The work bearing this title also contains criticisms directed at certain views encountered in the Sufi understanding of walāya (friendship with God).
Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ: This was a philosophical movement that emerged in Basra during the later period of the Abbasid Caliphate, in the 4th/10th century. Although some information is given about their names, there is no detailed information about the founders of the group. It is understood that the group pursued not only philosophical but also religious, political, and scientific aims. Their views are collected in the work entitled Rasāʾil Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ (Epistles of the Ikhwān). Imām Rabbānī: Abū'l-Barakāt Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Aḥad Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn al-Fārūqī al-Sirhindī was born in 971/1564 in the city of Sirhind in Punjab. He received his initial education from his father, who was both a Qādirī and Chishtī shaykh. After studying hadith, tafsir (Qur'anic exegesis), and rational sciences, he became affiliated with Yaʿqūb Kashmīrī, a Kubrawī shaykh. During this period, he read many Sufi classics such as Taʿarruf, ʿAwārif, and Fuṣūṣ. Later, he met the Naqshbandī shaykh Muḥammad Bāqībillāh and became his disciple. The first correspondences that would form his famous work, the Maktūbāt, were conducted with his shaykh.
As a result of this correspondence-based training, he became the most important khalīfa (spiritual deputy) of his shaykh. The Mughal ruler Jahangir had him arrested for political reasons, which led him first to the prison and then for a time to engage in spiritual guidance activities at the court. Imām Rabbānī, especially from the time of Akbar Shah, who ruled before Jahangir, came into conflict with the Mughal regime, which had adopted an excessively tolerant attitude towards Indian religions in opposition to Islam. Imām Rabbānī died in 1034/1624 in Sirhind and was buried in this city.
It is understood that Imām Rabbānī, in order not to fall into the trap of the opposing regime, advocated waḥdat al-shuhūd (unity of witnessing) as opposed to waḥdat al-wujūd (unity of being), and ṣaḥw (sobriety) as opposed to sukr (intoxication), and did not compromise on the rules of the sharia (the sacred law). He preferred not a Sufism opposed to the sharia, but a Sufism within the boundaries of the sharia. His work Maktūbāt-i Rabbānī (Maktūbāt), which consists of letters written to various individuals, also demonstrates this.
Information About the Authors
Kāshānī: Kamāl al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Razzāq Abī'l-Ghanāʾim Muḥammad al-Kāshānī was born in the town of Kāshān, located between Qum and Isfahan in Iran. Since the name of this town is pronounced in various ways such as Kāsh, Kāsān, Kāsān, the nisba of Kāshānī can also be encountered in different forms in different places. Kāshānī, who received a good education, traces his Sufi lineage back to Suhrawardī, the author of ʿAwārif. The dates 730/1330 and 736/1335 are given for his death. Kāshānī, who was a student of Ṣadr al-Dīn Qūnawī, played an important role in the dissemination of Ibn ʿArabī's views. The fact that one refers to Kāshānī to understand Ibn ʿArabī demonstrates his competence in this regard. He wrote commentaries on Ibn ʿArabī's Fuṣūṣ and Harawī's Manāzil. His work Taʾwīlāt al-Qurʾān is also a tafsir (Qur'anic exegesis) based on the concepts developed by Ibn ʿArabī. In his work Iṣṭilāḥāt al-ṣūfiyya (Kāshānī), he deals with Sufi terminology.
Kalābādhī: Abū Bakr Tāj al-Islām Muḥammad Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm Yaʿqūb al-Bukhārī al-Kalābādhī (also pronounced as Gulābādī) studied fiqh and hadith, and entered the Sufi path by affiliating with Fāris ʿĪsā, a disciple of Ḥallāj. He died in 380/990 in Bukhara.