Spirituality and Sufism

Family: Belief and worship · 261 entries

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• Abu Dharr al-Ghifari

  c. 590 CEA tribesman of Ghifar among the very first converts, remembered for fierce asceticism and for denouncing the hoarding of wealth; Uthman exiled him to al-Rabadha, where he died.

• Amir b. 'Abd al-Qays al-'Anbari (ascetic of Basra)

  Amir b. 'Abd al-Qays al-'Anbari, an ascetic of Basra whose way of life drew the attention of Humran b. Aban, the agent of 'Uthman, who denounced him to the caliph. He was interrogated, exiled to Damascus and died there, probably in the caliphate of Mu'awiya. Sufism counts him among the principal zuhhad.

• Ibn Adham, Ibrahim

  Ascetic and hadith transmitter from Balkh, remembered among the early Sufi ascetics.

• Abd al-Wahid ibn Zayd

  An ascetic, exemplar and preacher, known as the leading worshipper of Basra. He transmitted from al-Hasan al-Basri and Ata' ibn Abi Rabah.

• Bayazid al-Bistami

  804 CE · 188 AHOne of the great figures of Islamic Sufism, whose influence was large on his contemporaries and later generations.

• Ibn al-A'rabi, Ahmad ibn Muhammad

  861 CE · 246 AHA hadith scholar, memorizer, historian and ascetic Sufi from Basra, learned in hadith and biographical classes.

• Ahmad ibn Isa al-Kharraz

  A major Sufi, named al-Kharraz after the trade of leather-stitching.

• Abu Sa'id al-Kharraz

  A major Sufi, known for the station of trust in God. Ibn al-Jawzi places his death under 277 (with a variant 286), describing him as 'one of the foremost in effort, devoutness and self-watchfulness'.

• Ahmad ibn Yahya al-Jalla'

  A major Sufi of Baghdadi origin, who lived in Ramla and Damascus.

• Ibn al-Sammak the preacher

  c. 942 CE · 330 AH

• Al-Ansari al-Harawi, Abd Allah ibn Muhammad

  1005 CE · 396 AHA memorizer, historian, hadith scholar, Sufi and Qur'an commentator from Herat, a Hanbali who traced his lineage to Abu Ayyub al-Ansari.

• Abu al-Qasim Abd al-Samad ibn Ali al-Dinawari, the preacher

  Abd al-Samad ibn Umar ibn Ali ibn Ishaq, Abu al-Qasim al-Dinawari, a preacher and ascetic. He recited the Qur'an and studied Shafi'i jurisprudence under Abu Sa'id al-Istakhri, and heard hadith from Abu Bakr al-Najjad; al-Azji and al-Sayyimari transmitted from him. He kept to a way of life proverbial for striving against the self, austerity and enjoining good. He used to pound galingale (sa'd) for the perfumers. He heard a Jewish perfumer tell his son that he had tested the Muslims and found no one trustworthy among them, so he hired himself to guard the man's shop for three ratls of bread and two dirhams a day, and served him for a year without betrayal. Then he told him that he had not wanted to work for him, but had heard him say to his son that he had found no honest man among the Muslims, and he wished to prove those words wrong; he informed him of his faith, and his piety became famous among the people, and he devoted himself to preaching. He died in Darb Shammas, by the Nahr al-Qala'in on the western side, on Tuesday, seven days before the end of Dhu al-Hijja of the year 397, and was buried in the cemetery of Imam Ahmad.

• Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami

  Draft card for Abu Abd al-Rahman Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Sulami of Nishapur, author of Tabaqat al-Sufiyya and chronicler of eleventh-century Sufism, d. 1021; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Ahmad-e Jami (Zhanda Pil, Khorasani Sufi, d. 1141)

  c. 1049 CE · c. 441 AHAhmad-e Jami, Shihab al-Din Abu Nasr, a Khorasani Sufi and Persian writer, born in the village of Nama in Turshiz about 441/1049–50 and called Zhanda Pil. After a conversion in 463/1070–1 he lived in solitude, and later founded a convent and a mosque at Ma'addabad of Jam, where he died in Muharram 536/1141. His Persian works include Uns al-tainin and Sirat al-sairin.

• Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani

  1078 CE · 470 AHOne of the major masters of Sunni Sufism, named after Gilan. He had a large influence on preaching and spiritual guidance.

• Ibn Barrajan, Abd al-Salam ibn Abd al-Rahman

  An ascetic Sufi and theologian from the Maghrib, known for his preaching and for Sufism and kalam.

• Ahmad Yasawi (Turkish Sufi shaykh of Central Asia, d. 1166)

  Ahmad Yasawi, Turkish Sufi shaykh of Central Asia, born at Sayram (Isfijab) in Turkistan in the second half of the fifth/eleventh century. He studied at Bukhara under Yusuf Hamadhani, succeeded him in 555/1160, and died at Yasi in 562/1166. His tomb became a place of pilgrimage for kings and princes, and the Diwan-i Hikmet is ascribed to him.

• Jalal al-Din Rumi

  1207 CE · 603 AH†Jalal al-Din Rumi.

• Ruzbihan al-Baqli

  A Sufi scholar of Shiraz, known as Sadr al-Din, with contributions to several fields and one of the major writers on Persian Sufism.

• Al-Abraqawhi, Ahmad ibn Ishaq

  1218 CE · 615 AHJudge of Abarquh and a Shafi'i scholar, hadith transmitter and Sufi; born in Abarquh in Fars and died in Egypt.

• Ali Hamadani (Sufi saint and apostle of Kashmir, 1314–1385)

  1314 CE · 714 AHAli Hamadani, a Sufi of a sayyid family of Hamadan and the apostle of Islam in Kashmir. He visited Kashmir three times (1372, 1379 and 1383) and died in 786/1385 on his way to Turkistan, being buried at Khuttalan. His works include the Awrad-i fathiyya and the Dhakhirat al-muluk on political ethics.

• Shihab al-Din Ibn Ruslan

  c. 1372 CE · 773 AHIbn Ruslan (b. Ramla 773) — the Jerusalem saint-jurist author of the Zubd rhymed Shafi'i manual (composed, tradition says, then cast into the sea and returned unharmed); taught under the Ba'uni's licence then turned wholly to the 'sound Sufi path,' becoming 'a beacon for wayfarers'; commentaries on Sunan Abi Dawud, the Minhaj, the Alfiyya and sixty rhymed sciences; died Jerusalem Monday 8 Ramadan 844 aged 71 — 'the world shuddered at his death and the land saw none like him after'.

• Izz al-Din al-Qaylawi

  c. 1378 CE · 780 AHAl-Qaylawi (b. Baghdad's east side ~780) — the survivor of Timur's sack who fled to 'Ajam, learned Hanafi fiqh from al-Harawi, took tasawwuf from Bar 'Ali al-Siwasi at Erzincan, sat with Ibn al-Ha'im at Jerusalem, and settled at Cairo as a sowing ascetic 'patient under people's burdens' who never sought office; died Ramadan 859 past eighty.

• Shaykh Ibrahim al-Zayyat the ecstatic

  c. 1378 CE · 780 AHIbrahim 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.

• Zayn al-Din al-Qadiri al-Salihi

  c. 1381 CE · 782 AHZayn al-Din al-Qadiri (b. 782) — 'shaykh of the path and sign of the Truth,' the Salihiyya ascetic whose father composed the litanies he lived by; author of al-Kanz al-Akbar on commanding right, Nuzhat al-Nufus on the virtues of plants/animals/stones, and the mawlid awrad; beloved of qadis and deputies of every madhhab; died Friday night end-Rabi' II 856, buried in the turba he built before his zawiya — a fellow Sufi swore he answered the salam from his grave.

• Jami, Abd al-Rahman ibn Ahmad

  1414 CE · 817 AHThe Persian poet and Sufi of Jam — Sa'd al-Din Kashghari's disciple and Khwaja 'Ubaydallah Ahrar's companion, 'the wonder of his age in learning, deeds, letters and poetry'; Sharh Fusus al-Hikam, the best sharh of the Kafiya, Nafahat al-Uns, Silsilat al-Dhahab, al-Durra al-Fakhira; he got as far as Hamadan answering Bayezid's summons then begged off for the plague in Rum; died at Herat 898, his chronogram 'whoever enters it is safe'.

• Abu al-Mawahib ibn Zaghdan

  c. 1417 CE · 820 AHIbn Zaghdan (b. Tunis 820) — the Maliki Sufi 'treasure of the gnostics': took hadith from Ibn Hajar, tasawwuf from Ibn Abi Wafa'; author of Mazarib al-Kamal, the unmatched sharh al-Hikam and Qawa'id Hukm al-Ishraq; al-Sha'rani: 'nothing like it written on the Path'; a defender of Ibn 'Arabi with a risala on the lawfulness of the lute; his khalwa sat atop the Azhar where al-Ghuri's minaret stood; died 882, buried in the Shadhili cemetery.

• Taqi al-Din al-Balatinsi

  c. 27 August 1447 CE · 10 Rajab 851 AHShaykh mashayikh al-Islam of Damascus — b. Friday 10 Rajab 851, of 'a house of piety and learning' per his own pupil; settled in Damascus never taking a dirham of its waqfs, refusing money and posts, the recourse of jurists and governors in hard questions, a khatma every Friday and two each Ramadan night; his nuniyya praised Sulayman and chronicled Rhodes and Chaldiran; died Monday eve 2 Muharram, buried beside his grandfather at Bab al-Saghir.

• al-Husayn al-Ba'alawi, shaykh of Hadramawt

  Shaykh al-Husayn ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Ba'alawi, 'shaykh of the Hadramawt lands'; died Ramadan 865.

• Yahya al-Shirwani al-Khalwati

  Yahya al-Shirwani — 'shaykh of the Khalwati way at Baku,' who 'first instituted the khulafa' system on which the turuq run today' and whose name some give to the very Khalwatiyya; over ten thousand murids followed him and his deputies were planted across Shirvan, Armenia, Gilan and 'Ajam; died ~868 at Baku.

• Muhammad al-Jazuli al-Sumlali

  From the mountains of Sus in the Maghrib, author of the widely read Dala'il al-Khayrat on blessings upon the Prophet.

• al-Tanbadhawi al-Bakri al-Siddiqi

  c. 1466 CE · c. 870 AHZabid's riyasa of fatwa and teaching — 'the sun among his generation's stars', fierce for truth; Ibn Ziyad's own teacher (who told him 'you have one of the Muzjaj's profit, we have his glance and his tongue'); he skimmed both huge volumes of the Idah in a single night writing three notebooks of notes — 'a breach of the norm'; works: the relied-upon Zabid fatawa, Sharh al-Tanbih in four volumes, a gloss on al-'Ubab.

• Ahmad ibn 'Arus of Tunis

  Ibn 'Arus — 'among the greatest saints of the ecstatic way at Tunis': wild birds came down to eat from his hand, he stretched both hands into the air and produced his fuqara's provender, sat atop a Tunis funduq night and day till death ~871.

