3.1.7 - The Judge Ibn Yaghmor and the Narrator Ibn al-Sayegh

At that time, the Judge of Ceuta was Shaykh Abu Ibrahim Ibn Yaghmor, whom the Shaykh described as someone who never gets angry except for God, and he was an equitable judge always in justice but also incriminating those who transgress the limits of God. In Chapter 66 of the Meccan Revelations, while talking about the al-Mahdi who is also expected to be one who only gets angry for Allah, Shaykh Muhyiddin says that whoever claims this station that he is only angry for God and then whenever he incriminate someone, then his anger will be instantly revoked when the trial is finished, and he may embrace and hug him for being purified after he was convicted and incriminated. Shaykh Muhyiddin says Ibn Yaghmor in Ceuta was like that.

Then Shaykh Muhyiddin adds that he and this Judge used to go and hear the narrations of Shaykh Abu al-Husayn ibn al-Sayegh (died 600/1203), a descendant of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, and he also heard there from Abu al-Sabr Ayyub al-Fihri (died 609/1212) as well as Abu Muhammad Ibn Abdullah al-Hajari (died 591/1194).

Judge Ibn Yaghmor did never come to this Hearing Council riding, but always walking among people; thus if he met two quarreled men and they called him to stop by and fix between them, he would do. He was tearful, long-minded, often in commemoration, and always reconciling between parties by himself [Futuhat: III.334].

Shaykh Muhyiddin then adds that of Shaykh Abu al-Husayn Ibn al-Sayegh was an ascetic imam of a mysticism, while he is also a Narrator (or Traditionist, who studies the Traditions of the Prophet), which is usual that jurists and scholars were not usually sympathetic towards those who followed the Sufi Way.

In the Holy Spirit, Ibn al-Arabi states that he accompanied Ibn al-Sayegh and narrated after him many prophetic traditions. They used to sit in his house in Ceuta and speak and discuss. He once said to them: “To eat in this world from working with tambourine and oboe is better for me than to earn from practicing religion.” [Futuhat: IV.489]. Therefore, we have seen in section

ef(sufisandjurists, of Chapter II, that Shaykh Muhyiddin vilifies, for example in the treatise of the Holy Spirit, those scholars who take religion for the sake of being closer to the Sultan.