Alā al-Doula's Inclination Towards Sufism

Abu Makarem Rukn al-Din ‘Alaudowla Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Ahmad Biabanaki Semnani (659-736 AH) was one of the great Kubrawi mystics, a Sufi order called ‘Ala’iyya after him. ‘Alaudowla dynasty was among the genuine and wealthy families of Sind, who migrated to Semnan, and its members were state officials under Ilkhanids. ‘Aludowla’s career is divided into two periods: before his spiritual repentance and evolution and after it. This awakening that happened in his 24 and in the battlefield by the call “Rajer Ghaybi” led him to go to the circle of Nur al-Din ‘Abdul-Rahman Kasraqi Isfarayeni (died 695), one of the deputies of Najmuddin Kubra, in Baqdad. This turned a courtier young man into a repentant wayfarer and perfect sheikh. ‘Alaudowla’s Sufism must be considered a religion-oriented, people-oriented and moderate Sufism wherein seclusion for cutting off sensual desires, acquiring revelations and intuitions and mystic experiences were highly emphasized. These seclusions, however, were not with evading social responsibilities, idleness and parasitic life. The other important feature of ‘Alaudowla’s Sufism which is going to be studied and analyzed in the present research is his salient Shiite leanings. The results of the study show that ‘Aladudowla’s views on three following subjects are in line with the views of Imamiyya Shiites: (a) Ghadir Khom incident and the Prophet’s succession; (b) faithful sincerity to the Prophet’s Household; (c) the Promised Savior and Mahdawiyyat. As to the exaggerative descriptions of the first caliph in his al-‘Urwa, and strange and rejected statements on the second caliph in his Chehel Majles some of which are even blasphemous, one must consider prevarication and dissimulation for preserving the Shiite-Sunnite unity under Ilkhanids as well as the probability of fabrication and distortion.