Habib 'Umar bin 'Abd al-Rahman Al-Attas

His Lineage

He is Habib 'Umar bin 'Abd al-Rahman bin 'Aqil al-'Attas bin Salim bin 'Abdullah bin 'Abd al-Rahman bin 'Abdullah bin Shaykh 'Abd al-Rahman al-Saqqaf bin Shaykh Muhammad Mawla al-Dawilah, bin 'Ali Mawla Darak, bin 'Alawi al-Ghuyur, bin al-Faqih al-Muqaddam, Muhammad bin 'Ali, bin Muhammad Sahib Mirbat, bin 'Ali Khali' Qasam, 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 Muhammad al-Baqir, bin 'Ali Zayn 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 burial area in tarim

The name 'Attas, from the Arabic “'atasa,” to sneeze, goes back to Imam 'Aqil bin Salim, the twin brother of Shaykh Abu Bakr bin Salim. He used to sneeze and then praise Allah while still in his mother’s womb and thus was nick-named “al-'Attas”. It is also mentioned that his grandson Habib 'Umar did the same while also in the womb, and he and his progeny were known by the name “al-'Attas”.

His Life

Habib 'Umar was born in 992 Hijri (1583) in the village of al-Lisk, a few miles East of Tarim. He was raised by his father who was a knower of Allah and had spent much time in the company of his uncle, Shaykh Abu Bakr bin Salim, and was greatly loved by him. Habib 'Umar lost his sight at a young age but one of the pious consoled his mother by giving her good tidings that he would have a great station and have numerous progeny.

He mastered the Islamic sciences and took the spiritual path at the hands of Imam al-Husayn, the son of Shaykh Abu Bakr bin Salim, with whom he spent more than fifteen years. He also received spiritual guidance from Sayyid 'Umar Ba Rakwah al-Samarqandi.

In his youth he left his home and travelled through the Hadramawt Valley. In many of the villages that he came to he was given the warmest of welcomes and the people of the village insisted that he settle there. On each occasion, however,­ he politely refused and moved on, until he came to the town of Huraydah in the 'Amd Valley South of Hadramawt. The people of Huraydah initially showed him no hospitality but rather refused to open their doors to him and left him outside in the mid-day heat, while their children made fun of him. Seeing the harshness of the people and their need for education, Habib 'Umar decided to make Huraydah his base. He said: “Huraydah is my town and the town of my children and progeny after me.” In a relatively short time Huraydah was transformed from a backwater to a place of knowledge. It had been the habit of one of the scholars of the region, Shaykh Muhammad bin 'Abd al-Kabir Ba Qays, to regularly visit the scholars of Tarim. However, when Habib 'Umar settled in Huraydah, he stopped doing this and when he was asked why, he said: “The whole of Tarim moved to our valley with the arrival of this Imam.”

Habib 'Umar did not remain only in Huraydah, however. His first concern was to bring peace to an area which had suffered for a long time from tribal conflict. He brokered a number of treaties between conflicting tribes and con-stantly moved from village to village, calling people to Allah and teaching them their religious duties. It is said for this reason that the Friday prayer was never compulsory for him. This was in spite of his blindness and the fact that he would often travel alone riding on a donkey. One of the first things he would do upon arriving in a village was to ensure that its mosque was in a good state. If there was no mosque he would choose a suitable place and, with the help of his students, he would lay the foundation stones and then ask the people of the village to assist him in completing the building. He would not leave the village until the mosque was complete and he had appointed someone to teach the people. He would then come back to visit the village from time to time to check on its progress.

He never once set foot in the palace of a ruler, but if one of them came to him he would advise him with complete sincerity and remind him of his du-ties and responsibilities. One of the Sultans once came to him when he was outside Huraydah. It was customary for people to go to great lengths to wel-come such rulers, hoping for a portion of their wealth and status, but Habib 'Umar received him in the shade of a tree. He listened to his requests and of-fered him berries from the tree which he ate. When they had finished, one of the local tribes prepared a feast for the Sultan but he refused to eat anything, saying that he did not wish to put anything in his stomach in which there were berries given to him by Habib 'Umar, berries which were no doubt completely pure and lawful.

