Coming from a noble family of Martapura in the Banjar Sultanate, Muhammad Nafis al-Banjari was one of the foremost Sufi scholars of South Kalimantan. He studied in Mecca and Medina and was initiated into the Qadiriyya, Shadhiliyya, Naqshbandiyya, Shattariyya and Khalwatiyya orders. His best-known work is 'al-Durr al-Nafis', a treatise on divine unity and mysticism that provoked wide debate in its time. He spent his later years preaching in the interior of Kalimantan and died in the village of Binturu in Kelua, Tabalong. His tomb draws pilgrims from as far as Malaysia and Brunei. His date of death is not firmly established in the sources but is placed in the early 19th century.