Al-Darani
Open-knowledge reference entry
Abū Sulaymān al-Dārānī (Arabic: أبو سليمان الداراني) was an ascetic sage of the 2nd–3rd/8th–9th century and one of the earliest theoreticians of formal mysticism in Islam.
He was held in honour by the Sufis and was called the "Sweet Basil of Hearts" (Rayhān al-Qulūb). He is distinguished by his austerities and acts of self-mortification. He spoke in subtle terms concerning the practice of devotion. He developed the doctrine of gnosis (ma'rifa), and he was also the first to preach the science of 'time' (waqt) as essential for preserving one's state (hal) and allow hope to predominate over fear.
Name
'Abd al-Rahman b. Ahmad, or 'Abd al-Rahman b. 'Atiyya al-Ansari al-Darani. He was called al-Ansari due to his connection with the Banū Anas ibn Malik, a tribe from Yemen.
Birth
He was born around 140/757 in a village in Damascus called Darayya, and hence he was known as al-Dārānī.
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This entry incorporates text from “Al-Darani” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.