Adi ibn Musafir

Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir (, ; born 1072/1078, died 1162) was a 12th-century mystic, ascetic and theologian who is the central saint in the Yazidi religion, considered as the reformer, renewer or founder of Yazidism. His tomb at Lalish, Iraq is the holiest site in Yazidism and the focal point of annual Yazidi pilgrimage. In Yazidi belief, Sheikh Adi is venerated as an earthly incarnation of God.

Sheikh Adi's religious background is a subject of active debate. Islamic literature and Western scholarship traditionally describe him as a Sufi mystic of Islamic background who gathered followers known as the Adawiyya. Some scholars dispute this Islamic framing, and Yazidis themselves reject any claim of an Islamic background. 250px

Biography Early life Sheikh Adi was born in the 1070s in the village of Bait Far, near Baalbek, in the Beqaa Valley of present-day Lebanon. The village is situated in a region identified in medieval Arabic geographical sources as Shuf al-Akrad, (lit. "Shuf of the Kurds"), a designation recorded by the Muslim historian Ibn al-Mustawfi (1169–1239), who preserves an account on the authority of Sheikh Adi's own nephew placing his birth there. Sheikh Adi's full name is recorded as Sharaf al-Din Abu al-Fadl Adi ibn Musafir ibn Ismail Musa ibn Marwan.

His life and activity coincided with the era of the Crusades, a period in which theological thought across the Near East was flourishing, various mystical currents and schools were developing, and the political landscape was deeply unsettled, with the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad in conflict with the Fatimid caliphate in Egypt while Crusader forces advanced toward the Levant. This context gave new impetus to the revival of ancient mystical traditions under the guise of dervish brotherhoods. Yazidi tradition distinguishes two figures named Sheikh Adi: the first is Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir, who came from the Levant and remained in Lalish; the second is his grandnephew Sheikh Adi ibn Abu'l Barakat, who together with other Yazidi preachers spread the teaching of his ancestor. Yazidi sacred texts are focused on Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir.

In Yazidism, Sheikh Adi's birth is described as a moment of divine significance and Yazidis use the term "revealed himself" rather than "was born" to describe his coming into the world, in reflection of the Yazidi belief that Sheikh Adi is an incarnation of God. Thus, his birthplace of Bait Far is described in Yazidi sacred texts as the place "where Sheikh Adi revealed himself." Yazidi tradition understands Sheikh Adi's life as the earthly manifestation of a divine being, who arrived in the world already bearing divine essence ("surr").

The hymn of Qasīdā Safā Waqtī (The Time of Mine Has Been Purified) preserves an account of Sheikh Adi's miraculous birth and opens with Sheikh Adi's own words: "My time has been purified, and I reached the highest level / Even in the womb, I was brought up / My true Sheikh came to my rescue." It continues: "In this house I am blessing and surr" and "When I was born, forty men of perfect men were with me".

Ibn al-Mustawfi al-Arbili, drawing on contemporary sources, believed Sheikh Adi was "from the Kurds of the Levant," drawing on the account of Sheikh Adi's own nephew that his home village of Bayt al-Far was located in a region of the Levant known as Shuf al-Akrad, meaning "Shuf of the Kurds" in Arabic. Ibn Kathir (1300–1374) traces his lineage as "Sheikh Adi bin Musafir bin Ismail bin Musa bin Marwan bin Al-Hasan bin Marwan al-Hakkari," connecting him to the Hakkari.

A 14th-century Persian biographical source by the medieval historian and genealogist Ibn Enbah, Al-Fusul al-Fakhriyya, lists Sheikh Adi explicitly among notable Kurdish figures alongside other prominent Kurds of the era and describes him as being from the Hakkari region. His Kurdish lineage is also corroborated by the historian Ismail Pasha al-Baghdadi in his book Clarifying the Hidden (in Arabic).

Al-Dhahabi (1274–1348), in his Siyar Aʿlam al-Nubalāʾ, identifies Sheikh Hasan, son of Sheikh Adi's grandnephew, with the nisba of al-Kurdi as Ibn Adi Hassan bin Adi bin Abi al-Barakat al-Kurdi.

