ABSTRACT
The original figure who established the Suhraward⁄ s≠f⁄ †ar⁄qa was Shaikh Ab≠ Naj⁄b al-Suhraward⁄, the uncle of ‘Ab≠ Hafs Umar al-Suhraward⁄. Ab≠ Naj⁄b al-Suhraward⁄ was born in 1097 in the town of Suhraward, which is west of Sultaniyya, in the province of al-Jibal, Iran. Shaikh Ab≠n-Naj⁄b (d. 1168) became involved with the s≠f⁄ tradition with his association with Shaikh Ahmad al-Ghazål⁄, the brother of the well-known Ab≠ Óamid al-Ghazål⁄, educator and scholar at the Nizåm⁄yya madrasa in Baghdad. It was Shaikh Ahmad al-Ghazål⁄ who invited Shaikh Ab≠ Naj⁄b to become his disciple and advance in his studies of ta‚awwuf. No sooner had he become proficient in s≠f⁄ spirituality, than Shaikh Ab≠ Naj⁄b al-Suhraward⁄ built a khånaqåh on the banks of the Tigris river, and wrote the popular s≠f⁄ manual Ådåb al-Mur⁄d⁄n, that describes the importance of disciplined s≠f⁄ behavior. Shaikh Ahmad alGhazål⁄, Shaikh Ab≠ Naj⁄b and their contemporary Ainul-Quzåt, all belonged to the Junåyd⁄ school of ta‚awwuf. But contrary to Junåyd’s mystical tradition of sobriety (sahw) they were all more inclined toward mystical intoxication or sukr.1 Preachings and writings by Shaikh Ainul-Quzåt infuriated the shar⁄ å-minded scholars and he was imprisoned in Baghdad. Ainul-Quzåt’s Tamhidåt treatise argued that his doctrine of fanå was neither pantheism nor introducing the contingent being into God’s Being.2
Ainul-Quzåt asserted that he was not different from earlier s≠f⁄s but firmly agreed in many of areas of ta‚awwuf with the great scholar Ab≠ Óamid al-Ghazål⁄ (d. 1111). In 1131 Ainul-Quzåt was murdered at the age of thirty-three and never had the opportunity to defend his s≠f⁄ ideas on ta‚awwuf in a public trial setting.
