Turkmen’s steps

You’re referring to the opening eighteen verses of the Masnavi of Jalal al-Din Rumi — the famous Ney-nāmeh (“Song of the Reed”).

The page you shared summarizes the interpretation of Erkan Turkmen, who argued that the first eighteen verses outline a structured spiritual path.

Let’s examine two things:

1. What steps can reasonably be extracted from the first 18 verses?

2. Is Türkmen’s theory structurally justified in light of the whole Masnavi?

1️⃣ The First 18 Verses — What Is Actually There?

The opening begins:

“Listen to the reed how it tells a tale,

complaining of separations…”

These verses revolve around a few central themes:

• Separation from the Origin

• Longing (shawq)

• The pain of exile

• The need for purification

• Love as transformative fire

• The inadequacy of mere intellect

• Spiritual perception beyond outward form

Türkmen reduces these into “steps.” Your page lists nine condensed stages.

Let’s reconstruct them more carefully based on the actual verses.

A More Text-Grounded Reconstruction of the 18 Verses

1. Separation from the Origin

The reed was cut from the reed-bed.

→ Human soul separated from the Divine Source.

2. Universal longing

“Since I was cut from the reed-bed, men and women have lamented in my cry.”

→ Longing is universal and existential.

3. The search for reunion

“Everyone who is far from his source longs to return.”

→ Return is the implicit goal.

4. Misunderstanding by the crowd

“Everyone became my friend from his own opinion.”

→ Spiritual truth is misheard by those still veiled.

5. Inner secret hidden from outer ear

“My secret is not far from my lament, but eye and ear lack the light.”

→ Need for inner perception.

6. The body–soul distinction

“Body is not veiled from soul, nor soul from body — yet no one sees the soul.”

→ Ontological subtlety.

7. Fire of love

“The reed’s song is fire, not wind.”

→ Love as consuming purification.

8. Love destroys egoic selfhood

“Love is the flame which, when it blazes, consumes everything but the Beloved.”

9. The insufficiency of rational intellect

“The intellect is powerless to explain love.”

10. Union beyond speech

“Only one whose garment is rent by love is free from greed and defect.”

The movement is clear:

Separation → Longing → Burning → Purification → Love → Transformation → Union.

So yes — there is progression.

But is it truly a formal step-ladder system?

That’s where scholarship differs.

2️⃣ Is Erkan Türkmen’s Theory Justified?

Türkmen proposes:

• The first 18 verses contain a deliberate spiritual program.

• The rest of the Masnavi elaborates those stages.

This is elegant. But is it textually necessary?

Arguments Supporting Türkmen

✔ The number 18 is symbolic in Islamic tradition.

✔ Rumi dictated the Masnavi beginning with these verses.

✔ The Ney-nāmeh clearly introduces all key themes of the Masnavi:

• separation

• love

• annihilation

• bewilderment

• union

✔ Later books of the Masnavi revisit these themes repeatedly.

So thematically, Türkmen’s theory works.

Arguments Against a Strict “Step Structure”

However:

• The Masnavi is famously non-linear.

• Rumi often digresses into parables unrelated to a strict ladder.

• The structure is spiral, not sequential.

• Later books do not clearly correspond chapter-by-chapter to 9 or 18 steps.

Even Jan Rypka (whom your page quotes) emphasized the “peculiar looseness” of the Masnavi.

Many scholars argue:

The Masnavi is organically associative, not architecturally programmatic.

3️⃣ How Should We View It?

Most balanced conclusion:

The first 18 verses are:

• A thematic seed

• A mystical overture

• A symbolic condensation of the path

But not necessarily:

• A rigid nine-stage spiritual syllabus.

Rumi was not writing a systematic manual like al-Ghazali.

He was composing a living mystical discourse.

The Masnavi unfolds like:

• Breath

• Story

• Ecstasy

• Commentary

• Interruption

• Return

It is spiral, not ladder.

4️⃣ My Assessment

Türkmen’s interpretation is:

🟢 Insightful

🟢 Spiritually coherent

🟢 Thematically defensible

But

🟡 Possibly too systematic for Rumi’s poetic method.

The Masnavi’s unity is:

• Symbolic

• Rhythmic

• Mystical

Not architectural in the modern academic sense.

5️⃣ A Deeper Insight

If we read the Masnavi carefully:

The first 18 verses are not “steps.”

They are states of consciousness.

And those states recur throughout all six books.

That fits Rumi better:

Not ladder.

Not linear ascent.

But oscillation between separation and union.

If you’d like, we could:

• Compare Türkmen’s structure to classical Sufi maqāmāt theory.

• Examine how Book I actually develops the themes of the Ney.

• Or explore why the number 18 may be symbolically significant.

Where would you like to go next?