Umayyad lineage Of the twenty-five medieval Islamic writers surveyed in modern scholarship covering the medieval through early modern period, only five attribute Umayyad ancestry to Sheikh Adi, all of whom wrote centuries after his death. The earliest historian to introduce the Umayyad designation was al-Shatnufi (died 1314), followed by al-Maqrizi (died 1441), Ibn Taghribirdi (died 1470), al-Tadafi al-Hanbali (died 1565), and al-Sha'rani (died 1565).

The Adanî clan carries the direct spiritual inheritance of Sheikh Adi and supplies the senior religious offices of the Yazidi community. The Pêşîmamê Babê Şêx, the ceremonial escort of the clerical head of the Yazidis, is drawn specifically from the Şerfedîn clan, itself a branch of the Şêxisin sheikhs, who are a further division of the Adanî line. The Pêşîmamê Mergehê, who leads ceremonies and rituals, standing in front of other clerics during the feasts, is drawn from the Şêxisin sheikhs.

Education & Sufi Connections Sheikh Adi left Baalbek while still very young and traveled to Baghdad, where he became acquainted with the famous mystics and theologians of his time, some of whom left written testimonies about him. He remained unmarried throughout this period, lived ascetically, worked the land, fed himself from his own produce, and wove his own garments from cotton he grew himself.

Islamic historical sources and much of Western scholarship record that Sheikh Adi received his early religious education in the Levant, likely in Damascus, before travelling to Baghdad. The Baghdad intellectual environment of the early 12th century was one of intense mystical ferment. Sheikh Adi became acquainted with the most prominent mystics of the period, including Ahmad al-Ghazali, and moved in circles permeated by the ideas of Mansur al-Hallaj (858–922), whose teachings fused Greek philosophy with radical mystical positions and who had previously traveled to Kurdish territories, where he gained wide popularity among local tribes before being executed by Islamic authorities for heresy.

Scholars have identified the thought of Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj (858–922 CE) as a significant intellectual thread in the environment from which Yazidism emerged. Hallaj, famous for his declaration Ana'l-Haqq ("I am the Truth") and executed for heresy by Muslim authorities, had previously traveled through Kurdish territories in the Kermanshah region, where he gained wide popularity among local tribes. Rodziewicz argues that it is probable that Sheikh Adi encountered Hallaj's ideas in Baghdad through his master Ahmad al-Ghazali, who promoted them, and that "inspired by the original thought of Hallaj and his missionary activity, Adi left Baghdad and went to the mountains of Kurdistan." Hallaj occupies a recognized place within the Yazidi sacred tradition: unlike figures such as Zoroaster or Ali ibn Abu Talib, he is counted among Yazidi holy men and is the subject of individual sacred hymns (Qewls), including Qewlê Husêyînî Helac and Qewlê Hellacê Mensûr.

Sheikh Adi's closest associate from his time in Baghdad was Abd al-Qadir Gilani. Gilani left a written testimony about Sheikh Adi: "If anyone could still become a prophet, it would be Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir, deserving of it by his earnest faith... All the signs of power over the saints were given to him when he was still in his mother's womb."

In Yazidi understanding, Sheikh Adi's relationship with the Sufi milieu of Baghdad is framed distinctly from its Islamic historiographic framing. Sheikh Adi is understood not as a Muslim mystic who operated within the Sufi institutional framework, but as a dervish in the pre-confessional sense of the term, a tradition understood to have developed from circles of non-confessional monotheism predating Islam, whose adherents "did not identify themselves with followers of any single specific religion." Sheikh Adi is accordingly understood not as a participant in an Islamic Sufi tradition but as a dervish who operated across religious boundaries and possessed knowledge in many religions. Yazidis in that era were not a closed community and the Yazidi community he drew around him consisted of people of diverse backgrounds whose worldview did not conform to the religion of the majority and therefore were periodically subjected to persecution and violence.

From the Yazidi perspective, dervishism, later designated by others as Sufism, was a supra-religious teaching that preceded and transcended the confessional boundaries of any single religion, having its roots in the pre-Islamic monotheistic tradition of the Hanifs, with whom the earliest dervishes identified themselves. The term "Sufism" is held in Yazidi tradition to be alien to Yazidi self-understanding, having become associated with mystical currents within the Muslim religion.

