Five Prayers: Perpetual Cycle

A few thoughts.

Bes Vakit means "five prayers" (the five prayers, or salat, of Islam), not "Time and Winds". Each segment in the film represents a prayer cycle, at first light, at noon, midnoon, after sunset, and at night.

In Islamic symbolism, the two axes marked by the Sun's diurnal movement is interpreted and presented as "deputy"/"vice-regent" (khalifah) and "slave" (abd).

Man is a steward and deputy of G-d on earth (khalifah), and man is also the slave of G-d (abd), utterly dependent upon G-d and bound to obey His laws and to exercise the right of deputation according to G-d's revealed wishes.

As steward, man controls but does not own his earthly habitation. Man is free and noble and self-responsible. But as slave, man is a mere creature, yanked back from Prometheanism, bound to confess himself to G-d.

Islamic prayer is a reminder of this deputy-slave duality, which in turn reminds man of his place in creation.

During Islamic prayer, the Muslim moves from the vertical position, signifying man as steward/deputy/khalif, to the horizontal, signifying man as slave/abd.

Standing then prostration then standing once again - the prayer movements not only enact the gestures of a slave doing obeisance to his Master, but it also enacts the story of Adam. Standing posture, the Muslim is Adam, the Everyman, speaking for all creatures and all creation. Prostrate, face occluded and forehead to the earth, the Muslim is Adam returned to the clay from which he was created. Then standing once again - the birth of Adam, the Resurrection, molded from the earth and re-awakened. And the bodily position of the prostration - forehead to the ground, arms and legs rounded into the body, is embryonic/fetal, stretching the back in a way to mark the bone at the end of th spine, which the Hadith considers the seed of resurrection.

In Islamic symbology, the dark night is spiritually fertile; the moon is nothing less than the sun of the night (hence the crescent symbol of Islam...) and a symbol of the waking mind united with the absolute passivity of the sleeping mind.

Thus standing also represents the waking state, while prostration represents the sleeping state, a state that is also prophetic and open to revelations, a sleeping state in which the worshiper plunges into the depths of the sleeping mind, the deepest stratum of oneself. A plunging into parts of the psyche that are permanently in perennial and perpetual submission to G-d.

Hence the overwhelming cinematography of the night sequences in Bes Vakit.

Multiple parallels of symbolism are encompassed within Islamic prayer, astronomical, cosmic, biblical.

When Muslims pray, these symbolisms are activated, and by constant repetition, day after day, night after night, cycle after cycle, these symbols quietly burn into the believer's soul.

I call to witness the early hours of morning,
And the night when dark and still,
Your L-rd has neither left you, nor despises you.
What is to come is better for you than what has gone before;
For your L-rd will certainly give you, and you will be content.
Did He not find you an orphan and take care of you?
Did He not find you perplexed, and show you the way?
Did He not find you poor and enrich you?
So do not oppress the orphan,
And do not drive the beggar away,
And keep recounting the favours of your L-rd.

Have we not opened up your breast
And removed your burden
Which had left you devoid of hope,
And exalted your fame?
Surely with hardship there is ease.
With hardship indeed there is ease.
So when you are free work diligently,
And turn to your Lord with all your love.