At a glance
- Roles
- mystic
- Counted among
- Sunni
- Era
- The Early Abbasid Caliphate
- Region
- Persia & Central Asia
- Identifiers
- Wikidata
- Review
- Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it
Life in time
Place in the story
- Saint (as venerated)Tradition
Roles are dated and sourced; the museum describes the act and attributes the judgement.
Overview
Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Adham ibn Mansur al-Tamimi al-Balkhi, an ascetic and hadith scholar from Balkh, mentioned in the biographies of ascetics and Sufis. 1
Death
The encyclopaedia gives his death as 161 AH (777 CE). This date comes from a single source and needs an additional source. 1
In al-Dhahabi's Siyar
Al-Dhahabi records reports of his asceticism: he gathered acorns from oak trees; asked what the believer's miraculous dignity could reach, he said "that he tell the mountain 'move' and it moves" — and the mountain moved, whereupon he said "it was not you I meant". Of his sayings: every unjust king is like a thief, and every impious scholar like a wolf. 2
On how his affair began: his father was among the wealthy kings and hunting was made dear to him; then he left all of that and made for the mountain, worshipping God there until he died — the famous story al-Dhahabi narrates with its chain. 2
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
- Mawsu'at A'lam al-Ulama' wa-l-Adaba' al-Arab wa-l-Muslimin — Dar al-Jil / ALECSO , p.424-425
- Siyar a'lam al-nubala' — al-Dhahabi (Ideas House International edition, 2004) , p.646
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Ibn Adham, Ibrahim”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/ibn-adham-ibrahim/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-21.