Abū-Sa'īd Abul-Khayr

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Abusa'id Abolkhayr or Abū-Sa'īd Abul-Khayr (Persian: ابوسعید ابوالخیر) (December 7, 967 - January 12 , 1049 / Muharram ul Haram,1 ,357 - Sha'aban,4 ,440 AH), also known as Sheikh Abusaeid or Abu Sa'eed, was a famous Persian Sufi who contributed extensively to the evolution of Sufi tradition.

The majority of what is known from his life comes from the book Asrar al-Tawhid اسرارالتوحید( The Mysteries of Unification ) by Mohammad Ibn Monavvar one of his grandsons, written 130 years after his death.

The book, which is an important early Sufi writing in Persian, presents a record of his life in the form of anecdotes from a variety of sources and contains a collection of his words. He was born in the village Mihne (Meyhaneh), a part of the Persian province of Greater Khorasan, today this village is located near Torbat-e Heydarieh in Khorāsān-e Razavī Province. His father was a herbalist and physician with an interest in Sufism.

Abusaeid’s formal education included Islamic scholarship and Arabic literature that he continued until the age 23 when he left them for Sufism. During his life his fame spread throughout the Islamic world, even to Spain. He was the first Sufi writer to widely use ordinary love poems as way to express and illuminate mysticism, and as such he played a major role in foundation of Persian Sufi poetry. He spent most of his life in Neishabour.

Life Of Abu Saeed

Abu Saeed lived in town of Meyhaneh in province of Khorasan in north east of Iran. He grew up in that area which is part of Dasht-e Khaavaraan which means the Plains of Eastern (eastern plains). He moved and lived a few years in the city of Neyshabour (Ney Sha Pour) which was also in Khorasan but was a big city back then. He moved back to Meyhaneh after spending few years in Neyshabour. He also traveled to and spent time in small towns around the same province visiting other Sufis or his teachers.

Many of the stories of Abu Saeid have been reported by his followers. (collection of these stories were written in a book (Asraar At Towheed) by Abu Saeed's own great grand son Mohammad Al Monavvar). One of these followers was Hassan Mo'addab* who became Abu Saeed's follower, pupil, butler and confidant. Also a teacher for Abu Saeed's children.

• (The word Mo'addab is derived from the word meaning "cultured" or "teachers", people with that last name were usually teachers or were from a cultured family. You will see that last name appear sometimes for other people, it is because it has more to do with their profession)

He (Hassan Moaddab) writes about his first meeting with Abu Saeed, he says "at the beginning I was a disbeliever in Sufis/Dervishes and Sufism and disliked them very much because I did not think of them as knowledgeable people in fact I did not even regard them as Muslims..." Then he goes on saying:

A Story

Hassan Mo'addab writes: When he (Abu Saeed) settled in our town (Neyshabour)and people gathered around him I once came to see him on the count of curiosity and testing him to see what the Sufis talk about. So I went there and sat near him and wore nice and expensive clothes and a new turban from Tabar (now Azarbayjan) on my head and denial in my heart. When Sheik started to talk I became very puzzled and dumbfounded and had no awareness of myself the whole time until the sermon was through. He asked for some clothes for a dervish, everyone gave some article, then he asked for a turban. I thought to myself whether I should give mine, but I said to myself no this has come from Amoll (a city in province of Azarbayjan) and it's a gift, it cost over 10 Dinars.So I won't (give it away). Again the sheikh asked for a turban, again in my heart I thought of giving mine away, but again I decided not to. An old man was sitting next to me he asked (sheikh) "Does God speak to people"? He replied "for a turban He won't ask but twice, and with the man who is sitting next to you . Twice He (God) said to give this turban (away) to a dervish. But the man next to you (Hassan) says "no, this cost 10 Dinars and was a gift which they have sent it to me all the way from Amoll"!

(So basically Abu Saeed had read Hassan's mind completely and accurately without Hassan speaking a word to anyone, just thinking those things to himself) Hassan (Mo'addab) says I got up and kissed Sheikh's feet (apologized) and I gave him the turban and gave all my clothes (to him) and everything I owned as well and spent (devoted) the rest of my life serving Sheikh and his children."

