Habib ibn Muhammad al-‘Ajami al-Basri () known also as Habib al-Ajami () and Habib al-Farsi () was a

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

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, saint, and traditionalist of Persian descent. Different dates for his death are given in the sources, such as 113 AH (731 CE), 120 (738), 125 (743), and 130 (747-48). Habib-i Ajami settled in

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 ...

, where his shrine is. He is a disciple of

Hasan al-Basri Abi Sa'id al-Hasan ibn Yasar al-Basri, often referred to as al-Hasan al-Basri, was an ancient Muslim preacher, ascetic, theologian, exegete, scholar, and judge. Born in Medina in 642,Mourad, Suleiman A., “al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī”, in: ''Encyc ...

. His disciple is Dāwūd al-Tai. According to Ibn Hajar, Habib is a solid hadith narrator. Hasan al-Basri, Ibn Sirrin, Abu Tamima al-Hujaymi and Bakir bin Abdullah narrated hadiths from him, and Sulayman al-Taymi, Hammad bin Salama, Jafar bin Sulayman and Mu'tamir bin Sulayman reported from him. Bukhari also mentioned him in ''al-Adab al-Mufrad'' (I, 366) and ''al-Tarikh al-Kabir'' (II, 326). Although

Ibn al-Jawzi Abu al-Faraj Jamal al-Din Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Hasan Ali Al-Jawzi also known as Ibn al-Jawzi (16 June 1201) was a Muslim jurisconsult, preacher, orator, heresiographer, traditionist, historian, judge, hagiographer, and philologist who played ...

says that Habib, the narrator of the hadith, is another person, this information should be viewed with caution unless it is confirmed by other sources.

Biography

There is insufficient information about his family and life, but he was originally from Persia. Abu al-Fayd al-Manufi records that he was the son of a king without citing the source. It is rumored that Habib was engaged in trade and usury before turning to Sufism (''tasawwuf''), and collected a messenger's fee from the debtor if they were not able to pay when he went to collect his debt. It is said that once when he was about to eat a beggar asked him for alms and he harshly scolded him. Meanwhile, when his wife told him that his food had become bloodied, Habib regretted what he had done and decided to become an honest merchant and quit usury. According to the legend, Habib was extremely upset when the children who were playing games while he was passing by, ran away from him because they were fearful, and he went to the assembly of Hasan al-Basri and repented. Fariduddin Attar records that Habib-i Ajami received knowledge from Hasan-i Basri during the day and was busy with worship at night in the zawiya he had built on the edge of the

Euphrates The Euphrates ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of West Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia (). Originati ...

. According to the rumor, Hasan-i Basri thought that it would not be possible to pray behind him because Habib mispronounced

Quranic 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 ...

verses while praying. However, in his dream, he was warned that all the prayers he performed would be accepted for the sake of the prayer he would offer behind Habib, because there was a big difference between correcting the tongue and correcting the heart. This narration is important in that it is one of the first characteristic examples of the mystical understanding that prioritizes the inward over the outward.

Significance

Another feature of Habib is that he is a person whose prayers are accepted according to common opinion. Attar mentions various legends on this subject.Tazkarat al-Awliya, p. 98 Habib's wife Amra was also one of the women ascetics of the time. The main importance of Habib in terms of the history of tasawwuf is that he takes place after Hasan al-Basri in the chain of succession (

silsila ''Silsila'' () is an Arabic language, Arabic word meaning ''chain'', ''link'', ''connection'' often used in various senses of :wikt:lineage, lineage. In particular, it may be translated as "spiritual genealogy" where one Sufi Master transfe ...

) of the

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 ...

s that were formed in the centuries after the period of asceticism ( zuhd). Dawud al-Tai is seen as his disciple in these chains. The fact that they were included in the chains of great orders such as the

Naqshbandi Naqshbandi (Persian: نقشبندیه) is a major Sufi order within Sunni Islam, named after its 14th-century founder, Baha' al-Din Naqshband. Practitioners, known as Naqshbandis, trace their spiritual lineage (silsila) directly to the Prophet ...

Qadiri The Qadiriyya () or the Qadiri order () is a Sunni Sufi order (''Tariqa'') founded by Abdul Qadir Gilani (1077–1166, also transliterated ''Jilani''), who was a Hanbali scholar from Gilan, Iran. The order, with its many sub-orders, is wides ...

, and Mawlawi enabled their legends to reach the present day.

References

Iranian Sufi saints 738 deaths {{Islam-bio-stub

Biography

Significance

See also

References