The work by this name has earned the respect of nearly all Sunni scholars and Sufis. Al-Qushayri, who also authored a Sufi tafsir (Qur'anic exegesis) entitled Lata'if al-Isharat, wrote another work on the etiquette of dhikr (remembrance of God), called Tartīb al-sulūk fī ṭarīq ilā Allāh (The Ordering of the Path to Allah).
Lisan al-Din: Abu Abdullah Lisan al-Din Muhammad Abdullah Said Abdullah Said Ahmad Ali al-Khatib al-Silmani al-Lushi al-Gharnati al-Andalusi was a statesman, man of letters, poet, prose writer, and historian. He was also well-versed in medicine and other sciences. He was born in Lusha in 613/1313 and raised in Granada. He served as vizier to Sultan Abu'l-Hajjaj Yusuf Ismail and later to his son Ghani billah Muhammad. Upon the invitation of Abd al-Aziz al-Marini, he left al-Andalus and came to Ceuta and Tlemcen, where he served Sultan al-Mustansir Ahmad Ibrahim. However, by order of Sultan Ghani Billah, whom he had previously served, he was accused of being a heretic and of inclining toward the views of philosophers, leading to his arrest and imprisonment. He died in 776/1374 and was buried in the lands of Fez. His work Rawdat al-taʿrīf bi-l-ḥubb al-sharīf (Rawda) is related to Sufism.
Mawlana: Mawlana Jalal al-Din Muhammad Baha al-Din Walad al-Rumi is said, by lineage, to trace his ancestry to Abu Bakr. He was born in 604/1207 in the city of Balkh, which today lies within the borders of Afghanistan. His father, Sultan al-ʿUlama Baha al-Din Walad, seeing the political instability in this city, then under the Khwarazmshah dynasty, chose to emigrate with his family. The caravan first went to the Hijaz for pilgrimage, then to Erzincan, and finally to Konya.
Mawlana received his initial education from his father and, at a young age, became learned enough to succeed him. After his father's death, Mawlana came under the tutelage of his father's khalifa (spiritual successor), Burhan al-Din Muhaqqiq al-Tirmidhi. Later, upon meeting Shams al-Tabrizi, his world changed, which caused discontent among his murīdān (disciples). The growing dissatisfaction led to Shams's disappearance twice, and Mawlana even traveled to Damascus in search of him. There are also reports that Shams was killed by a group that included Mawlana's son, Alaaddin. After Shams's disappearance, Mawlana first appointed the Konya goldsmith Salah al-Din (Zarrin-kub), and later Chalabi Husam al-Din, as his khalifa. Mawlana, who sought to inspire hope among the people (ahl) of Anatolia under Mongol occupation and played a role in the Mongols' conversion to Islam, died in 672/1273 and was buried in the precincts of his lodge in Konya.
Mawlana is famous for his Mathnawi, and also authored works such as Fihi Ma Fih, Divan, Majalis-i Saba, and Rubaiyyat.
Al-Muhasibi: Abu Abdullah al-Harith Asad al-Basri al-Anazi al-Muhasibi is believed to have been born in Basra in 165/781 or 170/786. After studying in his youth, he came to Baghdad, where he continued his scholarly activities. Among his teachers were such renowned hadith scholars as Waki' Jarrah and Abu Ubayd Qasim Sallam, as well as the famous jurist Imam al-Shafi'i.
His father's Mu'tazilite views caused a rift between them. It is even reported that, for this reason alone, he renounced his father's substantial inheritance, choosing poverty. Al-Muhasibi, counted among the founders of Ahl al-sunnah (the people of the prophetic tradition) kalām (theology), was subjected to attacks by Ahmad ibn Hanbal due to his use of kalām methods, and was forced to leave Baghdad for a time. He died in Baghdad in 243/857 and was buried there.
Al-Muhasibi is known for establishing the principles of taqwa (God-consciousness), waraʿ (scrupulousness), self-accounting (muhasaba), and spiritual struggle (mujahada) on solid foundations in Sufism. He devoted his famous masterpiece Kitab al-Ri'aya li huquq Allah (Ri'aya), in which he delves into the depths of the human ruh (spirit), to this subject. In addition to his works on tafsir (Qur'anic exegesis) and hadith, he also authored Adab al-Nufus (Adab), Bad' man anaba.