Habib 'abd Al-rahman Balfaqih

His Lineage

He is al-Imam al-'Allamah al-Habib 'Abd al-Rahman bin 'Abdullah bin Ahmad bin 'Abdullah bin Ahmad bin 'Abd al-Rahman bin al-Faqih Muhammad bin 'Abd al-Rahman al-Asqa' bin 'Abdullah bin Ahmad bin 'Ali bin Muhammad bin Ahmad bin al-Faqih al-Muqaddam Muhammad, bin 'Ali, bin Muhammad Sahib Mirbat, bin 'Ali, bin 'Alawi, bin Muhammad Sahib al-Sawma'ah, bin 'Alawi, bin 'Ubaydullah, bin al-Imam al-Muhajir il-Allah Ahmad, bin 'Isa, bin Muhammad al-Naqib, bin 'Ali al-'Uraydi, bin Ja'far al-Sadiq, bin Muham-mad al-Baqir, bin 'Ali Zain al-'Abidin, bin Husayn al-Sibt, bin 'Ali, bin Abu Talib and Fatimah al-Zahra’, the daughter of our Master Muhammad, the Seal of the Prophets .

Zanbal In Tarim

His Life

Habib 'Abd al-Rahman was born in Tarim in the year 1089 (1678). He memo-rised the Qur’an at a young age and set about mastering the Islamic sciences. His genius soon became clear to his teachers. He spent ten years constantly keeping the company of, and learning from, his father, the great scholar Habib 'Abdullah bin Ahmad, who commanded him to take his place teaching and giving fatwa before the age of twenty. After the death of his father in 1110, he kept the company of his maternal grandfather, Habib Muhammad bin 'Abd al-Rahman al-'Aydarus and then his maternal uncle, Habib 'Abd al-Rahman bin Muhammad al-'Aydarus. He also studied at the hands of his brother, Habib Muhammad, and Habib Ahmad bin 'Umar al-Hindawan. He spent a number of years receiving knowledge from Imam 'Abdullah bin 'Alawi al-Haddad. He said of this: “I read numerous famous books to him, and benefited from him greatly. He had special concern for me and pure love for me.” Habib 'Abd al-Rahman would carry an umbrella for Imam al-Haddad to shade him from the sun on his visits to the Prophet Hud . Imam al-Haddad thought very highly of him. He once sent him some difficult legal questions and when he saw Habib 'Abd al-Rahman’s answers to them, he named him 'allamat al-dunya or ‘the greatest scholar on the earth.’ He also said about him:

“There is no one in the universe like 'Abd al-Rahman.”

Habib 'Abd al-Rahman did not only receive knowledge from the scholars of Hadramawt. On his way to perform Hajj, he stopped in the Yemeni city of Zabid, famous for its scholarship. Here he sat in the gathering of one of the scholars, unknown to those present. The shaykh asked his students a particu-larly difficult question, and said: “I think no one but Sayyid 'Abd al-Rahman Balfaqih would be able to answer this.” Habib 'Abd al-Rahman duly answered the question and revealed his identity, saying that the one travelling to Hajj comes to his Lord in dusty, dishevelled attire. The scholars of the city insisted that he teach and he spent days expounding on the meanings of bismillah, astounding them with his knowledge. He took knowledge while in Zabid from, amongst others, Shaykh Ibrahim al-Nashiri and Shaykh al-Zayn Baqi al-Mizjaji.

In Medina he learnt from Shaykh Ibrahim bin Hasan al-Kurdi and Sayyid Muhammad al-Barzanji and in Mecca from Shaykh Hasan bin 'Ali al-'Ujaymi and Shaykh Ahmad al-Nakhli. Through these scholars and others he obtained the strongest chains of connection in all the outward sciences, including the four schools of jurisprudence. He also had chains of connection to over twenty of the spiritual paths, among them the Qadiriyyah, the Rifa'iyyah, the Shadhi­ liyyah, the Sahrawardiyyah, the Naqshabandiyyah and the Dusuqiyyah.

After describing in depth all his aforementioned teachers he says, in his poem, Miftah al-Asrar:

He then says, in his own commentary on the poem, Rafa' al-Astar, after ex-pending all his efforts seeking knowledge and seeking to draw near to Allah that: “When Allah knew the sincerity of my efforts and my complete reliance upon Him, He blessed me with the greatest opening in everything that I sought and gave me more than I could possibly imagine.”

