Al-Sha'rani

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'Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha'rani
عبد الوهاب ابن أحمد الشعرانى
Personal
Born1493
Tasawwuf
Alma materAl-Azhar University
Muslim leader
Influenced by
Influenced
Part of a series on
Ash'arism
Rock carved with al-'Aqida al-Murshida by Ibn Tumart
Background
Eminent scholars
3rd AH/9th AD
  • Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari
    (d. 324/936)
  • Ibn Khafif (d. 371/982)
4th AH/10th AD
5th AH/11th AD
6th AH/12th AD
7th AH/13th AD
8th AH/14th AD
9th AH/15th AD
10th AH/16th AD
11th AH/17th AD
12th AH/18th AD
13th AH/19th AD
14th AH/20th AD
Theological works
Institutions
Events
Related groups
Classic
Modern

Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha'rani (1492/3–1565, AH 898–973, full name

mystic and theologian.[3][4][5][6] He was one of the Islamic revivalists and scholastic saints of the sixteenth century. He is credited for reviving Islam and is one of the most prolific writers of the early Egyptian-Ottoman period. His legal, spiritual, and theological writings are still widely read in the Muslim world today.[7] He is regarded as "one of the last original thinkers in Islam."[8] He was the founder of an Egyptian order of Sufism, eponymously known as Šaʿrāwiyyah. The order gradually declined after Shaʿrani's death, although it remained active until the 19th century.[9]

Naming

There is a claim that Andalusian Sheikh Abu Madyan Shu'ayb, the Shadhili order Sufi tradition's founder, sent Musa to Egypt as one of his disciples. The family lived in the Monufia province's Sakiyat Abu Sha'ra village, hence the name "Sha'rani."[10]

Biography

Birth

In a village north of Cairo, Egypt] Abd al-Wahhab Ibn Ahmad al-Sha'rani was born in the years 898 or 899 A.H. (1492/1493 C.E.).

Education

Despite the fact that he lost his father when he was still a little child, he started his quest for knowledge at a young age. Under the guidance of his brother, he had memorised the Qur'an by the time he was seven years old. He relocated to Cairo with an aim of studying at

madhabs. He was in love with hadith sciences and exhaustively worked hard in mastering it and he took the path of Sufism and strived for himself after mastering the Arabic sciences.[12]

Teachers

Al-Shaarani elaborated extensively in mentioning his sheikhs in his books, and showed the extent of his veneration for them, especially in his book “Al-Tabaqat al-Kubra”, and mentioned that they are about fifty of them. The most famous amongst them were intellectual giants in Islamic history:[13]

Spiritual Journey

Al-Sha'rani sought a Sufi shaykh after achieving the greatest levels of proficiency in the Islamic disciplines. He made the decision to proceed with Shaykh Ali al-Khawas, who, following a brief conversation, gave al-Sha'rani the order to sell all of his numerous books and give the earnings to the needy. Al-Sha'rani sold all of his books, but he hung onto one because it was special to him. Al-Sha'rani wondered aloud, "Is this book really worth risking my journey to Allah?" as he made his way to al-Khawas' home. He turned around right away and sold the book. Al-Sha'rani was ordered to withdraw into seclusion for a whole year with the stringent condition of avoiding all gatherings of Islamic knowledge after informing al-Khawas that he had completed this assignment. Only then did al-Khawas take him on as a close friend and personally direct his spiritual journey. Only a few days after he began his spiritual journey to Allah (God), his friendship with Shaykh Ali al-Khawas began to bear spiritual fruit, and al-Sha'rani would eventually take over his teacher's position of authority on the path.[13]

Death

Al-Sha’rani died on 12 Djumada 973 AH/5 December 1565 AD). His final words on Earth were: “I am going to my Lord, the Merciful, the Munificent.”[14] He was buried in the awiya that had been created for him. As the leader of Zawiya and the tariqa, his son 'Abd al-Rahim succeeded him.[10]

Views

Sufism

Al-Sha'rani stands for the traditional, moderately ascetic, non-political, and orthodox strain of Egyptian Sufism. Although

Al-Junayd's alternative approach. His introduction into 26 tariqas appears to have been merely ceremonial or done to earn barakah.[10]

Al-Sha'rani exposes frauds and impostors posing as Sufis in his work al-Tabaqat. He was very critical and harsh towards charlatans who engage in innovation that go against the Book and Sunnah.[14]

