2.4.4.1 - Some of His Qualities

Shaykh Muhyiddin says in the Holy Spirit that his shaykh Abu Imran Mousa al-Mirtuli had a great statues with full knowledge and great ethics, though he was mostly distressed, but also always smiling for his visitors. He quoted him saying about himself:

You are Ibn Imran Mousa the abusive, and not like (Prophet) Moses al-Kalim (to whom Allah had spoken directly).

Shaykh Muhyiddin also adds that Shaykh Abu Imran al-Mirtuli used to impose adversities and hardships on himself to the point that he stayed in his house for sixty years without ever going out. He also followed the Way of al-Harith Ibn Assad al-Muhasebi by not requesting anything, weather for himself or for others, from other people, and he does not accept anything (such as money) from anyone.

Additionally, in the long chapter 73 of the Meccan Revelations, in which Shaykh Muhyiddin spoke the various ranks of saints who are defined by their fixed numbers at any given time, he says that Shaykh Abu Imran was one of the men of supply: rijal al-imdad, who are “three men”footnote(The word “rijal” is the plural of “rajul” which means “man”, but the Shaykh Muhyiddin often use it to refer to both men and women, because he relies on the original derivation of the word which means “standing-firm”, so this word is used to describe anyone who is firm in his state. at any given time, and whose role is to draw (the mercies and benefits) from the Real and supply the creation with kindness and softness and mercy and without letting feel something:

And, may Allah be pleased with them, there are three souls, at any given time, they do not increase or decrease. They are the men of divine and cosmic supply, and they draw from the Real and supply the creation, but they do that gently and softly with extreme mercy, not violently or with intensity and oppression. They accept from God the benefits and they propagate them to the creation. They may be men or women whom God has prepared them to fulfill the needs of people by relying on God, not any other. They are three, and I have met one of them in Seville, one of the greatest I have met, he is called Mousa Ibn Imran, the master of his time, he was one of the three, and he did not seek anyone to fulfill the need of God’s creation.

[Futuhat: II.14].