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Abstract
The objective of this essay is to present an understanding of the dual concepts of fanā’ and baqā’ based upon the earliest formulations of the Sūfī tradition. This will be done through an initial explanation of the development of the concept of tawīd upon which the twin concepts are based, followed by an analysis of the earliest detailed description of the practical experience of fanā’ from the personal accounts of Bayazīd Bistāmī. The third section will briefly discuss the doctrinal and socio-political ramifications of the two schismatic interpretations of the nature and role of fanā’ and baqā’ as expressed by the ‘Sober’ School of Baghdād and the ‘Intoxicated’ School of Khurāsān. This discussion will then be continued in more detail by an in-depth analysis of the theory of the two Sūfī masters generally accepted as the principle advocates of these opposing doctrines: starting with Abū'l-Qāsim al-Junayd (d.910), the definitive exponent of the doctrine of Sobriety; followed by the counter-claims of Husayn ibn Mansūr al-Hallāj (d.922), often described as the ecstatic intoxicant par excellence. Finally, this essay will analyse inconsistencies frequently found within current academic understandings of the concepts of fanā’ and baqā’ through an examination of two eminent and respected encyclopaedia entries on the subject, and will close by offering a third definition based upon the material discussed in this study.
Notes
1 An example within the Jewish mystical tradition being the Prophetic Kabbalism of Abulafia; see Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (New York: Schocken, 1946), pp. 119–55. Whilst for an overview of ‘Ecstasy’ and ‘Rapture’ in the Christian tradition, see Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism (London: Methuen, 1967), pp. 358–79.
2 The importance of the seemingly paradoxical reconciliation of transcendence and immanence in Sūfism is expressed by William Chittick in a foreword to a translation of Ghazālī's Niche of Lights. ‘When reason is left to its own devices, it recognizes at best a God who is infinitely distant and difficult to access. Sūfīs accepted this point of view, but they insisted that it had to be complemented by another point of view, according to which God is “with you wherever you are,” as the Qur'ān puts it. Presence, in short, is just as important as absence; the divine immanence is every bit as real as the divine transcendence’. Muhammad Abū Hāmid al-Ghazālī, The Niche of Lights/ Mishkāt al-anwār, trans. David Buchman, foreword William C. Chittick (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1998), p. xii. Whereas Jewish mysticism, for example, ultimately comes down on the side of transcendence, as Scholem puts it: ‘Even in this ecstatic frame of mind, the Jewish mystic almost invariably retains a sense of the distance between the Creator and His creature … It is a significant fact that the most famous and influential book of our mystical literature, the Zohar, has little use for ecstasy’. Scholem, Major Trends, p. 123.
3 Although Massignon refers to ‘the hulūl of Nūrī’. See Louis Massignon, The Passion of al-Hallāj: Martyr and Mystic of Islam: Book 1 Life, trans. Herbert Mason (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982), p. 77.
4 A notion underlined by the concept of the inequality of human nature (nāsūt) and Divine nature (lāhūt) even in the most complete mystical union. Reynold Alleyne Nicholson, Studies in Islamic Mysticism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967), p. 80.
5 Perish here, as in English, having the connotation ‘to disintegrate’, as with rubber or other material. See The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4th edition (Urbana, IL: Spoken Language Services, Inc, 1994), p. 854 . The noun fanā’ derives from the first form of the triliteral root fā’–nūn–yā’.
6 Perish here, as in English, having the connotation ‘to disintegrate’, as with rubber or other material. See The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4th edition (Urbana, IL: Spoken Language Services, Inc, 1994), p. 854. The noun fanā’ derives from the first form of the triliteral root fā’–nūn–yā’.
7 Perish here, as in English, having the connotation ‘to disintegrate’, as with rubber or other material. See The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4th edition (Urbana, IL: Spoken Language Services, Inc, 1994), p. 854. The noun fanā’ derives from the first form of the triliteral root fā’–nūn–yā’., p. 84. The noun baqā’ derives from the first form of the triliteral bā’–qāf–yā’.
9 Qur'an 55:26. All references to the Qur'an in this work are from: A. J. Arberry, The Koran Interpreted (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998).
