teacher on the one hand, and that of a Sufi and a master of a
khanqah
on the
other. He spent most of his life in Baghdad and Jilan halfway between Baghdad
andWasit. After his death, his sons and disciples perpetuated his method of
spiritual practices with the aim of cultivating the true Islamic spirituality.
This came to be known as the Qadariya order. The order spread slowly all
over the Islamic world, with centres in North Africa, Iraq, India and
Indonesia.
The Suhrawardiya order traces its spiritual origin toAbu Najib Suhrawardi
(1097-1168), the disciple ofAhmad Ghazali (d. 1126).Ahmad Ghazali was a
brother of the famous Abu Hamid bin Muhammad al Ghazali (d.1111) who,
after leading the life of a theologian, turned to Sufism as a result of a spiritual
crisis. Because of this he left his job at the Nizamiya madrasa in Baghdad in
1095, and his brother Ahmad Ghazali succeeded him to the post. Ahmad
Ghazali was a Sufi mystic who belonged to the Junayd school of Sufism but,
contrary to Junayd’s tradition of
sahw
or sobriety, he was given to
sukr
or
mystic intoxication. He had a large following of disciples, one of whom was
the above-mentioned Abu Najib Suhrawardi.
However, the actual founder of the order was Shaykh Shihabuddin Abu
Hafs Suhrawardi (1145-1235), who was a nephew of Abu’l Najib. Abu Hafs
studied theology with Shaykh ‘Abdu’l Qadir Jilani, but was initiated into
Sufism by his uncle. He was closely associated with the Abbasid Caliph al
Nasir (1179-1225) who built him an extensive
khanqah
. Of the many works
written by him the most famous was
‘Awarifu’l Ma’arif
, which was closely
studied by Sufis of all orders.
Shaykh Kubra a famous sufi of this century was a very learned man who
traveled all over the Islamic world studying religious sciences. Late in life, he
settled in Khwarizm, where he built a
khanqah
for himself and his followers.
Th e Fo rma t i v e P e r i od 56