When the ruler of San'a sent an army to Hadramawt in the year 1070, Habib 'Umar strongly advised the Sultan not to fight, in spite of the fact that many of the scholars were encouraging him to do so. Through his wisdom Habib 'Umar prevented blood from being spilled and helped insure a peaceful solution.

He spent what wealth he had on the poor and was greatly concerned for their welfare. He was of the opinion that it was permissible for the owners of date palms to give their zakat in the form of fresh dates, instead of waiting for the dates to dry. This gave poor people the opportunity to enjoy the delicacy of fresh dates which they might not have been able to afford. When he was criti-cised for not following the opinion of the majority of the Shafi'i scholars in this regard, he said that he was capable of coming to a legal judgement just as they were.

Regarding the spiritual rank of Habib 'Umar, it is enough to know that the great Imam 'Abdullah bin 'Alawi al-Haddad was his student. Imam al-Haddad was once asked what works Habib 'Umar had authored. He replied: “I am one of his works.” Imam al-Haddad said of Habib 'Umar: “He was purely heart (qalb) and truth (haqq), with no lower self (nafs) and no caprice (hawa).” He listed the following as signs of Habib 'Umar having achieved perfection: his patience in dealing with the common folk, mixing with them while remaining safe from being affected by them and his complete denial of his own self, to the point where he only witnessed the rights that others had over it, not its own right. He described him as being a sign (ayah) of Allah in humility (tawadu'). He said: “His tree has been planted in the earth of humility (tawadu') and gen-tleness (lutf), and this is how is his branches grew.”

Habib 'Umar’s closest student was Shaykh 'Ali bin 'Abdullah Ba Ras. Shaykh 'Ali complained to Habib 'Umar one day that in spite of the efforts of Habib 'Umar in calling people to Allah only very few people had truly benefited from him. Habib 'Umar replied: “If they looked at me in the way you look at me I would have taken them to Allah in an instant.”

He was once walking on his way to the Friday prayer in his best white clothes. A woman who was cleaning her stove tipped a pile of ash from an up-stairs window into the street. The ashes landed on Habib Umar, soiling his clothes. Instead of becoming angry he merely said: “A slave who deserves the Fire is content with being covered in ash.” He then returned to his house to change his clothes.

At times he would spend the whole night discussing the Islamic sciences with his students. At other times he would spend the whole night repeating the du'a of qunut.(The supplication narrated on the authority of Imam Hasan bin 'Ali bin Abi Talib. Imam al-Shafi'i was of the opinion that it is sunnah to read it in the Fajr prayer)

He advised his students to think of the state in which they would like to be in at the point of death and then to remain in that state constantly. He said that the one who prays for a wrongdoer or a tyrant will be safe from his harm. He said: “Allah gives everyone according to their intention and the good that their heart contains.” He said that if you see someone that possesses one good trait then assume that he possesses all the good traits that the religion con-tains.

His Ratib, a litany to be read daily, is the only piece of work attributed to him. It contains great secrets and numerous benefits both worldly and spiritual. It is proven to deflect harm from the area in which it is read. Habib 'Ali bin Hasan al-'Attas wrote al-Qirtas, a lengthy commentary on the Ratib.

His Death

He was staying in the village of Nafhun in Rabi' al-Thani 1072 (1661 CE) when he sensed death approaching. He commanded those present to remember Allah aloud and they heard a sound like the buzzing of bees emanating from him. Unable to speak, he indicated that he wished someone to make wudu’ for him. When one of his students duly did so he neglected to run water through the Imam’s beard, so Habib 'Umar reminded him not to leave this sunnah in the last moments of his life. Soon after he died he was taken to Huraydah, where he was buried. Shaykh 'Ali Ba Ras later built a dome over his grave.

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