Muslih al-Din Mustafa 'ibn Wafa'

مصلح الدين مصطفى «ابن وفاء»

c. 1491 CE · c. 896 AH

Ibn Wafa — the reclusive Constantinople Sufi, master of 'ilm al-wafq, eloquent preacher who 'preferred the fuqara's company'; Mehmed II and Bayezid both sought his company and were refused, and Bayezid attended his funeral and had his face uncovered to look on him; died ~896 1.

Depth

At a glance

Roles
mystic
Era
The Mongol and Post-Mongol Era
Region
Anatolia
Review
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Life in time

137514001425145014751500152515501575 c. c. c. c.
The Crusades, Ayyubids and Mamluks · The Gunpowder Empires · The Mongol and Post-Mongol Era Contemporaries: Abd al-Baqi Yazdi · 'Abd al-Haqq al-Sunbati · Taj al-Din 'Abd al-Wahhab ibn 'Arabshah · Shihab al-Din Ibn 'Ubba al-Maqdisi · Al-Balawi, Ahmad ibn Ali

Spirituality and Sufism

Mustafa "Ibn Wafa," Musleh al-Din

Mulla Musleh al-Din Mustafa, known as Ibn Wafa, a Hanafi knower of God. On the back of his books he would write, "The poor man Mustafa ibn Ahmad al-Sadri al-Qunawi, called Wafa." He first took up Sufism from Shaykh Musleh al-Din, known as the imam of the tanners, and was then sent by an order to serve Shaykh ʿAbd al-Latif al-Qudsi, under whom he completed the path and received licence to guide.

He was an imam, a learned and verifying scholar who combined the knowledge of the outward and the inward, knowledgeable in the science of magic squares, eloquent in verse and composition, an eloquent preacher, withdrawn from people, who went out only at fixed times. When he went out, the notables and others crowded around him seeking blessing. He paid no attention to the people of this world, and preferred the company of the poor. Sultan Muhammad, and after him Sultan Bayezid, sought a meeting with him, but he did not agree. He settled in Constantinople, where he had a zawiya and a mosque. When he died, Sultan Bayezid attended his funeral and ordered his face uncovered so that he could look upon him, out of longing and seeking blessing.

He died around 896 AH 1.

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. 359
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Muslih al-Din Mustafa 'ibn Wafa'”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/ibn-wafa-mustafa/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-18.

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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.