The distinction between Yazidi dervishism and institutional Sufism was articulated by Dimitri Pirbari, a Yazidi religious scholar, historian and spiritual leader of the Georgian Yazidis, in a 2016 interview:

The manuscript further records that Sheikh Adi arrived from a region called Sham'alaya through western direction, between the mountains and Mar Daniel, through the valleys, and from the Daka mountain and Bandawaya. When Sheikh Adi reached the place that would bear his name, he found its head, a man named Mar Yuhanna, who received him and said: "Long ago I heard of you, welcome, O beloved of God. Settle in your place quickly, for the faith was preserved for you." Mar Yuhanna then departed for Jerusalem, where he died.

Frank establishes on the basis of preserved writings attributed to Sheikh Adi that he had already settled in the Hakkari mountains before 505 H / 1111 CE, and spent at least two generations there before his passing.

Influence and Following After settling in Lalish, people began gathering around him from across the region. His closest disciples included Mahmarashan, Pir Dawud Kharbanda, Amar Qubaysi, Pir Isebiya, and Pir Jarwan, who became his faithful companions and spread his teaching throughout the surrounding region. People came to him from the surroundings of Mosul, the Hakkari mountains, Syria, Iran and other regions and countries, bringing offerings which he distributed to the poor, and his fame spread across the entire East.

The community Sheikh Adi gathered at Lalish was, from its origins, composed of people of different social strata and backgrounds with a shared theological orientation, whose religious worldview and doctrine did not conform to the religion of the majority, and who periodically suffered persecution and violence on this account. The name Dasini appears in historical sources as a designation for the Yazidi religion before Sheikh Adi's arrival. The term persisted as a designation for Yazidis in historical sources well into the nineteenth century and survives to the present day among Syriac and Aramaic speakers as a name for Yazidis. The community Sheikh Adi drew together was an open one, primarily composed of Kurmanji-speaking Kurdish tribal groups from the surrounding mountains, but also receiving people from Persian, Turkish, and Arabic-speaking communities across the wider region. Before his arrival the community existed as scattered tribes with a shared theological orientation but no unified form. After coming to Lalish, he united the scattered Yazidi tribes around him and returned to them their ancient temple, which had been occupied by members of other faiths.

The Yazidi religion was revised and reestablished between the 12th and 13th centuries on the basis of Sheikh Adi's teachings, which drew from a mixture of ancient traditions and rites and blended them with the mysticism in which he believed. After its reestablishment during his era, the Yazidi belief system became open to accepting others, allowing them to embrace the religion. The religious reforms of the 12th and 13th centuries were the conglomeration of ancient traditions the Yazidi had been practicing before the coming of Sheikh Adi, along with the reforms that he introduced. The Yazidi religion is understood as rooted in ancient religious rites and traditions still practiced today, such as sanctifying the sun, the ritual of slaughtering bulls at the temple of Lalish, and celebrating feast days related to nature such as Sersal (the Yazidi new year), Bilindah, and the summer and winter festivals.

The era of his activity is described in Yazidi tradition as the "epoch of saints", during which his disciples spread his teaching of the possibility of direct union of the human spirit with God. Originally, the teaching had a supra-religious character, with the knowledge of God as its primary priority. Over time, due to continuous persecution and a hostile environment, the followers of this teaching gradually closed themselves within their community and became an ethno-religious community, one which, today, a person can only be born into. In Yazidi understanding, Sheikh Adi recognized no narrow religious boundaries, engaging equally with Christianity, Islam, and other traditions leading to knowledge of God.

The caste structure that came to define Yazidi social and religious life is conventionally traced to Sheikh Adi's reforms. The three castes consist of Sheikhs (şêx), who fulfill spiritual and administrative functions; Pirs (pîr), who fulfill religious and pastoral functions; and Murids (mirîd), the laypeople and followers. The relationship between the castes is seen as spiritually equivalent to siblinghood and thus, intermarriage between castes is considered sinful and is strictly forbidden.

Role in Yazidism

Sheikh Adi occupies the central position in Yazidi religion as the earthly incarnation of God, a manifestation of God who descended into human form. This belief is grounded in the doctrine of hulul, the manifestation of God and the Angels in the form of holy persons. In Yazidi theology this is held as a literal claim rather than a metaphorical or honorific designation: God is understood to have revealed Himself in the person of Sheikh Adi in order to give humanity an example of love and faith. He is described as "the cornerstone and crown" of the Yazidi faith, and identified as the founder of the form of Yazidism that has survived from the twelfth century to the present day. He is considered the great reformer of the Yazidi religion, one who "preached a possibility of direct fusion with God," and around whose person, name and worldview the Yazidi people as an ethno-religious community became unified.

