the abbasìd’s golden age 211renouncement of the personal pursuit of worldly life for the sake of
God. He was brought up in Medìnah in a close proximity to the
Prophet’s family and lived there until the death of the third caliph
Uthmàn. Later he moved to Basra in Iraq, where he became renowned
for preaching the ascetic life of the Prophet’s model and the renounce-
ment of worldly desire for the sake of God. He criticised the lavish
lifestyle of the Umayyad court and, although he accepted the Umayyads
as the new caliphs, he regarded them as accountable for their actions.
Œassan al-Ba›rì did not claim that he was a flùfì, however, and
probably the term flùfìitself was not commonly used until, accord-
ing to Qushayri (d. 465 A.H./1072 A.C.), towards the end of the
second century of the Hijra, 815 A.C., (cited in Nicholson, 1993).
That was about a century after al-Basari’s death.
Ibràhìm ibn Adham, who was a Persian belonging to the royal
family of Balkh, AbùAli Shaqiq, also of Balkh, Fudayl ibn Iyad, a
converted captain of banditti, Sufyan al-Thawri, of Kufa, and Rabi"a
al Adawiyyah, from Basra of the tribe of Adi, are all names associ-
ated with the early history of flùfìsm. They all died between the
middle and the end of the second century of Hijra (767–815 A.C.).
Ibràhìm ibn Adham gave up his wealth and royal lifestyle for the
sake of God, living in a cave for a few months. Shaqiq emphasized
the concept of tawakkul, a full reliance on God and a complete trust
in Him in all one’s deeds and actions. Fudayl proclaimed, “To abstain
for men’s sake from doing anything is hypocrisy, while to do anything
for men’s sake is idolatry”. Sufyan founded a school of jurisprudence
and suffered maltreatment for refusing public office. And Rabi"a
declared, “love of God has so absorbed me that neither love nor hate
of any other thing remains in my heart”. By the mid third century
of Hijra, mid ninth century, a few more names were added to the
list such as Dhu al-Nun al-Misri from Egypt (d. 246 A.H./861 A.C.).
Looking at the development of the school of flùfìsm, we find the
real founder of the school in Baghdad and the man who first wrote
a book on flùfìsm was Abd Allah al-Œàrith ibn Asad al-Muœàsibì
(d. 243/857). In his book al-Ri"àyah li-œuqùq Allah, the Observance
of God’s Rights, he laid down the foundations of the ‘science’ of
mysticism, flùfìsm, which became a model for later writers (Arberry,
1990). What distinguishes al-Muœàsibìfrom the other flùfìs, partic-
ularly in the context of economics, is that he defined the line between
flùfìsm and the choice of living in poverty. He is not an advocate
of poverty; we find him in his book Risalat al-Makàsib wa"l Wara",