Seerah Ibn al-Farid — Abu Hafs Sharaf al-Din Umar ibn Ali ibn al-Farid al-Hamuyi al-Sa'di al-Misri (1181-1235 CE): The Greatest Arabic Poet of Mystical Love, Whose Nazm al-Suluk (The Poem of the Way — Also Called al-Ta'iyya al-Kubra, 761 Verses) and Khamriyyat al-Ma'nawiyya (The Wine Ode — al-Khamriyya al-Sughra, 40 Verses on Divine Love Through the Metaphor of Pre-Eternal Wine) Made Him the Acknowledged Master of Arabic Sufi Poetry and Whose Tomb on Muqattam Hill in Cairo Became a Major Pilgrimage Site

Seerah Ibn al-Farid (سِيرَةُ ابنِ الفَارِضِ; full name: Abu Hafs Sharaf al-Din 'Umar ibn 'Ali ibn Muhammad ibn al-Farid al-Hamuyi al-Misri; born 576 AH / 1181 CE in Cairo; died 632 AH / 1235 CE in Cairo; 'Ibn al-Farid' = son of the official of single women [farid = a judicial title for the person who administered the affairs of unmarried women]; honored titles: 'Sultan al-'Ashiqin' [Sultan of the Lovers — i.e., those who love God]; 'Sharf al-Milla wa-l-Din' [Honor of Community and Religion]; biography: Ibn al-Farid was born in Cairo; he studied the Islamic religious sciences and had a distinguished family background; at some point in his youth he underwent a spiritual crisis; he spent years in the region of the Muqattam hills outside Cairo in spiritual retreat and practice; he also lived in the Hijaz for some time; he lived most of his life in Cairo and died there; his tomb on the Muqattam hill became a major pilgrimage site for Sufi devotees; major works: [1] Nazm al-Suluk [نَظمُ السُّلُوك — The Poem of the Way; also called al-Ta'iyya al-Kubra — The Greater Ta'iyya, because it rhymes in the letter ta']: 761 verses [lines of poetry]; the longest and most complex Arabic Sufi poem; divided into sections addressing different aspects of the mystical path; themes: the soul's journey toward God; mystical union [ittihad or jam']; the annihilation of the ego in God; the pre-eternal covenant between God and the souls; the mystic's experience of seeing God in all things; the language is dense, allusive, and often grammatically complex; commentaries: Nazm al-Suluk received major commentaries; the most important is by Kamal al-Din al-Qashani [d. 1329 CE]; [2] al-Khamriyya al-Sughra [الخَمرِيَّةُ الصُّغرَى — The Lesser Wine Ode; also called Khamriyyat al-Ma'nawiyya — The Spiritual Wine Ode]: 40 verses; the most widely recited and memorized of Ibn al-Farid's poems; theme: divine love expressed through the extended metaphor of wine; the wine was 'sealed' before the creation of the vine — i.e., the love of God predates creation; the drunk is not a person who has consumed physical wine but one whom the pre-eternal divine love has intoxicated; famous opening: 'sharibna 'ala dhikr al-habib mudamatan — sakarna biha min qabli an yukhlaq al-karm' [We drank on the memory of the Beloved a wine — by which we were drunk before the vine was created]; [3] other shorter poems: Ibn al-Farid composed numerous shorter poems [qasidas and muwashshah forms] on mystical themes; theological controversy: Ibn al-Farid's poetry raised theological concerns, especially around the concept of *ittihad* [union with God]; some theologians worried that his verses implied that the mystic becomes one with God — a claim that would be shirk [associating partners with God]; Sufi interpreters responded that ittihad in his poetry means the mystic's complete absorption in God's presence, not a literal identification of the created with the Creator; the controversy continued for centuries after his death; Ibn al-Farid and the Arabic poetic tradition: classical Arabic poetry had a rich tradition of wine poems [khamriyyat] going back to Abu Nuwas [d. c. 815 CE] and earlier; Ibn al-Farid took this tradition and spiritualized it completely — the wine, the beloved, the tavern, the cup, the drunkenness are all spiritual metaphors; the pre-eternal wine that 'existed before the vine' identifies the object of the love as God Himself, who preceded creation) is Arabic Sufi poetry's unsurpassed peak.