Makhdūm ‘Abd al-Rashīd Ḥaqqānī

The Encyclopaedia of Islam THREE, Brill, 2023

Ḥāfiẓ Jamāl Muḥammad Multānī (d. 1226/1811) was a prominent Sufi of the Chishtiyya order in Multān, Panjāb. He is mainly known as Ḥāfiẓ (who memorized the Quran by heart), a religious scholar, poet, and a protector of the city of Multān, Panjāb.

This book is a humble attempt to introduce the Ṣūfi thought of Shaykh Ἀbd al-Maḥmud al-Ḥafyan [1915-1973], one of the most influential Ṣūfi thinkers throughout Ṣūfism history in Sudan. Therefore, this endeavour has been conducted to provide a historical perspective while exploring the most recurring themes of his thought, in the light of his original works.

Shaikh Muhammad Al Muhammad Al Kasnazan Al Husayni, 2018

This is the blessed biography of a prominent personality of Islam and a leading light in the sphere of Sufism and knowledge of Allah. Sayyid Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān al-Ḥusaynī is the Master of Ṭarīqa ʿAliyya Qādiriyya Kasnazāniyya, one of the largest Sufi Ṭarīqas with followers throughout the world. Ṭarīqa Kasnazāniyya, as the name is usually abbreviated, traces its roots to the source of all Sufi ways, the Prophet Muḥammad (PBUH). Our Shaikh is a descendant of the Prophet (PBUH) from both parental sides. This biography of Shaikh Muḥammad al-Muḥammad al-Kasnazān is written in a unique way. It is presented in the context of explaining the Sufi approach to drawing near to Allah. At the same time, the book expounds Sufism, which represents the spiritual side of Islam, through the history of our honourable Shaikh. Being an excellent example of a Sufi life, our Shaikh’s biography explains Sufism and the Sufi way explains his life. Through the study of the life of a practising man of divine knowledge, this book combines a general theoretical description of the spiritual side of Islam and an introduction to a specific practical Sufi system. It shows that Islam is knowledge and practice, thought and application, reason and heart, and a companion and an accompanied one. In essence, Islam is an experience of spiritual companionship: “May I follow you so that you teach me of that which you have been taught of guiding knowledge”? (al-Kahf 66).

The doctrine of haqiqa al-muhammadiyya (the logos of Muhammad) has always fascinated me. For me it is a journey into new worlds, to be slowly explored, but to shaykh 'Abd al-Qadir from Algeria (1808-1883 C.E.) it is familiar ground. Sufis like him have received the blessing of an opening up of this subject. This Algerian shaykh comments on a personal experience, a vision, and also presents a long list of technical Sufi terms, all related to the Sufi doctrine under discussion.

His great grandfather, Āqā Muhammad Turk Bukhārī, during the reign of Sultan Muhammad ʿAla al-Dīn Khalajī (r. 695-715 AH/ 1296-1315 AD), migrated from Bukhara to Delhi and his reputation persuaded many Turks to accompany him due to a lineage kinship or their allegiance to him. Thereafter, he seized Gujarat by order of Sultan Muhammad and after his victory settled there (ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq Muḥaddith Dihlawī, Akhbār al-Akhyār…, 595). Until the reign of Muhammad Tughluq (r. 725-52 AH/ 1325-51 AD), from among the many children of Āqā Muhammad, he left no child save his firstborn son, Malik Muʿizz ad-Din, and ultimately retired to the monastery of Shaykh Ṣalāh al-Dīn Suhrawardī during the same period when Shaykh Nasīr al-Dīn Chirāgh-i-Delhi lived, though Shaykh Ṣalāh al-Dīn advised him to return to his family in Delhi. Āqā Muhammad died in 739/1338 and buried behind Shamsi Idgah in Delhi (ibid, 956). Malik Mūsā, son of Malik Muʿizz ad-Din and Muhammad's grandson, after the reign of Firuz Shah (Fīrūz Shāh), went to Transoxiana and then accompanied Timur Gurkani (Timūr Gurkānī) to Delhi and settled there and did his descendants (Abdul Hamid Lahori, 3/342). Malik Fīrūz, Musa's son, according to ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq (ibid, 597), was among the eminent warriors and thanks to his mastery of literature and poetry, wrote the story of Sultan Hussain's battle with Bahlul Lodi (r. 855-894 AH/ 1451-1489 AD) in verse (for verses from this poem, loc. cit.) Malik Firuz's son, Shaykh Saʿdullah, the grandfather of ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq and vicegerent of Shaykh Muhammad known as Miṣbāḥ al-Āshiqīn (Arabic: ‫مصباح‬ ‫العاشقين‬

Bulletin of the British Foundation for the Study of Arabia, 2016

Review of Michael Crawford's biography of Shaykh Muhammad bin ‘Abd al-Wahhab (Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab. London: OneWorld 2014)

Shaykh Abd al-Mahmud b. Shaykh Nur al-Daim

This book handles the life and teachings of one of the most renowned Sudanese Sufis, Shaykh Abd al-Mahmud b. Shaykh Nur al-Daim al-Sammani al-Tayyibi. Shaykh Abd al-Mahmud was born in 1845 and passed away in 1915. He left great religious, scholarly as well social legacy.

Problem of God a-) Mawlana Jalal al-Din Mohammad Rumi was born in Balkh in modern-day Afghanistan in 1207 A.D. to Baha al-Din Walad. Baha al-Din was a great Sufi and Islamic jurisprudent in his own right and had a following of dedicated students. Rumi's family relocated many times in his childhood. While they originally lived in Afghanistan and Tajikistan, by 1212 the family had moved to Samarkand in Uzbekistan. Either Baha al-Din had a dispute with a ruler there or he was alarmed about the rumblings of the approach of the Mongol horde when the family relocated to Baghdad and then Mecca. Rumi performed the Holy Pilgrimage in Mecca. The family kept traveling and in Nishapur in modernday Iran, it is held that Rumi met the Sufi saint Fariduddin Attar 1. Attar gauged the spiritual elevation of Rumi and presented his father with the copy of his own text, the Book of Mysteries while issuing him praise about Rumi. Finally, in the western most periphery of the Muslim world, the family settled in Anatolian city of Konya in the Asia Minor region. They were warmly received by the Seljuk king who governed the territory 2 and Baha al-Din helped make Konya into a center of learning. From an early age, Rumi had studied the esoteric sciences of the Quran, Hadith, Arabic grammar, logic as well as theology, history, philosophy, astronomy, and mathematics 3. After his father died in 1231 A.D, Rumi benefitted from the mentorship of one of his disciples, Burhan al-Din Tirmidhi. By the time Rumi became the head of the madressah-the spiritual learning community-of his father, he had perfect understanding of Sufi teachings and held mastery over