The restored tongue Returning to Zangi, Dawud was asked to truthfully report the power and miracle-working of the sheikh. He replied: "O lord, turn back, set foot on the righteous path — the power of Sheikh Adi is, without doubt, the power of God." Zangi, whom the Qewl describes as overcome by the pride of his nafs, seized Dawud and had his tongue cut out at the root. For three days and three nights Dawud wandered voiceless through Zangi's encampment, unable to speak and communicating only by hand gestures. He then returned to Sheikh Adi, who blew upon his lips, and Dawud's tongue moved seven times better than before. The same source records that Sheikh Adi used to travel preaching through the villages in the cultivated land south of the Hakkari mountains, "always surrounded by crowds of his actual disciples, the Adawis, and other followers or curious onlookers," and that "where it was necessary, he spoke Kurdish."

Fatwa of Mala Salih al-Kurdi al-Hakkari A 16th-century fatwa (al-Radd ʿala al-Yazidiyya) issued by Mala Salih al-Kurdi al-Hakkari, mufti of Kurdistan and dated to 1572 (980 AH), focuses on a rejection of the Yazidi faith and provides a brief exposition of its doctrines, tenets and lore as known to the author, and enumerates a series of charges against the Yazidis: that the community denies the Quran and Religious Law, calling them lies; that they express violent enmity toward Islamic scholars; that they consider Sheikh Adi superior to the Prophet "by many degrees, there is no comparison between them"; that they "tell stories about God, His Prophet, and Sheikh Adi including objects which place God and His Prophet lower than Sheikh Adi"; that they hold there is no profit in prayer; that they believe Lalish superior to the Kaaba and that pilgrimage to Lalish replaces the obligation of hajj; and that they believe on Resurrection Day Sheikh Adi will carry his community on a tray on his head to paradise "irrespective of the wish of God and His angels."

The fatwa documents three distinct positions regarding Sheikh Adi's nature: first, the Ghulat (Extremists), who hold that "Adi b. Musafir is God"; second, those who hold that "the heavens are in the hands of God and the earth is in the hands of Sheikh Adi"; third, those who hold that he is "the great minister of God and no affair whatever comes from God without his approval and counsel."

Armenian Christian tradition A 19th-century Russian imperial administrative report on the Yazidis of the Caucasus, compiled by C. A. Egiazarov and published in Tiflis in 1884, preserves an extract from the report of the district chief of Alexandropol describing Yazidi religious practice among the community then settled in the region following their migration from the Ottoman Empire. The report notes that the Yazidi religious center lies in Sheikhan, in Mesopotamia, at the village of Ba'adre, "where there is an ancient Yazidi monastery [Temple of Lalish] built in the name of Sheikh Adi." It then records a tradition circulating among the Armenian Christian population of the region: "According to the legend of the Armenian chroniclers, this Adi had first been the high priest of the Armenian king Avgar, who adopted Christianity, and then became a bishop. He lived in the monastery [Temple of Lalish] of Ba'adre."

Manuscript of Monk Ramisho A Nestorian manuscript purportedly written in 1452 by a monk named Ramisho from the monastery of Beith-Abe, addressed to a certain Rabban Joseph of the monastery of Mar-Michael of Tarrel, purports to record the history of the seizure of the Nestorian monastery of Mar-Yuhanna and Isho Sabran. The manuscript was recopied in 1588 by the deacon Aushana and again in 1880, and was first published in the West in 1915–17 by Abbé F. Nau, with a French translation and annotations by the Chaldean priest Joseph Tfinkdji.

The text opens with a formal statement of purpose: Ramisho undertakes to describe how "Adi, son of Musafir, son of Ahmed, of the dynasty of the Umayyads and of the family of Yazid son of Muawiya, took and seized" the monastery of Mar Yuhanna and Isho Sabran. The text records that the father of Adi, named Musafir, was "of the Taïrahite Kurds" who passed the summer at Zozan and descended in winter to the region of Mosul. The text describes Adi's people, the Yazidis, as a branch of the Taïrahite Kurds.