10 The tradition cited is ‘Die before you die’, which is incorporating here into a poem attributed to Sanā'ī. Javād Nūrbakhsh, Traditions of the Prophet (London: Khaniqahi-Nimatullahi Publications, 1981–1983), pp. 66–67.
12 Ahmet T Karamustafa, Sufism: The Formative Period (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007), p. 16.
8 The third-person singular of the verb baqiya in the first form.
11 Hadīth qudsī are the divinely inspired words of the Prophet Mohammad, as distinct from the word of God delivered to the Prophet that is the Qur'an.
13 Wilfred Madelung, s.v. ‘al-Kharrāz,’ EI 2, vol. IV (Leiden: Brill), p. 1083.
14 Who will be discussed in detail in the second section.
15 A gradual process between about the third/ninth to sixth/twelfth centuries. Karamustafa, Sufism, p. viii.
16 Karamustafa, Sufism, p. 6.
17 Whilst it was uniformly agreed upon that all stations were sequential and that each station must be mastered before moving on the next, the exact sequence seems to vary from one mystical theoretician to the next.
18 Fanā’ being the 99th and baqā’ the 100th ‘of his 100 grounds’. ‘Abd al-Gafūr Ravān Farhādī, ‘Abdullāh Ansārī of Herāt: An Early Sūfī Master (Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 1996), pp. 71–72.
19 Sara Sviri, ‘Between Fear and Hope: On the Coincidence of Opposites in Islamic Mysticism’, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 9 (1987), p. 337. See also: Carl W. Ernst, The Shambhala Guide to Sufism (Boston: Shambhala, 1997), pp. 98–119.
20 The names of God portray the character of God's action in the world: such as God's chastisement (‘adhāb) balanced by his mercy (rahma) or describe God as Manifest (zāhir) and Hidden (bātin). Thus they do not describe God's essence, which is unknowable, but instead God's relationship to creation.
21 Paradox being a method of expressing the unknowable infinite that is God in the limited language of humanity. For a discussion of the use of paradoxical language and apophasis, see Michael Anthony Sells, Mystical Languages of Unsaying (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994).
22 And not His ultimate reality or essence, which is unknowable to all except Him.
26 Qur'an 16:23.
27 Qur'an 112:1.
28 Qur'an 2:109.
32 That Dhū'n Nūn is here writing in repost to the Mu'tazilite standpoint does not detract from its sentiment as a Sūfī conception of tawhīd. Abdel-Kader, The Life, Personality and Writings of al-Junayd, p. 70.
23 Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1975), p. 17. See also Kalabādhī, The Doctrine of the Sufis, trans. Arthur John Arberry (Lahore: Muhammad Ashraf, 1966), pp. 15–17.
24 Although in discussions of tawhīd it is probably as well to keep in mind Junayd's assertion about definitions of tawhīd: ‘It is an idea (ma'na) the definition of which cannot be defined, despite the vast and complete knowledge contained therein’. Abdel-Kader, The Life, Personality and Writings of al-Junayd (London: Luzac, 1962), p. 69. Thus all such definitions are allusions to a reality that cannot be contained within the boundaries of definition.
25 Hujwīrī, Kashf al- Mahjūb, p. 278.
29 As opposed to ritual observance, intellectual affirmation or mere social duty.
30 Al-Ghazālī, The Niche of Lights, p. xii.
31 Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions, p. 53.
33 Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions, p. 55.
37 Hujwīrī, Kashf al- Mahjūb, p. 246.
38 Hujwīrī, Kashf al- Mahjūb, p. 281.
34 Hujwīrī, Kashf al- Mahjūb, p. 245.
35 Hujwīrī, Kashf al- Mahjūb, p. 245. Perhaps a better rendering of ‘ubūdiyyat would be servanthood, see Hans Wehr: The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern written Arabic, 4th ed., p. 685.
