirth. Translated by Willard R. Trask. New York: Harper & Row, 1958.

van Gennep, Arnold. The Rites of Passage. Translated by Monika B. Vizedom and Gabrielle L. Caffee. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960.

Turner, Victor. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. Chicago: Aldine, 1969.

Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. 3rd ed. Novato, CA: New World Library, 2008.

The Zebani’s formation from a person’s suppressed misdeeds can be compared instructively with Jung’s concept of the “shadow.” The two concepts are not, however, historical or theological equivalents.

10. Zoroastrian judgment after death and the daēnā

Boyce, Mary. Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979; reprinted London: Routledge, 2001. A foundational study of the history of Zoroastrian belief, judgment after death, and eschatological teachings. Routledge book page.

Boyce, Mary. A History of Zoroastrianism. 3 vols. Leiden: Brill, 1975–1991.

Boyce, Mary. Textual Sources for the Study of Zoroastrianism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.

Hintze, Almut. “Avestan Literature.” In The Literature of Pre-Islamic Iran, edited by Ronald E. Emmerick and Maria Macuch, 1–71. London: I. B. Tauris, 2009.

Shaked, Shaul. Dualism in Transformation: Varieties of Religion in Sasanian Iran. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1994.

Choksy, Jamsheed K. Purity and Pollution in Zoroastrianism: Triumph over Evil. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989.

Rose, Jenny. Zoroastrianism: An Introduction. London: I. B. Tauris, 2011.

Stausberg, Michael, and Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw Vevaina, eds. The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell, 2015.

11. Death and the weighing of the heart in ancient Egypt

Faulkner, Raymond O., trans. The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. Edited by Carol Andrews. London: British Museum Press, 1985.

Assmann, Jan. Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt. Translated by David Lorton. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005.

Taylor, John H. Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.

Hornung, Erik. The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife. Translated by David Lorton. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999.

Pinch, Geraldine. Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

12. Death, resurrection, and mystical transformation in Christianity

Bynum, Caroline Walker. The Resurrection of the Body in Western Christianity, 200–1336. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995.

Wright, N. T. The Resurrection of the Son of God. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003.

Rahner, Karl. On the Theology of Death. New York: Herder and Herder, 1961.

Cullmann, Oscar. Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead? London: Epworth Press, 1958.

Daley, Brian E. The Hope of the Early Church: A Handbook of Patristic Eschatology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

McGinn, Bernard. The Foundations of Mysticism. New York: Crossroad, 1991.

McGinn, Bernard. The Growth of Mysticism. New York: Crossroad, 1994.

Louth, Andrew. The Origins of the Christian Mystical Tradition: From Plato to Denys. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Turner, Denys. The Darkness of God: Negativity in Christian Mysticism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Dante Alighieri. İlahi Komedya. Translated by Rekin Teksoy. Istanbul: Oğlak Yayınları, various editions.

13. Hızır, the account of Moses and Hızır, and the immortal guide

Wensinck, A. J. “al-Khaḍir.” Encyclopaedia of Islam. 2nd ed. Leiden: Brill.

Ocak, Ahmet Yaşar. İslâm-Türk İnançlarında Hızır Yahut Hızır-İlyas Kültü. Ankara: Türk Kültürünü Araştırma Enstitüsü, 1985.

Çelebi, İlyas. “Hızır.” Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi. Vol. 17. Istanbul: TDV Yayınları, 1998.

Friedlaender, Israel. “Khidr.” Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics. Edited by James Hastings. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1914.

Halman, Hugh Talat. Where the Two Seas Meet: The Qur’anic Story of al-Khidr and Moses in Sufi Commentaries as a Model of Spiritual Guidance. Louisville, KY: Fons Vitae, 2013.

Kızılkeçili’s idea of “becoming Hızır by making the transparent body dense” is a distinctive esoteric interpretation, not a direct expression of traditional teachings about Hızır.

14. The Mahdi, the Messiah, and Islamic eschatology

Madelung, Wilferd. “al-Mahdī.” Encyclopaedia of Islam. 2nd ed. Leiden: Brill.

Sachedina, Abdulaziz A. Islamic Messianism: The Idea of the Mahdi in Twelver Shiʿism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1981.

Filiu, Jean-Pierre. Apocalypse in Islam. Translated by M. B. DeBevoise. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011.

Cook, David. Studies in Muslim Apocalyptic. Princeton, NJ: Darwin Press, 2002.

Cook, David. Contemporary Muslim Apocalyptic Literature. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2005.

Arjomand, Said Amir. The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.

Halverson, Jeffry R., H. L. Goodall Jr., and Steven R. Corman. Master Narratives of Islamist Extremism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Yavuz, Yusuf Şevki. “Mehdî.” Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi. Vol. 28. Ankara: TDV Yayınları, 2003.

Çelebi, İlyas. “Îsâ.” Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi. Vol. 22. Istanbul: TDV Yayınları, 2000.

The report “There is no Mahdi other than Jesus”

The report “Lā mahdiyya illā ‘Īsā”—“There is no Mahdi other than Jesus”—appears in the Fitan section of Ibn Mājah’s Sunan. Hadith scholars have debated its chain of transmission and its relationship to other reports about the Mahdi. It should therefore be described in academic writing as “a report whose authenticity is disputed,” rather than presented as an unquestionably authentic hadith.

