Sufi Sage of Arabia: Imam Abdallah ibn Alawi al-Haddad (The Fons Vitae Imam al-Haddad Spiritual Masters series)

This book is more than just a biography. It knits together the general Sufi context with the life of Imam al Haddad. The concepts of Sufism are explained in simpler English than perhaps Martin Lings work on Sufism, and although there is some duplication, sometimes reading a different perspective in a subtly different language can make a difference to the real seeker.Readers looking for more information on the reality of realisation would be the correct target audience, though if you are looking for a strict biography, you may be disappointed as there is little in the way of family relationships and a detailed account of his life from birth up.Credit to Dr Al Badawi, though, as Imam al Haddad would have preferred to be remembered for his teachings rather than for himself and his family relations and so on. This is what comes through very well - a snapshot view and context of his teachings.Perhaps the book would have done better to have been marketed differently as a summary of writings rather than a comprehensive biography. Still, for anyone interested in the Imam, it is a useful purchase and a relevant addition.

inspiring! what a man!my first reading of the life of Imam Haddad

Dr. Mostafa Badawi is a well respected name within Sufi circles. I bought this book without reading any reviews and I haven't regretted it. In my opinion this book isn't just about Imam Al Haddad's life, but it also answers many questions that individuals associated with the Sufi path might have.

Iman al-Haddad is quite a well known scholar especially amongst English speaking Muslims due to a number of his and his descendants works being translated into English by the author of this book M al-Badawi. This book, on the face of it is a biography of Imam al-Haddad (Well that is what it is described as on the back cover) However in that sense it is something of a disappointment.This is really not a biography but rather the author traces the life of Imam al-Haddad while addressing issues relating to Sufism. While this may be of great interest to the follower of the particular Sufi order to which Imam al-Haddad belonged or to someone wanting say an introduction to Sufism or a Muslim reading up a bit more on the subject I found myself very quickly skipping pages as a large amount of this books topics have been covered in numerous other books. It would appear that Mr al-Badawi has attempted to adopt the style of Martin Lings in his excellent biography of Shaykh al-Alawi in that he attempts to tie in historical and social events that went on during the Imams life however where I think this fails is that Shaykh al-Alawi is a contemporary scholar (Living through much of the last century) Whereas Imam al-Haddad lived over 2 centuries ago so the reader requires much more historical detail to put events into context.There are numerous photographs contained in this book which do make a fine addition to it including the zawiya, various Mosques where he taught, his historical homes etc. The introduction gives a brief history of the Imam arriving in Yemen from the Iraq area to very briefly covering his teachers. The book then goes on to discuss issues such as Sufism, Sainthood, the Imam as a teacher etc as well as his position on Islamic doctrine (Which may have been a contentious issue where he lived as Yemen was and is now divided between Shafi Sunni Muslims and Zaydi Shia) Unfortunately the problem with all of this as I have pointed out above is that this is covered in numerous other books (Martin Lings, Sufi saint being one of them and Imam al-Haddad's own books translated into English being others)For the reasons above I only give this 3 stars. Not because this is a particularly poor book, far from it. Simply that many of the topics in the book have been covered by numerous others and therefore for the reader Muslim or non Muslim they would find very little else in this book to discover.Perhaps the author would have been better to have written a simple biography of Imam al-Haddad. I feel it would have been much more appreciated and much more beneficial in our contribution to Islamic studies in the west.

I really loved this book. I have looked at a lot of translated books and found them a little bit hard to read but this is a very easy to read book; interesting and well organized. I did not know of this saint as most popular Sufis were from Persia.

Nice book, you will learn a lot about the incredible life of this great man, may Allah have mercy on him. The book does go in many different directions and touches many different and interesting, sometime sensitive subjects so it might not be for complete beginners in islamic science and sufi teachings.

An excellent biography of a saint from the spiritual centre of Hadramawt.

Concise and clear biography of Imam al Haddad. Very easy to follow and read.

Brilliant read!