Ibrahim ibn 'Abd Rabbih the Sufi

إبراهيم بن عبد ربه الصوفي

c. July 1473 CE · Safar 878 AH

Ibn 'Abd Rabbih — the Sufi of Jami' al-Zahid's khalwa 'counted among the felicitous': once ate a whole ox then fasted the year after; at his grave the promised watermelon appeared in a disciple's stairwell; died Safar 878, buried at the mosque's gate 1.

Depth

At a glance

Roles
mystic
Era
The Mongol and Post-Mongol Era
Region
Egypt & Nile
Review
Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it

Life in time

13751400142514501475150015251550 c. 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 · Abu Zayyan Muhammad V, Marinid Sultan · Shihab al-Din Ibn 'Ubba al-Maqdisi

Spirituality and Sufism

Overview

Ibrahim ibn 'Abd Rabbih the Sufi; al-Manawi in his Tabaqat calls him a witness to piety numbered among the fortunate, who studied under Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghumari, Shaykh Madin and others, lived in a cell at the Zahid mosque, and was believed in by the people — he would teach the dhikr formula and was among the men of spiritual states. 2

Marvels

He once entered Shaykh Madin's house on the mawlid and ate all the feast, and once ate a whole cow's meat then fasted a year after; among his marvels — related by Shaykh Amin al-Din, imam of the Ghumari mosque — he told him "your daughter can answer our needs; between him and his brother is a span of earth — ask her and she will answer you"; when his daughter fell ill they sought her a watermelon, found none, went to his grave and said "the promise," and returning after night prayer found a watermelon on their stairs from no known source; he died in Safar 878. 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

  1. Shadharat al-Dhahab — Ibn al-Imad al-Hanbali , p. 323-324
  2. Shadharat al-Dhahab — Ibn al-Imad al-Hanbali
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Ibrahim ibn 'Abd Rabbih the Sufi”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/ibrahim-ibn-abd-rabbih/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-21.

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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.