Bannāʾ, Muhammad b. Yūsuf

Bannā, Muhammad b. Yūsuf – Ṣūfī and hadith transmitter from Isfahan in the 9^th/3^rd century.

His full name is given as Muhammad b. Yūsuf b. Ma‛dān b. Yazīd al-Thaqafī, and his nickname was Abū ‛Abdullāh. His date of birth is unknown. He is recognized as the first individual to have been referred to as a ṣūfī in Isfahan,¹ and he was also the maternal grandfather of the father of Abū Nu‛aym al-Eṣfahānī*.²‛Abdullāh b. Muhammad b. Ḥayyān, known as Abū al-Sheikh (887–979/274–369), the renowned historian, saw him many times along with his father and described him as one whose prayers were answered (mustajāb al-da‛wa) in his Ṭabaqāt al-muḥaddethīn be-Eṣbahān, citing several of his sayings.³ Abū Manṣūr al-Eṣfahānī* also declared himself a follower of his school in taṣawwuf.⁴ Kh^wāja ‛Abdullāh Anṣārī regarded him as a follower of the creed of Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal.⁵

In his youth, Bannā developed an interest in the collection and transcription of ḥadith. In addition to the spiritual masters of Isfahan, he also met other scholars from other areas, including Greater Syria and Basra. It is reported that the number of his teachers reached as many as six hundred.⁶ He later inclined towards taṣawwuf, and in 859/245 he set out for Mecca. At the time, he was still young, and due to his intense spiritual struggle (mujāhada) and extraordinary mystical states, he benefited from the attention of local spiritual masters. He spent many years in Mecca and the Ḥejāz in the company of Abū Turāb al-Nakhshabī, and it is said that he also met Fatḥ al-Mawṣelī (d. 840/225).⁷ Among his companions in Isfahan during the 9^th and 10^th/3^rd and 4^th centuries were prominent Ṣūfīs such as Ali b. Sahl al-Eṣfahānī*, Muhammad b. Fādha al-Eṣfahānī, and Ali b. Ḥamza al-Eṣfahānī, known as Ḥallāj, as well as others.⁸ According to a report from Abū Manṣūr al-Eṣfahānī, Muhammad b. Fādha, who had inherited great wealth from his father, secretly covered the living expenses of Bannā’s family for several years without his knowledge.⁹

Like the Malāmatīyān of Neyshapur and certain other Ṣūfīs, Muhammad b. Yūsuf believed in earning a livelihood through lawful work and supported himself as a bricklayer (bannāʾ), from which his title is derived. It is said that during the day he worked as a mason while also completing a full recitation of the Quran, gave away almost all of his wages in charity, and at night, after performing the night (‛eshāʾ) prayer in his mosque, he would spend the entire night in worship on a mountain near Isfahan, seeking divine knowledge.¹⁰ Bannā died in 899/286 and was buried in the Rūshābād quarter of Isfahan (present-day Old-Kh^wājū).¹¹

During his lifetime, he was well known among the Ṣūfīs of Baghdad. Junayd al-Baghdādī once wrote to Ali b. Sahl al-Eṣfahānī, asking him to inquire of his spiritual master (Sheikh), Muhammad b. Yūsuf, what spiritual state most prevailed upon him. In response, Bannā recited Quran 12:21: “And God has full power over His affairs.”¹²

Bannā authored works on ḥadith, asceticism (zuhd), and taṣawwuf, which Abū Sheikh Eṣfahānī* reportedly had seen.¹³ The titles attributed to him include: Ketāb al-Sunna (fī al-a‛māl); Bustān al-‛Ārefīn;¹⁴ Mu‛āmalāt al-Qulūb; and Ketāb al-Ṣabr.¹⁵ According to Ali b. Ḥamza, Bannā often spoke on the importance of lawful sustenance (ḥalāl), and he recorded stories related to this, although none of these writings have survived.¹⁶ Sayings attributed to Bannā on ma‛refa (experience) and knowledge have been preserved, and in one of them, he states that love (maḥabba) is contingent upon experience/gnosis.¹⁷

Bannā should not be confused with Muhammad b. Yūsuf b. Ma‛dān b. Sulaymān, known as ‛­Arūs al-Zuhhād* (d. 800/184), a 2^nd-century ascetic from Isfahan. This conflation was made by Anṣārī and later by Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabī and Khalīl b. Aybak Ṣafadī.¹⁸+

/Nasrollah Pourjavady/

Bibliography

Abū al-Sheikh al-Eṣfahānī, Ṭabaqāt al-muḥaddethīn be-Eṣbahān wa al-wāredīn ‛alayhā, ed. ‛Abd al-Ghaffār Sulaymān Bandārī and Kasrawī Hasan, Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-‛Elmīyya, 1989/1409.

Abū Manṣūr al-Eṣfahānī, Ketāb al-Menhāj wa al-Masāʾel wa al-Waṣīyya, ed. Nasrollah Pourjavady, Ma‛āref, vol. 6, no. 3 (Dec. 1989–Mar. 1990/Āzar–Esfand 1368).