36 Hujwīrī, Kashf al- Mahjūb, p. 245.
50 Hujwīrī, Kashf al- Mahjūb, pp. 107–108.
39 The contraction of Abū Yazīd.
40 A small town in Kūmi province in Khurāsān (now northern Iran).
41 Fanā’ bi'l-tawhīd; that is, annihilation of the self in the Divine Unity.
42 As related by Böwering: ‘It is an erroneous claim as well that Bayazīd Bestami (q.v.) was the first to have introduced the term fanā’ into Sufism, as assumed by Hartmann … and apparently also Ritter’. Gerhard Böwering, s.v. ‘Fanā’ wa Baqā’,’ Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. III (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982), p. 722.
43 Michael Anthony Sells, Early Islamic Mysticism: Sufi, Qur'an, Mi'raj, Poetic and Theological Writings (New York: Paulist Press, 1996), p. 212.
44 Louis Massignon, Essay on the Origins of the Technical Language of Islamic Mysticism, trans. Benjamin Clark (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1997), p. 185.
45 Louis Massignon, Essay on the Origins of the Technical Language of Islamic Mysticism, p. 185.
46 Gerhard Böwering, s.v. ‘Bestāmī,’ Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. IV, pp. 183–186.
47 Shath is often rendered as theopathic locution: literally translated, its meaning is ‘overflowing: ecstatic or enigmatic language, inspired paradox’ and according to Clark it was ‘[f]or Massignon the defining characteristic and “crucial symptom” of Islamic mysticism’. Massignon, Essay on the Origins, p. xxiii.
48 Ernst, The Shambhala Guide to Sufism, p. 117.
49 Ernst, The Shambhala Guide to Sufism, p. 191.
52 Michael A. Sells, ‘The Infinity of Desire: Love, Mystical Union, and Ethics in Sufism’, in G. William Barnard and Jeffrey J. Kripal (eds), Crossing Boundaries: Essays on the Ethical Status of Mysticism (London: Seven Bridges Press, 2002), pp. 185–187.
54 Michael A. Sells, Crossing Boundaries: Essays on the Ethical Status of Mysticism, p. 219.
51 Takfīr means to accuse someone of unbelief. See J. O. Hunwick, s.v. ‘Takfīr,’ EI 2 , vol. X, p. 122.
53 Michael A. Sells, Crossing Boundaries: Essays on the Ethical Status of Mysticism, pp. 185–189.
55 Michael A. Sells, Crossing Boundaries: Essays on the Ethical Status of Mysticism, pp. 219–222.
56 Although the word encounter maybe misleading, as it implies a duality of existences at a point where Bayazīd's awareness of his individual self has ceased to be. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say ‘at the event of the cessation of the illusion of separation’.
57 As an observation it is interesting to note that by this more specific definition of shathiyāt the descriptive quotations of Bayazīd are not strictly shathiyāt because the notion of duality remains in the consciousness of the speaker. They are, rather, allusions to memories of a previous and indescribable experience. It is, however, customary within the tradition and within the academic study of Sūfism to speak of these descriptive sentences of Bayazīd as shathiyāt.
58 Massignon, Essay on the Origins, p. 189.
59 Massignon, Essay on the Origins, pp. 185–186.
60 Böwering, s.v. ‘Fanā’ wa Baqā’,’ Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. III, p. 723.
61 There being no ‘he’ left to lay possession to them.
62 As can be seen in the experiences and speech of Bayazīd presented above.
63 At least in public.
64 Terry Graham, ‘Abū Sa'īd ibn Abī'l-Khayr and the School of Khurāsān’, in Leonard Lewisohn (ed.), The Heritage of Sufism, Vol 1.(Oxford: Oneworld, 1999), p. 108.
65 Terry Graham, The Heritage of Sufism, pp. 106–116.
66 Notably: Abū Bakr ash-Shiblī (d. 945), Abū'l-Husayn an-Nūrī (d. 907) and of course Hallāj himself.
69 Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions, p. 57.
71 Hujwīrī, Kashf al- Mahjūb, p. 281.
67 Graham states that ‘the mystical school of Baghdad was founded essentially by two persons: Sari Saqati and Harith Muhasibi’. Terry Graham, ‘Junayd: The Master who Made Sufism Conventionally Acceptable’, Sufi, 67 (autumn 2005), pp. 35–43.
