Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir

Sheikh ‘Adī ibn Musāfir (Kurdish: شێخ ئادی ,Şêx Adî‎, Arabic: الشيخ عدي بن مسافر‎ born 1072-1078, died 1162)[1] was a Muslim[2][3][4][5][6][7] sheikh of Arab origin,[8] born in the 1070s in the village of Bait Far, in the Beqaa Valley of present-day Lebanon.[9] ‘Adīs house of his birth was – and still is – a place of pious pilgrimage.[10] The Yazidi consider him an avatar of Tawûsê Melek, which means "Peacock Angel". Muslims respect him as one of the pioneers of asceticism and the scholars of Sufism who held firmly to the Quran and Sunnah.[4] His tomb at Lalish, Iraq is a focal point of Yazidi pilgrimage.[11]

Sheikh Adi

Adī ibn Musāfir
Born1072-1078
Baalbek, Lebanon
Died1162
Lalish, Iraq
Resting placeLalish, Iraq
Predecessornone
SuccessorSakhr Abu l-Barakat

Overview

Descending from the family of Marwan Ibn Hakam, the Caliph of the Umayyads, he was raised in a muslim environment.[9] His early life he spent in Baghdad, where he became a disciple of the Muslim mystic Ahmad Ghazali, among his fellow students in Ghazali's circle were the Muslim mystics Abu al-Najib Suhrawardi and Abdul Qadir Gilani[12] with the latter he undertook a journey to Mecca.[1] With time he became a teacher himself. He chose an ascetic way of life, left Baghdad and settled in Lalish.[13] Despite his desire for seclusion, he impressed the local population with his asceticism and miracles.[14][15] He became well known in present-day Iraq and Syria and disciples moved to the valley of Lalish to live close by Sheikh Adi. Following he founded the Adawiyya order.[16] The Valley of Lalish is located within the environs of the village of Ba'adra, 20 miles to the east of the Nestorian convent of Rabban-Hormizd. He did not marry and had no children.[17] Before he died, he named his successor his nephew Sakhr Abu l-Barakat.[18] As the holiest site in the Yezidi religion, his tomb (marked by three conical cupolas) still attracts a great number of people even outside holy festivals and pilgrimages. Nightly processions by torch light include exhibitions of the green colored pall, which covers the tomb; and the distribution of large trays with smoking harisa (a ragout with coagulated milk).

Physically, he was said to be very tanned and of middle stature. He lived and ascetic lifestyle in the mountains in the region north of Mosul not far from the local Hakkari Kurds. As people flocked to his residency in the hills, he would end up founding a religious order later referred to as al-'Adawiyya ('the followers of 'Adi'). He died between 1162 CE (557 Hijra) and 1160 CE (555 Hijra)[1] in the hermitage that he had built with his followers in the mountain. This hermitage within the Valley of Lalish, would continue to be occupied by his followers and his descendants until the present day despite periods of unrest, destruction, and persecution by outsiders.[19] In 1254, as a result of a violent conflict with the members of the Adawiyya order, the Atabeg of Mosul, Badr al-Din Lu'lu ordered the bones of Sheikh Adi to be exhumed and burned.[20]

Shrine and tomb of Sheikh 'Adi in the Valley of Lalish.

Books of Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir

From Sheikh Adi four books have been preserved:[21]

  1. The doctrine of the Sunnis (Iʿtiqād ahl as-sunna )
  2. The Book of the formation of the soul ( Kitāb fīhi dhikr adab an-nafs )
  3. Instructions of Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir to the successor ( Wasaya al Shaykh Adi ibn Musafir ila l-Halifa )
  4. Instructions to his disciple, the leading sheikh, and the other murids ( Wasaya li-Muridial Shaykh al-qaid wa-li-sāʾir al-murīdīn ), they focus on several issues but are in lone with Islamic teaching, which according to the Hanbali scholar Ibn Taymiyyah describes Sheikh Adi as a "sincere Muslim who followed the Sunnah of the Prophet".[22]

Sheikh Adi's views about Iblis or Satan and the problem of Evil

Like his Sunni Muslim teacher Ahmad Ghazali who defended Iblis and regarded him as the paragon of lovers in self sacrifice for refusing to bow down to Adam out of pure devotion to God,[23] Sheikh Adi was among the Sunni Muslim mystics who defended Iblis, asserted that evil was also God's creation, Sheikh Adi argued that if evil existed without the will of God then God would be powerless and a powerless can't be God.[24]

