Sufism is a mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic purification, spirituality, ritualism, and asceticism.
The Chishti order is a Sufi order of Sunni Islam named after the town of Chisht where it was initiated by Abu Ishaq Shami. The order was brought to South Asia by Mu'in al-Din Chishti in the city of Ajmer.
A wali is most commonly used by Muslims to indicate a saint, otherwise referred to by the more literal "friend of God".
Mu'in al-Din Hasan Chishti Sijzi, known reverentially as Khawaja Gharib Nawaz, was a Persian Islamic scholar and mystic from Sistan, who eventually ended up settling in the Indian subcontinent in the early 13th-century, where he promulgated the Chishtiyya order of Sunni mysticism. This particular Tariqa (order) became the dominant Islamic spiritual order in medieval India. Most of the Indian Sunni saints are Chishti in their affiliation, including Nizamuddin Awliya and Amir Khusrow.
Abū Yazīd Ṭayfūr bin ʿĪsā bin Surūshān al-Bisṭāmī (al-Basṭāmī), commonly known in the Iranian world as Bāyazīd Bisṭāmī, was a Persian Sufi from north-central Iran. Known to future Sufis as Sultān-ul-Ārifīn, Bisṭāmī is considered to be one of the expositors of the state of fanā, the notion of dying in mystical union with Allah. Bastami was famous for "the boldness of his expression of the mystic’s complete absorption into the mysticism." Many "ecstatic utterances" have been attributed to Bisṭāmī, which lead to him being known as the "drunken" or "ecstatic" school of Islamic mysticism. Such utterance may be argued as, Bisṭāmī died with mystical union and the deity is speaking through his tongue. Bisṭāmī also claimed to have ascended through the seven heavens in his dream. His journey, known as the Mi'raj of Bisṭāmī, is clearly patterned on the Mi'raj of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Bisṭāmī is characterized in three different ways: a free thinking radical, a pious Sufi who is deeply concerned with following the shari'a and engaging in "devotions beyond the obligatory," and a pious individual who is presented as having a dream similar to the Mi'raj of Muhammed. The Mi'raj of Bisṭāmī seems as if Bisṭāmī is going through a self journey; as he ascends through each heaven, Bisṭāmī is gaining knowledge in how he communicates with the angels and the number of angels he encounters increases.
Sufism is the mystical branch of Islam in which Muslims seek divine love and truth through direct personal experience of God. This mystic tradition within Islam developed in several stages of growth, emerging first in the form of early asceticism, based on the teachings of Hasan al-Basri, before entering the second stage of more classical mysticism of divine love, as promoted by al-Ghazali and Attar of Nishapur, and finally emerging in the institutionalized form of today's network of fraternal Sufi orders, based on Sufis such as Rumi and Yunus Emre. At its core, however, Sufism remains an individual mystic experience, and a Sufi can be characterized as one who seeks the annihilation of the ego in God.
Abu Talib Muhammad ibn Ali al-Makki, was a hadith scholar, Shafi'i jurist, and Sufi mystic.
Rābiʼa al-ʼAdawiyya al-Qaysiyya was an Arab Muslim saint, one of the earliest Sufi mystics and an influential religious figure. She is known in some parts of the world as Hazrat Rabia Basri, Rabia Al Basri or simply Rabia Basri.
Abū ʿAbd Allāh Sufyān ibn Saʿīd ibn Masrūq ibn Ḥamza al-Thawrī al-Muḍarī al-Kūfī, commonly known as Sufyān al-Thawrī, was a Sunni Muslim scholar, jurist, ascetic, traditionist, and eponymous founder of the Thawri school of Islamic jurisprudence, considered one of the Eight Ascetics.
Imran ibn Husain ibn ‘Ubayd ibn Khalaf al-Khuzā’i was one of the Sahaba (Companions) of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad and a well-known reciter of the Quran, a Qadhi (Judge) and narrator of hadith.