From that day on Hassan became Abu Saeed's confidant and a servant.

Abu Saeed's biography

Abu Saeed's pupil writes; " Our Master (Abu Saeed) had the complete knowledge in every subject whether physical or spiritual. First he studied Koran (Holy Book)with Abu Mohammad Ayyari then his father said since you have learned the Koran completely I will take you to a new teacher tomorrow so you can learn more... Abu Saeed says "... and so when I went to the teacher he taught me one valuable lesson and said if you learn nothing else just learn the following, it will be enough for you! And then said "If you try to please God for about the time which takes for a blink of an eye, is much better for you than if you have the whole world to your own"! I told him I learned this so another day my father took me to another teacher to learn poetry and I learned thirty thousand lines of (ignorant /non religious)poetry from him and I memorized them all.

Then I went to learn Islamic laws from Abu Bashr Yassin and learned to be a Muslim from him. Both of those teachers are in Meyhaneh. I stayed with this teacher for 5 years and then I went to another teacher for another 5 years and then I went to Sarakhs (Sarax) (north east of Iran) and learn the Islamic traditions from (Imam) Abu Ali Zaaher and he taught me the knowledge of traditions (Hadith)reported from the holy Prophet (Muhammad), Abu Ali's tomb is in Sarax. And then I went to a teacher by the name of Abolfazl Hassan and he followed Abu Mohammad Abdollah who was from Neyshabour but is buried in Baghdad and he was a follower of Joneyd and he is (Junaid Al Baghdadi)the Master of this group (Sufis) and he was from Nehavand (Iran) but resides in Baghdad and he (Joneyd) was a follower of his uncle whose name is Serri Seghati and both of them are great and well-known to the people.

And he (Serri Seghati) was follower of Ma'rouf Karkhi who is the Great Master and leader whose prayers were always answered. The people of Baghdad know that the dirt from around his tomb is an alchemy (miraculous) and he was one of the servants (and a confidant ) of Ali Ebn-e Mousa Ar-Reza (Iman Ar-Reza Direct descendant of Prophet Muhammad and the 8th Imam of Shieh Eslaam) ".

During his life, Abu Saeed always invited his followers to become selfless. He said when you empty yourself from yourself you become filled by Him (God).

Abu Saeed started his path to Sufism at very young age. He imposed hardship on himself by fasting and praying and copying everything he read from the holy Prophet and even he read some place that God has angles who worship him upside down so he used to tie a rope to his feet and turn upside down inside of a well and read the whole Koran from one cover to another, in fact he writes "I asked that successful woman (refering to his wife) to tie my feet up and lower me to a mouth of a well so I could recite the holy book upside down! He also says he heard that in one battle the holy Prophet received injuries to is foot so he would have to conduct the prayers on his toes so Abu Saeed also held 400 prayers all on his toes. He used to go out of town in the deserts and mountains and old abandoned buildings to meditate and pray and that is how he got his mystical powers mainly be able to read people's minds and their inner thoughts. He also save few people from death and injuries by falling off the roof. Once a child fell off a roof as Abu Saeed was doing his sermon and all of the sudden he yelled out "catch him" and the witnesses say they say two hands in mid air holding the child and saving him. This one witness said "I saw this with my own 2 eyes and If I lie I hope to God I will be blind in both eyes"! Abu Saeeds other wonders were to foretell the future as he told many famous people that they become rulers when they were unknown persons. He even told his son Taaher who did not like to go to school that "it is OK not to learn all of Koran but just learn this one small Sourah (chapter)" So his son learned it. Some 60 years later long after Abu Saeed's death his son was an old man and was summoned to the ruler's palace because a man had made complaint about Sufis saying " these people do not even know Koran" (which was almost a crime back then, at least for those who claim anything "religious"), so when Taaher was at the ruler's palace the wealthy denying man wanted to test him and so asked Taaher to read this chapter off his memory only. It was the same chapter which his father had asked him to learn well, so many decades ago! Taaher read that chapter very well and all the people in the palace admired him and the (denying) man was embarrassed and left the palace in anger. So Abu Saeed knew of this event and saved his son from embarrassment some 60 years before it happened. And many more miracles. But as the author of his biography book (Asraar At-Towhid) says " these men (the Sufis) do not like to show off their powers (but would do if they absolutely had to)and the things which happened and was recorded were only a handful of the miracles they performed. These people (the Sufis) are not in habit of exposing their own God given powers but have a mission to guide others and there are those other group of Sufis who are higher in rank and those hide every thing and will not show any powers at all and those are greater people ( possess higher powers)".

