Sahl al-Tustari

Sahl ibn ʿ Abd at- Tustari (Arabic سهل بن عبد الله التستري born probably in 818 Tustar, died in 896 in Basra ) had been an Iraqi Sufi and Koranexeget, the major influence on the later Sufism.

Life

At- Tustari received his first training from his maternal uncle Muhammad ibn Sauwār, who was a student of Sufyan ath indirect - Thawri, as well as in the famous Ribat of Abbādān ʿ at al - ʿ the ascetic Hamza Abbādānī. Here at- Tustari had a first spiritual experience, namely a vision of "the greatest name of God " ( ism Allāh al -a ʿ zam ), which was written with green light from east to west in the sky. After he had spent some twenty years with ascetic practices in his hometown, he went and gathered disciples around the time of the death of Egyptian Sufis Dhu n -Nun al - Misri with its own doctrine around. The most famous of his students were Abū ʿ Abd Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn al - Hallaj Sālim and who was staying two years with him. After 877 the Zanj Tustar had occupied, at- Tustari was summoned to the field camp of the Saffarids, to heal their army leader who had been a year earlier wounded in a confrontation with the Caliphate army. Shortly thereafter he seems to have moved his residence to Basra, where he met with the Aryan tradition Abū Dāwūd as- Sidschistānī and because of his claim, "proof of God" ( huddschat Allāh ) to be aneckte at two leading scholars schafiitischen.

Teaching

The central idea in at- Tustarīs mysticism, which was based very closely on the Koran, was the remembrance of God ( dhikr ), which he understood as a daily spiritual food. In addition, he measured the repentant repentance ( tauba ) of great importance. Abū Nasr al- Sarraj (d. 988 ) narrated from him saying: " The repentant reverse is up to the people as a duty in every breath ."

With regard to the Koran exegesis developed at- Tustari the doctrine of a quadruple meanings of Scripture. Each verse had him first a literal ( zahir ), 2 an esoteric meaning ( batin ), 3 a moral sense ( HADD ) and 4 a anagogical sense ( Matla ʿ ). The human soul Nafs summarized at- Tustari on as the scene of a struggle between the god -oriented " spiritual soul" ( nafs ar - Ruh ) and the self-centered " natural soul" ( nafs aṭ tab ʿ ).

Works

Ibn an - Nadim writes in his Fihrist at- Tustari to a number of treatises, of which, however, have only received two. In addition, a commentary on the Koran and a collection of at- Tustarīs sayings exists in three volumes.

Posthumous importance

At- Tustarīs students were divided after his death in two groups. One group walked on to Baghdad to be there to join either the circle of Junayd or Hanbali. The other group remained in Basra and mingled with the local Maliki. This second group, which was organized by Ahmad, son of Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Sālim, formed the nucleus of the later Sālimīya, its own mystical- theological direction in Islam. One of the best known representatives of this trend was Abu Talib al - Makki (d. 996 ), who mentioned several times in his major work "food of the heart" ( QUT al - qulūb ) at- Tustari as "our Imam ".