The chiefs of the monastery's shepherds were the two parents of Adi. When his parents left to accompany the flocks to Zozan, they left Adi, then four years old, at the monastery. There he gradually learned Chaldean and Arabic, and learned to read. Adi married the daughter of a wealthy and prominent Tartar, and was appointed in charge of the monastery's affairs by the superior. Through this position Adi became wealthy, gained renown, and won "the affection and esteem" of the monastery's superiors and of the great men and notables of his time. His generosity and munificence toward them are noted.

The copyist Yusuf al-Hakkari is described as a Shafi'i jurist who studied under, among others, the Hanbali scholar Izz al-Din Abd al-Razzaq al-Rasʿani (589–660 AH) and various Shafi'i scholars in the Hakkari and Mosul regions; his student Isa al-Hakkari is similarly described as "the Shafi'i jurist and scholar." A student of Yusuf, the Shafi'i jurist 'Isa ibn Abi Bakr ibn Muhammad al-Hakkari, also read the manuscript back to Yusuf in multiple sessions from 669 AH onward.

The manuscript was published in a critical edition in 1998 by Hamdi 'Abd al-Majid al-Salafi and Tahsin Ibrahim al-Dawski, based on this single surviving Hakkari manuscript, after the editors determined that a previously circulating printed version (published 1395 AH, based on a manuscript found in a Mosul madrasa) contained significant textual corruptions and interpolations. The editors note that the entire chain of transmission consists of Sunni Muslim scholars and jurists, and that the text was copied and authenticated within Islamic scholarly networks, with no direct autograph by Sheikh Adi surviving.

Kitab fihi dhikr adab al-nafs The second work is titled Kitāb fīhi dhikr adab an-nafs ("Book Treating the Cultivation of the Soul"). As in the I'tiqad, the author's name is replaced throughout with that of Ahmed ibn al-Rifai, with the exception of fol. 47a, where the name "Sheikh Adi" was left uncorrected. The work opens with a list of ten qualities the pious (as-salihun) should cultivate and ten they should avoid, the first of the prohibited qualities being bid'a (religious innovation). Notably, the text warns against both hypocritical and sincere invocations of God's name, a detail Frank compares to practices found in Bektashi dervish orders. It continues with an enumeration of spiritual gifts received at death and in the afterlife from various figures of Islamic eschatology: the angel of death Izra'il, the grave, the two angels of the grave Munkar and Nakir, the scales of judgment, the Sirat bridge, the angel of hell Malik, the angel of paradise Ridwan, the houris, the Prophet, and God himself — before a series of longer exhortatory passages on ascetic self-discipline.

The work concludes with a description of mystical ecstasy as a flight to God. Frank notes that the work ends with a prayer-wish composed by "the one who, on behalf of Sheikh Adi, and probably also after his dictation, wrote it down and published it," described as "apparently a disciple of the Sheikh." Frank characterizes the Sufism of this work as popular in character, in the manner of al-Ghazali's Ihya, and somewhat less refined than the ideas it draws on.

Wasaya al-Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir ila'l-khalifa The third work, Wasāyā ash-Sheikh ʿAdī ibn Musāfir ila'l-khalīfa ("Exhortations of Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir to the Khalifa") is the briefest of the four. Frank notes that wasaya carries the sense of morally binding exhortations rather than strictly legal instructions. The author's name is again replaced with that of Ahmed ibn al-Rifai, though Frank notes the original "Sheikh Adi" remains clearly recognizable. The title as it appears in the manuscript includes the phrase "the rightly-guided one in Mecca" appended after "khalifa," the meaning of which Frank describes as unclear. The work exhorts its unnamed recipient toward contempt for worldly goods, right faith, and trust in God, though Frank notes "nothing truly original or noteworthy is expressed in the words of the Sheikh." The work closes with two standalone sayings of Sheikh Adi not directly connected to the main exhortation, including a warning against associating with miracle-workers who deviate into bid'a.

