ʻAbd al-Salām ibn Mashīsh al-ʻAlamī ( ar, عبد السلام بن مشيش العلمي) (b. ?–1227), was a Moroccan

Sufi Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...

saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...

who lived during the reign of the

Almohad Caliphate The Almohad Caliphate (; ar, خِلَافَةُ ٱلْمُوَحِّدِينَ or or from ar, ٱلْمُوَحِّدُونَ, translit=al-Muwaḥḥidūn, lit=those who profess the Tawhid, unity of God) was a North African Berbers, Berber M ...

Biography

Virtually nothing is known about him except that he was assassinated in 1227/1228 by the anti- Almohad rebel Ibn Abi Tawajin. His genealogy was traced through several ancestors—some of them with typically Berber names—all the way to the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad. It is said that he was born to the Banu Arus tribe in the neighbourhood of the Jabal al-'Alam, and that at the age of 16 he travelled to the east to study. On his return, in Bijaya ( Béjaïa), he followed the instructions of the Andalusian mystic Abu Madyan. He come back to stay in his native country, where he withdrew to the mountain to live an edifying life as an

ascetic Asceticism (; from the el, ἄσκησις, áskesis, exercise', 'training) is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from sensual pleasures, often for the purpose of pursuing spiritual goals. Ascetics may withdraw from the world for their p ...

. He was the spiritual guide ( murshid) of

Abu-l-Hassan ash-Shadhili Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili ( ar, أبو الحسن الشاذلي) (full name: Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār al-Ḥasanī wal-Ḥusaynī al-Shādhilī) also known as Sheikh al-Shadhili (593–656 AH) (1196–1258 AD ...

, his only disciple.

Works

He is the author of a collection of reflections about religious and political life in his time, and of a famous eulogy of the

Prophet Mohammed Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monoth ...

(''taṣliyah'') on which a commentary was written by

Ahmad ibn Ajiba Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAjība al-Ḥasanī (; 1747–1809) was an influential 18th-century Moroccan scholar and poet in the Darqawa Sufi Sunni Islamic lineage. Biography He was born of a sharif family in the Anjra tribe that ranges from Ta ...

. He also wrote a metaphysical paraphrase of a widely known prayer, called ''al-Salat al-Mashishiyah'', in which the believer calls on God to bless the Prophet to thank him for having received Islam through him. In it, Ibn Mashish sees in the Prophet Muhammad as a person of the one Spirit from which all revelation comes and which is the eternal mediator between the ungraspable God and the world.

Notes

*Muhammad Bennani, Mulay Abd Es Selam El Machich, ed. by África Española – Madrid, 1913 (In Spanish) * Titus Burckhardt, "The Prayer of Ibn Mashish", ''Studies in Comparative Religion'', Winter-Spring, 1978, Pates Manor, Bedfont, Middlesex *Titus Burckhardt, "The Prayer of Ibn Mashish (As-Salat al-Mashishiyah)", Translation and commentary, ''Islamic Quarterly'', London, 1978, vol. 20-21-22, no3, pp. 68–75

References

1227 deaths Shadhili order People from the Almohad Caliphate Moroccan Sufi writers 12th-century Moroccan writers 13th-century Moroccan writers Moroccan religious leaders Sufis Muslim saints Sufi saints {{Morocco-bio-stub