The Conceptualization of Prayer as a Spiritual Craft in Yûnus Emre

Abstract

This article examines how the ritual prayer (ṣalāt) is conceptualized as a “spiritual craft” in Yūnus Emre’s poem that opens with the verse “San’atun yigregi çün namâzımış hoş pîşe.” It argues that Yūnus’s description of prayer not only as an “art” (sanʿat), a “profession/trade” (pîşe) and a merely decorative metaphor, but on the contrary outcome of a coherent experiential project in which the believer rebuilds the self and one’s entire life around a divine center. The study establishes the theoretical framework of this project by drawing on al-Fārābī’s notion of malaka (habitual mastery) and on the craft-oriented Ahi tradition. It then investigates the inner principles—such as iḥsān and khushūʿ—that determine the quality of performing this art, by relating them to the accounts of classical Sufi authorities including al-Sarrāj, al-Ghazālī, and al-Qushayrī. The article further explores how this work of self-construction extends into the social sphere—especially family life and professional practice—how a “petrified heart” is softened through a form of ethical therapy, and how the entire project acquires its existential meaning in the face of “sudden death.” Prayer thus appears as an “art of preparing for death,” in which daily embodied practice continually educates perception, desire, and character. In conclusion, the article shows how Yūnus Emre, by weaving the universal principles of the Qurʾān and the Sunnah together with the cultural codes of thirteenth-century Anatolia, transforms a juristic obligation into a comprehensive “art of self-formation” that structures all domains of life.