Ahmed al-Rifa'i

Ahmed ar-Rifa'i (1118–1182) was the founder of the Rifa'i Sufi order.

Shaikh Ahmed er-Rifai was born in Hasen Region of Wasit, Iraq, during the first half of Recep of lunar months. When he was seven years old, his father Seyyid Sultan Ali died in Baghdad. After that his uncle Seyyid Mansur er-Rabbani el-Betaihi took under his protection and educated him.

Ahmed er-Rifai's family comes from Husayn ibn Ali, the son of Ali, at the side of his mother. On the other hand, at the side of his father, his lineage which goes to prophet Muhammad is as follows:

He learnt Quran from Shaikh Abd üs-Semi el-Hurbuni in Hasen, his birthplace. He committed to memory the whole of the Quran when he was seven. During the same year after the death of his father, his uncle Mansur el-Betaihi transferred him and his family to Dikla region. His uncle send him to Ebul Fadl Ali el-Vasiti who was an expert in the canon law of Islam, a commentator on the Quran and a preacher.

On the other hand, when he was attending dhikr meetings of his uncle Shaikh Mansur er-Rabbani, he was also attending the courses of his other uncle Shaikh Ebubekir who was a major scientiic figure at the time. He memorized the book "Tenbih" concerning Fikh (Muslim canonical jurisprudence) of Imam Shafi which belongs to Imam Ebu Ishak Sirazi. He also wrote an explanation about such book (this explanation was lost during the Mongul invasions however).

He dedicated his entire time to learning such religious knowledge to such an extent that eventually even his teachers respected him.

When he was twenty, Ebu Fadl Ali, the Sheikh of Wasit province and his teacher, awarded him a "Sehadetname" (which represented writings of evidences including canonical law and order of dervish sciences), and a nickname that was the father of external and interior sciences, and also dressed him in his own dervish's cloak.

He stayed in Nehr-i Dikla for a short time and after that he came back to his father's public guest-house for travelers at Hasen during which time he became very famous. When he was twenty-eight, his uncle Shaikh Mansur bequeathed him to manage the dervish lodge and Caliphs after his death. He also commanded him to live in dervish lodge of Shaikh Yahya en-Neccari who was his grandfather from his mother side. It was during this time he began to preach in this dervish lodge. His uncle died in the year of the bequeathing. When he was thirty-five, the number of his murids was over seven hundred thousand.

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