Although some of Habib 'Abd al-Rahman’s works have been lost over time, we are blessed to have some treasures. Perhaps his most famous composition is his Rashafat Ahl al-Kamal. A number of the scholars of Mecca wrote to Habib 'Abd al-Rahman requesting his counsel in travelling the path to Allah. He responded by writing this immense poem, which covers all aspects of the spiritual path and is evidence of his spiritual station as well as poetic gift. In it he says, describing the elect of Allah:

They are clothed in the most splendid garments of taqwa,

When one meets them, tranquillity descends, One’s heart becomes fully focused on Allah And one’s mind is pulled towards Him

He says about Allah’s spiritual gifts:

They are not only for those of noble lineage

Or those who expend great efforts,

But rather it is the outpouring of the Bestower

Of which women receive their fair share like men

Shaykh 'Abdullah bin Ahmad Ba Sawdan and Shaykh Hasan bin 'Awad Makhdam both wrote commentaries on the Rashafat, although it has been said that only a knower of Allah of the station of Ibn 'Arabi could write a com-mentary on it that would do it justice. Habib 'Abd al-Rahman wrote several poems on which he himself wrote commentaries, and wrote some treatises on legal issues. His Fath Basa’ir al-Ikhwan is a unique work which covers the different spheres of the religion from Islam to Iman to Ihsan to 'Irfan (knowl-edge of Allah). He was gifted with being able to put an immense amount of meaning into a few short poetic phrases.

Once a group of scholars who were hostile to the methodology of the schol-ars of Hadramawt approached Tarim. They pitched their tents near the city, intending to enter Tarim the next day in order to debate with the scholars on theological issues. Habib 'Abd al-Rahman went out to meet them wearing the attire of a farmer. He asked them what had brought them and when they explained, he asked what the questions were that they wished to put to the scholars of Tarim. They replied that they were issues which only the scholars could discuss. He said that he always attended the gatherings of the scholars and perhaps he could answer. They began by asking him basic questions and he replied by saying: “If my masters were asked this, they would respond by saying this.” They asked progressively more difficult questions and he would respond in the same way until they had exhausted all their questions. Then he said to them: “Were my masters to answer these questions of yours, they would also wish to ask you some of their own questions. Would you be able to re-spond?” He began to ask them questions and they were unable to respond. They looked at one another and said: “If this is the knowledge of a servant, how great must the knowledge of the scholars be?” They promptly returned to where they had come from and did not even enter Tarim.

Habib Hamid bin 'Umar Hamid said: “We do not prefer Ibn Hajar over Imam 'Abd al-Rahman bin 'Abdullah Balfaqih.”(Referring to Ahmad Ibn Hajar al-Haytami, the great Shafi'i jurist (died 974/1567)) In spite of his greatness, it appears that some of the people of his time failed to benefit from him. His student, Habib Saqqaf bin Muhammad al-Saqqaf, would call out at the top of his voice upon entering Tarim: “Why have people neglected 'Abd al-Rahman bin 'Abdullah Balfaqih? They should be standing at his door like people stood at the door of Imam Malik in Medina!”

His desire to benefit mankind did not stop at disseminating his vast knowledge. He built seventeen mosques in different parts of Hadramawt. He accumulated large tracts of land, the cultivation of which he directly super-vised. He would spend a third of his income on his household, a third on his guests and a third he would re-invest in agriculture. He had no fear of speaking out against the oppressive rulers of the time, which led to his imprisonment. In one of his poems he severely reprimands them for not ruling by the Sacred Law and then proposes practical economic solutions to the problems of the region.

His Death

Habib 'Abd al-Rahman died on 26th Jumad al-Thani 1162 (1749). He said pre-viously that Allah had blessed him with the mastery of thirty sciences but that the people of his time only studied fourteen of these sciences. He said: “I will die and in my chest are sixteen sciences that no one has ever asked me about” and this is what happened. He had reached such a high level of knowledge that very few were able to fully benefit from him.



The source of book "Imams of the Valley" Dar al-Turath al-Islami (DTI)