Bio: Sh. Ahmad ibn ‘Uqbah al-Hadrami | الشيخ أبو العباس الحضرم

Bio: Sh. Ahmad ibn ‘Uqbah al-Hadrami | الشيخ أبو العباس الحضرم

Sh. Abul-´Abbas Ahmad b. ´Uqba al-Hadrami

الشيخ أبو العباس الحضرم أحمد بن عقبة الحضرمي
b. 857 H. in Hadramawt – d.895 H. (1489 CE) in Cairo

English

Sidi Abu’l-‘Abbas al-Hadrami
(d. 895/1489)

From: Kuhin: Tabaqat Al-Shadhiliyyah Al-Kubra, translated by Ahmad Ali al-Adani as “Biographies of Prominent Shadhilis”

He is the proof of gnostics, the shaykh of those who have arrived, the imam of instruction, and the mentor of worshippers and ascetics. He is the qutb and ghawth who was endowed with the faculty of disposal in matters, the member of the supreme circle, the imam of imams, and the succour of this Community. He is the great saint and renowned luminary, Sidi Taj ad-Din Abu’l-´Abbas Ahmad b. ´Uqba al-Hadrami al-Yamani al-Wafa’i, may Allah Most High purify his lofty secret.

He conjoined between law and ultimate reality, and was a person of tremendous spiritual unveiling [kashf]. Magnificent wonders and splendid norm-breaking occurances came to pass for him. He was from the folk of the impregnable secret and the ghawth of his age, disposing over all existent.

His birth took place in the land of Hadramawt. He moved to Cairo in Egypt and took it up as his place of residence. He acquired knowledge of the Sufi path and received the lights of ultimate reality from his guide and mentor Sidi Mawlay al-Sharif Abu al-Siyadat Yahya al-Qadiri b. Wafa b. Sayyidi Shihab al-Din Ahmad b. Wafa, the son of the great qutb Sidi Abu’l-Tadani Muhammad Wafa.

Sayyidi Yahya, the noble scion [sharif] was from those regaled with divine bounty in abundance, and enjoyed acceptance by the elite and the commonality, clearly articulating and making plain what lay in the loci of intellection and comprehension. He was endowed with a Muhammadi station. Sayyidi Yahya — may Allah be pleased with him and may He please him — passed away on Wednesday, 8 Rabi’ II 857 H., and was buried next to his brother in the section reserved for his ancestors, our masters Banu al-Wafa. O Allah, benefit us by them and make us actualize the truth by following them submissively.

After Sidi Abu’l-´Abbas had taken the path from his spiritual guide, a mystical illumination was granted to him. As a result, people approached him and sought blessing by sitting in his presence. His followers multiplied and his benefit spread.

He was wont to attend the circles of knowledge of scholars, and they, in turn, attended his, until he became the peerless savant of his age, in knowledge and action, and in Word and spiritual state alike.

What occured to his disciple, Sidi Ahmad Zarruq, is an example of the momentuous events and intuitions that transpired fort he shaykh. It took place when Sidi Ahmad Zarruq arrived from Morocco. Our master Abu’l-‘Abbas said to his students, ‘Let us go to Bulaq [1] to meet your Moroccan brother’, to which they then set out and arrived at marina. There, they saw Ustadh Ahmad Zarruq alighting from the boat he had travelled on, and who then met with our master Abu’l-‘Abbas. He informed the latter of what had occured to him in the company pf ‘Abdullah al-Makki. [2] Our master Abu’l-‘Abbas said to him: ‘What you received from him was fine; there is no harm in that.’ He then took Sidi Ahmad Zarruq with him to Cairo, instructed him in knowledge of Sufi covenants and litanies, and entered him into the solitary retreat [khalwa]. Sidi Ahmad remained therein for a number of days until our master Abu’l-‘Abbas, while sitting in a circle of instruction with his disciples, stretched our his hand and screamed. He then instructed his students, saying, ‘Go to your Moroccan brother, since the blind serpent has caused the solitary retreat to crush down on him.’ (He said this is a reference to ‘Abdullah al-Makki, who was a blind man.) His students hastened to the place our master Zarruq’s retreat, and found the debris [of the building] upon him. They took him out safely from under the building, with nothing harmful befalling him by the permission of Allah Most High. The hand of our master Abu’l-‘Abbas, however, broke in the process. He said to Zarruq, ‘Allah rescued you from this blind bane, and he no longer has any authority ober you.’ Our master ‘Abdullah al-Makki had in fact stretched out his hand to dispose of our master Ahamad Zarruq from the city of Fez, out of his jealous attachment [ghayra] to him, and consequently wrecked the solitary retreat for him. Allah, however, delivered him through the blessing of our liege Abu’l-‘Abbas, and guarded him from his former guide.

Many other saintly miracles and astonishing spiritual unveilings sprung forth from him.

Our master Abu’l-´Abbas al-Hadrami – may Allah be well satisfied with him – died in Cairo sometime after AH 800, and was laid to rest in the greater Shadhili graveyard. O Allah, support us and our dear ones by his spiritual sustentation and benefit us through him and his secrets, amin.


Footnotes:

[1] It is an area in Cairo, still known in our days by that name. It appears from the context of the speech that in that age it was regarded as being situated somewhere outside the city of Cairo itself as it was then known and understood.
[2] He was the one responsible for overseeing and guiding Zarruq’s incipient steps in Sufism, back in Morocco. In other narrations of this story, which have slight variances, his former guide is called Muhammad al-Zaytuni. See Muhammad bin ‘Askar’s Dawrat al-Nashir.

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