Fiqh

His seminal work Al-Mīzan al-Kubra (The Supreme Scale), al-Sha'rani present a theory based on

madhab. As saints, the founders had access to the Source of the Law. There is only one Sharia, he claims, and it has two standards: one that is harsh for those who are steadfast in their faith and one that is lenient for those who are not. Al-Sha'rani often condemned the fuqaha (jurists) for burdening the common people with intricate legal issues that had little bearing on the core principles of Islam.[15][10]

Ibn Arabi

In his capacity as a historian of Sufism and as a defender of it, Al-Sha'rani assembled collections of Tabakat that contained the lives and sayings of Sufis. He maintains that genuine Sufis have never violated the Shar'ia in word or deed, and that any appearance to the contrary is the result of misunderstanding, erroneous interpretation, a lack of comprehension of Sufi terminology, or interpolation by adversaries. Al-Sha'rani made this decision to uphold the orthodoxy of the great mystic Shaykh al-Akhbar Muhyi al-Din Ibn al-Arabi, whose principles he epitomises in his Al-Yawakit wa 'I-djawahir by simplifying the mystic's complex doctrines. Al-Sha'rani, like Al-Suyuti before him, maintained that one should regard Ibn Arabi as a great saint but refrain from reading his problematic books.[16][10]

Works

  • Al-Ajwiba-t al-Marḍiyya
  • Al-Kibrīt al-Aḥmar
  • Al-Mīzan al-Kubra (The Supreme Scale) [Arabic ed. Cairo: al-Maṭābi` al-Amīriyya, 1900. 2 vols.]
  • Al-Tabaqat al-Kubra (The supreme levels)
  • Lata'if al-minan wa al-akhlaq (Subtleties of gifts and character)
  • Lawaqih al-anwar al-qudsiyya (The fecundating sacred illuminations)
  • Kitab al-yawaqit wa al-jawahir fī bayan 'aqa'id al-akabir (The book of rubies and jewels: an explanation of the tenets of faith of mystic luminaries).
  • Al-Jawahir wa al-Durar (The jewels and pearls)
  • Durar al-Ghawas li sayyidi Ali al-Khawas
  • Al-Kawkab al-shahiq fī al-farq bayn al-Mureed al-sadiq wa Ghayri sadiq
  • Mawazin al-qaswirin min shuyukhin wa muridin
  • al-Fulk al-mashḥūn fī bayān anna l-taṣawwuf huwa mā takhluqu bihi al-'ulamā' al-'āmilūn
  • Muẖtaṣar taḏkira-t as-Suwaydī fī l-ṭibb

See also

References

  1. ISBN 978-1-4384-5370-5
    .
  2. ISBN 9780791457375.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  3. ISBN 9781405183796
    .
  4. ^ Carl F. Petry, M. Daly (10 December 1998). The Cambridge History of Egypt. Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press. p. 26.
  5. ISBN 9780521887885
    .
  6. ISBN 9780521534512
    .
  7. ^ "Our Pledge with the Prophet: The Muhammadan Covenants By Imam al-Sha'rani". almadina.org.
  8. ISBN 9781136283505
    .
  9. ISBN 9781136498947
    – via Google Books.
  10. ^
    ISBN 9788176252676
    .
  11. ^ "Who is Imam Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha'rani?". mufakeroon.com.
  12. ^ Al-Shaarani, Flags of Islam, authored by: Tawfiq Al-Taweel.
  13. ^ a b "Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha'rani and His al-Minan al-Kubra". traversingtradition.com.
  14. ^ a b "Sayyidina Abdul Wahhab Al-Sha'rani". mazaratmisr.org.
  15. ^ This issue is partially discussed by Ahmed Fekry Ibrahim, "Al-Sha`rani's Response to Legal Purism: A Theory of Legal Pluralism", in Islamic Law and Society, vol. 20 (2013, pp. 110-140.
  16. ISBN 978-1-4384-5370-5
    .

Sources

  • C. Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur (GAL), 1st edition, 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 1889–1936), vol. 2, pp. 335–8.
  • M. Winter, 'Shaʿrānī' in Gibbs et al. (eds.), The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition, 11 vols. (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1960–2002), vol. 9, p. 316.
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