Şaranî

Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha'rani (1492/3–1565, AH 898–973, full name ) was a highly influential Egyptian scholar. He was an eminent jurist, traditionist, historian, mystic and theologian. He was one of the Islamic revivalists and scholastic saints of the sixteenth century. He is credited for reviving Islam and is one of the most prolific writers of the early Egyptian-Ottoman period. His legal, spiritual, and theological writings are still widely read in the Muslim world today. He is regarded as "one of the last original thinkers in Islam." He was the founder of an Egyptian order of Sufism, eponymously known as . The order gradually declined after Shaʿrani's death, although it remained active until the 19th century.

Name and Origin Al-Sha'rani claimed that Musa Abu 'Imran, the son of the Sultan of Tlemcen in North Africa, was his ancestor five generations ago. Sheikh Abu Madyan Shu'ayb, the Shadhili Sufi tradition's founder, sent Musa to Egypt as one of his disciples. The family finally made their home in the Monufia province's Sakiyat Abu Sha'ra village, hence the name "Sha'rani."

Biography Birth In a village north of Cairo, Egypt, Abd al-Wahhab Ibn Ahmad al-Sha'rani was born in the years 898 or 899 A.H. (1492/1493 C.E.).

Education Despite the fact that he lost his father when he was still a little child, he started his quest for knowledge at a young age. Under the guidance of his brother, he had memorised the Qur'an by the time he was seven years old. He relocated to Cairo with an aim of studying at Al-Azhar University, where he would flourish in his quest for knowledge. He had memorised countless scriptures from all the sacred disciplines in a short period of time. These manuscripts ranged in length from hundreds to thousands of pages and they include Al-Minhaj by Al-Nawawi, Alfiyyah Malik by Ibn Malik, Al-Tawhid by Ibn Hisham, and other valuable books. He also memorized the book “Al-Rawd Mukhtasar Al-Rawdah”, which is considered one of the most comprehensive books on the jurisprudence of the Shafi’i school. It was in this school where he gained his high fame. Al-Sha'rani's impressive study of all four schools of Islamic jurisprudence places him among the elite and of the few Islamic scholars in history to master all four Sunni madhabs. He was in love with hadith sciences and exhaustively worked hard in mastering it and he took the path of Sufism and strived for himself after mastering the Arabic sciences.

Teachers Al-Sha'rani elaborated extensively in mentioning his sheikhs in his books, and showed the extent of his veneration for them, especially in his book “Al-Tabaqat al-Kubra”, and mentioned that they are about fifty of them. The most famous amongst them were intellectual giants in Islamic history:

Shaykh al-Islam Zakariyya al-Ansari Shaykh al-Islam al-Suyuti Al-Hafid al-Qastallani Shaykh al-Islam Shihab al-Din al-Ramli

Spiritual Journey Al-Sha'rani sought a Sufi shaykh after achieving the greatest levels of proficiency in the Islamic disciplines. He made the decision to proceed with Shaykh Ali al-Khawas, who, following a brief conversation, gave al-Sha'rani the order to sell all of his numerous books and give the earnings to the needy. Al-Sha'rani sold all of his books, but he hung onto one because it was special to him. Al-Sha'rani wondered aloud, "Is this book really worth risking my journey to Allah?" as he made his way to al-Khawas' home. He turned around right away and sold the book. Al-Sha'rani was ordered to withdraw into seclusion for a whole year with the stringent condition of avoiding all gatherings of Islamic knowledge after informing al-Khawas that he had completed this assignment. Only then did al-Khawas take him on as a close friend and personally direct his spiritual journey. Only a few days after he began his spiritual journey to Allah (God), his friendship with Shaykh Ali al-Khawas began to bear spiritual fruit, and al-Sha'rani would eventually take over his teacher's position of authority on the path. He was buried in the Zawiya that had been created for him. As the leader of Zawiya and the tariqa, his son 'Abd al-Rahim succeeded him.