Al-Hasan ibn Abi ‘l Hasan al-Basri was born at Medina in 21 (642), the son of a slave captured in Maisan who afterwards became a client of the Prophet Mohammad’s secretary Zaid ibn Thabet. Brought up in Basra, he met many Companions of the Prophet including, it is said, seventy of those who fought at the Battle of Badr. He grew up to become one of the most prominent figures of his generation, being famous for his uncompromising piety and outspoken condemnation of worldliness in high places.

Abu Yazid Taifur ibn ‘Isa ibn Sorushan al-Bestami was born in Bestam in north-eastern Persia, the grandson of a Zoroastrian; there he died in 261(874) or 264(877), and his mausoleum still stands. The founder of the ecstatic (“drunken”) school of Sufism, he is famous for the boldness of his expression of the mystic’s complete absorption into the Godhead. In particular his description of a journey into Heaven (in imitation of the Prophet Mohammad’s “ascension”), greatly elaborated by later writers, exercised a powerful influence on the imagination of all who came after him.

 Abu Eshaq Ebrahim ibn Adham

Abu Eshaq Ebrahim ibn Adham, born in Balkh of pure Arab descent, is described in Sufi legend as a prince who renounced his kingdom (somewhat after the fashion of the Buddha) and wandered westwards to live a life of complete asceticism, earning his bread in Syria by honest manual toil until his death in c. 165 (782). Some accounts state that he was killed on a naval expedition against Byzantium. The story of his conversion is a classic of Muslim hagiography.

The legend of Ebrahim ibn Adham

The most controversial figure in the history of Islamic mysticism.

 Abu ‘l-Moghith al-Hosain ibn Mansur al-Hallaj was born C. 244 (858) near al-Baiza’ in the province of Fars. He travelled very widely, first to Tostar and Baghdad, then to Mecca, and afterwards to Khuzestan, Khorasan, Transoxiana, Sistan, India and Turkestan. Eventually he returned to Baghdad, where his bold preaching of union with God caused him to be arrested on a charge of incarnationism.

He was condemned to death and cruelly executed on 29 Dhu ‘l-Qa’da 309 (28 March 9I3). Author of a number of books and a considerable volume of poetry, he passed into Muslim legend as the prototype of the intoxicated lover of God.

The Rose of Medina

Written by Fethullah Gülen   

Whenever I commemorate You, all else fades from my mind,
Your phantasm treads on the hills of my mind;
Although a mirage, it assuages my affliction,
Whenever I commemorate You, all else fades from my mind.

I wish your love pervade each second of my life,
And I could soar like spirits and circumambulate your aurora,
And find some way to ooze into your heart,
I wish your love pervade each second of my life.

I avow it is too late to attain your blissful presence,
My heart will ceaselessly be lamenting still,
Forever anticipating you with the freshest hopes,
I avow it is too late to attain your blissful presence,

As my heart flutters like a dove, hankering for you,
I beg you to grant me a plume of yours!
So that I could flap after you forever,
As my heart flutters like a dove, hankering for you.

O Rose that turns scorching desert into Eden!
Come and lapse flow into my soul with your enchanting colors!
It is high time your smiles shone on the apples of my eyes.
O Rose that turns scorching desert into Eden!

Let me be your slave, like Majnun, in the quest for you,
Sprinkle embers on my soul, let me burn like a furnace.
And be relieved of this rancorous dream elapsing without you,
Let me be your slave, like Majnun, in the quest for you.

I count the days I have been severed from you,
That coil about my soul like gloomy dolor.
Let me see your face before the twilight unfolds,
I count the days I have been severed from you.

Let me see my dusk turn into dawn at my last gasp,
And my heart be filled with the newest colors of your horizon,
Lutes would be resounding then, and flutes would be heard,
Let me see my dusk turn into dawn at my last gasp.

Rabi'ah al-Adawiyah, al-Basri

Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya [d.717-801 C.E.] Radi Allahu anha was a female Sufi saint from Iraq, who first set forth the doctrine of mystical love and who is widely considered to be the most important of the early Sufi poets. Rabi'a was also known as 'Rabi'a al-Qaysiyya' or 'Rabi'a of Basrah' she was born in Basra, Iraq between the years 95 A.H. and 99 A.H. Not a great deal is known about Rabia al Basri radi Allahu ta'ala anha, except that she lived in abject poverty. But many spiritual stories are associated with her and what we can glean about her is reality merged with legend. These traditions come from FARID AL-DIN ATTAR a later sufi saint and poet, who used earlier sources.

 Shaykh al Akbar : Muhammad Ibn al-'Arabi, Muhyi al-Din [d.637H -1240CE] 'alayhi al-rahmah wa'l-ridwan

Muhammad ibn 'Ali ibn Muhammad ibn al-'Arabi, Abu Bakr Muhyi al-Din al-Hatimi al-Ta'i al-Andalusi al-Mursi al-Dimashqi, known as Ibn 'Arabi to differentiate him from Abu Bakr Ibn al-'Arabi the Maliki jurist. A scholar of Arabic letters at first, then tafsir and tasawwuf, nicknamed 'al-Qushayri' and 'Sultan al-'Arifin' in his time for his pre-eminence in tasawwuf, known in his lifetime for his devoutness to worship, asceticism, and generosity, Ibn 'Arabi was praised by al-Munawi as "a righteous friend of Allah and a faithful scholar of knowledge" (waliyyun salihun wa 'alimun nasih), by Ibn 'Imad al-Hanbali as "the absolute mujtahid without doubt," and by al-Fayruzabadi as "the Imam of the People of Shari'a both in knowledge and in legacy, the educator of the People of the Way in practice and in knowledge, and the shaykh of the shaykhs of the People of Truth through spiritual experience (dhawq) and understanding."