Najm al-Din al-Kubra

The great Sufi of Khwarazm and founding master of the Kubrawiyya order. He was known as shaykh-i wali-tarash (the shaykh who carves saints) because he brought his disciples to the station of sainthood. The epithet Kubra, which gave the order its name, is an abbreviation of the Qur'anic phrase "al-tammat al-kubra" (al-Nazi'at 79/34), which signifies the Day of Gathering; it is recorded that his teacher gave him this epithet, together with the name Najm al-Din, in his youth on account of his superior intelligence and his decisive victories in scholarly debate. Some of his disciples are also said to have called him "ayatullah al-kubra".

He is held to have been born in 540 (1145) at Khiva in Khwarazm, though the date is not certain. He grew up in a merchant family that valued religious education. He relates that as a child, left alone at night to guard the cloth shop from thieves, he saw visions that overwhelmed him; from this it is understood that the roots of the visionary experiences he often had after entering Sufism reach back to his earliest years.

After spending his youth in Khwarazm he left home in pursuit of learning. He studied hadith at Nishapur with Abu 'l-Ma'ali al-Farawi, at Hamadan with Abu 'l-Ala al-Hamadani and Muhammad b. Abi Sulayman al-Hamadani, at Isfahan with Abu 'l-Makarim Labban and Abu Ja'far al-Saydalani, at Mecca with Abu Muhammad al-Tabbakh, and at Alexandria with Abu Tahir al-Silafi. As he relates in the Fawa'ih al-jamal, while in Alexandria the Prophet appeared to him in a dream, gave him the kunya Abu 'l-Jannab (he who shuns this world and the next), praised him for his occupation with hadith, and advised him to devote his nights to reciting the Qur'an.

He pursued his studies until the age of thirty-five, then set out to find a shaykh to whom he could pledge himself. Falling ill at Dizful, he was received as a guest in the lodge of Isma'il al-Qasri, one of the city's noted Sufis; when the shaykh invited him one night to the sama' ceremony he attended despite his irritation at the sounds the dervishes made, and found that he had recovered in the course of it. The next day he pledged himself to al-Qasri. Perceiving that his wide learning in the outward sciences might breed pride, al-Qasri sent him to Ammar Yasir al-Bitlisi, deputy of Abu 'l-Najib al-Suhrawardi. When, imagining himself superior to his shaykh, he behaved in ways contrary to the discipline of the path, al-Bitlisi ordered him to Ruzbihan al-Wazzan al-Misri in Cairo; once the purpose of that journey was achieved he returned to Ammar Yasir for the next stage of his training. In his works he names only Ammar Yasir among his shaykhs, and recounts how he abandoned his first forty-day retreat under his supervision after ten days, and how the shaykh rebuked him to complete the remaining days.

In 580 (1184) he returned to Khwarazm and devoted his life to training his disciples, whose number is recorded as about sixty. Majd al-Din al-Baghdadi, Najm al-Din Daya, Radi al-Din Ali Lala, Sa'd al-Din Hammuya, Jamal al-Din al-Jili, Baba Kamal al-Jandi and Sayf al-Din al-Bakharzi are counted among his foremost disciples. The report that he met the anti-Sufi theologian Fakhr al-Din al-Razi in Khwarazm is genuine. From his mention of a visit by an unnamed vizier it is understood that he was on good terms with the court of Khwarazm; the presence at the Khwarazmshah's court of Baha al-Din, brother of Majd al-Din, suggests that the latter secured this relationship.

He died during the massacre carried out by the Mongols in 618 (1221) at Gurganj (Kunya-Urgench, Turkmenistan), the capital of Khwarazm. According to Rashid al-Din Fadlallah, Chinggis Khan gave him leave to quit the city, but he replied that he could not accept his life being spared while the city was burned and razed. Yafi'i, however, records that before the massacre he ordered his disciples, among them Sa'd al-Din Hammuya and Radi al-Din Ali Lala, to leave the city, then entered the battle and died a martyr.

His Circle of Influence — The founding of the Kubrawiyya, one of the three great orders of Central Asian origin (the others being the Yasawiyya and the Khwajagan), may be dated from his return to Khwarazm in 580 (1184). In the thirty-eight years between that date and his death he trained nearly sixty deputies who attained the rank of sainthood; through his guidance and theirs the order spread in the XIII and XIV centuries from Central Asia to India and Iraq. His chain of initiation runs through his shaykh Ammar Yasir and Abu 'l-Najib al-Suhrawardi to Ma'ruf al-Karkhi, and from him through Imam Ali al-Rida to Ali; in this respect the Kubrawiyya may be regarded as a branch of the Suhrawardiyya, but the geographical shift of his return from Egypt to Khwarazm and the original choices in his Sufi emphases gave it the character of an independent order. His interest in analysing visionary experience was carried on by later Kubrawis, above all Najm al-Din Daya and Ala al-Dawla Simnani. The source stresses that, despite later attempts at reconciliation, he was unquestionably Sunni.

His Works — Four works are recorded. ① al-Usul al-'ashara (Aqrab al-turuq): his best-known and most influential work. It opens with the three degrees of the path (those of outward works, those of striving and discipline, and those who journey inwardly to God); the nearest way to God is the third. Then follow the ten principles (repentance, renunciation, trust in God, contentment, seclusion, constant remembrance, orientation, patience, vigilance, acceptance). Amir-i Kabir Ali Hamadani translated it into Persian; Abd al-Ghafur Lari and Kamal al-Din Khwarazmi wrote Persian commentaries and Isma'il Haqqi Bursawi a Turkish one. ② Risala ila 'l-ha'im al-kha'if min lawmat al-la'im: in ten chapters; it holds that no one may enter the divine presence without outward and inward purification, attainable by observing ten matters (ritual purity, retreat, constant silence, constant fasting, constant remembrance, submission, banishing passing thoughts, binding the heart to the shaykh, sleeping only from necessity, moderation in food and drink); the author himself translated it into Persian. ③ Adab al-sufiyya: treats Sufi etiquette in seven chapters (donning the cloak, sitting, rising, entering the lodge, receiving guests, attending sama', travel). ④ Fawa'ih al-jamal wa-fawatih al-jalal: the work best known to Western scholars, centred on his personal states and visions. He divides vision into lower and higher, and says that the sky beheld in the state of absence is not the sky seen with the eye of this world. Lights are of two kinds, one rising from the heart and one descending from the Throne; when the veil between them is lifted they unite and become, in the Qur'an's words, "light upon light" (al-Nur 24/35). The colours of the lights are at the same time meanings — green signifies the life of the heart, yellow sickness. Counted among the most original works in the history of Sufism, the book was edited by F. Meier with an extensive study and has been translated into Turkish and French. The commentary Ayn al-hayat attributed to him in the sources is in fact the Bahr al-haqa'iq of his disciple Najm al-Din Daya; the confusion arises from their sharing the same name. Quatrains are also attributed to him, some of which may be his.

His Tomb and Complex — Outside Gurganj (Kunya-Urgench) a grave attributed to Najm al-Din Kubra and a lodge founded in his name have survived to the present day. Ibn Battuta mentions the tomb during his visit to Khwarazm in 732 (1332) and says that food was distributed to travellers at the lodge. The Russian archaeologist A. Y. Yakubovsky concluded from his investigations in 1929 that the tomb was standing between the years 1321-1333. According to oral tradition the tomb was built by Timur; the report must relate to Timur's repair and enlargement of it. In the XIX century it was restored by Muhammad Amin Khan, Khan of Khiva. The Qajar official and man of letters Rida Quli Khan Hidayat visited the tomb when he travelled to Khwarazm on a diplomatic mission and left an account of its condition at the time. Though visitors dwindled in the Soviet period, the tomb has remained a focus of attention since the XIX century.