Sheikh Adi Ibn Musafir

Adi ibn Musafir (, ; born 1072–1078, died 1162) was a Sunni Muslim sheikh who founded the Adawiyya order. He is also considered a Yazidi saint. The Yazidis consider him as an avatar of Tawûsî Melek, which means "Peacock Angel". His tomb at Lalish, Iraq is a focal point of Yazidi pilgrimage. He was an Arab from the Umayyad dynasty. He had distant Kurdish heritage as a direct descendant of Marwan II, who was born to a Kurdish mother.

Biography

Sheikh Adi was born in the 1070s in the village of Bait Far, near Baalbek, in the Beqaa Valley of present-day Lebanon. He hailed from the Umayyad lineage and was a descent from Marwan II, who was born to a Kurdish mother. Sheikh Adi first received Islamic education in the nearby region, likely in Damascus. He then went to Baghdad, where he settled and continued his Islamic education with Sufi circles. He was Shafi'i. In Baghdad, Sheikh Adi was a disciple of Ahmad Ghazali, Abu al-Najib Suhrawardi, and Abdul Qadir Gilani, who all studied together. Sheikh Adi then became a disciple to Hammad ad-Dabbas and then Oqeil al-Manbiji, from whom he received the Khirqa. Lescot, Roger (1975). p.23 Sheikh Adi later qualified as an Islamic teacher and began teaching. Physically, he was said to be very tanned and of medium stature. In the early 12th century, Sheikh Adi left Baghdad and settled in Lalish, a remote valley northeast of Mosul. The area was inhabited by various Kurdish tribes with local traditional religious beliefs. Sheikh Adi chose the region due to its isolation and to escape from the political and doctrinal rigidity of the Islamic lands. His teachings gradually merged with local traditions. Despite his desire for seclusion, he impressed the local population with his asceticism and miracles. He became well known in present-day Iraq and Syria and disciples moved to the valley of Lalish to live close to Sheikh Adi. Following he founded the Adawiyya order. He used the kunyas Al-Shami (of the Levant) and Al-Hakkari (of Hakkari). Before he died, he named his successor his nephew Sakhr Abu l-Barakat.

In his writings he reasoned that it was God who created the devil and evil for which he cited passages of the Quran and the Hadiths. He also taught that the true Muslim should adhere to the teachings in the Quran and the Sunna and that only the ones who follow the principles of the Muslim caliphs Abu Bakr, Uthman and Ali are true believers. Lescot, Roger (1975), p.26 According to some sources, he established the Sufi Adawiyya order. He is said to have performed several miraculous acts such as reading the thoughts of others, becoming invisible, and moving a mountain by force of his word. He also returned the life of a man who was crushed by a rock. Some Muslims respect him as one of the pioneers of asceticism and the scholars of Sufism who held firmly to the Quran and Sunnah.

Aftermath and legacy

This hermitage within the Valley of Lalish, would continue to be occupied by his followers and his descendants until the present day despite periods of unrest, destruction, and persecution by outsiders. In 1254, as a result of a violent conflict with the members of the Adawiyya order, the Atabeg of Mosul, Badr al-Din Lu'lu ordered the bones of Sheikh Adi to be exhumed and burned. As the holiest site in the Yezidi religion, his tomb (marked by three conical cupolas) still attracts a great number of people even outside holy festivals and pilgrimages. Nightly processions by torch light include exhibitions of the green colored pall, which covers the tomb; and the distribution of large trays with smoking harisa (a ragout with coagulated milk).

Books of Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir

Four books attributed to Sheikh Adi have been preserved:
:#The doctrine of the Sunnis ()
:#The Book of the formation of the soul ()
:#Instructions of Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir to the successor ()
:#Instructions to his disciple, the leading sheikh, and the other murids (). This book focus on several issues but are in line with Islamic teaching, which according to the Hanbali scholar Ibn Taymiyyah describes Sheikh Adi as a "sincere Muslim who followed the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad".

Succession

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Musafir, Sheikh Adi Ibn
1070s births
1162 deaths
Yazidi mythology
Adawiyya Sufi Order
Deified men
Founders of Sufi orders
12th-century Muslim theologians
11th-century Arab people
12th-century Arab people
Yazidi religion
Yazidi holy figures
Founders of new religious movements