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Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili () (full name: Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār al-Ḥasanī wal-Ḥusaynī al-Shādhilī) also known as Sheikh al-Shadhili (593–656 AH) (1196–1258 AD) was an influential Moroccan Islamic scholar 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 ...
, founder of the
Shadhili The Shadhili Order () is a tariqah or Sufi order. The Shadhili order was founded by Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili in the 13th century and is followed by millions of people around the world. Many followers (Arabic ''murids'', "seekers") of the Shadhil ...
Sufi order A ''tariqa'' () is a religious order of Sufism, or specifically a concept for the mystical teaching and spiritual practices of such an order with the aim of seeking , which translates as "ultimate truth". A tariqa has a (guide) who plays the r ...
.


Early life

Al-Shadhili was born near
Ceuta Ceuta (, , ; ) is an Autonomous communities of Spain#Autonomous cities, autonomous city of Spain on the North African coast. Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Ceuta is one of th ...
in 1196. He was a
Sharif Sharīf or Sherif (, 'noble', 'highborn'), also spelled shareef, feminine sharīfa (), plural ashrāf (), shurafāʾ (), or (in the Maghreb) shurfāʾ, is a title used to designate a person descended, or claiming to be descended, from the fami ...
who was
patrilineally Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritanc ...
descendant of the
Arab Arabs (,  , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...
Hashim Hashim () is a common male Arabic given name. Notable people with the name include: *Hashim ibn Abd Manaf * Hashim Amir Ali * Hashim Shah * Hashim Amla * Hashim Thaçi * Hashim Khan * Hashim Qureshi * Mir Hashim Ali Khan *Hashim al-Atassi * Hashi ...
tribe via the
Idrisids The Idrisid dynasty or Idrisids ( ') were an Arab Muslim dynasty from 788 to 974, ruling most of present-day Morocco and parts of present-day western Algeria. Named after the founder, Idris I, the Idrisids were an Alid dynasty descended from Mu ...
, and
matrilineally Matrilineality, at times called matriliny, is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which people identify with their matriline, their mother's lineage, and which can involve the inheritanc ...
born to a royal family of the
Berber Berber or Berbers may refer to: Ethnic group * Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa * Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages Places * Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile People with the surname * Ady Berber (1913–196 ...
Ghomara tribe. He was a
Maliki The Maliki school or Malikism is one of the four major madhhab, schools of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. It was founded by Malik ibn Anas () in the 8th century. In contrast to the Ahl al-Hadith and Ahl al-Ra'y schools of thought, the ...
in jurisprudence and wandered far afield in search of knowledge. Immensely learned, even as a young man, he was famous for his ability to engage in legal argumentation with the religions scholars of his day. As a young man, Abulhasan was hesitating between living the life of an ascetic in the wilderness in order to give himself up totally to
worship Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity or God. For many, worship is not about an emotion, it is more about a recognition of a God. An act of worship may be performed individually, in an informal or formal group, ...
and
invocation Invocation is the act of calling upon a deity, spirit, or supernatural force, typically through prayer, ritual, or spoken formula, to seek guidance, assistance, or presence. It is a practice found in numerous religious, spiritual, and esote ...
, or to return to the towns and settlements to be in the company of the scholars and the righteous. He studied in
Fes Fez () or Fes (; ) is a city in northern inland Morocco and the capital of the Fez-Meknes administrative region. It is one of the largest cities in Morocco, with a population of 1.256 million, according to the 2024 census. Located to the nort ...
and moved to
Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...
in 1244. In
Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
he met the Sufi master al-Wasiti, who advised him to find his Spiritual Master (Sheikh) in the country Abulhasan had travelled from, there he later met Abd as-Salam ibn Mashish, the great Moroccan spiritual master. Under his guidance, Abulhasan attained enlightenment and proceeded to spread his knowledge across
Maghreb The Maghreb (; ), also known as the Arab Maghreb () and Northwest Africa, is the western part of the Arab world. The region comprises western and central North Africa, including Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. The Maghreb al ...
, especially in
Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...
and
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
, where he is buried. He founded his first zawiya in
Tunis Tunis (, ') is the capital city, capital and largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as "Grand Tunis", has about 2,700,000 inhabitants. , it is the third-largest city in the Maghreb region (after Casabl ...
in 1227. He died in 1258 in Humaithra, Egypt, en route to
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 ...
.


