Abul-Hassan Kharaqani

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Abul-Hassan Ali ibn Ahmad (or ibn Ja’far) ibn Salmān al-Kharaqāni or Shaikh Abul-Hassan Kharaqāni [also written Kherqāni] (Persian شیخ ابوالحسن خرقانی ) is one of the great Sufi Masters of Islam. He was born in 963 CE (352 Hijri) in Khorasan in a village called Kharaqan (today located in Semnan province of Iran) and died in the day of Ashura (10th of Muharram) in 425 Hijri (1033 CE).

He was the disciple of Shaikh Abul-Abbas Ahmad Qassab Amili in tariqah but had deep spiritual relation (Uwaisi) with Bayazid Bastami, a well-known Sufi Master who lived almost a century before him and who had already spoken about the personality and state of Abul Hassan Kharaqani. Attar Neishapuri, a famous Persian poet and sufi, has devoted the largest part of his book Tadhkiratul-Awliya (Biography of the Saints) about the personality, state, sayings and stories of Abul Hassan Kharaqani. Attar has called him as Sultān-e Salāteen-e Mashāyekh (The King of the kings of Sufi Masters), Ocean of the spiritual knowledge, Sun of the Lord, Mystery of the Lord and Qibla (focus of attention) of his people.

Abul-Hassan Kharaqani was the Master or Shaikh of the famous Persian sufi and poet, Khwajah Abdullah Ansari. Avicenna (Ibn Sina), the renowned Persian philosopher, Shah Mahmood of Ghazna, Shaikh Abu-Saïd Abul-Khair and Nasir Khusraw, the famous poet, had travelled to Kharaqan to meet him and expressed their deep admiring feelings and respect to him.

Mawlana Jalaluddin Balkhi (Rumi), Attar Neishapouri, Khwajah Abdullah Ansari, Jami and others have narrated many poems about Shaikh Abul Hassan and have reported many astonishing stories from him.

He was illiterate but had wide inspirational knowledge about the Holy Quran and Hadith; his sayings and speeches are significantly magnificent due to their philosophical views. He practiced Shafi`i sect, a school of Sunnite Islam.

The book Noorul-Uloom (The light of Sciences) is dedicated to Shaikh Abul Hassan Kharaqani. It is believed to have been written by his disciples (murids) after his death. Its single manuscript copy is in the British Museum.

[edit] Some of his sayings

Shaikh Abul Hassan had written on the door of his khaneqah: “Anyone who comes to this house, give him food and do not ask about his faith. Because, as he merits a life next to the exalted God, no doubt he deserves a meal on my table.”

I feel, I hear, I speak, but I do not exist.

There are 24 hours in a day. I die a thousand times in an hour, and I cannot explain the other 23 hours.

People cannot describe me. No matter in which words or in which terms they present me, I am the opposite of what they say.

I am neither a Sufi, nor a scientist, nor a pious. Oh Lord, you are the one and only, and I am one of your oneness.

What if there were neither the Hell nor the Heaven. So that we could see the real devout person.

A scholar wakes up early in the morning and thinks how to increase his knowledge. A pious wakes up and seeks how to increase his faith. But Abul-Hassan thinks how to make a human being happy.

The one who said "I reached to Allah (to the God, to the Truth and Reality)", he did not. And the one who said "He (God) himself made me reach him", he reached to Allah (or he attained the reality).