Return to What is Sufism?: Early Definitions or
Go through the doorway
to Sufism, Sufis, and Sufi Orders:
Sufism's Many Paths.
Nicholson asserted that one of Sarraj's students, Abu 'l-Fadl ibn al-Hasan al-Sarakhsi, was the shaykh of the well-known Sufi shaykh, Abu Sa'id Abu l-Khayr.
Dhahabi noted, in a problematic passage that may have originally come from Sulami's lost Ta'rikh al-Sufiyah,that Sulami stated, "Abu Nasr [al-Sarraj] was from a family of ascetics [awlad al-zuhhad]. He was the manzur (Lane's Lexicon: a person or chief person whose bounty is hoped for) in his region in futuwwa(lit. magnanimity; also the name of early Sufi-like organizations) and was the expositor of the folk (lisan al-qawm),while seeking the support of the knowledge of Islamic law (ma'a al-istizhar bi-al-'ilm al-shari'a). And he is the last remnant (baqiyat)of their shaykhs today." (Nicholson read this last sentence as "He is the legal scholar (faqih)of their shaykhs today" (Dhahabi, Tarikh al-Islam,351-380 AH, p. 625-26; Nicholson, Kitab al-Luma'p. III, V)
'Attar states that he died and was buried in Tus (which is about 15 miles from Mashhad), although another source states that he died in Nishapur.
'Attar noted that Sarraj said, "Love is a fire that has
been lit within the breasts and hearts of the lovers. It burns
and turns to ashes everything
but God" (Attar, Tadhkirat al-awliya',p. 639-40).
to Sufism, Sufis, and Sufi Orders: