Imam Abu al-Qasim al-Qushayri (d. 465) on Tasawwuf
A muhaddith who transmitted hadith to pupils by the thousands in Naysabur, in which he fought the Mu`tazila until he flew to Mecca to protect his life, al-Qushayri was the student of the great Sufi shaykh Abu `Ali al-Daqqaq. He was also a mufassir who wrote a complete commentary of the Qur’an entitled Lata’if al-isharat bi tafsir al-Qur’an (The subtleties and allusions in the commentary of the Qur’an). His most famous work, however, is his Risala ila al-sufiyya or Epistle to the Sufis, which is one of the early complete manuals of the science of tasawwuf, together with Abu Nasr al-Sarraj’s (d. 378) Kitab al-luma` (Book of lights), Abu Talib al-Makki’s (d. 386) Qut al-qulub fi mu`amalat al-mahbub wa wasf tariq al-murid ila maqam al-tawhid (The nourishment of hearts in dealing with the Beloved and the description of the seeker’s way to the station of declaring oneness), Abu Bakr al-Kalabadhi’s (d. 391) al-Ta`arruf li madhhab ahl al-tasawwuf (Defining the school of the People of Self-purification), and `Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami’s (d. 411) Tabaqat al-sufiyya (Biographical layers of the Sufis).
Reproduced with permission from Shaykh M. Hisham Kabbani’sThe Repudiation of “Salafi” Innovations (Kazi, 1996) p. 314-315.
Blessings and Peace on the Prophet, his Family, and his Companions