His Death

Abu Saeed predicted his own death and said 1000 months is enough(to live) so when he was over 83 years of age and had no signs of illness he told everyone he will leave this earth in 3 days and prepared for his own funeral.

He even told his children and grand children to have a mock funeral for him because as he predicted they cannot even come close to his body in his (real) funeral , so they obeyed and conducted his funeral by laying him under a tent.

A day and half later the crowd at his grave site was so great that the children could not even get close to bu Saeed's body. The ruler of the town had to send in some of his soldiers with sticks to run off some of the crowd so they could conduct the proper burial. Abu Saeed had also predicted that along with all the other details of his own burial. Abu Saeed left his older sin Abu Taaher (Saeed) as his successor and told everyone to follow him. But after 2 or 3 generations (and 100 years) as Abu Saaeed had predicted the Qazz subversion and attacks came upon the whole province which killed most of Abu Saeeds grand children and destroyed their town of Meyhaneh. Those who were not captured by Qazz and escaped the tortures and death fled their town and migrated to far away towns.

The Qazz also destroyed Abu Saeed's tomb ,temple (Khaneghah)and burial site.

As mentioned before Abu Saeed used to foretell future events many decades before they happened. The author of his biography book says "there is no death for this group of people, for they go on living forever". He writes about Abu Taaher's death (Abu Saeed's son and successor). He writes that many many years after Abu Saeed's death his son Abu Taaher died and so they tried to take his body to a cemetery outside of town. A huge storm hit and the rain stopped them from going and every time they tried to take the body out the rain would pour harder, then in the third day one of the Dervishess said "I remember hearing Abu Taaher saying that his father Abu Saeed had said to him that "you will be with me in life and in death"! So they all agreed that in fact the great Sheik had said that. They decided to bury Abu Taaher next to his father inside of their own chapel. As soon as they decided that the storm stopped and it rained no more. They all knew it was Abu Saeed's way of keeping them from taking his son some place else!

They got this old man to dig the grave so he did but at the end he hit a part of the stone which covered Abu Saeed's resting place a piece of rock broke and opened a small hole to Abu Saeeds body, the man (grave digger) yelled, put the rock back in its place and fainted. They took him out of the grave and let him rest in his house but the man never gained consciousness , never could speak again and died after 40 days! No one know what exactly he saw!?

The author also writes about a lone visitor to Abu Saeed's grave 100 years after his death and how he was allowed inside through the locked doors while no one was around and how he was served hot bread and cold water inside while there were no villages for miles and even if anyone would try to bring bread or food, it would get cold taking the long journey to the tomb!

Mysticism

His mysticism is a typical example of the Khorasani school of Sufism. He extracted the essence of the teachings of the past Sufis of this school (and to some extent other schools as well) and expressed them in a simpler, and in a sense deeper, form without the use of philosophy.

He held a special reverence for earlier Sufis, especially Bayazid Bastami and Hallaj. Moreover, in Asrar al-Tawhid, Tazkiratul Awliyā and Noorul Uloom it has been written that Shaikh Abusaïd went for the visit of Shaikh Abul Hassan Kharaqani and got deeply influenced by his personality and state.

His system is based on a few themes that appear frequently in his words, generally in the form of simple emotional poems.

The main focus of his teachings is liberation from “I” , which he considered the one and only cause of separation from God and to which he attributed all personal and social misfortunes. His biography mentions that he would never call himself "I" or "we" but “they” instead. This idea of selflessness appears as Fotovvat (a concept very near to chivalry) in his ethical teachings and as Malaamat, a kind of selflessness before the Beloved which he considers a sign of perfect love in his strictly mystical teachings.

