Marife Turkish Journal of Religious Studies

Abstract

Rajaz, one of the oldest poetry forms of Arabic poetry, consists of rhythmic, simple, and short poems that were sung with instruments, mostly used in folk melodies and children's songs during the Jahiliyyah period. Rajaz, whose artistic value was initially lower than the ḳaṣīda, reached a high level in terms of literary value during the Umayyad Period, and was distinguished by its content plan and the length of the number of couplets similar to the ḳaṣīda. The effects of the change that poetry experienced in terms of content and style during the Abbasid Period were also seen in the urjūzas, scientific issues began to be discussed in the form of didactic poems in the examples of rajaz sung during this period, and this tradition called 'taʿlīmī poetry' continued until the modern period. Particularly scholarly poets, who wanted to benefit from the structure of poetry that can be memorized and remembered, have frequently resorted to this type of poetry because rajaz type poems provide ease in finding rhymes and thus allow for long explanations. One of these poets is Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Hilālī, whose verses are the subject of the study. al-Hilālī, one of the well-known scholars of the Maghreb region, is a scholar who left significant traces in the region in the 18th century with his scholarly personality, the works he wrote and the students he educated. As one of the leading figures of his time in the sciences of Tafsīr, Ḥadīth, Fiḳh, ʿAḳâʾid, Logic and Sufism, al-Hilālī devoted his life to raising students and had many students who made a name for themselves in the region. Among these are historian Muḥammad b. Ṭayyib al-Ḳādirī and Ibn Sude. In addition to being a scholar, al-Hilālī, who was also a poet, used the urjūza form to explain scientific issues, as in the poem in question, which he wrote to guide the people. His urjūza, known as an-Naṣīḥat al-Hilāliyyah, was written in the style of an advice book addressed to the general public, in which the influences of the Sufi disposition are visible. An extremely simple and sincere style was preferred in accordance with the audience he addressed in the poem. For this reason, al-Hilālī's urjūza was very popular in the region, many commentaries were written on it and its effects have continued to this day. After starting his poem by praising and praying for the Prophet's family and companions, al-Hilālī calls on people to wake up from heedlessness, not to forget death and the difficult situations of the afterlife, emphasizes the importance of knowledge and deeds, touches upon concepts such as piety, vera, asceticism, contentment, and again salat and prayer. He ends his poem with a greeting. The poem is written in the full rhyme of the rajaz, where each couplet consists of six tafʿilas, and the lines that make up the couplets rhyme within themselves, and this type of rajaz is called muzdawija. al-Hilālī, who devotes approximately one third of his 130-couplet poem to disasters caused by satiety and ways to avoid them, was particularly inspired by al-Ġazzālī's work called Iḥyā’ ‘ulūm al-dīn in the composition of this section, and even transferred some of his lines from Iḥyā to the poetic form. The poet, who made references to many verses of the Quran and hadiths in his verses, included some fabricated hadiths in his work, despite his knowledge in the science of hadith. al-Hilālī, who adopted the principle of conveying his message in the simplest way in accordance with the purpose of writing, therefore pushed the artistic and literary aspects of poetry to the background. In addition, poetry has a rich expression in terms of eloquence, especially with its metaphorical styles in which constructional sentences such as taʿaccub, istifhām, nidā (exclamation), which it uses to convey its feelings more effectively, and expressive and badīʿ arts such as similes, metaphors, ṭibāḳ, luzūm mā lā yalzam. Despite this, it is a more accurate approach to think that the fame of poetry, especially in the Maghreb region, has gained popularity even today due to its sincere style that affects hearts rather than its literary aspect.