68 Hujwīrī, Kashf al- Mahjūb, p. 128.
70 Mystical hints and allusions.
73 Abdel-Kader, The Life, Personality and Writings of al-Junayd, p. 81.
75 Abdel-Kader, The Life, Personality and Writings of al-Junayd, p. 81.
72 The formal and repetitive recollection of the divine names or a formula, such as the Shahada, in order to focus the attention and consciousness of the worshipper fully upon God
74 These principles of self-abnegation had been established and refined in the generation prior to Junayd, allowing him to draw upon a rich heritage of experience and theory. Particularly formative to Junayd's theory was the work of Sari as-Saqati in his explication of the mystic's progress through the mystical stages of purification and his development of the concept of love between man and God. See Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions, p. 53. Additionally, the mystical psychology of Harith al-Muhasibi offered to Junayd a practical framework and technical vocabulary with which to more effectively pursue the practical task of the annihilation of attributes. See Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions, pp. 54–55.
76 Abdel-Kader, The Life, Personality and Writings of al-Junayd, p. 81.
77 The passing away of the awareness of the state of annihilation.
78 As Hujwīrī puts it: ‘Now the expressions “not being” (‘adam) and “annihilation” (fanā), as they are used by Sūfīs, denote the disappearance of a blameworthy instrument (ālat-i madhmūn) and disapproved attribute in the course of seeking a praiseworthy attribute’. Hujwīrī, Kashf al-Mahjūb, p. 28.
79 As the maxim goes: there is no success except through God.
81 Abdel-Kader, The Life, Personality and Writings of al-Junayd, p. 89.
83 Abdel-Kader, The Life, Personality and Writings of al-Junayd, p. 82.
84 David Ludwig Martin, al-Fanā’ (Mystical Annihilation of the Soul) and al-Baqā’ (Subsistence of the Soul) in the Work of Abū al-Qāsim al-Junayd al-Baghdādī (Ann Arbor: UMI, 1984), p. 153.
80 Although Hujwīrī is keen to assert that this remaining of attributes in no way suggests a mingling of the attributes of God and man but instead of quality of absence in the worshipper which allows the qualities of God to ‘shine through’ the mystic. Hujwīrī, Kashf al- Mahjūb, p. 281.
82 The last vestige of human attributes.
85 Qur'an 7:171
86 Abdel-Kader, The Life, Personality and Writings of al-Junayd, p. 76.
87 Abdel-Kader, The Life, Personality and Writings of al-Junayd, p. 77.
88 Hujwīrī, Kashf al- Mahjūb, p. 26. The insertions are my own.
89 Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions, p. 58.
91 Abdel-Kader, The Life, Personality and Writings of al-Junayd, p. 83.
90 ‘Before creation, God called the future humanity out of the loins of the not-yet-created Adam and addressed them with the words: “Am I not your Lord?” (alastu bi-rabbikum), and they answered: “Yes, we witness it” (balā shahidnā)’. Ibid., p. 24.
92 Interesting parallels can be seen between balā and what Underhill refers to as ‘the dark night of the soul’ within the Christian mystical tradition. Underhill, Mysticism, pp. 380–412.
93 Hujwīrī, Kashf al- Mahjūb, p. 189.
95 The aforementioned quotation: ‘Once [God] raised me up and placed me before him, and said to me: “O Abū Yazīd, verily my creation longs to seek thee.” I said: “Adorn me with thy unity and clothe me in thine I-ness and raise me up unto thy oneness,” so that when the creatures see me, they may say: “We have seen thee and thou are that.” Yet I (Bistāmī) will not be there at all’. Sells, ‘The Infinity of Desire’, p. 216.
98 Hujwīrī, The Kashf al- Mahjūb, p. 187.
94 The aforementioned quotation: ‘Once [God] raised me up and placed me before him, and said to me: “O Abū Yazīd, verily my creation longs to seek thee.” I said: “Adorn me with thy unity and clothe me in thine I-ness and raise me up unto thy oneness,” so that when the creatures see me, they may say: “We have seen thee and thou are that.” Yet I (Bistāmī) will not be there at all’. Sells, ‘The Infinity of Desire’, pp. 185–187.