• Fatima bint Quraymizan

  c. 16 June 1473 CE · 4 Muharram 878 AHFatima bint Quraymizan — shaykha of both the 'Adiliyya and Dajajiyya khanqahs of Aleppo; b. 4 Muharram 878, a fine calligrapher who copied many books, learned 'from this husband of mine' — the Ardabili who said 'God taught me thirty-six sciences'; she willed her prayer mat buried with her, and Ibn al-Hanbali bore her bier [966].

• Ibrahim ibn 'Abd Rabbih the Sufi

  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.

• Ibrahim al-Biqa'i the Sufi

  c. July 1479 CE · Rabi' I 885 AHThe speed-reader mystic — read all of Sahih al-Bukhari on al-Badr al-Ghazzi in six days and Sahih Muslim in five sittings within twenty days; al-Ghazzi wrote him up as 'one of the saints who do not know themselves'; martyred by dysentery Tuesday 11 Sha'ban 935.

• al-Sadr Sulayman al-Ubshithi

  Al-Ubshithi — the Shaykhuniyya scholar turned Sufi who put the Shamsiyya away when al-Hurayfish's karama redirected him; his unattended mule went to Rumayla and returned at lesson's end; died ~887 near eighty.

• Abu 'Ali Husayn, the shape-shifter Sufi of Bulaq

  Abu 'Ali Husayn — al-Manawi's 'Sufi of transformation': found as a lion, a soldier, an elephant to successive visitors; cut to pieces at night and found praying whole at dawn; forty years sealed in a riverside khalwa eating and drinking nothing; his followers reared foundlings as the 'Nummusiyya' until Qaytbay beheaded some for exceeding the shari'a; died ~891.

• Shaykh Midin, khalifa of al-Ashmuni

  Shaykh Midin — descendant of Abu Madyan's line, the Ashmuni zahid who reached the opening in three days where al-Ghumri needed fifteen years; his tilted minaret straightened at his leaning back, he sent Jaqmaq a silver-assaying rod when the treasury ran short ('the sultan said: these are the real kings'), and set the old man who asked to memorize the Qur'an to dhikr in the khalwa; died Wednesday 9 Rabi' I 892, buried at his zawiya.

• Ma'ruf al-Shibi, qutb of Shabwa

  c. 10 September 1488 CE · 11 Ramadan 893 AHMa'ruf al-Shibi — Shabwa's qutb b. Friday eve 11 Ramadan 893; when Sultan Badr al-Kathiri ordered him exiled and paraded with a rope on his neck, the amir detailed to do it was one of the shaykh's own devotees and hesitated — the shaykh sent to him: 'do what you were ordered; I stand surety for you to God for Paradise'; died Saturday eve 15 Safar [970] at Du'an.

• Shaykh 'Abdallah 'Hajji Khalifa'

  Hajji Khalifa of Kastamonu — the exoteric sciences mastered first, then Taj al-Din ibn Bakhshi's successor in the Sufi path, 'an aya in generosity and futuwwa'; died end of Jumada II 894.

• 'Abdallah al-Ilahi al-Simawi

  Al-Ilahi of Simav — the Naqshbandi carrier to Anatolia: a faqir's prompting saved only the book of shaykhs' letters when he meant to burn his library; served Khwaja 'Ubaydallah Ahrar at Samarqand, did i'tikaf at Baha' al-Din Naqshband's grave, kept company with Jami at Herat; the Zeyrek mosque crowd in Constantinople finally drove him to Rumeli where he died ~896.

• Muslih al-Din Mustafa 'ibn Wafa'

  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.

• al-Sha'rani

  c. 1492 CE · c. 898 AHAl-Sha'rani — of Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyya's line; orphaned a child, he memorized the Qur'an by about seven and the Rawd to the qadi-book; at the Ghuri mosque he took the Six Books on Amin al-Din and read on al-Qastallani, al-Ashmuni, Zakariyya and al-Ramli; years of a rope hung from his cell's roof so he would not lie down, breaking his fast on an ounce of bread, clothing himself from scavenged rags — then 'he would fly from the Ghuri mosque's mihrab to its roof'; his works: Mukhtasar al-Futuhat, al-Mizan, Kashf al-Ghumma, Lawaqih al-Anwar, al-Yawaqit wa'l-Jawahir, three Tabaqat — while envious rivals forged words into his books to smear him.

• Jamal al-Din al-Afandi, Muhammad ibn Hamid al-Din

  A Sufi shaykh from a scholarly family, a follower of the Halveti order, known as al-Afandi.

• Abu al-Mawahib al-Tunisi al-Shadhili

  The Shadhili of Tunis resident in Cairo, seated facing the Maghreb riwaq at the Azhar, a man of litanies and states; Burhan al-Din al-Iqsara'i took the path from him and was named 'al-Muwahhibi' after him; d. 901.

• Muhammad ibn Dawud al-Nasimi al-Manzilawi

  A saint of al-Manzilawa who held his community to the Prophet's words and deeds alone — 'we have no shaykh but the Messenger of God' — in his treatise Tariqat al-Faqr al-Muhammadi; he lodged and served the poor, and the tale is told of a night-guest for whom he had nothing, who watched the empty pot fill now with rice and milk, now rice and sweet, now meat and broth; buried beside his zawiya at al-Nassimiyya, his grave still visited.

• Molla 'Ala' al-Din 'Ali al-'Arabi

  An Aleppine who studied under Molla al-Kurani then served Khidr Beg, repetiteur at Edirne's Dar al-Hadith, then master of the Manisa madrasa where he joined the leadership of learning and the Sufi path — forty-day retreats, a heart-dhikr audible from afar, the tale of smelling 'the scent of impurity' on a visiting imam carrying Ibn Qadi Samawna's treatise which he then ordered burned; ended as mufti of Constantinople, first to gloss the Four Muqaddimat, d. 901.

• Isma'il ibn 'Abdallah al-Salihi

  The God-intoxicated saint of the Salihiyya — 'his brain dried up from overmuch recitation of the Qur'an in the Abu 'Umar madrasa and his reason departed, or, it was said, he loved and was consumed'; in his rapture he recited constantly and spoke fine words, and all people held him in deep regard, keeping to the New Mosque and the Afram mosque; Ibn Tulun heard him declaim the verse 'he who casts off worldly hopes is rich though he die of hunger'; d. 19 Ramadan 901.

• Badr al-Din al-Ghazzi, shaykh al-Islam of Damascus

  c. 12 June 1499 CE · 14 Dhu al-Qa'da 904 AHBadr al-Din al-Ghazzi — Damascus's shaykh al-Islam; given the khirqa and a full ijaza by Abu al-Fath al-Mizzi before he was two, teaching from seventeen; holder of the Umayyad qurra' mashyakha and six madrasa chairs, who let qadis and na'ibs wait at his door and closed the gift-door absolutely; 115 works including the great verse tafsir in 180,000 verses; died Wednesday 16 Shawwal 984, buried at Shaykh Arslan's turba.

• 'Abd al-Halim al-Manzilawi

  The murid-tester shaykh — he struck disciples so severely some fell near death, then 'renewed their life' as they accepted repentance; open-handed to all; died shortly after Sultan Qaytbay.

• Burhan al-Din al-Iqsara'i al-Muwahhibi

  Named 'al-Muwahhibi' after his initiator Abu al-Mawahib al-Tunisi — 'the great saint' whose grace, the source says, opened hearts through him; Ibn Fahd notes his three years' residence at Mecca from 904; author of Ihkam al-Hikam on Ibn 'Ata' Allah's Hikam, a sharh on the Sanusiyya in usul, Sharh al-Tamwil on the litany 'Ya mawlana ya Wahid ya Ahad', a diwan, seven ahzab and works on the Prophetic visitation; d. Thursday night 18 Jumada II 908.

• 'Abd al-Samad al-Samadi al-Qadiri of Damascus

  c. 1505 CE · 911 AH'Abd al-Samad al-Samadi al-Qadiri — b. 911, devout Qur'an-hafiz of the qadiri path, served at Medina under Sa'd al-Din and read the Shifa' fully on his shaykh 'Abd al-Rahman al-Saqqa; served scholars at his home and taught boys; died Friday eve 10 Safar 994.

• Ibrahim al-Shadhili al-Misri

  Al-Ghuri's trusted shaykh — 'fed people abundantly from the unseen', formed in the Baytiyya way under Abu al-Mawahib al-Tunisi the Qawanin author, yet combined both disciplines; the kings of the age vied for him; d. 914.

• Najm al-Din al-Ghayti, Egypt's shaykh al-Islam

  c. 1510 CE · c. 916 AH†Najm al-Din al-Ghayti — Alexandria-born musnid of Egypt, 'the Bukhari of his age' per qadi Muhibb al-Din; holder of the Salahiyya mashyakha and Siryaqusiyya khanqah unsought, an unafraid enjoiner of right before amirs; his Mi'raj book read at the Azhar every Rajab.

• Shaykh al-'Aydarus, 'the second 'Aydarus' of Tarim

  c. 1513 CE · 919 AHShaykh b. 'Abd Allah al-'Aydarus — Tarim's 'shaykh of his age by the gnosis of his time,' the Ba 'Alawi of whom Abu Bakr b. Salim said none of their house was given his like; four 'umras a night and four by day in Ramadan, teacher of Ibn Hajar al-Haytami; author of the 'Aqd Nabawi, al-Fawz wa'l-Bushra, Tuhfat al-Murid; moved to India 958 and died at Ahmadabad Saturday eve 26 Ramadan [990].

• Zayn al-Din al-Dashtuti

  'Sahib Misr' — the Upper Egyptian mystic of the famous karamat whom Qaytbay venerated by rubbing his face on the mystic's feet; the Nile stood still three cubits at his command 'rise, by God's leave'; he walked barefoot on hajj and lay three days unconscious on the Bab al-Salam threshold; died 924, his absent funeral prayed at the Umayyad mosque.

• Ahmad al-Hisami the grammarian

  The nahwi the scholars compared to Ibn Malik and Ibn Hisham — yet he carried his own market goods, bathed in cotton without soap, wore short Salafi-style clothes, fasted and rose nightly, and 'you could sit with him two days and not hear one idle word'; a Murshifi Sufi, died Tuesday 15 Rabi' II [925] in Cairo.

• 'Abd Allah al-Majdhub of Egypt

  The Abyssinian-born majdhub 'shaykh of the hashish-takers' — built himself a turba at the Gharqi gateway on the mujawirin road, 'his intellect a calamity, never sleeping night or day', whose vigil-stand endures by Shaykh Idris's mujawirin.

