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Sahl al-Tustari

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Sahl al-Tustarī
Personal
Bornc. 818 CE (203 AH) in Shushtar, Iran
Diedc. 896 CE (283 AH) in Basra, Iraq
ReligionIslam
EraIslamic golden age
RegionAhwaz
JurisprudenceHanbali
Main interest(s)Sufism, Islamic theology
Notable work(s)Tafsir

Sahl al-Tustarī (Arabic: سهل التستري) or Sahl Shushtarī (Persian: سهل شوشتری) according to Persian custom, born Abū Muḥammad Sahl ibn ʿAbd Allāh (c.818 CE (203 AH) – c.896 CE (283 AH)), was a Persian Sunni Muslim scholar and early classical Sufi mystic.[1] He founded the Salimiyah Muslim theological school, which was named after his disciple Muhammad ibn Salim.[2]

Tustari is most famous for his controversial claim that "I am the Proof of God for the created beings and I am a proof for the saints (awliya) of my time"[1] and for his well-known Tafsir, a commentary on and interpretation of the Qur'an.

Discover more about Sahl al-Tustari related topics

Persian language

Persian language

Persian, also known by its endonym Farsi, is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and used officially within Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan in three mutually intelligible standard varieties, namely Iranian Persian, Dari Persian and Tajiki Persian. It is also spoken natively in the Tajik variety by a significant population within Uzbekistan, as well as within other regions with a Persianate history in the cultural sphere of Greater Iran. It is written officially within Iran and Afghanistan in the Persian alphabet, a derivation of the Arabic script, and within Tajikistan in the Tajik alphabet, a derivation of the Cyrillic script.

Common Era

Common Era

Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar, the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the original Anno Domini (AD) and Before Christ (BC) notations used for the same calendar era. The two notation systems are numerically equivalent: "2023 CE" and "AD 2023" each describe the current year; "400 BCE" and "400 BC" are the same year.

Islamic calendar

Islamic calendar

The Hijri calendar, also known in English as the Muslim calendar and Islamic calendar, is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days. It is used to determine the proper days of Islamic holidays and rituals, such as the annual fasting and the annual season for the great pilgrimage. In almost all countries where the predominant religion is Islam, the civil calendar is the Gregorian calendar, with Syriac month-names used in the Levant and Mesopotamia but the religious calendar is the Hijri one.

Islam

Islam

Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centered around the Quran and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam, called Muslims, number approximately 1.9 billion globally and are the world's second-largest religious population after Christians.

Scholarship

Scholarship

A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need.

Sufism

Sufism

Sufism, also known as Tasawwuf, is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ritualism, asceticism and esotericism. It has been variously defined as "Islamic mysticism", "the mystical expression of Islamic faith", "the inward dimension of Islam", "the phenomenon of mysticism within Islam", the "main manifestation and the most important and central crystallization" of mystical practice in Islam, and "the interiorization and intensification of Islamic faith and practice".

Mysticism

Mysticism

Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in ultimate or hidden truths, and to human transformation supported by various practices and experiences.

Wali

Wali

A wali, the Arabic word which has been variously translated "master", "authority", "custodian", "protector", is most commonly used by Muslims to indicate an Islamic saint, otherwise referred to by the more literal "friend of God".

Tafsir

Tafsir

Tafsir refers to exegesis, usually of the Quran. An author of a tafsir is a mufassir. A Quranic tafsir attempts to provide elucidation, explanation, interpretation, context or commentary for clear understanding and conviction of God's will.

Biography

Sahl al-Tustari was born in the fortress town of Tustar (Arabic) or Shushtar (Persian) in Khūzestān Province in what is now southwestern Iran.[1]

From an early age he led an ascetic life with frequent fasting and study of the Qur'an and Hadith, the oral traditions, of the Prophet Muhammad. He practised repentance (tawbah) and, above all, constant remembrance of God (dhikr). This eventually culminated in a direct and intimate rapport with God with whom he considered himself a special friend and one of the spiritual elect.[1]

Tustari was under the direction of the Sufi saint Dhul-Nun al-Misri for a time, and Tustari in his turn was one of the Sufi mystic Mansur Al-Hallaj's early teachers.[3]

Tustari was also near to the Islamic Scholars of Hadith when he met (Abu Dawood) he said "O Abu Dawud, I want something from you." He said, "What is it?" Sahl said, "On a condition that you say that you will fulfill it if possible." Abu Dawud replied in the affirmative. Sahl said, "Get out your tongue with which you narrated the hadiths of the Prophet (peace be upon him) so that I kiss it." Abu Dawud accept that and Sahl kissed his tongue.[4] This shows the close proximate of early hadith scholars and early sufis.