Finding his sheikh

It was in a hermitage on top of Jabal al-'Alam, near Tétouan, that he met the sheikh who he was searching for and who was to have the greatest influence on his life, Abd as-Salam ibn Mashish (d. 625/1228), known as "the Pole of the West", just as Abd al-Qadir Gilani (d. 561/1166) was called "the Pole of the East". While he was living with Sheikh Ibn Mashish, on the holy mountain, many wonderful signs from Allah came to Abu'l Hasan, through this holy guide. One such sign was that on the night of his arrival on the mountain he was sleeping at the entrance of the cave where his master lived. He dreamt that he was asking the Sheikh to grant him certain wishes, one of them being that Allah would incline the hearts of His creatures in favour towards him. Then he wished to ask his master if it was necessary for him to live in solitude, or in the desert, in order for him to be in the right station ( maqām) to perform his religious tasks, or whether he should return to the towns and inhabited places to seek out the company of scholars and virtuous people. While he was turning these things in his heart he heard the Sheikh praying fervently and calling out: The next morning, when he greeted his teacher to be, he asked him of his state (''kayf al-hal''), to which Ibn Mashish responded, "I complain unto God about the coolness of contentment and submission (bard al-rida wa al-taslim) just as you complain unto Him about the heat of self-direction and choice (harr al-tadbir wa al-ikhtiyar)." When he saw the astonishment on his student's face at hearing his words, he added, "Because I fear that the sweetness of such an existence would make me neglectful of my duty towards Allah." Then Abu'l Hasan said, "This is the Pole of Islam. This is the Sea which overflows." He knew then that his master had taken hold of his whole heart, and he was thereby completely illumined. Four fundamental themes ran through Abd as-Salam teaching of to Abu'l Hasan, as perceived from his famous Hizb, called ''as-Salat al-Mashishiya'': # the Oneness of Existence (''wahdat al-wujud'') which he said could be realised only through asceticism, # fear of God and His judgements (''khawfu billah''), # the belief that God is everywhere and that it is necessary to see His Face in everything that He has created, # that only through the drowning in the Ocean of the Unity (''awnu fi bahri al-wahadati'') can the seeker cast off and leave behind his own existence and attributes to be merged and absorbed into Allah and His Attributes. Before his departure from Jabal al-Alam, Abd as-Salam foretold his student of his eventual move to Ifriqiya where he will become known by the name of Shadhili and the eminent spiritual station he will eventually inherit from Abd as-Salam himself. Abu'l Hasan relates that in a dream, he saw his master standing near the Divine Throne. When he told him of this dream in the morning, Abd as-Salam replied, "O Ali, it was not me you saw, it was the station you will inherit from me." The parting words of advice and admonition that Abd as-Salam gave his disciple before he departed for Tunis emphasised the transformation of consciousness to inward and outward God-centeredness, contentment with God in all states, and the inner withdrawal from creation in prosperity and adversity. These seminal teachings of Abd as-Salam would, through Abu'l Hasan, become the fundamental precepts of the
Shadhili The Shadhili Order () is a tariqah or Sufi order. The Shadhili order was founded by Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili in the 13th century and is followed by millions of people around the world. Many followers (Arabic ''murids'', "seekers") of the Shadhil ...
Tariqa A ''tariqa'' () is a religious order of Sufism, or specifically a concept for the mystical teaching and spiritual practices of such an order with the aim of seeking , which translates as "ultimate truth". A tariqa has a (guide) who plays the ...
.


Travels


Tunis

Remaining with his master for a while, Abu'l Hasan then departed for Shadhila, in Tunisia, on orders from his teacher; and from there he received the name of al-Shadhili. He entered a new retreat in a cave on top of Jabal Zaghwan close to Shadhila accompanied by his first companion Abu Yahya Abdellah ibn Samala al-Habibi. After intense spiritual exercises in the Jabal Zaghwan region, he was ordered in a vision to teach Sufism. Accordingly, he set up his first institution (''zawiyah'') in Tunis in the year 625/1228, just when the new governor, Abu Zakariyya', also arrived. During his early years in Tunis, Abu'l Hasan first taught forty students who were known as the forty friends (''al-awliya al-arba'un''). His new tariqah was a stunning success, drawing masses of people from all walks of life, including the sultan's family. On one of his trips to the East, an Ayyubid sultan conferred on him and his descendants, by way of a religious endowment, one of the enormous towers that arose from the walls formerly encompassing the city of Alexandria in Egypt. Abu'l Hasan remained in Tunis for a number of years until one day God Most High brought him a young man who was to become his successor and the inheritor of his station and his holy line, Abul Abbas al-Mursi (d. 686/1271), from Murcia in Spain.