• Kamal al-Din al-Shamakhi al-Baku'i

  A Shirvani initiatic chain in a craftsman's shop — after Shah Isma'il's fitna he came to Cairo showing no shaykhdom, sat in a stall by Khan al-Khalili fashioning Persian-style caps and coifs 'with beautiful workmanship', while carrying a store of shaykhs' sayings and manners 'missing from many of the turbaned'; died Monday night 3 Rabi' I, aged one hundred and thirteen.

• Abu al-Nur al-Tunisi

  The Tunisian mujawir of Mecca — thirty-five years 'in rapture and longing and awe of God' until fear nearly killed him and his mind wore out; a khatma every fifteen days in two-thirds readings, perpetual fasting, so pure 'they said he never trod the sun'; died Ramadan 931.

• Burhan al-Din al-Hasib al-Nasib

  The celibate mystic of Abu Ayyub — his father a sayyid of the 'Ajam and himself 'among the greatest saints'; he studied at Bursa under Sinan al-Din, served Hasan al-Samuni then Khwaja-zada, taught at Sultan Bayezid's madrasa on a hundred uthmani, and Selim bought him the house beside Abu Ayyub's tomb which he endowed to whoever teaches at its madrasa; never married, indifferent to gold or clay; d. 935, buried at the Abu Ayyub mosque.

• Ibrahim al-'Ajami of the takiyya

  The Tabrizi Sufi of the 'Umar Rawsani line — at Bab Zuwayla's madrasa he interpreted the Qur'an and taught the brethren's epistles until his murids grew so numerous the sultan was told 'he may yet take Egypt'; summoned to Rum, sent back and ordered to disperse his followers, he received a takiyya facing the Mu'ayyadiyya with khalawi for the poor; his rule: no disciple performs hajj until he knows God; d. Cairo 940.

• Ibrahim al-Majdhub Abu Lahaf

  The majdhub of the Citadel's Red Tower — twenty years there, then he sent word to al-Ghuri: 'leave the citadel, give the keys to their owners'; dismissed as a madman, he descended to Cairo — and a year later the Circassian state fell. Barefoot and bare-headed, he warned visitors of coming afflictions and went a month sleepless murmuring dhikr; d. 940, buried at Qantarat al-Sadd.

• Abu al-'Abbas al-Hariri al-Misri

  Ibn 'Anan's favourite son-in-law and al-Murshifi's successor — he would not give guidance until voices bade him, then instructed some ten thousand murids; 'we left the world and no companion in the Path went with us' were his dying words; five khatmas before the maghrib adhan in al-Sha'rani's presence, a forty-day fast; buried at Damietta in al-Shami's zawiya, his grave still visited.

• 'Ali al-Dhuwayb

  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.

• Shahin al-Jarkasi

  Qaytbay's freed mamluk — he asked his master for manumission to worship, wandered to the 'Ajam lands, took the path from 'Umar Rawsani at Tabriz, then settled on the Muqattam where he did not descend for forty-seven years; Egypt's amirs, qadis and notables climbed to visit him; the flying water-skin karama; the sultan built a qubba over his zawiya.

• 'Abd al-Qadir al-Sabki, the majdhub

  'Abd al-Qadir al-Sabki — a majdhub who 'came to' late in life and began a daily khatma, yet kept riding his mare over the water in the days of the Nile's flood; he served the widows — buying oil, butter, honey and treacle in a single vessel and doling each her need unmingled — dressed by turns as a soldier, a horseman and a faqir, chiding those who denied him; died Jumada II [960].

• Ahmad al-'Aydarus, qutb of Tarim

  Ahmad al-'Aydarus — 'qutb, knower of God, master of the way's shaykhs, unveiled by the lights of reality'; he died at Tarim on 7 Jumada I [968]; Ibn al-'Imad's own father elegised him.

• al-Zughbi, the Syrian majdhub

  Al-Zughbi — a great shaykh 'famous for majdhubiyya, rich in miracles and states'; the author's father kept his company and delighted in it; ever-devout, speaking only at need; died at the Cairo bimaristan 978.

• 'Abd al-Qadir b. Shaykh al-'Aydarus, author of al-Nur al-Safir

  c. 22 August 1570 CE · 20 Rabi' I 978 AH'Abd al-Qadir b. Shaykh al-'Aydarus — author of *al-Nur al-Safir 'an Akhbar al-Qarn al-'Ashir*, Ibn al-'Imad's principal source for tenth-century notices; born Thursday eve 20 Rabi' I 978.

• Abu Bakr ibn Abi al-Qasim al-Ahdal

  1576 CE · 983 AHThe Tihami Sufi Abu Bakr ibn Abi al-Qasim ibn Ahmad al-Ahdal al-Husayni, born in 983 AH and died in 1035 AH; he wrote works on hadith, history and biography.

• Abu Bakr b. Salim Ba 'Alawi, the saint of 'Aynat

  Abu Bakr b. Salim Ba 'Alawi of 'Aynat — 'sought by visitors from the farthest lands, his miracles carried by every caravan; consensus agreed upon his sainthood'; died Sunday eve 27 Dhu'l-Hijja 992 at 'Aynat, half a stage from Tarim.

• Muhammad al-Bakri al-Siddiqi, 'the greatest teacher'

  Shaykh Muhammad al-Bakri al-Siddiqi — 'the greatest teacher, shaykh of his age unchallenged,' son and successor of Abu al-Hasan al-Bakri; Ibn Hajar al-Haytami attested his perfected shaykh-hood and heard 'benefits beyond reckoning' from him; died Rabi' II 993.

• Mustafa al-Bakri

  1688 CE · 1099 AHA Sufi scholar of Damascus, a member of the Khalwati order and one of the scholars of the Bakri al-Siddiqi family.

• al-Hifnawi Abu al-Makarim Najm al-Din Muhammad ibn Salim

  1690 CE · 1101 AHShafi'i jurist of the Khalwati Sufi order, named after Hifna in the Sharqiyya province of Egypt; born 1101 AH (1690 CE) and died 1181 AH (1767 CE).

• Ahmad ibn Hamallah al-Tishiti

  1695 CE · 1107 AHA Mauritanian scholar known by the nisba of his homeland, Tishit, and descended from the Sharif Ahmad.

• Ibrahim Haqqi al-Erzurumi

  1703 CE · 1115 AHAn Ottoman scholar from Erzurum. He returned there after his father's death to complete his education, then served one of his teachers at Nilüfer.

• Muhammad al-Tardi ibn Sawda

  1707 CE · 1118 AHA jurist from a family of scholars in Fez, who was also a hadith scholar and a Sufi.

• al-Barzanji

  1716 CE · 1128 AHScholar from the Barzanji family of sayyids in Medina, a family known for learning and piety; died 1177 AH.

• Ahmad al-Tijani

  1737 CE · 1150 AHThe founder of the Tijaniyya Sufi order, born in Ain Madi in Algeria.

• Muhammad ibn Ahmad Aknasus

  1776 CE · 1190 AH†The Sufi preacher Muhammad ibn Ahmad Aknasus, a figure of the Tijani order in the Sus region of Morocco; the order spread in the region through his efforts.

• Safa' al-Din Isa al-Bandanijy

  1788 CE · 1203 AHA Sufi scholar of Baghdad from the Qadiri and Naqshbandi orders, named after Bandanijin.

• Ahmad al-Saghir ibn Hamallah

  1809 CE · 1224 AHA learned and pious scholar whose lineage goes back to al-Muslimi, known as al-Saghir.

• Shihab al-Din al-Halawani, Ahmad ibn Ahmad

  1833 CE · 1249 AHA Shafi'i and Khalwati scholar from Egypt.

• Ahmad al-Tijani al-Kitabi

  1912 CE · 1331 AHA scholar of the Kitabi family, well known among the tribes of the Maghrib.

• Abu al-Wafa al-Ghunaymi al-Taftazani

  1930 CE · 1348 AHBorn in Kafr al-Ghunaymi in the Sharqiyya governorate of Egypt. He studied Islamic philosophy and Sufism.

• Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

  1948 CE · 1367 AH†The greatest qawwali singer of the 20th century, who carried Sufi devotional song to world stages.

• Abida Parveen

  1954 CE · 1373 AH†The foremost female voice of Pakistani Sufi song — sings Shah Abdul Latif and Bulleh Shah at Sindh's shrines.

• Rahat Fateh Ali Khan

  1974 CE · 1394 AH†Nusrat's nephew and heir of modern qawwali — one of South Asia's most-streamed voices.

• Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi

  Draft card for Abd al-Ghani ibn Ismail al-Nabulsi, the Damascene scholar, Sufi and travel writer of the late seventeenth century, d. 1731; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Abd al-Razzaq al-Qashani

  Draft card for Abd al-Razzaq al-Qashani, the fourteenth-century expositor of Ibn Arabi author of Istilahat al-Sufiyya; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Abd al-Salam al-Asmar

  Draft card for Abd al-Salam al-Asmar, the sixteenth-century saint of Libya who settled at Zliten, d. 1575; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Abd al-Salam ibn Mashish

  Draft card for Abd al-Salam ibn Mashish al-Alami, the Moroccan Sufi master of al-Shadhili on Jabal al-Alam in the thirteenth century, d. 1228; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha'rani

  Draft card for Abd al-Wahhab ibn Ahmad al-Sha'rani, the prolific sixteenth-century Egyptian Sufi author of al-Tabaqat al-Kubra, d. 1565; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Abdullah ibn Alawi al-Haddad

  Draft card for Abdullah ibn Alawi al-Haddad, the eighteenth-century scholar of Hadramawt and shaykh of the Alawi path author of al-Nasa'ih al-Diniyya, d. 1720; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Abdullah Bosnevi

  Draft card for Abdullah ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Bosnevi, the seventeenth-century Malamati Sufi and poet, d. 1644; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Abdullah al-Yafi'i

  Draft card for Abdullah ibn As'ad al-Yafi'i, the fourteenth-century Yemeni jurist, historian and Sufi author of Mir'at al-Jinan, d. 1367; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Abdullah ibn Shaykh al-Aidarus

  Draft card for Abdullah ibn Shaykh al-Aidarus, the seventeenth-century Hadrami sayyid, d. 1611; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Abu'l-Abbas al-Sabti

  Draft card for Abu'l-Abbas Ahmad ibn Ja'far al-Sabti, the twelfth-century patron saint of Marrakesh, d. 1204; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Abu al-Husayn al-Nuri

  Draft card for Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Nuri, the Baghdadi ascetic and shaykh of the early Sufis author of Maqamat al-Qulub, d. 907; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Abu Ali al-Daqqaq

  Draft card for Abu Ali al-Hasan al-Daqqaq al-Nisaburi, the eleventh-century shaykh of al-Qushayri, d. 1015; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Abu Bakr al-Kalabadhi

  Draft card for Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ishaq al-Kalabadhi, the Bukhara Hanafi author of al-Ta'arruf in the tenth century, d. about 990; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Abu al-Hasan al-Kharaqani

  Draft card for Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Ahmad al-Kharaqani, the Khurasani Sufi of the eleventh century author of Nur al-Ulum, d. 1033; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Abu Sa'id al-Makhzumi

  Draft card for Abu Sa'id al-Mubarak al-Makhzumi, the twelfth-century shaykh of Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, d. 1119; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Abu Uthman al-Maghribi

  Draft card for Sa'id ibn Isma'il Abu Uthman al-Maghribi, the tenth-century Sicilian ascetic who travelled between Iraq and Egypt, d. 983; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Ahmad al-Buni

  Draft card for Ahmad ibn Ali al-Buni, the thirteenth-century Maghrebi Sufi author of Shams al-Ma'arif and works on letter-lore, d. 1225; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Ahmad ibn al-Husayn ibn Qasi

  Draft card for Ahmad ibn al-Husayn ibn Qasi, the Andalusi Sufi who rebelled against the Almoravids and held a small state in the Gharb in the twelfth century, author of Khal' al-Na'layn, d. 1151; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Ahmad Zarruq

  Draft card for Ahmad ibn Ahmad Zarruq al-Barnusi, the fifteenth-century jurist and Shadhili shaykh author of Qawa'id al-Tasawwuf, d. 1493; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• A'isha al-Ba'uniyya

  Draft card for A'isha bint Yusuf al-Ba'uniyya of Damascus, the sixteenth-century Sufi poetess with works on mysticism and praise poems, d. 1516; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• al-Asmar, Abd al-Salam

  Libyan Sufi shaykh of Tripoli whose seclusion (khalwa) became known under his name.

