Shaykh Abu Madyan was a 12th century Sufi, poet and teacher born near Seville in Muslim Spain. After spending many years of his life learning from the Sufi masters of Morocco, he settled in Western Algeria. Shaykh Abu Madyan became an influential Sufi in the formative years of mysticism in North Africa and had a profound impact on local Sufi traditions.
He described a true Sufi as one who opens for himself four things and locks for himself four things: “He opens the gate of lowliness and locks the gate of worldly glory, he opens the gate of mortification and locks the gate of ease, he opens the gate of poverty and locks the gate of wealth; he opens the gate of nightly vigils and prayer, and locks the gate of sleep.”
In Ramzan, the Islamic month of fasting, it is worth reflecting what Shaykh Abu Madyan taught of the secrets of hunger. He said, “Oh People of reality, practise hunger, the fast of intimate union, solitude, and remembrance, for by the practice of hunger, you will attain what you desire, you will see how the gushing springs of wisdom will issue forth from your hearts and your tongues and by means of it you will arrive at your Lord”.
Sadia Dehlvi is a Delhi-based writer and author of Sufism: The Heart of Islam. She can be contacted at sadiafeedback@gmail.com