96 The aforementioned quotation: ‘Once [God] raised me up and placed me before him, and said to me: “O Abū Yazīd, verily my creation longs to seek thee.” I said: “Adorn me with thy unity and clothe me in thine I-ness and raise me up unto thy oneness,” so that when the creatures see me, they may say: “We have seen thee and thou are that.” Yet I (Bistāmī) will not be there at all’. Sells, ‘The Infinity of Desire’, p. 220.
97 The aforementioned quotation: ‘Once [God] raised me up and placed me before him, and said to me: “O Abū Yazīd, verily my creation longs to seek thee.” I said: “Adorn me with thy unity and clothe me in thine I-ness and raise me up unto thy oneness,” so that when the creatures see me, they may say: “We have seen thee and thou are that.” Yet I (Bistāmī) will not be there at all’. Sells, ‘The Infinity of Desire’, p. 220.
100 Abdel-Kader, The Life, Personality and Writings of al-Junayd, p. 89.
101 Abdel-Kader, The Life, Personality and Writings of al-Junayd, p. 90.
99 Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions, p. 73.
102 Abdel-Kader, The Life, Personality and Writings of al-Junayd, p. 36.
103 ‘His name, al-Husayn, was given by his father Mansūr, a convert to Islam, his grandfather, Mahammā, who remained a Zoroastrian, and a surname, Abū ‘Abdullāh, completed his names, added to which were those of his place of origin and main residence and of course in his case notable soubriquet; thus, he was Abū ‘Abdullāh al-Husayn ibn Mansūr ibn Mahammā al-Baydāwī al-Baghdādī al-Hallāj’. Herbert Mason, al-Hallaj (Surrey: Curzon Press, 1995), p. 1.
104 The eighth and ninth centuries produced such archetypal ‘intoxicant Sūfīs’ as Dhū'n Nūn al-Misrī, Abū'l-Husayn an-Nūrī and Abū Bakr ash-Shiblī to name but three.
105 See Massignon, The Passion of al-Hallāj: Life, pp. 338–383.
106 See Massignon, The Passion of al-Hallāj: Life, p. li.
107 Massignon, Louis Massignon, The Passion of al-Hallāj: Survival, trans. Herbert Mason (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982), p. 86.
108 As opposed to the mythic.
109 Whilst Massignon is but one voice he remains the most prolific, authoritative and the starting point of any serious study. See Mason, al-Hallaj, pp. xiii–xiv.
110 Massignon, The Passion of al-Hallāj: Survival, p. 101.
111 Indeed, by one account, Hallāj is accused of stealing an esoteric book from his first master ‘Amr Makkī: the inference being that he had illegitimately acquired knowledge beyond his capacity. Ibid., p. 101.
112 Indeed, by one account, Hallāj is accused of stealing an esoteric book from his first master ‘Amr Makkī: the inference being that he had illegitimately acquired knowledge beyond his capacity, p. 105.
113 Indeed, by one account, Hallāj is accused of stealing an esoteric book from his first master ‘Amr Makkī: the inference being that he had illegitimately acquired knowledge beyond his capacity, p. 107.
117 Massignon, The Passion of al-Hallāj: Life, p. 125.
114 Massignon, The Passion of al-Hallāj: Life, p. xxviii.
115 Massignon, The Passion of al-Hallāj: Life, p. 108. Quote from Sells, ‘The Infinity of Desire’, p. 216.
116 See above p. 21.
118 Louis Massignon, The Passion of al-Hallāj: Teaching, trans. Herbert Mason (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982), p. 9.
119 Louis Massignon, The Passion of al-Hallāj: Teaching, pp. 10–11.
120 Massignon, The Passion of al-Hallāj: Life, p. 274.
121 Herbert Mason, ‘Hallāj and the Baghdad School of Sufism’, in Leonard Lewisohn (ed.), The Heritage of Sufism, Vol 1 (Oxford: Oneworld, 1999), p. 72.
122 Massignon, The Passion of al-Hallāj: Life, p. 126.
123 Massignon, The Passion of al-Hallāj: Teaching, p. 11.
125 Massignon, The Passion of al-Hallāj: Teaching, p. 26.
124 In other words, this is the annihilation of human attributes and their replacement by divine attributes (in a kind of act of hosting) as discussed earlier.