• al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi

  Draft card for Muhammad ibn Ali al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi, the ninth-century Khurasani Sufi author of Khatm al-Awliya and Ma'rifat al-Usul; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Ala al-Dawla al-Simnani

  Draft card for Ala al-Dawla Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Simnani, the fourteenth-century Sufi who left Ghazan's court for the way of discipline, d. 1336; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Alauddin al-Attar

  Draft card for Alauddin Muhammad al-Bukhari al-Attar, the fourteenth-century successor in the Naqshbandi path, d. 1400; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Asik Pasha

  Draft card for Asik Pasha, the fourteenth-century Turkish poet and mystic author of Gharib-name, d. 1333; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Baha al-Din Walad

  Draft card for Baha al-Din Walad, the thirteenth-century jurist and mystic of Balkh, father of Jalal al-Din Rumi and author of the Ma'arif, d. 1231; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Baha al-Din Zakariya

  Draft card for Baha al-Din Zakariya al-Multani, the thirteenth-century Suhrawardi shaykh of Multan, d. 1262; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Balim Sultan

  Draft card for Balim Sultan, the sixteenth-century Bektashi shaykh who organised the order, d. 1517; the source entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Dawud al-Ta'i

  Draft card for Dawud ibn Nusayr al-Ta'i, the eighth-century Kufan ascetic and pupil of Abu Hanifa, d. 781; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Haci Bayram Veli

  Draft card for Nu'man ibn Ahmad known as Haci Bayram Veli, the Sufi of Ankara and founder of the Bayramiyya in the fifteenth century, d. 1430; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Hamza Bali

  Draft card for Hamza Bali Orlović, the sixteenth-century Bosnian Sufi leader, d. 1573; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Makhdum Muhammad Hashim al-Thattvi

  Draft card for Makhdum Muhammad Hashim al-Thattvi, the eighteenth-century jurist and Sufi of Sindh, d. 1746; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Haydar al-Amuli

  Draft card for Haydar al-Amuli, the fourteenth-century Twelver Shi'i mystic-philosopher who reconciled Sufism and Shi'ism in his Jami' al-Asrar, d. 1408; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Ibn Ata Allah al-Iskandari

  Taj al-Din Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ata Allah al-Iskandari (d. 709 AH), the ascetic preacher, pupil of Abu'l-Abbas al-Mursi of the Shadhili order; al-Dhahabi describes him in the Siyar as 'one of the great opponents of Shaykh Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya', whose funeral was widely attended.

• Ismail Hakki Bursevi

  Draft card for Ismail Hakki al-Bursewi, the eighteenth-century Ottoman exegete and mystic author of Ruh al-Bayan, d. 1725; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Khawaja Ahrar

  Draft card for Ubayd Allah ibn Mahmud known as Khawaja Ahrar, the fifteenth-century Naqshbandi shaykh of Transoxiana and influential figure in the Timurid court, d. 1490; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Kul Nesimi

  Draft card for Kul Nesimi, the seventeenth-century Bektashi poet; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Mahmud Hüdayi

  Draft card for Aziz Mahmud Hüdayi, the seventeenth-century shaykh of the Celveti order at Üsküdar, d. 1628; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Merkez Efendi

  Draft card for Merkez Efendi Musa, the sixteenth-century Halveti shaykh of Istanbul, d. 1552; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Mustafa ibn Kamal al-Din al-Bakri

  Draft card for Mustafa ibn Kamal al-Din al-Bakri, the eighteenth-century Sufi and writer of Damascus, d. 1749; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Najm al-Din al-Kubra

  Draft card for Najm al-Din Abu al-Jannab Ahmad ibn Umar al-Khiwaqi, 'al-Kubra', the Khwarezmian shaykh and founder of the Kubrawiyya order who died resisting the Mongols in 1221; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Najm al-Din Razi

  Draft card for Najm al-Din Abu Bakr al-Razi known as al-Daya, the thirteenth-century Sufi author of Mirsad al-Ibad, d. 1256; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Ni'matullah al-Wali

  Draft card for Shah Ni'matullah al-Wali al-Kirmani, founder of the Ni'matullahi order and Sufi poet of the fourteenth-fifteenth centuries, d. 1431; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Niyazi Misri

  Draft card for Niyazi al-Misri, the seventeenth-century Sufi poet and shaykh of the Khalwati path, d. 1694; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Nur Qutb Alam

  Draft card for Nur Qutb Alam, the fifteenth-century Sufi saint of Bengal, d. 1415; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Rukn-e-Alam

  Draft card for Shaykh Rukn al-Din Abu'l-Fath, the fourteenth-century Suhrawardi saint of Multan, d. 1335; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Salim Chishti

  Draft card for Shaykh Salim Chishti, the Sufi of Fatehpur Sikri associated with Akbar and entombed in its celebrated shrine, d. 1572; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Sari Saltuk

  Draft card for Sari Saltuk, the thirteenth-century warrior-dervish of the Balkans to whom deeds and shrines are ascribed from Rumelia to Crimea, d. 1297; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Sayyid Ali Hamadani

  Draft card for Sayyid Ali ibn Shihab al-Din al-Hamadani, the Kubrawi shaykh known as Amir-i Kabir who carried the call to Kashmir and Khorasan, d. 1385; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai

  Draft card for Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, the greatest Sindhi Sufi poet author of the Shah Jo Risalo, d. 1751; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Shaykh Ghalib

  Draft card for Shaykh Ghalib, the last great Ottoman divan poet and Mevlevi shaykh of the Galata lodge author of Husn u Ask, d. 1799; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Sidi al-Hawari

  Draft card for Sidi al-Hawari Muhammad ibn Isa, the fifteenth-century imam and Sufi of Oran, d. 1439; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Sidi M'hamed Bou Qobrine

  Draft card for Sidi M'hamed ibn Abd al-Rahman Bu Qubrin, the eighteenth-century Algerian Sufi founder of the Rahmaniyya, d. 1793; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Somuncu Baba

  Draft card for Shaykh Hamid al-Din Somuncu Baba, the fourteenth-century mystic and shaykh of Hajji Bayram Wali at Bursa, d. 1412; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Sulayman Baqirghani

  Draft card for Sulayman Baqirghani known as Hakim Ata, the twelfth-century disciple of Ahmad Yasawi, d. 1186; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Sultan Walad

  Draft card for Baha al-Din Sultan Walad, son of Jalal al-Din Rumi and successor at the head of the Mevlevi order, a poet of ideas and symbols, d. 1312; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Sunan Kalijaga

  Draft card for Sunan Kalijaga, one of the nine saints (Wali Songo) who spread Islam in Java in the fifteenth century; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Sunan Kudus

  Draft card for Sunan Kudus Ja'far al-Sadiq, one of Java's nine saints and founder of the Kudus state, d. 1550; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Sünbül Efendi

  Draft card for Sünbül Efendi Sinan, the sixteenth-century Khalwati shaykh of Istanbul, d. 1529; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Ulu Arif Celebi

  Draft card for Ulu Arif Celebi, the fourteenth-century Mevlevi shaykh and grandson of Rumi, d. 1320; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Usman Harooni

  Draft card for Usman al-Haruni, the thirteenth-century shaykh of Mu'in al-Din Chishti, d. 1207; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Yahya al-Shirvani al-Bakubi

  Draft card for Sayyid Yahya al-Shirvani al-Bakubi, the fifteenth-century founder of the Khalwati order whose spiritual line ran through Anatolia, d. 1462; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Ya'qub al-Jarkhi

  Draft card for Ya'qub ibn Uthman al-Jarkhi al-Ghaznawi, the fifteenth-century Sufi among the early Naqshbandi masters, d. 1447; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Yusuf al-Hamdani

  Draft card for Yusuf al-Hamdani, the Khwajagan master who taught Abd al-Khaliq al-Ghujdawani in twelfth-century Transoxiana, d. 1140; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.

Work

• Theologus Autodidactus

  Ibn al-Nafis's philosophical tale of a child who deduces religion and science alone on an island — the earliest complete philosophical novel, a root of science fiction.

• The Translator

  Leila Aboulela's novel of a devout Sudanese widow in Aberdeen — a landmark of English-language Muslim fiction.

• The Forty Rules of Love

  Elif Shafak's global bestseller on Shams of Tabriz and Rumi, with a modern parallel story — the most popular Sufi novel of the century.

• Alif the Unseen

  G. Willow Wilson's techno-fantasy of an Arab hacker and an ancient jinn manuscript — code, Sufism and the Arab Spring.

• Nur al-Iqtibas fi Mishkat Wasiyyat al-Nabi li-Ibn Abbas

  A standalone treatise by Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali devoted to the commentary of Ibn Abbas's hadith 'O boy, I shall teach you words: guard God and He will guard you...', the nineteenth of al-Nawawi's Forty; in the Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam Ibn Rajab says the hadith comprises great counsels and universal maxims among the religion's most important matters and that he 'devoted a large separate portion to its commentary' — the printed book bearing this title.

• The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam

  A book by Muhammad Iqbal in a preface and seven lectures, in which he tries to reconstruct Muslim religious philosophy in the light of its philosophical tradition and of modern knowledge. Lecture I asks how knowledge and religious experience relate and proposes two tests for the claims that experience makes.

Group

• The Sabri Brothers

  The Pakistani qawwali ensemble behind 'Tajdar-e-Haram' — with NFAK, the deepest mark on the form's global spread.

