Abu Sulaiman Dawud ibn Nusair al-Tā'ī, () usually referred to as Dawud Tā'ī, (died between 776 and 783 CE) was an

Islamic Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

scholar and

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

mystic. He resided in

Kufa Kufa ( ), also spelled Kufah, is a city in Iraq, about south of Baghdad, and northeast of Najaf. It is located on the banks of the Euphrates, Euphrates River. The estimated population in 2003 was 110,000. Along with Samarra, Karbala, Kadhimiya ...

and was a prominent student of

Abu Hanifa Abu Hanifa (; September 699 CE – 767 CE) was a Muslim scholar, jurist, theologian, ascetic,Pakatchi, Ahmad and Umar, Suheyl, "Abū Ḥanīfa", in: ''Encyclopaedia Islamica'', Editors-in-Chief: Wilferd Madelung and, Farhad Daftary. and epony ...

. His disciples included many influential personalities of Islamic mysticism, e.g., Maruf Karkhi. His master was Habib al-Ajami.

Biography

Ta'i studied

hadith Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...

and

fiqh ''Fiqh'' (; ) is the term for Islamic jurisprudence.Fiqh
Encyclopædia Britannica ''Fiqh'' is of ...

for many years with Imam Azam Abu Hanifa in Kufa, and being one of his favorite students, he reached a high level in science and fiqh. He also had an effective speaking ability. He was probably being a bit offensive too. As a matter of fact, when he hit someone with his stick, his teacher Abu Hanifa had to scold him: "Abu Suleiman, your hand and tongue are growing long!" Dawud al-Tai was highly affected by this warning and did not speak in the last year of his studentship; he neither asked nor answered any questions.Abu Nuaym, VII, 336 Although al-Tai was "the most fluent speaker of his time and the one who knew Arabic best", and "one of the leading imams in fiqh and opinion", he threw his books into the

Euphrates River The Euphrates ( ; see below) is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of West Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia (). Originating in Turkey, the Euphrates flows through S ...

for some reasons that are shown differently in the sources and retreated to zuhd and worship. He completely distanced himself from the public and worldly affairs, locked himself in his house, and joined the congregation only at prayer times.Dhahabi, VII, 423-424 Among the people he met were Fudayl b. Iyaz, Jafar al-Sadiq and Ibrahim ibn Adham. He also met the

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 C ...

Caliph A caliphate ( ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with Khalifa, the title of caliph (; , ), a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of ...

Harun al-Rashid Abū Jaʿfar Hārūn ibn Muḥammad ar-Rāshīd (), or simply Hārūn ibn al-Mahdī (; or 766 – 24 March 809), famously known as Hārūn al-Rāshīd (), was the fifth Abbasid caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate, reigning from September 786 unti ...

according to Imam

Abu Yusuf Ya'qub ibn Ibrahim al-Ansari (), better known as Abu Yusuf () (729–798) was an Islamic jurist, as well as a student of Abu Hanifa (d.767) and Malik ibn Anas (d.795), who helped spread the influence of the Hanafi school of Islamic law, and w ...

. According to Fariduddin Attar, Fudayl b. Iyaz was proud to have had the honor of meeting him twice. One of his contemporaries in describing his greatness said, "If Dawud al-Tai had lived in the Age of Bliss he Holy Prophet's time the Qur'an would certainly have mentioned his zuhd and taqwa." Maruf Karkhi, his best-known disciple, introduces his master by saying, “I have never seen anyone who does not value the world as much as Tai.” The fact that he used the expression "May your death be your celebration" while wishing someone well and that he saw death as salvation from the prison of this world reflects the characteristic feature of the life of asceticism at that time. This optimistic understanding about death turned into Shab-i Arus (Wedding Night) in later periods. Dawud al-Tai, who bequeathed his grave to be built in a deserted place and thus wanted the seclusion in the world to continue there, used to attach great importance to worship, but said that one should not see one's worship as perfect and should not trust their worship. According to him, the worship of a person who does not have generosity and muruwa is incomplete. As a matter of fact, after he turned to Sufism, he spent the money left by his father with his friends. Al-Tai died while reading the Qur'an in his house, which was in ruins. In the sources, it is narrated that he fell ill and died due to the strong influence of a verse about hell that he recited one night until the morning.

References

Muslim ascetics Sunni Sufis Sufi mystics 8th-century Arab people 8th-century Muslim scholars of Islam {{Islam-stub

Biography

See also

References