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Bayazid al-Bistami

أبو يزيد البسطامي

804 CE · 188 AH – 875 CE · 261 AH

One of the great figures of Islamic Sufism, whose influence was large on his contemporaries and later generations.

Depth

At a glance

Roles
mystic
Counted among
Sunni
Era
The Early Abbasid Caliphate
Region
Persia & Central Asia
Review
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Life in time

725750775800825850875900925 c. c.
The Early Abbasid Caliphate · Abbasid Fragmentation · The Umayyad Period Contemporaries: Ibn Abi Usama, al-Harith ibn Muhammad · Al-Husayn ibn al-Dahhak al-Khali' · Tha'lab, Ahmad ibn Yahya · Al-Tirmidhi, Muhammad ibn Isa · Khalaf ibn Hisham

Spirituality and Sufism

Place in the story

  • Saint (as venerated)Tradition

Roles are dated and sourced; the museum describes the act and attributes the judgement.

The long-form text for this entry has not been written yet. The facts and connections below come from the museum's data.

People and things also explored

Prophetic adab (proper conduct)· Righteousness (birr)· Remembrance of God (dhikr)· Ghadab (anger)· Resolve for an act (hamm)· Envy (hasad)· Vain desire (hawa)· Haya' (modesty and shame)

Sources

  • Mawsu'at A'lam al-Ulama' wa-l-Adaba' al-Arab wa-l-Muslimin — Dar al-Jil / ALECSO
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Bayazid al-Bistami”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/bayazid-al-bistami/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-13.

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Wing

People

Prophets, companions, scholars, rulers, scientists, poets, travelers: women and men who shaped the story. Related

Prophetic adab (proper conduct)

The body of proper conduct the believer is commanded in his words, deeds and relations with God and His servants; from the formula 'whoever believes in God and the Last Day' in Abu Hurayra's hadith Ibn Rajab derives that these traits are of the traits of iman and that deeds enter into iman, dividing the hadith's three commands into what belongs to God's rights — speaking good or keeping silent — and what belongs to His servants' rights — honouring the neighbour, withholding harm from him and honouring the guest; he transmits Aswad ibn Asram's report of the Prophet's counsel 'do not say with your tongue except what is good and do not extend your hand except to good', and that the tongue's uprightness is of the traits of iman; Abu Amr ibn al-Salah reports from Abu Muhammad ibn Abi Zayd, the Maliki imam of his time, that the conduct of goodness and all its reins branch from four hadiths: speaking good or keeping silent, leaving what does not concern one, 'do not become angry', and loving for one's brother what one loves for oneself.