• The Akhi associations of Anatolia (akhism)

  The Akhi associations were young men's guilds in Anatolia in the 13th and 14th centuries, which took the ideals of futuwwa and recruited mainly craftsmen; each was led by an 'akhi'. Their information fades in the 15th century, but their tradition survives in the Turkish guilds.

• The al-'Alami family of Jerusalem

  The al-'Alami family of Jerusalem traces its descent to Ibn Mashish and was probably one of the Maghribi families that came to Jerusalem in the 14th century. Two sons of 'Alam al-Din governed the city and kept the sacred places of Jerusalem and Hebron in turn, and the family produced Sufi saints, lecturers and muftis into the 20th century.

• Badawiyya (Ahmadiyya) order

  Draft card for the Ahmadiyya-Badawiyya, the Sufi order founded by Ahmad al-Badawi at Tanta in the thirteenth century, later among Egypt's most widespread orders; the source entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Bayramiyya

  Draft card for the Bayramiyya, the Sufi order founded by Haji Bayram Veli at Ankara in the fourteenth century which later split into Celveti and Semsiyye branches; the source entry is not yet checked on the page.

• The Bektashi order

  The Bektashi order is a Sufi order traced to Haji Bektash, famous for its link with the Ottoman Janissaries and its distinctive Alid doctrines; academic monographs treat it as an order with a distinctive composition.

• The Chishti order (Chishtiyya)

  The Chishti order is among the greatest Sufi orders of South Asia, traced to Chisht in Khurasan and spread through India until it became among its widest orders.

• Ikhwan al-Safa (Brethren of Purity)

  Ikhwan al-Safa was a literary-philosophical circle in fourth-century Basra, authors of the fifty-one Epistles of the Brethren of Purity; al-Dhahabi's Siyar records Abu Hamid al-Ghazali's engagement with the epistles and the debate around them.

• Khalwatiyya order

  Draft card for the Khalwatiyya, the Sufi order widespread in Anatolia and the Balkans tracing its chain to Umar al-Khalwati; treated in the cited encyclopedia, the page not yet checked.

• Kubrawiyya

  Draft card for the Kubrawiyya, the Sufi order founded by Najm al-Din Kubra in Khwarazm in the thirteenth century whose branches reached Iran and Kashmir; the source entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Malamatiyya

  Draft card for the Malamatiyya, the ninth-century Nishapuri ascetic movement that concealed spiritual states and shunned public esteem, influencing later Sufi paths; the page not yet checked.

• Ni'matullahi order

  Draft card for the Ni'matullahi order, the Sufi tariqa founded by Shah Ni'matullah al-Wali in the fifteenth century, spreading through Persia and India and later to the West; the page not yet checked.

• Nurbakhshiyya

  Draft card for the Nurbakhshiyya, the Sufi order founded by Muhammad Nurbakhsh in the fifteenth century that spread through Iran and Kashmir; the source entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Qalandariyya

  Draft card for the Qalandariyya, the wandering dervish movement noted for shaved faces and itinerancy across Anatolia, Persia and India in the medieval period; treated in the cited encyclopedia, the page not yet checked.

• Rifa'iyya order

  Draft card for the Rifa'iyya, the Sufi order ascribed to Ahmad al-Rifa'i of the Bata'ih marshes, known for its dhikr practices in Iraq and beyond; treated in the biographical sources under its founder, the page not yet checked.

• The Shadhili order (Shadhiliyya)

  The Shadhili order is among the greatest Sufi orders of the Maghreb and Egypt, traced to Abu'l-Hasan al-Shadhili; al-Maqqari records the shaykh's Sufi path passing to his disciple Abu'l-Abbas al-Mursi.

• Shattariyya

  Draft card for the Shattariyya, the Sunni Sufi order that spread from Iran into India and Indonesia from the fifteenth century; the Duha al-Islam entry is not yet checked on the page.

• Yasawiyya

  Draft card for the Yasawiyya, the order of Turkistan founded by Ahmad Yasawi in the twelfth century to carry Islam among the Turks; the encyclopedia entry is not yet checked on the page.

Concept

• 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.

• Akhi Baba (title of the guild shaykh and tanners' head)

  Akhi Baba was the title of the shaykh of the tekke of Akhi Evran at Kirshehir, and was also given to his delegates in the Turkish guilds of Anatolia, Rumelia and Bosnia, especially those of the tanners and leather workers, and to the heads of those guilds. Its main task was to initiate apprentices by the girding ceremony; the Akhi Babas came to control most Turkish guilds until the old guilds were abolished in 1908.

• The angelic and the satanic inspiration (lamma)

  Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy says that the angel and the devil each have an inspiration, a lamma, that comes to the heart. He describes the angel's inspiration as a promise of good that affirms the truth.

• Asking people for help (al-masala)

  Asking people for help (al-masala) means asking others for gifts. In Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy's account of the Prophet's teaching, poverty is not a trade a person follows; Islam gives the needy their right to help, not the honour of poverty; asking is lawful only in cases of real need; and complaint is made to God, not to people.

• The soul (nafs) and the spirit (ruh)

  Sha'rawi holds that the nafs is formed when the ruh joins matter and gives it life; that matter and ruh each glorify God before they join; and that the senses bear witness on the Day because they are no longer at the service of a person's disobedience.

• Tabattul (withdrawal from the world)

• Intimacy with God (uns billah)

  Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy speaks of the heart's intimacy with God, which he says shows both among people and in solitude. Whoever finds it in both is beloved to God, and whoever lacks it in both is deprived of it.

• Certainty and its degrees (yaqin)

  Sha'rawi sets out certainty in three degrees: knowledge of certainty when the report comes from someone one trusts, sight of certainty when the matter has been seen, and truth of certainty when one enters into the reality of the thing. He cites the Surat al-Takathur, and says Abu Bakr accepted the night journey because it came from one he trusted.

• Righteousness (birr)

  In the twenty-seventh hadith of the Forty, righteousness (birr) and sin (ithm) are defined through conscience and character together: in al-Nawwas ibn Sam'an's report in Muslim (2553), 'righteousness is good character, and sin is what wavers in your soul and you dislike for people to see it' — righteousness reduced to sheer character, and sin marked by inner unease joined to dislike of public exposure; and in Wabisa ibn Ma'bad's report in Ahmad and al-Darimi, the Prophet commanded 'consult your own soul' while poking his chest with three fingers: righteousness is what the heart and soul are at peace with, and sin is what wavers in the heart and hesitates in the breast even if people give verdict upon verdict — inner rest and expansiveness made the sign of righteousness, and inner hesitation the sign of sin even against the muftis' rulings; Abu Umama's route 'if something wavers in your breast, leave it' and Abu Tha'laba al-Khushani's 'righteousness is what the soul rests in and the heart is at peace with … even if the muftis give you verdicts' corroborate it, both chains sound for Ibn Rajab.

• Remembrance of God (dhikr)

  Remembrance of God in the fiftieth hadith — the seal of Ibn Rajab's additions — is the comprehensive gate to hold to when the laws grow many: 'keep your tongue moist with the remembrance of God', with Mu'adh's corroborant 'that you die with your tongue moist with the remembrance of God'; Ibn Rajab notes that many excellences of remembrance were scattered through the book and treats here the merit of its constancy and abundance — through the verses commanding much remembrance and praising the remembering men and women with forgiveness and a great reward — so dhikr is the easiest of works and the noblest, the nearest to God, needing no place, state, ablution, facing of the qibla or any other condition (Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam p. 927).

• Dhikr (the remembrance of God in the rulings of fiqh)

  In the rulings dhikr is the servant's remembrance of his Lord by statement, recitation, supplication or praise. It is recommended at all times, except in certain places and conditions such as relieving oneself, intercourse and the Friday sermon. It is by tongue and heart together; by the majority, the tongue's dhikr counts only when the speaker says it and hears himself. The Qur'an is the best dhikr for one who acts on it, and then the four words: glory be to God, praise be to God, there is no god but God, and God is greatest. The forms include the tahlil, tasbih, tahmid, takbir, hawqala, istirja', basmala and blessing on the Prophet; forms that imply shirk or deficiency are forbidden. Chanting in unison is disputed: some allow it when it does not disturb and is not thought obligatory, while al-Shatibi calls the unison of a fixed form an innovation.

• Believer's insight (firasa)

  In Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy's lesson, firasa is a kind of inspiration given to the believer who has cleansed his heart of rancor, envy and spite; it ranks below prophethood, and some in the West call it the «sixth sense». He holds that the Companions reached it through the purity of their souls, and that many sins block it.

• Fu'ad and qalb (the heart as insight)

  Two Qur'anic words, fu'ad and qalb, used for an inner faculty of insight that sees and understands and through which a person reaches aspects of reality that the senses alone do not reach. Muhammad Iqbal places it beside sense-perception in Lecture I, and reads it as a way of dealing with reality rather than a special hidden faculty.

• Ghadab (anger)

  The soul's agitation at offence or opposition, from which the sharia magnifies the call to guard; a man came to the Prophet saying 'counsel me' and he answered 'do not become angry', the man repeating his request several times and receiving the same answer — one route has 'teach me something and do not make it long that I may retain it', another 'point me to a deed that admits me to Paradise' — the answer one in every case; Ibn Rajab infers that repeating the answer to the renewed request shows anger to be the sum of evil and guarding against it the sum of good; Abu Amr ibn al-Salah reports from Abu Muhammad ibn Abi Zayd that 'do not become angry' is one of the four hadiths from which all the conduct of goodness branches, and among the definitions of good character are Ahmad's 'that you not become angry or fierce' and Ishaq ibn Rahuya's 'a cheerful face and not becoming angry'.

• Shukr (gratitude to God and to people: its meaning, its rulings, its virtue and its opposite)

  Shukr is the acknowledgement of a kindness, its spreading and praise of its doer. It is made by the tongue, the heart and the limbs; thanking God means using His favours in what pleases Him. Thanking God is obligatory in general, and much thanks is recommended. It applies to favours received, to the removal of harm, and to hardship borne with patience. Its virtue is clear in the Qur'an and the sunna, and its opposite is ingratitude. Whoever does not thank people does not thank God, and to repay a kindness in deed is the root of thanks; if one cannot, a good word is enough.

• Resolve for an act (hamm)

  The hamm in the thirty-seventh hadith of the Forty — the heart's resolve upon an act before doing it — is the measure by which deeds are written with God: 'whoever resolves on a good deed and does not do it, God writes it down as a complete good deed; if he resolves and does it, ten good deeds to seven hundred times over and more; if he resolves on an evil deed and does not do it, He writes it down as a complete good deed; and if he resolves and does it, God writes it down as a single evil deed' — so resolve for good is rewarded even without the act, resolve for evil is unpunished and counts as good when left for God's sake, and no evil deed is written except upon doing; resolve outranks a passing thought as a settled purpose approaching firm intention (Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam pp. 754–755).

