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Shaykh Ibrahim al-Zayyat the ecstatic

الشيخ إبراهيم الزيات المجذوب

c. 1378 CE · 780 AH – c. 1458 CE · 862 AH

Ibrahim al-Zayyat (b. Cairo ~780) — the majdhub of Bulaq who chastised its womenfolk and cemetery-visitors yet was sought by the baraka-seekers; 'he spoke in the unseen and passed beyond what men of reason allow'; died 862 1.

Depth

At a glance

Roles
mystic
Era
The Mongol and Post-Mongol Era
Region
Egypt & Nile
Review
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Life in time

1350137514001425145014751500 c. c. c. c. c. c.
The Crusades, Ayyubids and Mamluks · The Gunpowder Empires · The Mongol and Post-Mongol Era Contemporaries: al-Sayyid al-Nassaba Husayn · Majd al-Din ibn Jama'a · Taqi al-Din ibn Qindas al-Ba'li · Shams al-Din al-Tabbakh the Meccan sharif · Izz al-Din al-Qaylawi

Spirituality and Sufism

Summary

Shaykh Ibrahim al-Zayyat the Egyptian majdhub, Abu'l-Sana' al-Zayyat; a majdhub shaykh born in Cairo about 780 and raised there; he stayed a while at Bulaq, joking with the preachers of its women and its cemetery-visitors, sometimes abusing them with foul speech — it recurred and none objected; rather the blessing-seekers wiped themselves on him and used him for their needs; unseen matters sometimes came to him and a group of his companions glimpsed such things from him, and it befell him often, yet he never ceased his ramblings; a majdhub who spoke in trance then forgot what he uttered — the people of reason did not countenance him and some exceeded all bounds concerning him; he died in 862. 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. 299-300
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Shaykh Ibrahim al-Zayyat the ecstatic”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/ibrahim-al-zayyat/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-22.

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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.