Abu al-Husayn al-Nuri أبو الحسين النوري

Abu al-Husayn Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Nuri (d. 295 AH / 908 CE) rahimahullah was one of the central figures of the early Baghdad school of Sufism, which produced the foundational masters of the classical Sufi tradition. He was a disciple of al-Saqati and a close companion of al-Junayd al-Baghdadi, the foremost Sufi master of the Baghdad school. His ecstatic utterances and intense devotional state - his wajd and shatahat - became foundational reference points for the subsequent Sufi tradition in its understanding of the spiritual states and their proper place in the path. Imam al-Qushayri devotes substantial attention to him in his Risala, one of the primary classical anthologies of the early Sufi masters. His short treatise al-Nur wa al-Baha contemplates the relationship between the divine light and divine radiance in the spiritual life of the seeker, themes that became foundational to the entire subsequent Sufi heritage.