Al-Sha'rani

'Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha'rani
Died	973 AH[1]
Era	Medieval philosophy
Religion	Islam
Jurisprudence	Shafi'i
Creed	Ashari[2]
Main interest(s)	History
Influenced by Ibn Hajar al-Haytami[3]
Influenced Ibrahim al-Bajuri[4]

'Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha'rani (1492/3–1565, AH 898–973, full name Arabic: عبد الوهاب ابن أحمد الشعرانى‎ ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Aḥmad aš-Šaʿrānī) was an Egyptian Shafi'i scholar and mystic, founder of an Egyptian order of Sufism, eponynously known as Šaʿrāwiyyah. The order gradually declined after Shaʿrani's death, although it remained active until the 19th century. Sharani's master was the prominent Shaykh Ali al-Khawas.^[5]

Besides voluminous mystic writings, he also composed an epitome of a treatise by as-Suwaydī (1204–1292; AH 604–690).^[6]

His seminal work Al-Mizan al-Kubra (The Supreme Scale) compares the rulings of all four Sunni schools of sharia as if they were a single school. He considered the differences, according to their difficulty, as either strictness ('azima) or dispensation (rukhsa).

Works

• Al-Mizan al-Kubra
• Al-Tabaqat al-Kubra (The supreme levels)
• Lata 'if al-minan wa al-akhlaq (Subtleties of gifts and character)
• Lawaqih ai-an war al-qudsiyya (The fecundating sacred illuminations)
• Kitab al-yawaqit wa al-jawahir fi bayan 'aqa'id al-akabir (The book of rubies and jewels: an explanation of the tenets of faith of mystic luminaries).
• Muẖtaṣar taḏkira-t as-Suwaydī fī l-ṭibb^[6]

References

1. Spevack, Aaron (2014). The Archetypal Sunni Scholar: Law, Theology, and Mysticism in the Synthesis of Al-Bajuri. State University of New York Press. p. 89. ISBN 978-1-4384-5370-5.
2. Spevack, Aaron (2014). The Archetypal Sunni Scholar: Law, Theology, and Mysticism in the Synthesis of Al-Bajuri. State University of New York Press. p. 89. ISBN 978-1-4384-5370-5.
3. Spevack, Aaron (2014). The Archetypal Sunni Scholar: Law, Theology, and Mysticism in the Synthesis of Al-Bajuri. State University of New York Press. p. 90. ISBN 978-1-4384-5370-5.
4. Spevack, Aaron (2014). The Archetypal Sunni Scholar: Law, Theology, and Mysticism in the Synthesis of Al-Bajuri. State University of New York Press. p. 90. ISBN 978-1-4384-5370-5.
5. The Ottoman World edited by Christine Woodhead
6. Muẖtaṣar taḏkira-t as-Suwaydī fī l-ṭibb / lil Imām aš-Šaʿrānī ; wa bi-hāmiš-i-hā taḏkira-t aš-Šayẖ ʾAḥmad al-Qalyūbī fī l-ṭibb ed. Cairo, 1302 [1885]/1316 [1899]; ed. Aḥmad Farīd al-Mazīdī, Beirut (1998). MS A 45 in the US National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD.

• C. Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur (GAL), 1st edition, 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 1889–1936), vol. 2, pp. 335–8.
• M. Winter, 'Shaʿrānī' in Gibbs et al. (eds.), The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition, 11 vols. (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1960–2002), vol. 9, p. 316.