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Founder of the Shadhili Sufi order

Abu al Hasan al Shadhili (أبو الحسن الشاذلي) (full name: Abū al Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al Jabbār al Ḥasanī wal Ḥusaynī al Shādhilī) also known as Sheikh al Shadhili (593–656 AH) (1196–1258 AD) was an influential Moroccan Islamic scholar and Sufi, founder of the Shadhili Sufi order.

Al Shadhili was born near Ceuta in 1196. He was a Sharif who was patrilineally descendant of the Arab Hashim tribe via the Idrisids, and matrilineally born to a royal family of the Berber Ghomara tribe. He was a Maliki in jurisprudence and wandered far afield in search of knowledge. Immensely learned, even as a young man, he was famous for his ability to engage in legal argumentation with the religions scholars of his day. As a young man, Abulhasan was hesitating between living the life of an ascetic in the wilderness in order to give himself up totally to worship and invocation, or to return to the towns and settlements to be in the company of the scholars and the righteous. He studied in Fes and moved to Alexandria in 1244. In Iraq he met the Sufi master al Wasiti, who advised him to find his Spiritual Master (Sheikh) in the country Abulhasan had travelled from, there he later met Abd as Salam ibn Mashish, the great Moroccan spiritual master. Under his guidance, Abulhasan attained enlightenment and proceeded to spread his knowledge across Maghreb, especially in Tunisia and Egypt, where he is buried. He founded his first zawiya in Tunis in 1227. He died in 1258 in Humaithra, Egypt, en route to Mecca.

Remaining with his master for a while, Abu'l Hasan then departed for Shadhila, in Tunisia, on orders from his teacher; and from there he received the name of al Shadhili. He entered a new retreat in a cave on top of Jabal Zaghwan close to Shadhila accompanied by his first companion Abu Yahya Abdellah ibn Samala al Habibi. After intense spiritual exercises in the Jabal Zaghwan region, he was ordered in a vision to teach Sufism. Accordingly, he set up his first institution (zawiyah) in Tunis in the year 625/1228, just when the new governor, Abu Zakariyya', also arrived. During his early years in Tunis, Abu'l Hasan first taught forty students who were known as the forty friends (al awliya al arba'un). His new tariqah was a stunning success, drawing masses of people from all walks of life, including the sultan's family. On one of his trips to the East, an Ayyubid sultan conferred on him and his descendants, by way of a religious endowment, one of the enormous towers that arose from the walls formerly encompassing the city of Alexandria in Egypt. Abu'l Hasan remained in Tunis for a number of years until one day God Most High brought him a young man who was to become his successor and the inheritor of his station and his holy line, Abul Abbas al Mursi (d. 686/1271), from Murcia in Spain.

In the year 642/1244, the sheikh, once again had a vision. Abu'l Hasan said:
I saw the Prophet in a dream and he said to me, "O Ali, go to Egypt and raise the ranks of forty true followers (siddiqun) there." It was the summer time and intensely hot and I said, "O Prophet of God, the heat is very great." He said, "Lo, the clouds will give you shade." I said, "I fear thirst." He replied, "Look, the sky will rain for you every day." He promised me many miraculous gifts (karamat) on my journey. So I instructed my followers to prepare to depart for Egypt. Thus he left Tunisia accompanied by Al Mursi Abu'l 'Abbas, his brother Abdullah, his servant Abu al 'Azayim as well as other Sufi sheikhs and many of his own disciples, and moved to Alexandria, where he established both his residence and the institution (zawiyah) of his order in the tower the sultan had given him. Alexandria was, during this time, a distinguished city and a place of learning various major sciences. He lived with his family on the top floor; another floor was converted into a tremendous mosque where he gave public instruction; and another floor was converted into a great zawiyah for his disciples, with cells for meditational retreat. In Egypt, likewise, his order was greatly successful, drawing into its ranks many court officials, great religious scholars like Izz al Din ibn 'Abd al Salam (d. 660/1262) or the Shafi 'i traditionist al Mundhiri (d. 656/1258), a host of Sufi figures, and individuals from different levels of society. In the year 646/1248, he lost His vision, and it was in that state that he participated in the Battle of Al Mansurah in Egypt, which stopped the Seventh Crusade headed by Saint Louis of France.

Shortly before Sheikh Abu'l Hasan started on his last pilgrimage to Mecca, the city of Baghdad fell to the conquering Mongols, thus ending the long reign of the Abbasids there and ushering in a new epoch in the history of Islam. The sheikh was accompanied by a mass of his disciples; but he fell ill in the eastern desert of Egypt, in Humaithara, and there he died in the year 656/1258. He was buried there, and a mosque and mausoleum complex was built for him.

Shortly before he died, in 656/1258, Sheikh Abu'l Hasan designated Abu'l Abbas al Mursi as his successor in the order. After Sheikh Abu'l Hasan's death, Abu'l Abbas al Mursi moved into the great tower that the founder of the Shadhiliyyah had used as residence, mosque, and zawiyah, and remained there until his death ( 686/1288) some thirty years later, seldom moving out to travel in Egypt.

When asked who his spiritual master was, he used to reply, "I used to be the close follower of Abd as Salam ibn Mashish, but still I am drinking the water of wisdom from five ponds Jibril, Mikhail, Israfil, Izra'il, Rooh." Shaykh Abul Abbas al Mursi (d. 1288), who succeeded Shaykh ash Shadhili as the spiritual master of the Order, was asked about the knowledge of his spiritual master and replied, "He gave me forty sciences. He was an ocean without a shore." He taught his close followers to lead a life of contemplation and remembrance of Allah while performing the normal everyday activities of the world. He disliked initiating any would be follower unless that person already had a profession. His admonition to his close followers was to apply the teachings of Islam in their own lives in the world and to transform their existence. Shadhili wrote several devotional recitations, prayers and letters, some of which remain today. One of the best known poems is his "Litany of the Sea" (hizb al Bahr).