Egypt

In the year 642/1244, the sheikh, once again had a vision. Abu'l Hasan said: Thus he left Tunisia accompanied by Al-Mursi Abu'l-'Abbas, his brother Abdullah, his servant Abu al-'Azayim as well as other Sufi sheikhs and many of his own disciples, and moved to Alexandria, where he established both his residence and the institution (''zawiyah'') of his order in the tower the sultan had given him. Alexandria was, during this time, a distinguished city and a place of learning various major sciences. He lived with his family on the top floor; another floor was converted into a tremendous mosque where he gave public instruction; and another floor was converted into a great zawiyah for his disciples, with cells for meditational retreat. In Egypt, likewise, his order was greatly successful, drawing into its ranks many court officials, great religious scholars like
Izz al-Din ibn 'Abd al-Salam Abū Muḥammad ʿIzz al-Dīn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz bin ʿAbd al-Salām bin Abī al-Qāsim bin Ḥasan al-Sulamī al-Shāfiʿī (‎; 577 AH - 660 AH / 1262 CE), also known by his titles, Sultan al-'Ulama/ Sulthanul Ulama, Abu Muhammad al-Sulami, w ...
(d. 660/1262) or the Shafi 'i traditionist al-Mundhiri (d. 656/1258), a host of Sufi figures, and individuals from different levels of society. In the year 646/1248, he lost His vision, and it was in that state that he participated in the Battle of Al Mansurah in Egypt, which stopped the Seventh Crusade headed by Saint Louis of France.


Death

Shortly before Sheikh Abu'l Hasan started on his last pilgrimage to Mecca, the city of Baghdad fell to the conquering Mongols, thus ending the long reign of the Abbasids there and ushering in a new epoch in the history of Islam. The sheikh was accompanied by a mass of his disciples; but he fell ill in the eastern desert of Egypt, in
Humaithara Abu Al Hassan El-Shazly or Sheikh Shazly as called now or the original name Humaithara ( ', also spelled "Humaisara," "Al Maithara") or Sheikh Shazily (Arabic. الشيخ الشاذلى) (as it is called in Egypt now) is an isolated town in the Eg ...
, and there he died in the year 656/1258. He was buried there, and a mosque and mausoleum complex was built for him.


Successors

Shortly before he died, in 656/1258, Sheikh Abu'l Hasan designated Abu'l Abbas al-Mursi as his successor in the order. After Sheikh Abu'l Hasan's death, Abu'l Abbas al-Mursi moved into the great tower that the founder of the Shadhiliyyah had used as residence, mosque, and zawiyah, and remained there until his death ( 686/1288) some thirty years later, seldom moving out to travel in Egypt.


Ideas

When asked who his spiritual master was, he used to reply, "I used to be the close follower of Abd as-Salam ibn Mashish, but still I am drinking the water of wisdom from five ponds
Jibril In the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), Gabriel ( ) is an archangel with the power to announce God's will to mankind, as the messenger of God. He is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the Quran. Many Chris ...
,
Mikhail Michael is a common masculine given name derived from the Hebrew phrase ''mī kāʼēl'', 'Who slike-El', in Aramaic: ܡܝܟܐܝܠ (''Mīkhāʼēl'' ). The theophoric name is often read as a rhetorical question – "Who slike he Hebrew Go ...
,
Israfil Israfil (, ''ʾIsrāfīl) o''r Israfel Lewis, James R., Evelyn Dorothy Oliver, and S. Sisung Kelle, eds. 1996. ''Angels A to Z''. Visible Ink Press. . p. 224. is the angel who will blow the trumpet to signal ''Qiyamah'' (the Day of Judgment) in ...
,
Izra'il Azrael (; , 'God has helped'; ) is the canonical angel of death in Islam and appears in the apocryphal text Apocalypse of Peter. Relative to similar concepts of such beings, Azrael holds a benevolent role as God's angel of death; he acts as ...
,
Rooh Rooh (English: Soul) is an Indian one hour horror supernatural thriller television series which was broadcast on Zee TV from 6 November 2004 to 6 August 2005. It used to air every Saturday at 8 P.M. Each story has a different cast and crew. Shiv ...
." Shaykh Abul-Abbas al-Mursi (d. 1288), who succeeded Shaykh ash-Shadhili as the spiritual master of the Order, was asked about the knowledge of his spiritual master and replied, "He gave me forty sciences. He was an ocean without a shore." He taught his close followers to lead a life of contemplation and remembrance of Allah while performing the normal everyday activities of the world. He disliked initiating any would-be follower unless that person already had a profession. His admonition to his close followers was to apply the teachings of Islam in their own lives in the world and to transform their existence. Shadhili wrote several devotional recitations, prayers and letters, some of which remain today. One of the best known poems is his "Litany of the Sea"
hizb al-Bahr
.Muhammad ibn Ibrahim Ibn Abbad, ''Ibn Abbād of Ronda: Letters on the Sūfī Path'', 1986, p. 38


