'Ali al-Dhuwayb

علي الذويب

c. 1540 CE · 947 AH

Qutb of the East per al-Sha'rani's dream — twenty years in Cairo then the countryside; he dressed sometimes as a porter, sometimes as a sweeper, walked on water vanishing when spotted, seen every year at 'Arafa; though utterly detached from the world they found about eighty thousand dinars in his house after his death 1.

Depth

At a glance

Roles
mystic
Counted among
Sunni
Era
The Gunpowder Empires
Region
Egypt & Nile
Review
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Life in time

14701480149015001510152015301540155015601570158015901600 c. c. c. c. c.
The Crusades, Ayyubids and Mamluks · The Gunpowder Empires · The Mongol and Post-Mongol Era Contemporaries: 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Ziyad, mufti of Zabid · 'Abd Allah al-Fakihi, the grammarian · Abu al-Su'ud Afandi · Abu Numayy II, sharif of Mecca · Al-Akhdari, Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad

Spirituality and Sufism

Summary

Shaykh Ali, known as al-Dhuwayb, the righteous one who saw into hidden things. He lived in Egypt for about twenty years, then went down to the countryside, where marvels and extraordinary events were attributed to him. He took from Shaykh Muhammad al-Adl al-Tanakhi and others. He followed the path of blame, dressing at one time as a porter and at another as a street sweeper. When he died, about eighty thousand dinars were found in his house, although he had renounced worldly things 2.

Pole of the East

Al-Sha'rani said: "I met him once, straight after a dream I had. In the dream I heard someone say to me: Shaykh Ali al-Dhuwayb is the pole of the East. I had never heard of him, so I asked people about him, and they told me he was one of God's saints." He often walked on water, and when anyone saw him he would vanish. He was seen every year at Arafat, and he would hide from people when they recognised him 3.

People and things also explored

Prophetic adab (proper conduct)· Akhi Baba (title of the guild shaykh and tanners' head)· The angelic and the satanic inspiration (lamma)· Asking people for help (al-masala)· The soul (nafs) and the spirit (ruh)· Tabattul (withdrawal from the world)· Intimacy with God (uns billah)· Certainty and its degrees (yaqin)

Sources

  1. Shadharat al-Dhahab — Ibn al-Imad al-Hanbali , p. 684-685
  2. Shadharat al-Dhahab — Ibn al-Imad al-Hanbali , p. 684
  3. Shadharat al-Dhahab — Ibn al-Imad al-Hanbali , p. 685
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “'Ali al-Dhuwayb”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/ali-al-dhuwayb/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-19.

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Wing

People

Prophets, companions, scholars, rulers, scientists, poets, travelers: women and men who shaped the story.
Related

Prophetic adab (proper conduct)

The body of proper conduct the believer is commanded in his words, deeds and relations with God and His servants; from the formula 'whoever believes in God and the Last Day' in Abu Hurayra's hadith Ibn Rajab derives that these traits are of the traits of iman and that deeds enter into iman, dividing the hadith's three commands into what belongs to God's rights — speaking good or keeping silent — and what belongs to His servants' rights — honouring the neighbour, withholding harm from him and honouring the guest; he transmits Aswad ibn Asram's report of the Prophet's counsel 'do not say with your tongue except what is good and do not extend your hand except to good', and that the tongue's uprightness is of the traits of iman; Abu Amr ibn al-Salah reports from Abu Muhammad ibn Abi Zayd, the Maliki imam of his time, that the conduct of goodness and all its reins branch from four hadiths: speaking good or keeping silent, leaving what does not concern one, 'do not become angry', and loving for one's brother what one loves for oneself.