Ibn 'Ata Allah

Life He was born in Alexandria and taught at both the al-Azhar Mosque and the Mansuriyyah madrasa in Cairo. He was responsible for systematizing Shadhili doctrines and recording the biographies of the order's founder, Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili, and his successor, Abu al-Abbas al-Mursi. He is credited with having authored the first systematic treatise on the invocation of God (dhikr), The Key to Salvation (Miftāḥ al-Falāḥ), but he is mostly known for his compilation of aphorisms, , known as The Book of Wisdom.

Ibn Ata'Allah was born in a family of religious scholars and started his education under The great Maliki jusrists like Abu al-Hasan al-Aybari. Ibn Ata'Allah was a great skeptic of Sufism even though his father had a great attachement to Abu al-Hasan Al-Shadhili. After a stint period as a teacher in Alexandria, he went to Mamluk capital of Cairo and stated teaching Hadith and Jurispudence in Al-Azhar and some of his prominent disciples were Taj al-Din al-Subki and Shihab al-Din al-Qarafi. Kitab al-Lata'if fi manaqib Abi l-'Abbas al-Mursi wa Shaykhihi Abi l-Hasan (The Subtle Blessings in the Saintly Lives of Abu l-'Abbas al-Mursi and His Master Abu l-Hassan) Miftah al-falah wa misbah al-anwah (The Key of Success and the Lamps of Spirits). Kitab al-Tanwir fi isqat al-Tadbir (The Illumination on Abandoning Self-Direction) Al-Qasd al-mujarrad fi ma'rifat al-Ism al-Mufrad (The Pure Goal Concerning Knowledge of the Unique Name) Taj al-arus al-hawi li-tahdhib an-nufus (The Bride's Crown Containing the Discipline of Souls) Unwan at-tawfiq fi adab at-tariq (The Sign of Success Concerning the Discipline of the Path)

Death and legacy He died in 1309 while in Cairo.

The wide circulation of Ibn ʿAṭā Allāh's written works led to the spread of the Shādhilī order in North Africa, where the order's founder had been rejected in earlier attempts.

Commentaries on the Ḥikam have been made by some of the most famous masters of the Shadhili order, such as Ibn Abbad al-Rundi, Ahmad Zarruq, and Ahmad ibn Ajiba, as well as non-Shadhilis like the Syrian Islamic law Professor Sa'id Ramadan al-Bouti. A modern English translation of Ḥikam by Muhammed Nafih Wafy was published under the title "The Book of Aphorisms" by Islamic Book Trust in Malaysia in 2010.