In these early days when the Sufis were becoming established mostly in Baghdad (the capital of modern Iraq), the most notable Sufis of the time elsewhere were: Tustari in southwestern Iran, Al-Tirmidhi in Central Asia and the Malamatiyya or "People of Blame".[5] Also the chief leader of the Hanabila, al-Barbahari, was a disciple of Tustari. [6]

An Islamic scholar who commented on and interpreted the Qur'an, Tustari maintained that the Qur'an "contained several levels of meaning", which included the outer or zahir and the inner or batin. Another key idea that he unravelled was the meaning of the Prophet Muhammad's saying "I am He and He is I, save that I am I, and He is He", explaining it "as a mystery of union and realization at the center of the Saint's personality, called the sirr ('the secret'), or the heart, where existence joins Being."[7] Tustari also "was the first to put" the Sufi exercise of remembrance of God, Dhikr, "on a firm theoretical basis."[8]

[Tustari] maintained that ultimately [...] it became clear to the recollector that the true agent of recollection was not the believer engaged in recollection but God Himself, who commemorated Himself in the heart of the believer. This realisation of God's control over the heart led the believer to the state of complete trust in the Divine.[1]


Discover more about Biography related topics

Shushtar

Shushtar

Shushtar is a city and capital of Shushtar County, Khuzestan Province, Iran.

Iran

Iran

Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmenistan to the north, by Afghanistan and Pakistan to the east, and by the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf to the south. It covers an area of 1.64 million square kilometres, making it the 17th-largest country. Iran has an estimated population of 86.8 million, making it the 17th-most populous country in the world, and the second-largest in the Middle East. Its largest cities, in descending order, are the capital Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan, Karaj, Shiraz, and Tabriz.

Hadith

Hadith

Ḥadīth or Athar refers to what most Muslims and the mainstream schools of Islamic thought, believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approval of the Islamic prophet Muhammad as transmitted through chains of narrators. In other words, the ḥadīth are transmitted reports attributed to what Muhammad said and did.

Muhammad

Muhammad

Muhammad was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monotheistic teachings of Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. He is believed to be the Seal of the Prophets within Islam. Muhammad united Arabia into a single Muslim polity, with the Quran as well as his teachings and practices forming the basis of Islamic religious belief.

Repentance in Islam

Repentance in Islam

Tawba is the Islamic concept of repenting to God due to performing any sins and misdeeds. It is a direct matter between a person and God, so there is no intercession. There is no original sin in Islam. It is the act of leaving what God has prohibited and returning to what he has commanded. The word denotes the act of being repentant for one's misdeeds, atoning for those misdeeds, and having a strong determination to forsake those misdeeds. If someone sins against another person, restitution is required.

Dhikr

Dhikr

Dhikr is a form of Islamic meditation in which phrases or prayers are repeatedly chanted in order to remember God. It plays a central role in Sufi Islam, and each Sufi order has usually adopted a specific dhikr, typically accompanied by specific posture, breathing, and movement. In Sufi Islam, dhikr refers to both the act of this remembrance as well as the prayers used in these acts of remembrance. Dhikr can be performed in solitude or as a collective group. It can be counted on a set of prayer beads or through the fingers of the hand. A person who recites the Dhikr is called a Dhakir , literally "he who remembers." The content of the prayers includes the names of God, or a dua taken from the hadiths or the Quran.

Dhul-Nun al-Misri

Dhul-Nun al-Misri

Dhūl-Nūn Abū l-Fayḍ Thawbān b. Ibrāhīm al-Miṣrī, often referred to as Dhūl-Nūn al-Miṣrī or Zūl-Nūn al-Miṣrī for short, was an early Egyptian Muslim mystic and ascetic. His surname "al Misri" means "The Egyptian". He was born in Upper Egypt in 796, Dhul-Nun is said to have made some study of the scholastic disciplines of alchemy, medicine, and Greek philosophy in his early life, before coming under the mentorship of the mystic Saʿdūn of Cairo, who is described in traditional accounts of Dhul-Nun's life as both "his teacher and spiritual director." Celebrated for his legendary wisdom both in his own life and by later Islamic thinkers, Dhul-Nun has been venerated in traditional Sunni Islam as one of the greatest saints of the early era of Sufism.

Baghdad

Baghdad

Baghdad is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon. In 762 CE, Baghdad was chosen as the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, and became its most notable major development project. Within a short time, the city evolved into a significant cultural, commercial, and intellectual center of the Muslim world. This, in addition to housing several key academic institutions, including the House of Wisdom, as well as a multiethnic and multi-religious environment, garnered it a worldwide reputation as the "Center of Learning".

Iraq

Iraq

Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and Kuwait to the southeast, Saudi Arabia to the south, Jordan to the southwest and Syria to the west. The capital and largest city is Baghdad. Iraq is home to diverse ethnic groups including Iraqi Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens, Assyrians, Armenians, Yazidis, Mandaeans, Persians and Shabakis with similarly diverse geography and wildlife. The majority of the country's 40 million residents are Muslims – the notable other faiths are Christianity, Yazidism, Mandaeism, Yarsanism and Zoroastrianism. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish; others also recognised in specific regions are Suret (Assyrian), Turkish and Armenian.

Al-Tirmidhi

Al-Tirmidhi

Abū ʿĪsā Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā as-Sulamī aḍ-Ḍarīr al-Būghī at-Tirmidhī, often referred to as Imām at-Termezī/Tirmidhī, was an Islamic scholar, and collector of hadith from Termez. He wrote al-Jami` as-Sahih, one of the six canonical hadith compilations in Sunni Islam. He also wrote Shama'il Muhammadiyah, a compilation of hadiths concerning the person and character of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. At-Tirmidhi was also well versed in Arabic grammar, favoring the school of Kufa over Basra due to the former's preservation of Arabic poetry as a primary source.