• Envy (hasad)

  Envy in the hadith 'do not envy one another, do not outbid one another, do not hate one another, do not turn away from one another' — the thirty-fifth of the Forty — is the first of four prohibitions ordering the heart's side of Islamic brotherhood before the prohibitions of dealings: the wishing that another's blessing be removed or the resenting of his favour, placed alongside najash — bidding on goods without intent to buy so as to deceive — and mutual hatred and turning away, all of them diseases of hearts from which the severing of brotherhood grows, the hadith coupling them with the despising of a Muslim brother declared sufficient evil for its doer (Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam p. 710).

• Vain desire (hawa)

  Hawa in the forty-first hadith of the Forty is the soul's inclination that must be made subject to revelation: 'none of you believes until his desire is brought to follow what I have brought' — following vain desire is the opposite of following the Messenger, and a condition of faith is that the soul's bent be made a follower of the Law, not followed; from it grow the corruption of opinion ruling alone and the preferring of appetite over proof (Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam p. 824).

• Guarding the tongue

  Guarding the tongue is, for Ibn Rajab, the controlling element of all religious practice: in Mu'adh's hadith, after the gates of good and the head-pillar-peak of the matter, the Prophet asked 'shall I tell you of what controls all of that?', took hold of his own tongue and said 'restrain this', and when Mu'adh asked whether people are taken to account for their speech he answered 'may your mother be bereft of you — are people thrown onto their faces, or their nostrils, in the Fire for anything but the harvest of their tongues?'; it stands alongside Abu Hurayra's 'whoever believes in God and the Last Day let him speak good or keep silent' (hadith 15) and the Prophet's gesture to his own tongue when Sufyan al-Thaqafi asked what to guard against (hadith 21) — one organ whose harvest is the commonest cause of people being pitched into the Fire, as the repeated hadiths of the Forty declare.

• Love for one's brother

  That the believer loves for his brother, and for people, what he loves for himself of good; in Anas ibn Malik's hadith 'none of you believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself' — Muslim's wording 'for his neighbour or his brother' — and in Ibn Hibban's version 'no servant reaches the reality of iman until he loves for people what he loves for himself of good'; Ibn Rajab explains that this addition clarifies that the negation of iman is a negation of attaining its reality and perfection rather than of its root, iman being often negated for the absence of some of its pillars and duties — loving good for one's brother, neighbour and people among them; Abu Amr ibn al-Salah reports from Abu Muhammad ibn Abi Zayd that 'the believer loves for his brother what he loves for himself' is one of the four hadiths from which all the conduct of goodness branches.

• Love for God (hubb Allah)

  Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy says that love for God reaches the reality of faith when the heart holds God dearer than wealth and honour. He names its sources as pondering one's speech, eating lawful food and understanding God's favours, and its signs as doing good for God's sake and the heart shivering at the Qur'an.

• Goodness of Islam — leaving what does not concern one

  Part of the goodness of a person's Islam is leaving what does not concern him in word and deed and confining himself to what does; Ibn Rajab explains that 'concerns him' means what his purposeful attention attaches to, and that the leaving is governed by the ruling of the sharia and Islam rather than by whim or the soul's desire — which is why the Prophet made it a mark of the goodness of one's Islam; when a person's Islam is sound it entails leaving all that does not concern him of the forbidden, the doubtful, the disliked, and the superfluous among the permissible for which he has no need, rising thereby to the station of ihsan, from which, together with watchfulness, is born modesty before God and the abandoning of all that occasions shame; Ibn Rajab calls it a great foundation of the foundations of proper conduct and cites Abu Amr ibn al-Salah reporting 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: 'whoever believes in God and the Last Day, let him speak good or keep silent', this hadith, 'do not become angry', and 'the believer loves for his brother what he loves for himself'.

• Good opinion of God and optimism (husn al-zann billah)

  Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy presents good opinion of God as the believer's hope in good and in relief; he defines istibshar as expecting good, criticises pessimism, cites the story of Jacob, and holds that despair is not a quality of the believer.

• Ihsan (excellence in worship)

  The third level named in the hadith of Jibril after islam and iman, defined by the Prophet as worshipping God as though you see Him, for even if you do not see Him, He sees you. In his commentary on Shaddad ibn Aws's hadith 'God has prescribed ihsan upon everything' Ibn Rajab extends it from the station of watchful worship to a ruling written upon all things — reaching excellence even in execution and slaughter — noting that the wording of 'writing' entails obligation for most jurists and usul scholars.

• Ilham (inspiration)

  Ilham is, in the lexical sense, God putting into the soul a matter that moves to act or to refrain; for the usulis it is a thing cast on the heart that quiets the breast, reserved by God for some of His chosen servants. The ilham of the prophets is true and binding on them and on their community; the ilham of others is not binding for most scholars, and it differs from whispering and from careful search.

• Self-sufficiency in God (istighna billah)

  Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy distinguishes between being self-sufficient in God and being free of a thing, the first being true self-sufficiency and true faith. He names two signs of self-sufficiency in God: that one fears none but God, and that one depends on what is in God's hand rather than in one's own.

• Istiqama (steadfast uprightness)

  Standing firm upon faith and obedience after the words 'I believe in God'; in Sufyan ibn Abdullah al-Thaqafi's hadith he asked the Prophet for comprehensive words of Islam he would not need to ask anyone after him about and was answered 'say: I believe in God, then stand firm' — one route 'say: my Lord is God, then stand firm' — its meaning for Ibn Rajab drawn from 'those who say our Lord is God then stand firm' in Fussilat and al-Ahqaf; Abu Bakr is reported glossing 'then stood firm' three ways: 'they associated nothing with God', 'they did not turn to a god other than Him', and 'they stood firm that God is their Lord'; a weak al-Nasa'i route through Anas adds 'people have said it then most of them disbelieved, and whoever dies upon it is of the people of istiqama'; and in the hadith's continuation in al-Tirmidhi and al-Nasa'i, when he asked 'what do you most fear for me?' and 'what shall I guard against?', the Prophet took hold of his own tongue — 'this' — or gestured to it, making guarding the tongue among the greatest things istiqama watches.

• The endings of deeds (khawatim)

  That deeds are weighed by their endings; in his commentary on Ibn Masud's hadith Ibn Rajab explains 'deeds are but by their endings' as meaning that what counts is the state — sound or corrupt — in which the deed ends, that an evil ending comes through a hidden inward corrupting trait in the servant that people do not see, and that 'endings are the legacy of what preceded'; hence the early generations' intense fear of a bad ending and their fear that lesser hypocrisy might overcome them at the end and carry them into greater hypocrisy, while the Prophet often prayed 'O turner of hearts, make my heart firm on Your religion'.

• Fear of God (khawf)

  Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy relays from Ibn Abbas that sitting with one who makes you fear God, so that you find safety on the Day of Resurrection, is better than sitting with one who reassures you, so that you find fear on that Day (needs_source). He says God does not combine two securities or two fears on His servant: whoever fears in this world is given security in the next. He holds that Islam is simple and that we have complicated its matters, and he explains not hoping for the reckoning as not fearing it.

• Husn al-khuluq (good character)

  Treating people with what pleases them in word and deed while withholding harm — the third clause of 'fear God wherever you are': 'and keep company with people in good character' — which together with taqwa combines God's rights and His servants' rights, a combination Ibn Rajab calls rare, sustained only by the most complete of prophets and the truthful; its summit, as God describes the muttaqun, is giving freely and bearing hurt — 'who spend in ease and hardship, who restrain their anger and pardon people' — and revelation reports 'the most complete of believers in faith are the best of them in character', that it is the heaviest thing laid in the scales, raising its owner to the rank of the one fasting and praying, the best gift given a Muslim and what makes them most beloved to God and nearest to the Prophet in station; among its definitions: Ahmad's 'that you not become angry or fierce' and, in another report, 'that you bear what comes from people', Ishaq ibn Rahuya's 'a cheerful face and not becoming angry', and some scholars' 'restraining anger for God, showing openness and cheer except to the innovator and the flagrant, pardoning the erring except for discipline or establishing a hadd, and withholding harm from every Muslim and covenanted person except to change an evil or take what is due for the wronged without transgression'.

• Divine forgiveness (maghfira)

  Divine forgiveness in the forty-second hadith — the last of al-Nawawi's Forty — is the widest promise God made His servants: 'son of Adam, so long as you call upon Me and hope in Me, I forgive you whatever has issued from you, and I do not care; son of Adam, were your sins to reach the clouds of the sky and then you sought My forgiveness, I would forgive you; son of Adam, were you to come to Me with an earthful of sins and then meet Me associating nothing with Me, I would come to you with an earthful of forgiveness' — from which Ibn Rajab drew three means by which it is won: supplication joined to hope, seeking forgiveness, and meeting God without association — so forgiveness answers sins however great, so long as they are free of shirk and met with hopeful supplication and sincere seeking of pardon (Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam pp. 830–831).

• Watchfulness before God (muraqaba)

  In Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy's lessons, watchfulness means that the heart watches over its owner: whoever does not watch himself before God gains nothing from being watched by people. He illustrates it with the story of the three sons and the roosters, and the story of the shepherd.

• Nasiha (sincere counsel)

  Wishing good for the one counselled and standing for him in the ways of good in will and deed; in Tamim al-Dari's hadith 'the religion is nasiha' — to God, His book, His messenger, the leaders of the Muslims and their common folk — Ibn Rajab cites al-Khattabi that the root of nash in the language is purity, its meaning toward God being sound belief in His oneness and sincere intention in worshipping Him, toward His book faith in it and acting on what is in it, toward His messenger believing his prophethood and offering him obedience in what he commanded and forbade, and toward the generality of Muslims guiding them to their welfare; and he transmits Ibn al-Salah's detailed exposition of each, the pledge of Jarir ibn Abdullah 'to establish prayer, give zakat and counsel every Muslim', Abu Dawud's report that it is one of the hadiths around which jurisprudence revolves, and Muhammad ibn Aslam al-Tusi's that it is a quarter of the religion.

• Supererogatory works (nawafil)

  Supererogatory works in the thirty-eighth hadith of the Forty are the second rank of drawing near after the obligations: 'My servant draws near to Me by nothing dearer to Me than what I have made obligatory on him, and My servant keeps drawing near to Me through the supererogatory until I love him' — works beyond the required of prayer, fasting, charity and remembrance, by which the servant perseveres after establishing the obligatory until God's love reaches him; their rank in the commentary is subordinate to the obligations and never precedes them — whoever neglects the obligatory while busying himself with the supererogatory has put the lesser before the greater (Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam p. 770).

