Abu al-Hassan al-Kharaqani

Who is Abu al-Hassan al-Kharaqani?

Abu al-Hassan Ali ibn Ahmad ibn Salmān al-Kharaqāni or Shaikh Abul-Hassan Kharaqāni [also written Kherqāni] is one of the master Sufis of Islam. He was born in 963 from Persian parents in Khorasan in a village called Kharaqan and died in the day of Ashura in 1033

He was the disciple of Shaikh Abul-Abbas Qassab Amoli in tariqah but had deep spiritual relation with Bayazid Bastami, a well-known Sufi Master who died almost a century before him but had spoken about the personality and state of Abul Hassan Kharaqani.

Farid al-Din Attar, a famous Persian poet and Sufi, devoted a large part of his book Tadhkiratul-Awliya about the personality, state and stories of Abul Hassan Kharaqani. Attar has called him as Sultān-e Salāteen-e Mashāyekh, Ocean of the spiritual knowledge, Sun of the Lord, Mystery of the Lord and Qibla of his people.

Abul Hassan Kharaqani was the Master or Shaikh of the famous Persian Sufi and poet, Khwajah Abdullah Ansari. Avicenna, Shah Mahmood of Ghazna, Abu-Saïd Abul-Khair and Nasir Khusraw had traveled to Kharaqan to meet him and expressed their deep admiring feelings and respect for him.