Al-Muḥāsibī was a Muslim Arab, theologian, philosopher and ascetic. He is considered to be the founder of the Baghdad School of Islamic philosophy which combined Kalam and Sufism, and a teacher of the Sufi masters Junayd al-Baghdadi and Sirri Saqti.
'Abd al-Karīm ibn Hawazin Abū al-Qāsim al-Qushayrī al-Naysābūrī was an Arab Muslim scholar, theologian, jurist, legal theoretician, commentator of the Qur’an, muhaddith, grammarian, spiritual master, orator, poet, and an eminent scholar who mastered a number of Islamic sciences. Al-Qushayri, combined the routine instruction of a Shafi'i law specialist and Hadith expert (muhaddith) with a solid slant to mysticism and ascetic lifestyle.
Abū al-Farash ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Jawzī, often referred to as Ibn al-Jawzī for short, was a Muslim jurisconsult, preacher, orator, heresiographer, traditionist, historian, judge, hagiographer, and philologist who played an instrumental role in propagating the Hanbali school of orthodox Sunni jurisprudence in his native Baghdad during the twelfth-century. During "a life of great intellectual, religious and political activity," Ibn al-Jawzi came to be widely admired by his fellow Hanbalis for the tireless role he played in ensuring that that particular school – historically, the smallest of the four principal Sunni schools of law – enjoy the same level of "prestige" often bestowed by rulers on the Maliki, Shafi'i, and Hanafi rites.
Muhammad Amjad, was a legal scholar of Qur'an, Hadith, and the Hanafi school of Islamic law.
'Ibrahīm Bin ʿAbd-El-ʿAzīz 'Abu al-Magd, better known as El Desouki (الدسوقي), was an Egyptian Imam and the founder of the Desouki Order.
Malik Dinar was a Muslim scholar and traveller. He was one of the first known Muslims to have come to India in order to teach Islam in the Indian Subcontinent after the departure of King Cheraman Perumal. Even though historians do not agree on the exact place of his death, it is widely accepted that he died at Kasaragod and that his relics were buried at the Malik Dinar Mosque in Thalangara, Kasaragod. Belonging to the generation of the tabi'i, Malik is called a reliable traditionalist in Sunni sources. He was the son of a slave from Kabul who became a disciple of Hasan al-Basri. He died just before the epidemic of plague which caused considerable ravages in Basra in 748-49 CE, with various traditions placing his death either at 744-45 or 747-48 CE.
Habib ibn Muhammad al-‘Ajami al-Basri known also as Habib al-Ajami and Habib al-Farsi was a Muslim Sufi mystic, saint, and traditionalist of Persian descent. Different dates for his death are given in the sources, such as 113 AH, 120 (738), 125 (743), and 130 (747-48). Habib-i Ajami settled in Basra, where his shrine is. He is a disciple of Hasan al-Basri. His disciple is Dāwūd al-Tai.
Abū Naṣr ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī al-Sarrāj was a Sunni sheikh and ascetic born in Tūs, Iran. He traveled widely in the Islamic world, having lived in cities as diverse as Cairo, Tabriz, Ramla, Baghdad, Damascus, Basra, and Nishapur. He is best known for his seminal Kitāb al-luma, which is considered an encyclopedia of the history of early Sufism.
Sari ibn al-Mughallis al-Saqati (Persian: السري بن المغلس السقطي, romanized: Sarī ibn al-Mughallis al-Saqaṭī was one of the early Muslim Sufi saints of Baghdad. He was one of the most influential students of Maruf Karkhi and one of the first to present Sufism in a systematic way. He was also a friend of Bishr al-Hafi. He was the maternal uncle and spiritual master of Junayd of Baghdad.
Ibn Kullab was an early Sunni theologian (mutakallim) in Basra and Baghdad in the first half of the 9th century during the time of the Mihna and belonged, according to Ibn al-Nadim, to the traditionalist group of the Nawabit. His movement, also called Kullabiyya, merged and developed into Ash'arism, which, along with Maturidism and Atharism, forms the theological basis of Sunni Islam.
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