'Ala' al-Dawla al-Simnani

Iranian scholar, Sufi and poet who was trained in the Nuriyya branch of the Kubrawiyya order and founded the branch named after him, the Rukniyya. His full name is Abu al-Makarim Rukn al-Din Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Simnani; he is known for the theory of wahdat al-shuhud (unity of witnessing), which he developed in contrast to the conception of wahdat al-wujud (unity of being).

He was born in 659 (1261) in the village of Sufiabad in the town of Biyabanak, attached to Simnan, into a wealthy and cultured family. His paternal uncle Malik Jalal al-Din had served as vizier and grand vizier in the Ilkhanid administration; his father Malik Sharaf al-Din Muhammad had been appointed emir of Baghdad and had also become a vizier of Ghazan Khan with the title “ulugh bitikchi”. His maternal uncle, the great scholar Rukn al-Din Sa'in, had become Arghun Khan's right hand and served as judge and vizier in the reign of Ghazan Khan until he was killed in 1301.

At the age of fifteen, drawing on the influence of his maternal and paternal uncles, he joined the Ilkhanid court in Tabriz; he entered the service of the heir to the throne Arghun Khan, soon became his boon companion, and worked under him for more than ten years. In 683 (1284), in his own words, he repented at the warning of “a voice that came from the unseen”. When Arghun Khan would not allow him to leave his service, he devoted his free time to worship; then, pleading an illness the physicians could not cure, he left Tabriz in 1286 and returned to Simnan.

In Simnan he resolved to renounce the world; he gave most of his wealth away as alms, used the rest to restore the Sakkakiyya lodge, and settled there. He occupied himself with hadith, jurisprudence and theology, studied with scholars such as 'Izz al-Din al-Faruthi and Rashid al-Din b. Abi al-Qasim, and read Abu Talib al-Makki's Qut al-qulub, trying to put it into practice. Besides the sources of Sufism he also studied the basic books of the Sunni schools, and came to the conclusion, in his words, that one must stand “in the middle of the middle of the middle”.

Guided by his friend Akhi Sharaf al-Din, he sought to become a disciple of Shaykh Nur al-Din 'Abd al-Rahman al-Isfarayini, who lived in Baghdad. When Arghun Khan prevented him from going to Baghdad, his shaykh ordered him in writing to enter seclusion. He managed to reach Baghdad in Ramadan 688 (October 1289); al-Isfarayini put him in retreat (i'tikaf) at the Caliph's Mosque, instructed him in dhikr, and after the seclusion sent him on the pilgrimage. He returned to Baghdad on 6 February 1290; in the same year he received from his shaykh's hand the cloak of discipleship handed down from Abu Hafs Shihab al-Din al-Suhrawardi, and returned to Simnan charged with guidance. He maintained his bond with his shaykh until the latter's death, for close to thirty-two years.

Within a short time he trained deputies and charged them with guidance. He made the pilgrimage several more times, the last in 1332, and also travelled within Iran. At the request of Emir Chupan he mediated in the political conflict between Abu Sa'id Bahadur Khan and the emirs of Khurasan; for similar purposes he met Öljeitü and Emir Nawruz. He became acquainted with scholars and Sufis such as Ayatullah al-Hilli and Safi al-Din Ardabili.

He died on 22 Rajab 736 (6 March 1336) in Sufiabad, his birthplace, and was buried in the Ahrar enclosure. He left behind many distinguished disciples, a lodge and a rich library.

His Circle of Influence — He says that, besides al-Isfarayini, he drew spiritual benefit from Sayyid Taj al-Din, Sadr al-Din Akhfash-i Thani and his maternal uncle Rukn al-Din Sa'in, and from the spirituality and works of early Sufis such as Ibrahim b. Adham, Abu Yazid al-Bistami, Junayd al-Baghdadi, Abu Hafs al-Haddad al-Naysaburi and Abu Talib al-Makki. According to the source, his tolerant views were developed in favour of Shi'ism especially by Amir 'Ali Hamadani and Nurbakhsh, and in favour of Sunnism by Imam Rabbani, and his most fundamental influence was upon them. He is said to have shed light for Imam Rabbani with his view that the final station is that of servanthood.

His Poetry and Sufi Line — He prefers the state of sobriety (sahw) to the states of intoxication and overpowering; with this view he stands beside Junayd al-Baghdadi, who made adherence to the Qur'an and Sunna a condition whatever the circumstances. For him the basis of Sufism is to rise to certainty in faith and to the station of servanthood in practice, and to perform the duties of servanthood at the level of ihsan; the path cannot be conceived without the sharia, nor gnosis without worship. An unveiling not confirmed by the Qur'an and Sunna has no value, even if it comes from the greatest saint; and no one can be a shaykh without knowledge of the outward sense of the Qur'an and Sunna. In his Fadl al-tariqa he treats the 100 stations of Sufism in his own way; he does not count annihilation or unity as the final station — the final station is servanthood, meaning the servant's return to his first state — and he supports this with Junayd's saying, “The end of the divine journey is the servant's return to his first state.” He is recorded as the first to treat the interpretation of the Qur'an on seven inner levels, the seven modes (atwar) and occultation (ghayba). In his poetry he used the pen names 'Ala' al-Dawla, 'Ala-i Dawlat, 'Ala-dawlat and sometimes simply 'Ala; these poems, gathered into a divan after his death, matter for the educational and ethical elements they carry.

His Works — The number of his works in Arabic and Persian, above all on Sufism and also on jurisprudence, theology, hadith, exegesis and ethics, is said to exceed 300; most, however, are treatises of under fifty folios. Saying that he never wrote a single line without prayer for guidance (istikhara), al-Simnani asks that nothing he wrote be accepted before being weighed against the Qur'an and Sunna. The principal ones are: Manazir al-muhadir li-l-munazir al-hadir, on the excellence of 'Ali and his stance towards the first three caliphs; Mashari' abwab al-quds; al-'Urwa li-ahl al-khalwa wa-l-jalwa and its expanded form Safwat al-'Urwa, which the source regards as the most developed of his works; Bayan al-ihsan li-ahl al-iqan; Sirr bal al-bal, recounting a journey of his in the spiritual world; Fath al-mubin li-ahl al-yaqin, recounting how he entered the Sufi path; Bada'i' al-sana'i'; Zayn al-mu'taqad; Fusul al-usul; Fadl al-tariqa; Risalat al-qudsiyyat; Najm al-qur'an fi ta'wilat al-Qur'an, which completes Najm al-Din Daya's exegesis Bahr al-haqa'iq; and the Divan.