Muḥammad b. Suwwār b. Isrāʾīl b. Ḥizr b. Isrāʾīl b. Ḥasan b. ʿAlī b. Muḥammad b. Ḥusayn Najmaddīn Abū'l-Maʿālī al-Shaybānī. He was from Dimašq (Damascus). He was born on Monday, the twelfth of Rabiʿ al-Awwal in the year 603 AH. In 618 AH, he went to Shaykh ʿAlī b. Abū'l-Ḥasan b. Manṣūr al-Yusrī al-Ḥarīrī and studied under him. Before that, he received the ḥirka (Sufi cloak) from Shaykh Shihābuddīn al-Suhrawardī. According to his statement, Shihābuddīn al-Suhrawardī seated him in three khalwa (spiritual retreat) sessions.
Ibn Isrāʾīl stated that his family came to Damascus together with Khālid b. Walīd (may God be pleased with him) and made Damascus their homeland. He was well-versed in literature and excelled in the art of poetry. He had reached advanced levels in composition.
However, in his poetry and prose, there are indications that he followed the path of Ibn ʿArabī, Ibn Farīḍ, and his Shaykh al-Ḥarīrī, and that he was inclined towards hulūl (incarnation) and waḥdat al-wujūd (the unity of existence). Of course, the inner reality and his true state are better known by the Exalted Allah. He passed away in Damascus at the age of seventy-four on the night of Sunday, the fourteenth of Rabiʿ al-Ākhir of this year. He was buried at the tomb of Shaykh Raslān. Shaykh Raslān was the Shaykh of Shaykh ʿAlī al-Muġribī, who had trained al-Ḥarīrī, Ibn Isrāʾīl's Shaykh. One of Ibn Isrāʾīl al-Ḥarīrī's poems is as follows:
“From the intensity of love, a visitor came to me.
The beloved, the visitor, visits me?
Does his fire rise only over flat sands?
Before his eyes, it illuminates and whitens the darkness.
O my table companions, turn the cup of my fortune to me.
Remembering his love and drinking wine are the same things.
The edge of his eyes is soft. He has delicate beauties.
His love and affection have made the hardships I endured sweet to me.
When he is upon the veil, I admire the full moon.
When he is upon the necklaces, I admire the sun.”
This poem also belongs to Ibn Isrāʾīl:
“O you who exchange sleep for sleeplessness.
The one who is lost, sailing in the sea of thought,
Leave affairs to their owner.
Be patient. The end of patience is victory.
Do not lose hope of attaining spaciousness.
Days only bring admonitions.
Sorrow arises at the moment of joy.
Joy also appears at the moment of sorrow.
If time once deteriorates,
No matter how much it deteriorates,
Then it brings joy to people.
Be content with the decree of your Lord.
You are only a captive of fate.”
Ibn Isrāʾīl has a beautiful panegyric written for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Sheikh Kamaleddīn b. Zemlakānī and his companions heard it from Shaykh Aḥmad al-Aʿfif. Shaykh Aḥmad said he heard it directly from Ibn Isrāʾīl. Shaykh Quṭbuddīn al-Yūnīnī also transmitted many of his poems. He has a long qaṣīda called “Daliyya” because it ends with the letter dāl. The beginning of this qaṣīda is as follows:
“He whom I clearly loved, who kept his promise to me.
He disgraced those who blamed me and envied me because of him.
He came to visit me at the edge of the grave. He stayed with me for a long time.
He did not visit those who envied my union.
O beauty that gifted your beauty to my eyes.
O coolness that gifted my heart the thirst of love.
O loyalty that fulfilled my dreams with the glad tidings of union.
O the final destination of the hopes that brought me to my aims.
With a happy fortune and renewed luck, my outward and inward selves manifested and became illuminated.
The love of your being and loving those who enter that path became my duty.
My palms overflowed with your love.”
After this, he transformed the qaṣīda into a ghazal and extended it, saying:
“When it manifested over every witness for me, when the ciphers spent the night with me on every scene, I refrained from describing the beauty and loveliness. Because this is a matter far beyond me. I tried to discover the secrets of the scattered beauty. My ears could only hear its beginning. It is impossible for someone like me to hear it fully, God forbid. In everything seen, there is a witness for my heart. In everything heard, there is the melody of the naʿīb (herald).”