Abū Naṣr al-Sarrāj, Ketāb al-Luma‛ fī al-taṣawwuf, ed. Reynold A. Nicholson, Leiden: Brill, 1914.

Abū Nu‛aym al-Eṣfahānī, Ḥelyat al-awlīyāʾ wa ṭabaqāt al-aṣfīyāʾ, ed. Muḥammad Amīn Khānjī, Beirut: Dār al-Ketāb al-‛Arabī, 1967/1387.

Abū Nu‛aym al-Eṣfahānī, Ketāb Dhekr akhbār Eṣbahān, ed. Sven Dedering, Leiden: Brill, 1931–1934; offset reprint, Tehran: [n.d.].

Anṣārī, ‛Abdullāh b. Muhammad, Ṭabaqāt al-ṣūfīyya, ed. and annotated by ‛Abdul-Ḥayy Ḥabībī, ed. Hussein Āhī, Tehran: Furūghī, 1983/1362.

Dhahabī, Muhammad b. Aḥmad, Sīyar a‛lām al-nubalāʾ, ed. Shu‛ayb Arnāwūṭ et al., Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Resāla, 1981–1988/1401–1409.

Ebn al-Jawzī, Ṣefat al-ṣafwa, ed. Maḥmūd Fākhūrī and Muhammad Rawwās Qal‛ajī, Aleppo: Dār al-Wa‛y, 1969–1973/1389–1393.

Ebn Mulaqqan, Ṭabaqāt al-awlīyāʾ, ed. Nūr al-Dīn Sharība, Beirut: Dār al-Ma‛refa, 1986/1406.

Jāmī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Aḥmad, Nafaḥāt al-uns, ed. Maḥmūd ʿĀbedī, Tehran: Ettelā‛āt, 1991/1370.

Mahdavī, Muṣleḥ al-Dīn, Tadhkerat al-qubūr, yā, Dāneshmandān wa buzurgān-e Eṣfahān, Isfahan: Thaqafī, 1969/1348.

Pourjavady, Nasrollah, “Guzāresh-hā-ye Abū Manṣūr al-Eṣfahānī dar Seyr al-salaf wa Nafaḥāt al-uns,” Ma‛āref, vol. 14, no. 3 (Dec. 1997–Mar. 1998/Āzar–Esfand 1376).

Ṣafadī, Khalīl b. Aybak, al-Wāfī be-al-wafayāt, ed. Aḥmad Arnāwūṭ and Turkī Muṣṭafā, Beirut: Dār Eḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-‛Arabī, 2000/1420.

Sulamī, Muhammad b. Hussein, Ṭabaqāt al-ṣūfīyya, ed. Nūr al-Dīn Sharība, Cairo: Maktabat al-Khānajī, 1969/1389.

Taymī al-Eṣfahānī, Ismā‛īl b. Muhammad, Seyr al-salaf al-ṣāleḥīn, ed. Muhammad Hasan Muhammad Hasan Ismā‛īl and Ṭāreq Fatḥī Sayyed, Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿElmīyya, 2004/1425.

1. Anṣārī, pp. 110–111.  [↩]
2. Abū Nu‛aym al-Eṣfahānī, 1931-1934, vol. 2, p. 93.  [↩]
3. Abū al-Sheikh, vol. 3, p. 172.  [↩]
4. Abū Manṣūr al-Eṣfahānī, p. 41.  [↩]
5. Anṣārī, p. 111.[↩]
6. Taymī al-Eṣfahānī, pp. 582–583.[↩]
7. Abū Naṣr Sarrāj, pp. 325–326; Abū Nu‛aym al-Eṣfahānī, 1931–1934, vol. 2, p. 220; idem, 1387, vol. 10, p. 45; Anṣārī, p. 111; Taymī al-Eṣfahānī, p. 583; Ebn al-Jawzī, vol. 4, pp. 83–84; Ebn Mulāqqثn, p. 404; Jāmī, p. 105; Pūrjavādī, p. 11.[↩]
8. Sulamī, p. 233; Taymī al-Eṣfahānī, p. 584; Jāmī, pp. 106–107.[↩]
9. Taymī al-Eṣfahānī, p. 584.[↩]
10. Taymī al-Eṣfahānī, p. 582; see also: Pūrjavādī, p. 11.[↩]
11. Abū Nu‛aym al-Eṣfahānī, 1931–1934, vol. 2, pp. 93, 220; see also: Mahdavī, p. 111.[↩]
12. Taymī al-Eṣfahānī, p. 583; Jāmī, p. 105; see also: Pūrjavādī, p. 12.[↩]
13. Abū al-Sheikh al-Eṣfahānī, vol. 3, p. 172.[↩]
14. Abū Manṣūr al-Eṣfahānī, p. 41; Anṣārī, p. 111.[↩]
15. Ṣafadī, vol. 5, p. 160.[↩]
16. Jāmī, p. 107.[↩]
17. See: Abū Nu‛aym al-Eṣfahānī, 1387, vol. 10, pp. 402–403; Taymī al-Eṣfahānī, p. 583.[↩]
18. Anṣārī, p. 111; Ṣafadī, vol. 5, p. 159; Dhahabī, vol. 9, p. 126.[↩]