Imam Shihab al-Din al-Suhrawardi شهاب الدين عمر بن محمد السهروردي

Imam Shihab al-Din Abu Hafs Umar al-Suhrawardi rahimahullah (539-632 AH / 1145-1234 CE) was a Baghdadi Shafi'i scholar and Sufi master. He founded the Suhrawardi tariqa, one of the four great original Sufi orders alongside the Qadiri, Chishti, and Naqshbandi. He served the Abbasid Caliphs as an envoy on diplomatic missions and held the position of shaykh of Baghdad's Sufi establishment. His order spread widely into Persia, Central Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. His Awarif al-Maarif is one of the greatest synthetic works in the early history of Sufism, organized in sixty-three chapters that cover the full range of Sufi knowledge: the etymology and definition of Sufism, categories of spiritual travelers, rules of dhikr, rulings on seclusion, the etiquette of the shaykh and murid, the secrets of worship, and the stations and states of the heart. The work became a primary source for the spread of Sunni Sufi vocabulary eastward into Persia and India.