Abdallah al-Yunini

عبد الله اليونيني

c. 1140 CE · c. 535 AH – c. 1220 CE · 617 AH

Baalbek

Abu Uthman Abdallah ibn Abd al-Aziz ibn Jafar al-Yunini, the great ascetic, 'Lion of Syria', from the village of Yunin among the villages of Baalbek. He was an awe-inspiring, tall shaykh of intense spiritual state, complete in courage, who enjoined right and forbade wrong, was often in jihad and constant in the remembrance of God, without equal, a man of ascetic striving and marvels. The prince Amjad, lord of Baalbek, used to visit him, and the shaykh would rebuke him: 'O Amjad, you are oppressing.' It was said his bow weighed eighty ratls, and he never missed a campaign in Syria. When he came to Homs for the campaigns, al-Malik al-Mujahid Asad al-Din gave him a horse; he rode into the enemy and performed wonders. He never rose for anyone out of reverence for God, stored up nothing, never touched a dinar or a dirham with his hand, and wore only undyed cloth and a sheepskin cap. He died in the year 617, on a Saturday after the Friday prayer, asleep with the prayer beads in his hand, past eighty; his tomb is visited in Baalbek ¹.