Bibliography


Origins of the School of the Shadhdhuliyya
is published by its translator Shaykh
Nooruddeen Durkee Abdullah Nooruddeen Durkee (born Stephen Durkee) was a Muslim scholar, thinker, author, translator, and the Khalifah (successor) for North America of the Shadhdhuli School for Tranquility of Being and the Illumination of Hearts, Green Mountain ...
includes the life of Shaykh Abul Hasan ash-Shadhdhuli and his followers, 2012.
The Mystical Teachings of al-Shadhili, including His Life, Prayers, Letters, and Followers
* A Translation from the Arabic of Ibn al-Sabbagh's Durrat al-Asrar wa Tuhfat al-Abrar by Elmer H. Douglas, Edition, introduction, and notes by Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi, SUNY series in Islam, 1993 * The Rise of al-Shadhili (d. 656/1258), by A. M. Mohamed Mackeen, in: ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'', Vol. 91, No. 4 (Oct. – Dec., 1971), pp. 477–486


See also

*
Shadhili The Shadhili Order () is a tariqah or Sufi order. The Shadhili order was founded by Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili in the 13th century and is followed by millions of people around the world. Many followers (Arabic ''murids'', "seekers") of the Shadhil ...
*
Imam Fassi Muhammad bin Muhammad al-Fassi (commonly known as ''Qutbul Ujud Imam Fassi'') (;1760?–1863) was the originator of the Fassi family of Sheikhs who constitute the Fassiyatush Shadhiliyya Sufi order. Early life Fassi was born either in the year 11 ...
* Ibn Ata Allah *
al-Fassi family Muhammad bin Muhammad al-Fassi (commonly known as ''Qutbul Ujud Imam Fassi'') (;1760?–1863) was the originator of the Fassi family of Sheikhs who constitute the Fassiyatush Shadhiliyya Sufi order. Early life Fassi was born either in the year 11 ...
*
Moinuddin Chishti Mu'in al-Din Hasan Chishti Sijzi (; February 1143 – March 1236), known reverentially as Khawaja Gharib Nawaz (), was a Persians, Persian Islamic scholar and Sufism, mystic from Sistan, who eventually ended up settling in the Indian subcontin ...
*
Ashraf Jahangir Semnani Sultan Makhdoom Ashraf Jahangir Semnani (; (1285–1386) was an Iranian Sufi saint from Semnan, Iran. He was the founder of the Ashrafi Sufi order. He is India's third most influential Sufi saint after Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti of Ajmer and Niz ...


References


External links


The grand Fassiya branch of Shadhiliyyah order

Modern day branch of this order

Lectures & Articles of this same branch



Ibn 'Ata' Allah, Muslim Sufi Saint and Gift of Heaven
by Abu Bakr Sirajuddin Cook.
''The Relevance and the Beauty of the Teaching of Shaykh Ibn 'Ata' Allah''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shadhili, Abu-l-Hassan Sunni Sufis Shadhili order Founders of Sufi orders Malikis Asharis Sunni imams Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam Berber writers Egyptian Sufis Moroccan emigrants to Egypt Moroccan expatriates in Tunisia Moroccan letter writers Moroccan religious leaders Moroccan Sufi writers 1196 births 1258 deaths 13th-century Berber people 13th-century Moroccan writers 13th-century Arab people Supporters of Ibn Arabi