Ibn Mājah. Sunan, “Fitan,” section on the Mahdi.

Ibn Khaldūn. Muqaddimah. Section concerning reports about the Mahdi and hadith criticism.

Madelung, Wilferd. “al-Mahdī.” Encyclopaedia of Islam. 2nd ed.

15. Ali, Husayn, Karbala, and spiritual authority

Momen, Moojan. An Introduction to Shi‘i Islam: The History and Doctrines of Twelver Shi‘ism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985.

Jafri, S. Husain M. The Origins and Early Development of Shi‘a Islam. London: Longman, 1979.

Ayoub, Mahmoud M. Redemptive Suffering in Islām: A Study of the Devotional Aspects of ʿĀshūrāʾ in Twelver Shīʿism. The Hague: Mouton, 1978.

Aghaie, Kamran Scot. The Martyrs of Karbala: Shi‘i Symbols and Rituals in Modern Iran. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004.

Dakake, Maria Massi. The Charismatic Community: Shi‘ite Identity in Early Islam. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007.

Amir-Moezzi, Mohammad Ali. The Divine Guide in Early Shi‘ism: The Sources of Esotericism in Islam. Translated by David Streight. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994.

Madelung, Wilferd. The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Tabataba’i, Sayyid Muhammad Husayn. Shi‘ite Islam. Translated by Seyyed Hossein Nasr. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1975.

Fığlalı, Ethem Ruhi. “Hüseyin.” Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi. Vol. 18. Istanbul: TDV Yayınları, 1998.

Fığlalı, Ethem Ruhi. “Ali.” Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi. Vol. 2. Istanbul: TDV Yayınları, 1989.

The statements that Ali is the “second Messiah” and that “those who know weep for Yazid, not for Husayn” express Kızılkeçili’s interpretations centered on spiritual authority and martyrdom. If they are to be used as historical statements by Ali, an early source and chain of transmission must be supplied separately.

16. Comparative religion and understandings of death

Eliade, Mircea. A History of Religious Ideas. 3 vols. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978–1985.

Eliade, Mircea. Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy. Translated by Willard R. Trask. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1964.

Eliade, Mircea. Rites and Symbols of Initiation: The Mysteries of Birth and Rebirth. New York: Harper & Row, 1958.

Obayashi, Hiroshi, ed. Death and Afterlife: Perspectives of World Religions. New York: Praeger, 1992.

Sharma, Arvind, ed. Perspectives on Death and Dying: Cross-Cultural and Multi-Religious. New Delhi: D. K. Printworld, 1995.

Taylor, Richard P. Death and the Afterlife: A Cultural Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2000.

Segal, Alan F. Life after Death: A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion. New York: Doubleday, 2004.

Bernstein, Alan E. The Formation of Hell: Death and Retribution in the Ancient and Early Christian Worlds. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993.

Bernstein, Alan E. Hell and Its Rivals: Death and Retribution among Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Early Middle Ages. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2017.

Klass, Morton. Ordered Universes: Approaches to the Anthropology of Religion. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995.

Davies, Douglas J. A Brief History of Death. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005.

17. Sample academic footnotes for the text

Dying before you die

In the Sufi tradition, “dying before you die” generally means overcoming the self-centered rule of the nafs before biological death and calling oneself to account. Kızılkeçili adds a dimension of experiential separation that he believes takes place through the transparent body.¹

Footnote:

¹ ‘Abd al-Karīm al-Qushayrī, Kuşeyrî Risalesi, ed. Süleyman Uludağ (Istanbul: Dergâh Yayınları); Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1975), 99–104.

Transparent body

The “transparent body” in the text is not a standard teaching found under that name in classical Islamic sources. The concept is a distinctive model of the human being that can be compared with the imaginal body, the spiritual body, and the astral body of modern esotericism.²

Footnote:

² Henry Corbin, Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth: From Mazdean Iran to Shiʿite Iran, trans. Nancy Pearson (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977); L. W. C. van Lit, The World of Image in Islamic Philosophy (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017).

The Zebani and the daēnā

The appearance of a person’s misdeeds as a frightening being and good deeds as a beautiful one bears a structural resemblance to the daēnā in Zoroastrian teachings on death. Kızılkeçili’s pairing of Zebani and angel is nevertheless an independent, syncretic interpretation.³

Footnote:

³ Mary Boyce, Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979), 27–29; Jenny Rose, Zoroastrianism: An Introduction (London: I. B. Tauris, 2011).

Fear of death

The suppression of the fear of death through worldly activities and the pursuit of symbolic immortality has been studied in contemporary psychology through theories of death denial and terror management.⁴

Footnote:

⁴ Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death (New York: Free Press, 1973); Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, and Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core (New York: Random House, 2015).

The Messiah’s raising of the dead

Kızılkeçili interprets the Gospel statement “she is not dead but sleeping” as referring to a trance state. This is an esoteric reading that differs from mainstream Christian interpretation; the canonical accounts present the event in the context of the Messiah’s authority over death and power to raise the dead.⁵

Footnote:

⁵ Matthew 9:18–26; Mark 5:21–43; Luke 8:40–56; John 11:1–44; N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003).