• Hypocrisy (nifaq)

  Hypocrisy in the forty-eighth hadith of Ibn Rajab's additions is known by its practical marks: 'four traits — whoever has them all is a hypocrite, and whoever has one of them has a trait of hypocrisy until he gives it up: when he speaks he lies, when he promises he breaks his word, when he disputes he behaves wickedly, and when he pledges he betrays' — their totality is perfected hypocrisy while a single one is a trait of it without constituting unbelief alone; Abu Hurayra's wording adds 'though he fast and pray and claim to be a Muslim'; Ibn Rajab rejects the interpretation of those leaning to irja' who confined the hadith to the hypocrites of the Prophet's era via Muhammad al-Muharram's report from Ata' from Jabir — calling it a lie, al-Muharram being a known liar (Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam p. 901).

• Niyya (intention in deeds)

  The purpose and will behind an act; Ibn Rajab notes that intention has two senses in scholars' usage: distinguishing acts of worship from one another and from habits — the sense dominant in the jurists' books — and distinguishing the aim intended by the act, whether for God alone or for other than Him — the sense dominant among the early generations and companion to sincerity; al-Shafi'i is reported to have called the hadith 'actions are but by intentions' a third of knowledge entering seventy chapters of jurisprudence, and al-Bukhari opened his Sahih with it.

• The sound heart (qalb salim)

  In Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy's lessons, the sound heart (qalb salim) is the heart lit by faith, set against the heart that knows only hypocrisy and hardness. He describes kinds of heart: an active heart, a heedless heart and a lazy heart, and presents this as his own description of states of the heart.

• Contentment (qana'a)

  In Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy's lessons, contentment (qana'a) is the soul's acceptance of what God has apportioned, set against greed, which stops a person from being satisfied with little. He says greed is part of human nature, and that one should not wish for what others have, but ask God for His bounty.

• Eating little

  Eating little in the forty-seventh hadith of Ibn Rajab's additions is the prophetic rule of food and austerity: 'no human has filled a vessel worse than the belly; enough for the son of Adam are morsels that keep his back upright, and if he must, a third for food, a third for drink and a third for breath' — sufficiency is what keeps the spine straight, not satiety, and when more is needed the belly is divided into thirds rather than filled with food; the narration's occasion shows the people of Khaybar struck by fever for excess in lawful fruit — so excess even in the permissible breeds harm (Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam p. 891).

• Curtailing hope in the world (qisar al-amal)

  Curtailing hopes in the world, founded on the fortieth hadith of the Forty: 'be in this world as though a stranger or a wayfarer' — for a stranger does not settle into a foreign abode, and a passer-by clings to it even less; upon it Ibn Umar built his saying 'when you reach evening do not await the morning, and when you reach morning do not await the evening, and take from your health for your sickness and from your life for your death'; Ibn Rajab calls this hadith a foundation of curtailing hope in this world, such that the believer should not take it as his lasting home and set his heart at rest in it (Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam pp. 810–811).

• Mercy (rahma)

  In Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy's lessons, mercy is the principle that governs how a Muslim treats people and animals: it calms the soul and keeps hope alive. God is described as having made mercy binding on Himself; His mercy in this world covers believer and unbeliever, and in the Hereafter it is shown to those who were merciful to His servants. Its forms include kindness to the poor, parents, kin, neighbours and spouse, and gentleness in slaughter.

• Religious experience

  The inner experience on which faith rests, in the view of Muhammad Iqbal. In Lecture I he treats it as one of the data of human experience, not reducible to the data of natural science, whose claims must be tested by the standards of knowledge in general.

• The dream (ru'ya): its standing, its interpretation and the rules of telling it

  A dream (ru'ya) is what a person sees in sleep; it is distinct from inspiration (ilham), from a bad dream (hulm), from a passing thought (khatir) and from revelation (wahy). A sound dream is one of the parts of prophethood; a righteous person's dreams are more often true, while others' dreams mix truth with confusion. Seeing the Prophet in a dream is true; whether his words or acts seen there bind the dreamer is disputed. Interpretation (ta'bir) carries the dream from its outward form to its inward meaning, with rules drawn from the Qur'an and the Sunna. A dream should be told only to a sympathetic or learned person; a liked dream is praised to God and told to others, and a disliked one is answered by seeking refuge from its harm and not telling it to anyone.

• Sabr (patience and steadfast endurance)

  Holding the soul to God's obedience, away from disobedience, and through His painful decrees; in the commentary on Ibn Abbas's counsel Ibn Rajab records that contentment is a recommended excellence while patience is binding upon the believer, God having commanded it and promised a vast reward, that in patience over what one dislikes lies much good since the affliction written upon the servant, borne patiently, yields much good — Amr mawla Ghafra's route adding 'if you can work for God with contentment in certainty then do, and if not, then in patience over what you dislike lies much good'; the servant needs God's aid for performing the commands, abandoning the forbidden and bearing all decreed things in the world, at death and through the terrors of the barzakh and resurrection — none can aid that but God, and whoever truly seeks His aid is aided, as in 'strive for what benefits you, seek God's help and do not flag'; 'victory is with patience' covers both jihads, the outward enemy and the inward — the patient triumphs and the fretter is captured or slain — and Ibn al-Mubarak's saying 'whoever is patient, how little he needs to endure, and whoever frets, how little he enjoys', followed by 'relief is with affliction' and 'with hardship is ease'.

• Concealing a Muslim's fault (satr)

  Concealing a Muslim, in Abu Hurayra's hadith — the thirty-sixth of the Forty — is one of the acts of aiding a brother that are repaid in kind: 'whoever conceals a Muslim, God will conceal him in this world and the next' — shielding a brother's exposed fault in religion or worldly affairs from people's eyes and not tearing his covering, set alongside relieving distress, easing for the insolvent, and the rule 'God is at the servant's aid so long as the servant is at his brother's aid' — so that concealment is a form of aid rewarded with its like in both abodes (Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam p. 731).

• Expansion of the breast (sharh al-sadr)

  The expansion and opening of the breast as Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy presents it: its secrets known to its Creator alone, the sensory and moral kinds of opening, the account of the opening of the breast in the Prophet's childhood with the medical reading he offers, and breadth of heart toward a repeating questioner.

• Taqwa (God-consciousness)

  That the servant sets between himself and what he fears a guard to shield him — his taqwa of his Lord being a guard against what he dreads of His anger, displeasure and punishment, namely doing His obedience and avoiding disobedience; this is Ibn Rajab's root definition in the commentary on 'fear God wherever you are'; taqwa is ascribed to God's name as the guarding against His wrath — the greatest of what is guarded against — and to His punishment like the Fire and His time like the Day of Resurrection; complete taqwa includes doing the obligations and leaving the forbidden and the doubtful, its highest degree adding the recommended and leaving the disliked; among the early generations: Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz held taqwa is not fasting the day or praying the night but leaving what God forbade and performing what He imposed, Talq ibn Habib that it is working in obedience upon light from God hoping His reward and leaving disobedience upon light fearing His punishment, Abu al-Darda' that its perfection is guarding to an atom's weight until some of the lawful is left as a screen from the unlawful, al-Thawri that they were called muttaqun for avoiding what need not be avoided, and Ibn Masud glossed 'fear God as He should be feared' as being obeyed and not disobeyed, remembered and not forgotten, thanked and not denied; taqwa is God's counsel to the first and the last and His messenger's bequest to his community — he counselled the commander of every expedition with it, told Abu Dharr 'I counsel you with taqwa, for it is the head of the whole matter', and the pair 'taqwa of God and good character' is what most admits people to Paradise.

• Tasawwuf

  Tasawwuf.

• Tasbih (glorifying God, the formula of praise in worship)

  Tasbih is declaring God free of every defect; the word is also used for remembrance, prayer and praise. Its rule is recommendation, at all times. It has set places in bowing, prostration and the opening of prayer, and rules for voice and number. It is disliked in unclean places, forbidden for one listening to the sermon in some schools, and disliked aloud before a funeral; it is recommended at thunder.

• Trust in God (tawakkul)

  Tawakkul in the forty-ninth hadith of Ibn Rajab's additions is the heart's worship answered with provision: 'were you to put your trust in God as He deserves, He would provide for you as He provides for the birds — they set out hungry in the morning and return full in the evening' — true tawakkul is the heart's reliance on God for obtaining what is sought together with taking the means, as the birds' own morning flight shows, not the abandoning of effort; the birds themselves set out and return, joining work with entrustment (Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam p. 914).

• Tests of religious experience: intellectual and pragmatic

  Two criteria that Muhammad Iqbal proposes for weighing the claims of religious experience: an intellectual test, a critical interpretation asking whether the claim leads to a reality of the same character as the experience reveals; and a pragmatic test, judging the experience by its fruits. He assigns the first to the philosopher and the second to the prophet, and says he will apply the intellectual test in Lecture II.

• Self-admiration (ujb)

  Self-admiration is taking pride in one's own deed, knowledge or opinion. Al-Sallabi quotes Ali: self-admiration is a plague of minds, and cites Ibn Taymiyya that it is the associating of the self, where show is the associating of creatures.

• Withdrawal from people (uzla)

  In the lexicon, uzla is a noun from i'tizal, avoiding a thing with the body or the heart; as a technical term it is withdrawal from mixing with people by seclusion and cutting off. It differs from khalwa, being alone with oneself. Scholars agree that withdrawal is better in times of trial and corruption, unless one can remove the trial, in which case one must strive to remove it. Outside such times they differ: most jurists and hadith scholars prefer mixing with people while being safe from their harm, while some prefer withdrawal for its safety, and the ruling varies with the person. Withdrawal has benefits, such as devotion and avoiding the sins that company often brings, and a loss, namely the benefits that come from help of others. Writers on spirituality give etiquette for the one who withdraws, including wishing others safety from one's own evil rather than one's safety from theirs, and leaving blameworthy traits.

• The heart's trembling at the remembrance of God (wajal)

  Rida glosses wajal in the Anfal verse as a felt apprehension of the heart, which may come from fear of an unknown end or from awe and majesty. He argues that whoever restricts the remembrance to threat misses this, and sees no contradiction with the Ra'd verse that hearts find rest in remembrance of God, since promise, threat and God's attributes all bring the heart to rest.

• The wali (friend of God)

  The wali in the creed is one of the friends of the Merciful; the Tahawiyya affirms 'all the believers are friends of the Merciful, the noblest to God the most obedient' and 'we do not prefer any wali over any prophet'.

