The Tradition of writing Atwar-ı Sab’a in The Khalwatiah order and Sofian Bali Afandi’s manuscript of Atwar-ı Sab’a
The Khalwatiah is one of the sufi orders which aims the training the animal soul. The Khalwatiah sheikhs have written tens of books named as Atwar-ı Sab’a in order to explain the divine stations of soul for the seeker of truth in his spiritual quest. One of these sheikhs is Bali Afandi of Sofia (d.1553) who is the successor of Qasim Chalabi (d.1518). Bali Afandi who gained the favor and approval of Sultan Sulaiman the law maker (d.1566) trained important successors like Kurd Mehmed Afandi (d.1587) and Nuraddinzade Mustafa Muslihuddin Afandi (d.1574). As a follower of Ibn al-Arabi’s sufi thought he has commented on Fusus al-Hikam and written some books on sufism. In this article we tried to discuss the subjects of divine stations as explained in his Atwar-ı Sab‘a. Keywords Khalwatiyya, seeker (salik), walking a spritual path to God (sayru suluk), individual soul (nafs), Atwar-ı Sab’a, dhikr, purification of soul (tazkiyah), Khilafah, karamah.
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