126 Massignon, The Passion of al-Hallāj: Teaching, p. 106.
127 Massignon, The Passion of al-Hallāj: Teaching, p. 106.
128 Massignon, The Passion of al-Hallāj: Teaching, p. 26.
129 Al-Qushayri, Principles of Sufism, trans. B. R. Von Schlegell (Berkeley, CA: Mizan Press, 1992), p. 332.
130 Mason, The Heritage of Sufism, p. 72.
131 Carl W. Ernst. ‘The Stages of Love in Early Persian Sufism’, in Leonard Lewisohn (ed.), The Heritage of Sufism, Vol 1. (Oxford: Oneworld, 1999), p. 446.
132 Massignon, The Passion of al-Hallāj: Life, p. 274.
133 Massignon, The Passion of al-Hallāj: Life, p. 274.
135 Alluding to the theory of Junayd.
136 Massignon, The Passion of al-Hallāj: Teaching, p. 45.
134 Essentially this, whilst not making the overt connection between the yet to emerge concept of fanā’ and that of love, is the spirit of the Sūfī saint Rabi'a al-’Adawiyya (d.801). See Margaret Smith, Rabi'a the Mystic and her Fellow-saints in Islam: Being the Life and Teachings of Rabi'a al-’Adawiyya al-Qaysiyya of Basra (Amsterdam: Philo Press, 1974).
143 Carl W. Ernst, Words of Ecstasy in Sufism (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985), p. 64.
137 Massignon, The Passion of al-Hallāj: Teaching, p. 307.
138 Qur'an 7:11.
139 That is to say one who follows the principle of tawhīd even in defiance of God's direct command.
140 Massignon, The Passion of al-Hallāj: Teaching, p. 307.
141 Massignon, The Passion of al-Hallāj: Teaching, p. 306.
142 Massignon, The Passion of al-Hallāj: Teaching, p. 307.
144 Until one can say: ‘my present “I” is no longer me. I am a metaphor (tajāwuz) [of God conveyed to man], not a generic kinship (tajānus) [of God with man], an apparition (zuhūr) [of God], not an infusion (hulūl) in a material receptacle (haykal juthmānī)’. Ibid., p. 45.
146 Fazlur Rahman, s.v. ‘Bakā’ wa Fanā’,’ EI 2, vol. I, p. 951.
147 Gerhard Böwering, s.v. ‘Baqā’ wa Fanā’,’ Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. III, p. 722.
145 Javad Nurbakhsh, Sufism II: Fear and Hope, Contraction and Expansion, Gathering and Expansion, Intoxication and Sobriety, Annihilation and Subsistence (London: KNP, 1982), p. 85.
148 ‘He has Fanā’, and this too is obliterated because he persists in Baqā’ only through complete obliteration’. Abdel-Kader, The life, Personality and Writings of al-Junayd, p. 89.
149 Aleksandr D Knysh. Islamic Mysticism: A Short History (Boston: Brill, 2000), p. 54.
150 In this context there is no suggestion of the onset of the mystical state of fanā’ and baqā’.
151 For example, when talking about the fanā’ of the state of fanā’ one could either mean simply the temporal ending of the state of fanā’ or the annihilation of the awareness of the mystical state of fanā’, which are of course two different things. Furthermore, the annihilation of the awareness of fanā’ whilst being one form of the purgation of attributes also leads to the onset of the mystical state of fanā’, but it should not be interpreted as the annihilation of a mystical state.
152 Which would seem to be Knysh's error.
153 ‘Alī ibn Usmān Hujwīrī, Kashf al-Mahjūb : The Oldest Persian Treatise on Sufism, ed. Reynold A. Nicholson (London: Luzac, 1936), p. 37.
154 Whether or not that discipline considers truth to be absolute of relative.
155 Traditions of the Prophet: ‘being an account of what the Prophet said or did, or of his tacit approval of something said or done in his presence’. J. Robson, s.v. ‘Hadīth,’ EI 2, vol. III, p. 28.