Yazidi Creation in Qewlê Zebûnî Meksûr

For many Yazidis who grew up in Europe, the sacred Qewls can feel both familiar and distant.

We may know their names. We may have heard fragments recited by older relatives or religious figures. Yet the language is often poetic, symbolic and difficult to understand, especially for those who do not read or write Ezdiki.

Qewlê Zebûnî Meksûr is one of the hymns that speaks about the creation and early history of the world.

But it does not describe creation in the way a modern history book would. Instead, it speaks through images: a Pearl, the great ocean, Love, the Seven Mysteries, Lalish, light, water, the Cup, Adam and the soul.

To understand the Qewl, we therefore have to ask a different question. Not only: What happens? But also: What do these images seem to represent?

Before the world: the Pearl

One of the first and most important images in the hymn is the Pearl.

Before the earth has taken its present form, the Pearl appears as something that contains or precedes creation. Eventually, it opens. From this unfolding come elements connected with the formation of the cosmos: water, the earth and the sacred beings who participate in the ordering of creation.

The Pearl should probably not be imagined simply as a physical pearl floating somewhere in space. In the language of the hymn, it functions as a cosmic image that contains hidden potential before the world becomes what we know today.

Creation, in other words, begins from something that is whole, concealed and not yet unfolded.

Creation is not described as a single moment

Another striking feature of the Qewl is that the world does not simply appear completed.

Creation unfolds in stages. The earth is initially unstable. Water plays a central role. Different parts of creation have to be separated, established and given their proper place.

Again and again, the hymn describes a world moving from an undefined state toward order.

This is important because creation here is not only about producing matter. It is also about establishing boundaries, laws, relationships and sacred order. The world becomes a world because things receive their place.

Mihbet: Love as a force of creation

Perhaps one of the most beautiful ideas in the hymn is the role of Mihbet (Love).

Today, when we hear the word “love,” we usually think of an emotion between people. But the Qewl presents Love as something much larger.

Love participates in the formation of the world itself. It appears almost as a force that enters creation and helps transform what is still unstable into something ordered and habitable.

This makes Mihbet more than a feeling. Within the imagery of the hymn, Love belongs to the architecture of creation.

The world is not established through power alone. Love is part of what allows creation to take form.

The Seven Mysteries

The hymn also speaks of the Seven Mysteries, often understood in relation to the Seven Holy Beings of Yazidi tradition.

They are present within the process through which creation receives its structure. Rather than presenting the universe as something abandoned after its creation, the Qewl describes a cosmos filled with sacred agency.

Creation has an order. It has guardianship. It has relationships between the divine world and the visible world.

This idea appears repeatedly throughout Yazidi religious tradition: the material world and the sacred world are not entirely separate realities. They are connected.

Lalish before ordinary history

One of the most remarkable passages concerns Lalish.

For someone approaching the hymn for the first time, it may be surprising to encounter Lalish within a creation narrative. We usually think of Lalish geographically: a sacred valley in present-day Iraq and the spiritual centre of Yazidi life.

But in the Qewl, Lalish has a meaning that goes beyond geography. The hymn presents a form or counterpart of Lalish within the sacred ordering of the cosmos before the world has fully taken its present shape.

Later, Lalish becomes associated with stability, sacredness and the centre of the created world.

This tells us something important about the Yazidi understanding of sacred geography. Lalish is not sacred merely because important historical events happened there. Within the religious imagination of the Qewl, its sacredness reaches back into the structure of creation itself.

Earth, water, wind and fire

As the world develops, the hymn speaks about the coming together of basic elements such as earth, water, wind and fire.

These elements are connected with the formation of the human body, especially the body of Adam.

Here the Qewl moves from the creation of the cosmos toward the creation of humanity. But having a body is still not the same as being fully alive.

Adam has been formed, yet something essential is missing: the soul.

Why does Adam not immediately come to life?

This is one of the most fascinating parts of the Qewl.

Adam's body has been created, but his soul does not simply enter it immediately. There is resistance. There is a separation between body and soul that has to be overcome.

And then something unexpected appears: sacred music.

The hymn connects the coming of the soul with the def and shibab, instruments deeply associated with Yazidi religious tradition.

This is an extraordinary image. Music is not presented merely as decoration or entertainment. It participates in the story of life entering the human being.

For a community whose sacred knowledge has historically been preserved through recitation, melody and oral transmission, that symbolism is especially powerful.

Sound becomes connected with life itself.

The Cup of Love

Another recurring symbol is the Cup.

The hymn connects it with Love, sacred power and transformation. Adam drinks from the Cup and undergoes a change.

The imagery suggests more than ordinary drinking. The Cup represents participation in something sacred: a force that awakens, transforms and gives spiritual capacity.

The motif continues beyond Adam. The Cup becomes part of a larger sacred history connecting different generations of humanity.

Instead of reading it only as a physical object, it may be more useful to understand it as a symbol of divine gift, knowledge, Love and spiritual transformation.

From creation to Siltan Êzî and Şêx Adî

Toward the later part of the hymn, the sacred history moves closer to figures central to Yazidi identity.

The text refers to Siltan Êzî and Şêx Adî.

The effect is almost like a continuous sacred timeline. Creation, humanity and Yazidi religious history are not presented as completely separate chapters. They belong to the same story.

The hymn therefore does more than answer the question: “How was the world created?”

It also asks: “Where do we belong inside that world?”

So what is this Qewl really telling us?

If we strip away the poetic language too aggressively, we risk missing its most important ideas.

Qewlê Zebûnî Meksûr is not simply a chronological account of creation. It describes a world in which creation begins from hidden potential; order emerges gradually; Love helps give form to the world; the sacred and material worlds remain connected; Lalish belongs to the cosmic order; human life requires more than a physical body; music, soul and sacred knowledge are connected; and human history forms part of a much larger sacred story.

For Yazidis raised outside the traditional centres of Yazidi life, understanding these ideas can make the Qewls feel less distant.

You do not necessarily have to understand every archaic expression to begin engaging with them. Sometimes the first step is simply learning to recognize the images our ancestors used to speak about existence.

The Pearl. The Ocean. Mihbet. Lalish. The Seven Mysteries. The Cup. The Soul.

They are not random poetic decorations. Together, they form a language through which generations of Yazidis tried to answer some of humanity's oldest questions:

Where did we come from?
What gives the world order?
What makes a human being alive?
And what is our place within creation?

A note on this article

This article is not a translation of the Qewl and does not attempt to replace the original oral tradition. It is an accessible explanation based on one published version of Qewlê Zebûnî Meksûr. Qewls exist within a living oral tradition, and wording, interpretation and transmission can vary.

For readers who can access the original Ezdiki, the Qewl itself should always remain the primary text.