Wasaya li-muridhi al-Sheikh Qaid wa-li-sa'ir al-muridin The fourth and final prose work in the codex, Wasāyā li-murīdihī ash-Sheikh Qaid wa-li-sā'ir al-murīdīn ("Exhortations to his Disciple Sheikh Qaid and to the Other Disciples"), occupies fols. 48b–49b. The author's name has again been replaced with that of Ahmed ibn al-Rifai, though Frank notes the original remains detectable. The work is addressed to Sheikh Qaid, identified as Qaid al-Nuri, named among the forty known disciples of Sheikh Adi, and to the wider circle of disciples. It opens with exhortations to fear God, fulfill divine law, and avoid those whose concern is worldly goods, passion, and desire, supported by Quranic citations. Guidance on Sufi conduct follows, including a saying attributed to Jesus: "O disciples, let your bellies hunger and your livers thirst and bare your bodies, and you will behold God the Exalted." Frank summarizes: "a Sufi speaks here to his disciples."

Qasida I (Berlin Codex We 1743, fol. 27b) The first and most substantial of the Berlin qasidas, it is also the most thoroughly falsified of all the writings in the codex: unlike the prose works, where only the author's name was replaced, here both Sheikh Adi's name and most other proper names occurring in the poem were substituted with others, and so carefully, Frank notes, that the original names are no longer recoverable. The poem is Sufi in content: the beloved is God, who offers the yearning mystic a cup of mystical wine, after which the mystic falls into ecstasy and feels himself lord of all creation, to whom kings, angels and saints do homage. Frank describes the poem as rising in places to "great poetic power." One half-verse matches word for word a line from a qasida by Abd al-Qadir Gilani, Sheikh Adi's close contemporary and associate; Frank observes that the same excess of Sufi rhetorical style found in the poem appears equally in Gilani's own writings. The poem closes as a tribute to the Prophet.

The primary evidence for the authenticity of Qasida I is external: several of its half-verses appear in British Museum Codex Or. 7596 attributed to Sheikh Adi without any name substitution, representing an independent manuscript tradition. Frank calls this "weighty external evidence for the authenticity of Qasida I."

Qasida II (Berlin Codex We 1743, fol. 28a) The second qasida is only five verses long. Like Qasida I, both the author's name and most other proper names have been replaced. Its Sufi content describes the special station of the mystic elevated above ordinary men, again centering on the mystical wine and the beloved (God). Frank states that the question of authenticity for both Berlin qasidas "could only be answered with some certainty with precise knowledge of 12th-century Sufi poetry," but notes that the author of Qasida I can be regarded, on internal grounds, as the author of Qasida II as well.

Qasida III (Berlin Codex We 1769, fol. 106a) In the third qasida, uniquely among all the Islamic-tradition manuscripts, Sheikh Adi's name is left unfalsified in both the title and the poem itself. The qasida of 19 Basit verses is found inserted within a collection compiled by the Shafi'i scholar Scheich esch-Schafuni, who lived around 1200 AH / 1785 CE and who addresses Sheikh Adi in his title as "Seijidi" — the term disciples use for their sheikh. Frank notes that the Adawiyya order having survived into the 18th century is "at least not proven by external evidence."

The qasida is notable for two details found nowhere else in the source literature. It is the only text to name Sheikh Adi's mother, recorded here as Yezda. It also narrates two miracles, a riding-a-rock miracle and a snake miracle, which Frank observes "strikingly have no parallel in the rich garland of Sheikh Adi legends furnished by the Manaqib literature." Frank describes the poem as formally inferior to Qasidas I and II, noting considerable metrical uncertainty and various vulgarisms. He nonetheless identifies numerous connections between all three Berlin qasidas: the opening and closing verses of Qasida III echo specific passages in Qasida I, three saints named in Qasida I reappear in Qasida III, and mystical wine plays a significant role in all three.

British Museum Codex British Museum Codex Or. 7596 contains two qasidas attributed to Sheikh Adi. The first, Qasida IV, comprises 14 Wafir verses. Frank notes that its greatest part treats exactly the same content as Qasida III, while its final three verses correspond to several half-verses of Qasida I. He concludes on repeated reading that both Qasidas III and IV are by the same author, with Qasida III as the original and Qasida IV a later smoother revision. Qasida IV also contains the line "I am the celibate," consistent with the historical record that Sheikh Adi remained unmarried throughout his life.

The second qasida, Qasida V, comprises 8 Tawil verses. Its Sufi content recalls Qasida I in particular. Its opening lines include the verse: "My drinking companion was the most exalted of the prophets, Ahmed."