Hilyat al-Awliya' wa-Tabaqat al-Asfiya' (Abu Nu'aym)

Hilyat al-Awliya' wa-Tabaqat al-Asfiya' ("The Ornament of God's Friends and the Generations of the Pure") is the work of the hadith master Abu Nu'aym Ahmad ibn 'Abd Allah al-Isfahani (d. 430 AH). ³ In his introduction he says he agreed to a request to compile a book of the names of a group, with some of their hadith and sayings, "from the leading genuine Sufis and their imams", arranged in generations from the Companions, the Successors and their followers onward. ¹

Abu Nu'aym says one motive was what the questioner had heard of his own and the jurists' and traditionists' criticism of those who claimed Sufism — "the dissolute" and "the antinomians and incarnationists". Denouncing the liars, he says, is no slight on the righteous; it is a declaration of innocence from the liars, "to keep the truthful clear and raise the genuine". ⁴ He disowns the pedants and extremists, the pretenders, and those who copy the Sufis in dress and speech while differing from them in creed and conduct. ⁴

• He begins with the divine saying "Whoever shows enmity to a friend of Mine, I declare war on him". He says God's friends have evident marks and gives reports with chains for each. They are those who, when seen, bring God to mind; they are kept safe from trials; they are the humble in food and dress who, if they swore by God, He would fulfil their oath, with the story of al-Bara' ibn Malik. ⁵ Another mark is that "by their certainty rocks split and by their oaths seas part", with the story of al-'Ala' ibn al-Hadrami crossing the sea to Darin. ⁶ (See wali and the wonders of God's friends.)
• Then: "As for tasawwuf". He says the people of allusion derive it from safa' (purity) and wafa' (faithfulness). Linguistically it is a tafa''ul form from one of four things: the sufana, a plant; Sufa, a tribe that once escorted pilgrims and served the Ka'ba; the hairs at the nape (sufat al-qafa); or wool (suf). He explains the sense of each. ⁷
• He gives the masters' definitions of tasawwuf, such as Sari al-Saqati's "tasawwuf is a noble trait that the noble bring forth". He says Sufi speech is of three kinds: allusion to tawhid, discourse on the One sought and His ranks, and discourse on the seeker and his states. ⁸
• He closes the introduction by describing his subjects as following the path of the Companions and Successors, and says: "them we follow, and them we befriend". ⁹

"We begin with those of the Companions known for some spiritual state," says Abu Nu'aym. The first of the Emigrants is Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (notice 1), then 'Umar, 'Uthman, 'Ali and the rest of the Ten, then 'Uthman ibn Maz'un, Mus'ab ibn 'Umayr, 'Abd Allah ibn Jahsh and others. ^{9 10} The notices are numbered continuously across the volumes. Volume 5 has Ka'b al-Ahbar (325); volume 7 ends with Ibrahim ibn Adham (394); volume 9 has Abu Sulayman al-Darani (448); and volume 10 opens with Ahmad ibn Abi al-Hawari (457). ^{11 12 13 14}

Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyya, Beirut, first edition 1409 AH/1988 CE, in ten parts. Its notes are few and record the variants of two copies marked "h" and "z". ^{15 16} The book gives its reports and stories with chains; some are sound and some weak by the hadith scholars' standards, and this edition does not grade them.