3.3.1 - Marsa Abdoun in Tunisia 590/1193

Especially during the reign of Almoravids, Almohads and then the Hafsids, Tunisia was famous for the Sufi houses where many of the poor people and ascetics gathered and attended the commemoration circles of the guiding shaykhs. One of the most important of these places was known as Marsa (Ibn) Abdoun, also: Marsa al-Jarrah or: Marsa Laqit, a famous marina place in Tunisia that is home to Sufism from all over north Africa, and is still in a famous neighborhood in the city of Marsa known as Sidi Bou-Said, a coastal village close to the Bay of Tunis and a few miles outside the city.

The old name of this village was Jabal al-Manara: the Light-house Hill, named after the series of such houses stretching along the coast as far as Egypt, as lookout posts against invasion or attack from the Christian north. The modern name of the village is from: Abu Said Khalaf Ibn Abu Yahya al-Tamimi al-Baji (551/1156 to 628/1230), one of the disciples of Abu Madyan, who became one of Shadhili’s teachers in Tunis, and who also had a close relationship with Abdul-Aziz al-Mahdawi as we shall mention in section

ef(al-mahdawi below.

At the time, when Shaykh Muhyiddin came to Tunisia, Shaykh Abu Abdullah Ibn Khamis al-Kinani, the master of Shaykh Abdul-Aziz al-Mahdawi, was stationed in this place, leading a mystical ring from which many famous Sufis graduated.

After the death of Shaykh al-Kinani, Shaykh Abdul-Aziz al-Mahdawi assumed the supervision of the rings in the marina where many of the companions of Shaykh Muhyiddin and other Sufis such as Shaykh Muhammad al-Dabbagh, Abu Yusuf Yaqoub al-Dahmani (died 621 AH), Abu Ali al-Nafti, Shaykh Abu al-Qasim Ali al-Hawazi and Shaykh Abu Said al-Bejai, who assumed the leadership of the Sufi ring after the death of Shaykh Abdul-Aziz al-Mahdawi in 621/1224. Among the famous Sufis who graduated from this place is the great Imam Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili (died 656/1258), who grew up in the same city of Murcia, where Shaykh Muhyiddin was born, and he followed his steps until he came to Tunisia in about 620/1223 to be apprenticed by Abu Said al-Bejai in Marsa Abdoun.

In the Meccan Revelations, Shaykh Muhyiddin recalls that Shaykh Abdul-Aziz al-Mahdawi told him about the mysteries of this place and its spiritual history and his connection with the prophets, sages, saints and scholars, and that it is a holy place that manifests the truth to the hearts of those who know. We will mention shortly how Shaykh Muhyiddin met with al-Khader in this place.

As Shaykh Muhyiddin alluded, this hill had a particular association with the archetype of direct Divine inspiration, al-Khader, whom he also met near this place as we shall mention in section

ef(khader2 below. At the beginning of Chapter 4 of the Meccan Revelations, entitled “on the reason behind for the beginning of the world and the ranks of the beautiful Names of the whole world”, he directs his speech to his companion Shaykh Abdul-Aziz al-Mahdawi, which also supports the conclusion that book encyclopedic book was initially intended as a shorter treatise directed to al-Mahdawi as we shall mention in section

ef(futuhat1i in Chapter IV. Here, the Shaykh also mentions two of his famous book of the Fabulous Griffon: ’Anqâ’ Mughrib fî Ma’rifat Mhatm al-Awliyâ’ wa-Shams al-Maghrib (RG 30), which we shall mention in section

ef(anqaa below, and the Establishing the Circles: Inshâ’ al-Dawâ’ir (RG 289), which he has written in his friend’s house when he visited him the next time as we shall mention in section

ef(tunis2, and we shall aslo speak about this book with more details in section

ef(inshaa of Chapter IV.

So in this Chapter 4 of the Meccan Revelations he says about the sanctity of this place in Marsa Abdoun:

My sincere saint, may Allah preserve him, has already read about why the world began in our book called the “Fabulous Griffon on Knowing the Seal of Saints and the Sun of the West” and in our book called Establishing the Circles, some of which we wrote at his precious house at the time of our visit to him in the year 598, on our way to Hajj, and and his servant Abdul-Jabbar, may Allah elevate his statues, transcribed for us what I have written of it, but then we took it with us to Mecca, may Allah increase her honor, in the same year mentioned, to complete it there. However, we were occupied by this book (of the Meccan Revelations) from that one and others, due to the divine order that we received for writing it, as well as the desire of some brothers and other poor (friends) who wanted to ensure more science and desired for more returns from the Blessings of this Honored and Blessed House, the locus of blessings and guidance and verses of evidence. We also wanted by that to let our pious and sincere friend Abu Muhammad Abdul-Aziz, may Allah be pleased with him, what blessings Mecca gives and that it is the best way of worship and most honorable state of earthly forms, so that to increase his eagerness of longing to set his desire (to visit Mecca). It has been said to (Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him,) the one who had been given the Collective Words, and who was from his Lord in his eye-witnessing as close two-bows or less [Quran: 53.9], yet despite this fuller proximity and abundant and generous share, it was revealed to him: ((Say, O my Lord, increase me in knowledge)) [Quran: 20.114].

One of the conditions of the witnessing scientist, who is described with the abstract states and perspectives, to know that places have effects upon the subtle hearts, so that if the (awakened) heart is found in any particular place then its being in Mecca would be most exalted and more complete. Just as there is a hierarchy amongst spiritual dwelling-places, there is also a hierarchy among physical dwelling-places, otherwise are pearls the same as rocks, except for the one with a (ascetic) state. The perfect one who has statues differentiates between them just as the Real did differentiate between them. Did the Real equate between this house built from earth and hay, and the house built from gold and silver!

The connected wise is that who gives all their proper right, this is the one distinguished in his time, because there is a big difference between the city whose architecture is mostly lusts and the city whose architecture are the verses of evidence.

Did you not agree with me, my sincere saint may Allah preserve you, that the presence of our hearts in some places was more than others? You, may God be pleased with you, used to leave your retreat in the houses of the protected light-house, which lay on the coast east of Tunis, and go off to the hermitage (râbi?a) which lay amongst the tombs, just opposite the light-house gate, and was a place ascribed to al-Khader. I asked you about it and you told me: “I find my heart there more readily than in the light-house”, and I too found the same as what you had said.

You know, my saint, that this is because of the ones who had lived or are living there, be it due to the state of the blessed angels or truthful jinn, or due to the spiritual energy of the persons who used to live there. This is like the house of Abu Yazid, which was called the “house of the just (bayt al-abrâr)” or the zâwiya of Junayd in Shawniziyyah (in Baghdad), or the cave of Ibn al-Adham in Yaqin (in the Mosque of Sultan Ibrahim Ibn Adham, in Jableh, Syria), or all the places of the righteous who have passed away from this life – but traces of them remain in the places where they have been, by which subtle hearts are affected.

[Futuhat: I.98–9].