the Pomegranate Sheds No Tears

For those who truly love God and his ways
All the people of the world are brothers.

We regard no one's religion as contrary to ours,
True love is born when all faiths are united as a whole.

True faith is in the head, not in the headgear.

Yunus Emre (ca. 1238 - 1320)
Emre was a great folk poet, a sufi (Islamic mystic), a troubadour and a very influential philosopher who had an effect on the Turkish outlook on life that has stayed alive and vital for 700 years. He was the epitome of tolerance in a world dominated, from East and West, by fanaticism and by the idea that human beings are born in sin and have to spend their lives trying to rise above their base natures. According to the traditional outlook the only path to redemption is a difficult one, narrow and dangerous, and can only be negotiated with the help of qualified guides, the leaders of organized religions. Most religions, moreover, insist that their path is the only possible route to heaven and that the followers of other paths, no matter how well intentioned, are destined for the other place. Yunus Emre rejected this single path approach.



After exploring a neighborhood with old ottoman houses, Ayhan and I passed the Column of Constantine and headed north. We spotted a small cemetery by the Nuruosmaniye Camii, near the entrance to the Covered Bazaar, Eminönü District, Istanbul Turkey.