About The Book
Imam ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlawī al-Ḥaddād, of Ḥaḍramawt in southern Yemen, is generally considered one of the great spiritual masters of Islam. In addition to the wealth of treatises and litanies (awrād) that he left for the benefit of posterity, the Imam wrote hundreds of letters to disciples, followers and fellow scholars, to local sultans and governors, and to other individuals both in his region and elsewhere in the Muslim world.
These letters provide unique insights into the Imam’s learning, wisdom, and personality. They reflect his relationships with family, friends, rulers and others, his life and times, and his reactions to current events. Also notable is his frequent use of verses to highlight points with extra force and eloquence; these are translated in full.
Selected Letters of Imam al-Ḥaddād presents a representative choice of this precious material, expertly translated together with an introduction, full annotations and a glossary of technical terms. It will be of interest to anyone concerned with the literature on the spiritual path and its masters in Islamic tradition.
About The Author
Imam Abd Allah ibn Alawi al-Haddad was born in 1634 CE (1044 Hijri). He lived his entire life in the town of Tarim in Yemen’s Valley of Hadramawt and died there in 1720 CE (1132 Hijri). In Islamic history, he was considered one of the great Sufi sages. He was an adherent to the Ashari Sunni Creed of Faith (Aqeedah), while in Islamic jurisprudence (Fiqh), he was a Shafi'i.
He lived at Tarim in the Hadramaut valley between Yemen and Oman, and is widely held to have been the ‘renewer’ of the twelfth Islamic century. A direct descendant of the Prophet, his sanctity and direct experience of God are clearly reflected in his writings, which include several books, a collection of Sufi letters, and a volume of mystical poetry. He spent most of his life in Kenya and Saudi Arabia where he taught Islamic jurisprudence and classical Sufism according to the order (tariqa) of the Ba'Alawi sayids.
In spite of being a major source of reference among the Sunni Muslims (especially among Sufis), only recently have his books began to receive attention and publication in the English-speaking world. Their appeal lies in the concise way in which the essential pillars of Islamic belief, practice, and spirituality have been streamlined and explained efficiently enough for the modern reader. Examples of such works are The Book of Assistance, The Lives of Man, and Knowledge and Wisdom.
About The Translator
Dr. Mostafa Badawi was born in Cairo in 1948. He graduated from Cairo University Medical School in 1971 and thereafter completed his postgraduate training in the United Kingdom in 1985. He has been practicing as a consultant psychiatrist since then. Dr. al-Badawi has authored several books in English, including Man and the Universe: An Islamic Perspective, The Prophetic Invocations, and Sufi Sage of Arabia: Biography of Imam al-Haddad.
He is a distinguished authority on the history and teachings of the Ba 'Alawi Sayyids. He studied under many shaykhs, foremost among whom is the late Habib Ahmad Mashur al-Haddad.
Dr. Badawi is one of the leading contemporary translators of Islamic books from Arabic to English and has authored several books in Arabic. In addition, he has translated from the original Arabic into English several of Imam Abdallah ibn Alawi al-Haddad's works, including The Book of Assistance, The Lives of Man, Gifts for the Seeker, Wisdom and Knowledge, Good Manners, and Mutual Reminding. He also translated into English Habib Ahmad al-Haddad's Key to the Garden as well as Shaykh Abd al-Khaliq ash-Shabrawi's Degrees of the Soul.
