Uways al-Qarni
This is the first post in the series on Sufi Masters I spoke of a while back. I don’t know so much about a lot of these people (and info is hard to come by in some cases) so the idea is that anyone who has any data will contribute with stories, references or any other material via the comments.
Uways al-Qarni is an interesting figure for several reasons. He was a contemporary of the Prophet Muhammad and lived in Yemen during Muhammad’s time in Mecca although the two never met. His date of birth is not known but he died in 657 CE during the battle of Saffein.
He is traditionally regarded as a follower of Muhammad but despite never meeting him, is held to have been instructed psychically and to have been in telepathic contact throughout his life (and in some sense, after death). As such, Uways is the progenitor of the Sufi ‘Uwaysi’ tradition which is a method of instruction by a Sheikh who is not physically present.
Many Sufis are said to have been taught in this manner - perhaps the most acknowledged in this regard is Najmuddin Kubra who we will write about later - and there are numerous classical works which refer to this tradition. Ostensibly the tradition holds that Muhammad is the teacher of the Uwaysi disciple (at whatever time period) but in practice it can apply to any Sufi Sheikh living or dead.
Classical references to Uways and this tradition can be found in Hujwiri’s Kashf al-Mahjub
Perhaps the most useful modern work on this subject is Julian Baldick’s Imaginary Muslims
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