Malamatiyya

Malamatiyya

The Malāmatiyya (ملامتية) or Malamatis were a Muslim mystic group active in 9th century Greater Khorasan. The root word of their name is the Arabic word malāmah (ملامة) "blame". The Malamatiyya believed in the value of self-blame, that piety should be a private matter and that being held in good esteem would lead to worldly attachment. They concealed their knowledge and made sure their faults would be known, reminding them of their imperfection. The Malamati is one for whom the doctrine of "spiritual states" is fraught with subtle deceptions of the most despicable kind; he despises personal piety, not because he is focused on the perceptions or reactions of people, but as a consistent involuntary witness of his own "pious hypocrisy".

Al-Hasan ibn 'Ali al-Barbahari

Al-Hasan ibn 'Ali al-Barbahari

Al-Ḥasan ibn ʻAlī al-Barbahārī was a Muslim theologian and populist religious leader from Iraq. He was a scholar and jurist who is famous for his role in suppressing S̲h̲īʿa missionaries and Mu'tazilism in the Abbasid Caliphate during his lifetime. His books include creedal and methodological refutations against certain sects including the Shias, Qadaris, and the Mu'tazilites.

Works

  • al-Tustari, Sahl ibn 'Abd Allah (December 2009). Meri, Yousef (ed.). Tafsir Al-Tustari: Great Commentaries of the Holy Qur'an. Translated by Keeler, Annabel; Keeler, Ali. Fons Vitae. ISBN 978-1-891785-19-1.

Sayings

  • "I am the Proof of God for the created beings and I am a proof for the saints (awliya) of my time"[1]
  • Asked "What is food?" Tustari replied: "Food is contemplation of the Living One."[9]
  • "Whoever wakes up worrying about what he will eat -- shun him!"[10]
  • "If any one shuts his eye to God for a single moment, he will never be rightly guided all his life long"[11]

Source: "Sahl al-Tustari", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, February 15th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahl_al-Tustari.

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Further Reading

Sufism

Names of God in Islam

Al-Hallaj

Bayazid Bastami

Abu Dawud al-Sijistani

Junayd of Baghdad

Abu Sa'id Abu'l-Khayr

Esoteric interpretation of the Quran

Ibn Khafif

Dhul-Nun al-Misri

Al-Insān al-Kāmil

Al-Qushayri
Notes
  1. ^ a b c d e f Karamustafa, Ahmet T. (Professor) (2007). Sufism: The Formative Period. University of California Press. pp. 38–43. ISBN 978-0-520-25269-1.Co-publisher: Edinburgh University Press.
  2. ^ Staff. "Salimiyah (Muslim theological school)". Encyclopædia Britannica (online). Retrieved 2009-06-20.
  3. ^ Mason, Herbert W. (1995). Al-Hallaj. RoutledgeCurzon. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-7007-0311-1.
  4. ^ Okasha, Mohamed (3 September 2014). "Abu Dawud: The Faqih and Scholar of Hadith". The-faith.com. E-Da`wah Committee (EDC). Archived from the original on 5 April 2018. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
  5. ^ Cornell, Vincent J. (2006). Voices of Islam, Volume 1: Voices of Tradition. Praeger Publishers. pp. 254–255. ISBN 978-0-275-98732-9.
  6. ^ JSTOR: The Ḥanābila and the Early Sufis. Page 353
  7. ^ Glasse, Cyril (2008). The New Encyclopedia of Islam. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. p. 393. ISBN 978-0-7425-6296-7.
  8. ^ Hovannisian, Richard G.; Sabagh, Georges (1998). The Persian presence in the Islamic world. Cambridge University Press. p. 187. ISBN 978-0-521-59185-0.
  9. ^ Shah, Idries (1983). Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way. Octagon Press. p. 149. ISBN 978-0-900860-59-1. First published 1978. According to Idries Shah this refers to the fact that "Sufi learning comes through nutrition."
  10. ^ Jami, Al-Ghazzali and Hakim Sanai (1980). Four Sufi Classics: "Salaman and Absal", "Niche for Lights", "Way of the Seeker" and "Abode of Spring". Octagon Press. p. 191. ISBN 978-0-900860-69-0.
  11. ^ Nicholson, Reynold A. (2002). The Mystics of Islam. World Wisdom. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-941532-48-8.
References
  • Massignon, Louis; Mason, Herbert W (translator and editor) (1994). The passion of Al-Hallaj: mystic and martyr of Islam. Princeton University Press. pp. 35–37. ISBN 978-0-691-01919-2. {{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)
  • Hovannisian, Richard G.; Sabagh, Georges (1998). The Persian presence in the Islamic world. Cambridge University Press. pp. 187–188. ISBN 978-0-521-59185-0.
  • Glasse, Cyril (2008). The New Encyclopedia of Islam. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. pp. 393–394. ISBN 978-0-7425-6296-7.
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