• Wara' (scrupulosity)

  Stopping at doubtful matters, guarding against them, and leaving what causes unease for what does not; this meaning appears in Ibn Rajab's commentary on two of the Forty hadiths: al-Nu'man ibn Bashir's 'the lawful is clear and the unlawful is clear and between them are doubtful matters' with 'whoever guards against the doubtful has cleared his religion and honour', and al-Hasan ibn Ali's 'leave what makes you doubt for what does not', whose meaning Ibn Rajab says reduces to standing fast at the doubtful and avoiding it; it is supported by a weak report from Wathila ibn al-Asqa' in which, asked who is scrupulous, the Prophet answered 'the one who stops at the doubtful', and by another weak report that 'the scrupulous Muslim leaves the lesser sin for fear of the greater' and that the heart is agitated by the unlawful and rests in the lawful; among the sayings of the early generations he cites Ibn Masud's 'why turn to what troubles you when four thousand things around you do not?' and Umar's 'leave both usury and suspicion', meaning what you suspect to be usury even without certainty. In fiqh: the lexical sense of wara' is restraint. Ibn al-Humam and al-Nawawi define it as avoiding doubtful matters; al-Dusuqi as leaving some permitted things for fear of falling into doubt; al-Ghazali and Ibn al-Qayyim add leaving what is known to be forbidden, out of fear of God. Jurists separate it from piety (taqwa), which is wider, from precaution (ihtiyat), which is wider still, and from asceticism (zuhd), which is about the heart rather than conduct. Al-Qarafi holds wara' recommended; it applies where a ruling is unclear because the evidence is hidden or conflicting, where the cause of prohibition is doubtful, or, as far as possible, to leave a scholarly disagreement. Ibn al-Shatt and al-Shatibi deny that leaving every disagreement is wara', since it would lead to hardship. Ibn Taymiyya lists three ways scrupulosity goes wrong: restricting it to avoiding the forbidden and neglecting duties, treating a natural distaste as a legal ruling, and weighing the harm of an act while ignoring a greater good it serves. Al-Ghazali sets four grades: the wara' of the upright, of the righteous, of the pious and of the truthful. In leading prayer the Hanafis put the more scrupulous after the most learned in its rules and the best reciter; the Shafi'is have two views on placing him before the most learned in jurisprudence; the Hanbalis put him after the ruler, the householder and the regular imam. Scrupulousness is recommended for rulers, judges and the market inspector; Ibn Taymiyya prefers, for judgeship, the most learned and most scrupulous, depending on whether the matter is plain or delicate.

• Friendship with God (wilaya)

  Friendship with God in the thirty-eighth sacred hadith of the Forty: 'whoever is hostile to a friend of Mine, I have declared war on him; My servant draws near to Me by nothing dearer to Me than what I have made obligatory on him; and My servant keeps drawing near to Me through supererogatory works until I love him' — the wali, on the commentary's account, is the one upright upon the obligations who then ascends through supererogatory works until he becomes beloved of God, his hearing, sight, hand and foot then acting by Him; the drawing near that founds wilaya has two ranks — the obligations first, dearest of all approaches, then the supererogatory after them — while enmity to a friend occasions God's own declaration of war, the gravest of threats in defence of His beloveds (Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam pp. 770–771).

• Wird (litanies and daily devotional portions)

  Wird (plural awrad) is, in the lexicon, a fixed portion of recitation or other practice; in the technical sense it is what a person sets himself each day or night as a regular act. The related term hizb is a practice a person keeps up, such as prayer or recitation, and its technical sense does not depart from the lexical one. Al-Ghazali treats the awrad as the path to meeting God, since love and intimacy come only from constant remembrance, which in turn needs leaving worldly concerns to what is necessary. The virtue of remembrance is supported by Qur'an passages in several surahs (al-Ahzab, al-Ankabut, al-Nisa', al-Baqara) and by a hadith on those who go ahead by remembering God often; Ibn Abbas explains remembrance as practised after prayers, on going to sleep and on leaving home. Because the soul tires of one kind of act, varying the awrad keeps them pleasant and sustained. Prayer is the best of the awrad, and half of its right is the outward and inward work; six inward acts are to be observed in it: presence of heart, understanding, reverence, awe, hope and modesty. Attending the congregation in the nearest mosque, in the first row, and without worldly talk is recommended. Recitation of the Qur'an is the best remembrance, and its amount varies with the reader: a man busy with teaching or judging keeps to what does not disturb his work, and others recite as much as they can without tiring. The Qur'an is divided into seven portions by length; the division is reported through a report from Aws ibn Hudhayfa, which Ibn Abd al-Barr judged not firmly established. Transmitted supplications and remembrances belong to the awrad, while devising remembrances unsupported by the Book and the sunna is to be avoided; al-Sha'rani records a covenant to that effect, and Ibn Allan reports from al-Nawawi that the practices of the shaykhs may be followed where they do not depart from the transmitted. The principle is constancy: a small act done regularly is loved by God, while an act abandoned loses its effect. The seven daytime awrad run from dawn to sunset: first the supplication, remembrance, recitation and reflection after the dawn prayer, then the forenoon prayer, then work and a midday rest, then the prayer after noon, then Qur'an reflection in the afternoon, and finally glorification and seeking forgiveness until sunset. The night awrad include the voluntary prayers between maghrib and isha, the recitation of transmitted surahs and the witr before sleep, moderate sleep, the night prayer in the later part of the night, and seeking forgiveness at dawn. The awrad vary with the state of the person: the devotee gives his time to worship and recitation; the scholar to teaching and writing; the student to learning; the ruler gives the needs of Muslims precedence over his own awrad; the craftsman joins remembrance to his work and gives away what he does not need; and one absorbed in love of God moves according to what his practice calls for. A missed wird should be made up, and a sound report says that whoever sleeps through his night portion and reads it between dawn and noon is credited as if he read it at night. Certain months, days and nights are given extra merit for devotion, and the entry refers the detail to other headwords.

• Renunciation (zuhd)

  Zuhd of a thing means turning away from it out of contempt for it and rising above it; in Ibn Rajab's commentary on 'renounce the world and God will love you', renouncing the world is neither forbidding the lawful nor wasting wealth — as halted at Abu Muslim al-Khawlani in Ahmad's Kitab al-Zuhd, the reading he prefers — but being more confident in what is in God's hand than in what is in your own, and, when calamity strikes, more hopeful of its reward and store than of its survival; al-Zuhri defined the renunciant as one whom the unlawful does not overcome in patience nor the lawful distract from gratitude; Sufyan ibn Uyayna as one who gives thanks when blessed and is patient when tried; Sufyan al-Thawri and the Imam Ahmad as 'renouncing the world is shortening hopes, not eating coarse food nor wearing a rough cloak' — Ahmad once adding 'and despairing of what is in people's hands'; Ibrahim ibn Adham made it three kinds: obligatory, renunciation of the unlawful; meritorious, of the lawful; and safekeeping, of the doubtful — people disputing whether renouncing the unlawful alone earns the name, and Abu Sulayman al-Darani gathering all its meanings as 'renouncing whatever occupies you away from God', a saying Ibn Rajab calls comprehensive of all its senses, divisions and kinds; and its fullness includes that a believer who intends by lawful pleasures strength for obedience finds them counted worship, as Mu'adh said 'I reckon my sleep as I reckon my night vigil' (Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam pp. 643–655).

Event

• Arba'een pilgrimage

  The world's largest annual gathering — millions, mostly Shia, walking Najaf to Karbala for the fortieth day of Husayn's death.

• Fez Festival of World Sacred Music

  Fez's annual festival convening Sufi chant, qawwali and nasheed alongside the sacred music of other faiths; since 1994.

• Şeb-i Arus

  Konya's annual commemoration of Rumi's death with the Mevlevi whirling-dervish sema — the world's most visible Sufi ceremony.

• Urs of Ajmer Sharif

  The six-day annual death-anniversary festival of Mu'in al-Din Chishti at Ajmer — qawwali and pilgrimage for hundreds of thousands.

Object

• Konya Manuscript

  Ibn Arabi's own autograph copy of his Meccan Revelations kept in Konya; the most precious Ibn Arabi document extant.

Practice

• Dhikr (remembrance of God)

  Repeating God's names, tasbih and istighfar, alone and in gatherings — 'in the remembrance of God hearts find rest'; the Sufi orders built litanies and assemblies on it.

• Du'a (supplication)

  Supplication to God; the Qur'an says 'call on Me, I answer you', scholars call it the marrow of worship, with etiquettes from facing the qibla to raising the hands.

• Istikhara (guidance prayer)

  Two rak'as and the istikhara supplication before a decision one wavers over; the Prophet taught his companions it as he taught a sura of the Qur'an.

• Urs (saints' anniversaries)

  The annual death-anniversary festival at a saint's shrine in South Asian and Maghrebi tradition — qawwali, pilgrimage, food; 'urs' as union with God.

Screening Room

• Alif

  The Pakistani series pairing a famous filmmaker with a young Qur'an memoriser — contemporary Pakistani TV's most-discussed treatment of art, faith and the soul.

• You Will Die at Twenty

  2019 CE · 1440 AH†You Will Die at Twenty.

• Ayat-Ayat Cinta

  2008 CE · 1429 AH†The Indonesian phenomenon based on Habiburrahman El-Shirazy's novel about a pious Indonesian student at al-Azhar and his loves — it remade Indonesian cinema toward religious romance.

• Bab'Aziz

  2005 CE · 1426 AH†Nacer Khemir's Tunisian film about a Sufi dervish crossing the desert to a gathering; the best-known Arab Sufi film, dedicated to depicting Islam's spirit.

• When Love Glorifies God

  2009 CE · 1430 AH†The Indonesian adaptation of Habiburrahman El-Shirazy's novel about an al-Azhar student balancing study, love and livelihood in Cairo — a major Indonesian religious hit.

• Khuda Aur Muhabbat

  A Pakistani series about a young man whose love for a religious girl transforms his life; revived with later seasons that broke Pakistani viewership records.

• Mimosas

  2016 CE · 1437 AH†Mimosas.

• Munafik

  2016 CE · 1437 AH†Munafik.

• Raqs-e-Bismil

  A Pakistani series about a religious family's son whose forbidden love teaches him the difference between inherited piety and true devotion — a modern hit.

• Shehr-e-Zaat

  A Pakistani drama about an elite young woman whose unrequited love becomes a search for God — a landmark spiritual drama.

• Taste of Cherry

  1997 CE · 1418 AH†Abbas Kiarostami's Palme d'Or winner about a Tehran man seeking someone to bury him if he dies by suicide — its dialogues turn on Islamic arguments over life and death.

• Takva: A Man's Fear of God

  2006 CE · 1427 AH†A Turkish–German film about a devout doorkeeper hired to collect money for a Sufi order, whose piety is shaken by wealth and power — a study of religion and modern life.

• The Clay Bird

  2002 CE · 1423 AH†The Clay Bird.

• Snow

  2008 CE · 1429 AH†Snow.

• Yunus Emre: The Journey of Love

  A TRT series about the Sufi poet Yunus Emre and his apprenticeship under Taptuk Emre — one of few television dramas centred on a Sufi's life.

What is missing? Tell us · A theme is open when it has a reviewed guide, 10 questions, 25 entries across 5 classes, and voices from several traditions and regions.

Controversial topics

• Sexuality and gender diversity
• Converts and those who leave
• Images and figural art
• Takfir and its critics
• Dissent, heresy and freethought
• Conquest and its debates
• Violent extremism and the Muslim response
• Islam and atheism or secular thought