The Salutation Upon The Best Of Creation
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Translator
Abdul Aziz Suraqah
Description
This slim volume gathers Imam Ahmad ibn 'Ajiba al-Hasani's commentary on As-Salat al-Mashishiyah, the celebrated salutation upon the Prophet ﷺ composed by 'Abd al-Salam ibn Mashish al-'Alami. Abu al-Hasan ash-Shadhili, who praised Ibn Mashish as "the Pole of Islam" and "the Sea which overflows," is himself part of the salutation's enduring legacy—one this commentary carries forward for the reader.
For a seeker drawn to this prayer's beauty but wanting to understand what lies beneath it, Ibn 'Ajiba's commentary offers a way in. It is the kind of text meant to be read slowly, returned to, and sat with rather than finished in one sitting.
This edition, translated by Abdul Aziz Suraqah and published by Al-Madina Institute in its first printing (July 2015), comes as a compact A5 paperback of 83 pages—easy to keep close at hand for study or for reciting alongside the salutation itself. For anyone with an attachment to this prayer, it is a fitting companion, placing a well-loved devotional text within its proper scholarly frame.
About the Contributor(s)
About the author
Ahmad ibn Ajiba: A Moroccan scholar, Sufi, and poet, Ahmad ibn Ajiba (1160-1224 AH / 1747-1809 CE) was born in the village of Khamis near Tetouan into a sharifian family of the Anjra tribe along Morocco's Mediterranean coast. A precocious student, he memorized the Qurʾan young and went on to study Arabic grammar, recitation, exegesis, and the religious sciences, first under Muhammad al-Susi al-Samlali and later in Fez under such masters as al-Tawudi ibn Suda. Maliki in law and Ashʿari in creed, he was above all a teacher of the inward sciences, entering the Shadhili-Darqawi order in 1208 AH / 1793 CE through the renewer Mawlay al-Arabi al-Darqawi and serving as a guide in the northern Jbala. His writings, more than thirty in number, range across Qurʾanic exegesis, Sufism, language, and poetry. He is best remembered for al-Bahr al-Madid (The Immense Ocean), a complete Qurʾanic tafsir that weaves together outward legal meaning and inward spiritual allusion, and for Iqaz al-himam, his much-loved commentary on the Hikam of Ibn ʿAtaʾ Allah al-Iskandari. His Miʿraj al-tashawwuf offers a lexicon of Sufi terms, and his autobiography, the Fahrasa, gives a vivid portrait of scholarly life in Tetouan. He died of the plague there in 1224 AH / 1809 CE.
About the translator
Abdul Aziz Suraqah: Abdul Aziz Suraqah is an American Muslim translator, teacher, and author based in Toronto, Canada. Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, he embraced Islam as a teenager after reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X, which sparked an enduring engagement with Islamic learning. He pursued traditional Islamic education in Yemen at Dar al-Hadith al-Khayriyya, in Mauritania at the mahdara of Umm al-Qura under the tutelage of Shaykh Muhammad Salim Ould 'Addud, and in Morocco, where he was among the first Western students admitted full-time to the traditional Qur'an school in the remote village of Sidi Ghiyyath. His studies focused on theology, legal theory, Arabic grammar, rhetoric, and literature. Since 1998, he has taught Arabic and Islamic studies, and from 2005 he has dedicated himself to full-time translation from Arabic into English, producing over fifty published and unpublished works. His translations span classical texts in Sufism, theology, and prophetic devotion, including 'Realities of Sufism' (Haqaiq an al-Tasawwuf by Shaykh Abd al-Qadir Isa), 'The Sanusi Creed', and numerous works related to the Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He currently teaches Arabic and Islamic studies at Dar al-Ma'rifah and Risalah Foundation in Toronto, where he lives with his family.
Specifications
EAN 13 / ISBN
9780990002642
Publisher
Al-Madina Institute
Author
Ahmad ibn Ajiba
Pages
83
Translator
Abdul Aziz Suraqah
Year Published
2014
Size
W- | H- | D-
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