Imam al-Qushayri أبو القاسم عبد الكريم بن هوازن القشيري

Imam Abu al-Qasim Abd al-Karim ibn Hawazin al-Qushayri rahimahullah (376-465 AH / 986-1072 CE) was one of the foremost scholars of Khurasan in his era, combining mastery of Shafi'i fiqh, Ash'ari kalam, hadith, and Sufi spiritual training. He received Sufi formation under Abu Ali al-Daqqaq of Nishapur, his father-in-law and spiritual master, and studied kalam under Abu Bakr ibn Furak. His al-Risala al-Qushayriyya, completed in 437 AH, is regarded as the most authoritative classical systematization of Sunni Sufism: it opens with biographical notices of early Sufi imams from al-Fudayl ibn Iyad through al-Junayd and al-Qushayri's own teachers, then provides a systematic exposition of the technical vocabulary of the path, and concludes with an extended treatment of the conduct of the spiritual wayfarer. Later scholars such as al-Suhrawardi in the Awarif al-Ma'arif and al-Ghazali in the Ihya drew upon it extensively. His Lataif al-Isharat stands among the major works of Sufi tafsir, and Nahw al-Qulub and Tartib al-Suluk are widely-read shorter Sufi treatises.