Succession
Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir
‘Adawiyya and Yezidi Notables
Preceded by
(None)		 Shaikh of the ‘Adawiyya Ṣūfī Order Succeeded by
Sakhr Abu l-Barakat

References
  1. Lescot, Roger (1975). Enquête sur les Yézidis de Syrie et du Djebel Sindjâr. Beirut: Librairie du Liban. p. 22.
  2. Bocheńska, Joanna (2018). Rediscovering Kurdistan’s Cultures and Identities. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 261. ISBN 978-3-319-93087-9.
  3. Leppakari, Maria (2017). Pilgrimage and Tourism to Holy Cities: Ideological and Management Perspectives. CABI. p. 148. ISBN 978-1-78064-738-8.
  4. Mawlana ‘Abd al-Hafiz al-Makki (20 September 2015). "Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah and Sufism". Retrieved 13 September 2020.
  5. "Religion as a social bond". The Hindu. 1 January 2015. Retrieved 13 September 2020.
  6. "Who and what are the Yezidis?". Deseret News. 26 June 2015. Retrieved 13 September 2020.
  7. "The Yezidis, People of the Spoken Word in the midst of People of the Book". Diogenes. 22 September 1999. Retrieved 13 September 2020.
  8. Artur Rodziewicz (2018). The Nation of the Sur: The Yezidi Identity Between Modern and Ancient Myth. p. 269.
  9. Kreyenbroek, Philip G.; Rashow, Khalil Jindy; Jindī, Khalīl (2005). God and Sheikh Adi are Perfect: Sacred Poems and Religious Narratives from the Yezidi Tradition. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 3. ISBN 978-3-447-05300-6.
  10. The Encyclopædia of Islam: A Dictionary of the Geography, Ethnography and Biography of the Muhammadan Peoples. Holland: EJ Brill. 1913. pp. 136–137.
  11. Spät, Eszter (2005), The Yezidis (2 ed.), London: Saqi, ISBN 0-86356-593-X
  12. Victoria Arakelova, Garnik S.Asatrian (2014). The Religion of the Peacock angel The Yezidis and their spirit world. Routledge. p. 37. ISBN 978-1-84465-761-2.
  13. Lescot, Roger (1975). Enquête sur les Yézidis de Syrie et du Djebel Sindjâr. Beirut: Librairie du Liban. p. 24.
  14. Kreyenbroek, Philip G; Jindy Rashow, Khalil (2005), God and Sheikh Adi are Perfect: Sacred Poems and Religious Narratives from the Yezidi Tradition, Iranica, 9, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, ISBN 3-447-05300-3
  15. "Yezidi Reformer: Sheikh Adi". The Truth about the Yezidis. YezidiTruth.org. 2007. Archived from the original on 2008-03-20. Retrieved 2007-08-16.
  16. Lescot, Roger (1975). Enquête sur les Yézidis de Syrie et du Djebel Sindjâr. Beirut: Librairie du Liban. p. 29.
  17. Kreyenbroek, Philip G.; Rashow, Khalil Jindy; Jindī, Khalīl (2005). God and Sheikh Adi are Perfect: Sacred Poems and Religious Narratives from the Yezidi Tradition. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 4. ISBN 978-3-447-05300-6.
  18. Lescot, Roger (1975). Enquête sur les Yézidis de Syrie et du Djebel Sindjâr. Beirut: Librairie du Liban. p. 33.
  19. Kreyenbroek, Philip G. (1995). Yezidism: Its Background, Observances, and Textual tradition. Lewiston, NY: E. Mellen Press. pp. 27–44. ISBN 9780773490048.
  20. Lescot, Roger (1975). Enquête sur les Yézidis de Syrie et du Djebel Sindjâr. Beirut: Librairie du Liban. p. 102.
  21. Dulz, Irene (2001). Die Yeziden Im Irak Zwischen Modelldorf und Flucht. Lit Verlag Münster. p. 32. ISBN 3-8258-5704-2.
  22. "Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir". Memim Encyclopedia. 22 September 1999. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  23. Ghorban Elmi (November 2019). "Ahmad Ghazali's Satan". Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  24. Victoria Arakelova, Garnik S.Asatrian (2014). The Religion of the Peacock angel The Yezidis and their spirit world. Routledge. p. 38. ISBN 978-1-84465-761-2.
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