Haydar Amuli

Sayyid Baha al-Din Haydar, Haydar al-'Obaidi al-Hossayni Amuli, Sayyed Haydar Amoli, or Mir Haydar Amoli was a Shi'ite mystic, philosopher, and early representative of Shi'a mystic philosophy, being considered one of the most distinguished commentators of the mystic philosopher Ibn Arabi, during the 14th century.

Biography Early life Haydar Amuli belongs to the Hussayni Sayyid family and hails from the town of Amol, in Mazandaran, located in the north of present-day Iran, close to the Caspian Sea. The town of Amul at the time was known to be heavily populated by Shi'ite Muslims. At a very young age he started studying Imam Shi'ism and attended the juridical school of madhhab where he also devoted his time to Sufism, until around the age of thirty. Haydar Amuli first began his studies in his home town of Amul. He eventually moved on to the town of Astarabad, located near Mazandaran, and then Isfahan, located in the centre of Iran. In his early twenties, Sayyid Haydar Amuli returned to Amul and became a trusted confidant and eventually a special deputy and chamberlain to the Bavandid Hasan II, who was the ruler of Tabaristan.

Return to Sufism After Haydar Amuli's departure from the court, he began practicing Sufism. Living in the village of Tihran, he began to follow a shaykh by the name of Nur al-Din Tihrani, a gnostic and ascetic of Allah. Amuli spent a little less than a month in his company before going on to wear the symbolic Sufi cloak or khirqa.

Amuli's Main Ideas

Synthesis of Shi'ism and Sufism Early on Amuli was a supporter of Imamite Shi’ism. Similar to Sufism, Shi’ism involves the ideas of šarīʿa, ṭarīqa and ḥaqīqa. Amuli believed that every Shi’ite was "a believer put to the test", a central Sufi belief. One of Amuli's main ideas was that the Imams, who were believed to be endowed with mystical knowledge, were not just guides to the Shi’ite community, but also to the Sufi community. Amuli was both a critic of Shi’ites who limited their religion to a set of rules and equally critical of Sufis who denied certain principles that originated with the Imams.

Pure Monotheism Amuli also implemented and further explained the differences between pure monotheism and the inner aspect. Pure monotheism is constituted by the profession of faith and of the idea of the outward aspect of God's unity. The inner aspect involves the idea that nothing else exists except for God.