Abu Talib Muhammad ibn Ali al-Makki (; died 386 AH/996 AD in

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

), was a

hadith Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...

scholar,

Shafi'i The Shafi'i school or Shafi'i Madhhab () or Shafi'i is one of the four major schools of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), belonging to the Ahl al-Hadith tradition within Sunni Islam. It was founded by the Muslim scholar, jurist, and traditionis ...

jurist, and

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

mystic.

Biography

He was born in the Abbasid province of Jibal in the early 3rd AH / 9th AD centuries. Al-Makki grew up in

Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...

, where he was educated in

and the

Qur’an The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

by the city's traditionalist circles. Abu Sa’id ibn al-Arabi (d. 341 AH/952-3 AD), a student of the sober Sufi Mystic,

Junayd of Baghdad Junayd of Baghdad (; ) was a mystic and one of the most famous of the early wali, Islamic saints. He is a central figure in the spiritual lineage of many tariqa, Sufi orders. Junayd taught in Baghdad throughout his lifetime and was an important ...

, was one of Al-Makki's early traditionalist teachers. Al-Makki moved to

Basra Basra () is a port city in Iraq, southern Iraq. It is the capital of the eponymous Basra Governorate, as well as the List of largest cities of Iraq, third largest city in Iraq overall, behind Baghdad and Mosul. Located near the Iran–Iraq bor ...

in 341 AH, and continued his studies alongside various Sufis before seeking permanent refuge in Baghdad. Al-Makki remained an intense ascetic throughout his life, and was known in Baghdad for his strict dietary regimens. From an early age Makki was weary of “personal judgment and analogical reasoning,” and favored using weak hadith literature to support his interpretations of sacred texts when strong hadith failed. He had a son, Umar Ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Ali (d. 444/ 1053).

The Sustenance of Hearts

Al-Makki's most influential work, ''"Qut al-qulub fi mu'amalat al-mahbub wa wasf tariq al-murid ila maqam al-tawhid"'', or “The Sustenance of Hearts,” is a systematic exploration of Sufism and the ‘knowledge of hearts’. This knowledge, known as

Ma'rifa In Sufism, maʿrifa ("experiential knowledge" or " gnosis") is the mystical understanding of God or Divine Reality. It has been described as an immediate recognition and understanding of the true nature of things as they are. Ma'rifa encompasses a ...

, is accessible through inward and outward deeds of devotion to God. Al-Makki uses his intimate knowledge of hadith and the

Qur'an The Quran, also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation directly from God ('' Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which consist of individual verses ('). Besides ...

to argue that Ma'rifa is the only true form of knowledge available to Muslims. In “The Sustenance of Hearts,” he interprets the Prophet's saying, “The quest for knowledge is a duty,” through the five pillars of Islam, as a divine assertion that the sciences of the heart have transcendent value. He outlines at length the elements of a wholly pious life- one informed by the sciences of the heart- and disparages the ‘knowledge of tongues.’ This refers to any form of knowledge that can be used for social and economic benefit. Al-Makki's focused attack on this form of knowledge was likely influenced by the careerism of religious specialities that accompanied Islam's expansion. In part because of his feelings towards the ‘knowledge of tongues’, Al-Makki has been compared to the early renunciants and People of The Blame. These severe ascetics disdained similarly selfish and innovative practitioners of Islam.

Al-Ghazali Al-Ghazali ( – 19 December 1111), archaically Latinized as Algazelus, was a Shafi'i Sunni Muslim scholar and polymath. He is known as one of the most prominent and influential jurisconsults, legal theoreticians, muftis, philosophers, the ...

used this book as a source for some of the chapters of his magnum opus ''Ihya' 'Ulum al-Din'' (

The Revival of the Religious Sciences ''The Revival of the Religious Sciences'' () is a 12th-century book written by the Muslim scholar al-Ghazali. The book was composed in Arabic by al-Ghazali on his spiritual crises that stemmed from his appointment as the head of the Nizamiyya U ...

References

* Massignon, Louis. ''Encyclopedia of Islam (Second Edition)''. ed. Kramers, J. H., Gibb, H. A. R., et al. Leiden, 1954, Vol. 1 p. 153. *Böwering, Gerhard. ''The Mystical Vision of Existence in Classical Islam: The Qur'anic Hermeneutics of the Şufi Sahl al-Tustari (d. 283/896).'' Berlin and New York, 1980, pp. 25–7. *''Qut al-qulub fi mu'amalat al-mahbub wa wasf tariq al-murid ila maqam al-tawhid'' (The nourishment of hearts in dealing with the Beloved and the description of the seeker's way to the station of declaring oneness). ed. Basil 'ayun al-sud, Dar al-kutub al-'ilmiyah, Beirut, 1997. 2vols. *''Knowledge of God in Classical Sufism: Foundations of Islamic Mystical Theology'', Paulist Press (2004), . Sufi mystics 10th-century Arabic-language writers 996 deaths Year of birth unknown People from Mecca 10th-century jurists Iranian Muslim mystics 10th-century Muslim scholars of Islam {{islam-bio-stub