Both of these concepts in a certain sense are spiritual forms of warrior ethics. Despite their simplicity he believed that the full application of these teachings to one's life requires both divine grace and the guidance of an experienced Sufi, and is impossible through personal efforts alone. His picture as portrayed in various Sufi writings is a particularly joyful one of continuous ecstasy. Other famous Sufis made frequent references to him, a notable example being the Persian Sufi poet Farid al-Din Attar, who mentions Abusaeid as his spiritual guide. Many miracles are attributed to him in Sufi writings.

A few sayings of Abusaeid quoted from his biography Asrar al-Tawhid :

• The veil between man and God is not the world, is not the throne of God, it is the illusion of "I", pass beyond yourself and you are there.
• Anywhere the illusion of “I” exists is hell, anywhere “I” is absent is heaven.
• If you are not going to sacrifice your self do not spend your time with Sufi nonsense.
• Sufism is fixing the gaze at One and living towards One.
• The meaning of Sufism is to put down what is in your head and to spare what is in your hand and not to shake when calamities befall you.
• Holding a grudge is heresy and attributing things to any cause but God is idolatry and joyfulness is duty.

Poetry

Many short Persian poems are attributed to him and he is considered one of the great medieval Persian poets. The attribution of these poems has always been doubtful and due to recent research, it is generally believed that he wrote only two poems in his life. The attribution of so many poems to Abusaeid was due to his great fondness for poetry. His love for poetry can be seen from the fact that he usually used love poetry written by non-Sufis in his daily prayers. Even his last words were a poem, and at his funeral instead of the recitation of Qur’anic verses, he requested the following poem.

What sweeter than this in the world!

Friend met friend and the lover joined his Beloved.

That was all sorrow, this is all joy

Those were all words, this is all reality.

Another example of the poems attributed to him.

Love came and flew as blood in my veins

Emptied me of myself and filled me with beloved.

Each part of my being she conquered

Now a mere name is left to me and the rest is she.

Abusaeid and Islam

Abusaeid insists that his teachings and Sufism as a whole are the true meaning of Islam. He based his teachings on the mystic interpretation of verses from Qur’an and some hadiths and was considered a learned Islamic scholar. Nevertheless his interpretations of Qur’an were different from the mainstream Islamic thought of the time.

Also at his time the Islamic legitimacy of Sufi dance was a matter of debate among the scholars and some attempted to try him and his followers on charges of un-Islamic innovations, dancing and use of poetry in public sermons, but they failed to do so because of his popularity. Similar legal troubles had dogged other Sufis, notably Farid al-Din Attar and al-Hallaj.

Another important fact is that he never fulfilled the pilgrimage to Kaaba, called Hajj, which according to all schools of Islamic jurisprudence is one of the five pillars of Islam and an obligation upon all Muslims. In his biography Asrar al-Tawhid, he writes: “God knows – and this word is worth a hundred oaths – that everyone for whom God opened the way of pilgrimage to Kaaba, was already rejected by him from the path of truth.”

To this day this has been one of the causes of criticizing him from a religious point of view. In general he was bold in expressing his mystic opinions as can be seen from his praise of Hallaj who was considered a heretic by most of the Sufis and all of the non-Sufi Muslims of the time, although the common opinion about Hallaj changed in time.

Abusaeid and Avicenna

There is evidence that Abusaeid and Avicenna, the famous Persian physician and philosopher, corresponded with one another. Abusaeid records several meetings between them in his biography. The first meeting is described as three days of private conversation, at the end of which Abusaeid said to his followers that everything that he could see (i.e in visions), Avicenna knew, and in turn Avicenna said that everything he knew Abusaeid could see.

References

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (August 2009)

• E.G. Browne. Literary History of Persia. (Four volumes, 2,256 pages, and twenty-five years in the writing). 1998. ISBN 0-7007-0406-X
• Jan Rypka, History of Iranian Literature. Reidel Publishing Company. ASIN B-000-6BXVT-K

See also

• List of Persian poets and authors
• Persian literature
• Sufi poetry