Between Sunnism and Shiism

The Sufi Path in the Reverence for the Ahl al-Bayt (The Case of Sayyid Yaḥyā Shirvānī)

Abstract

There are several different approaches between the Sunnis and the Shia when defining the characteristics of the Ahl al-Bayt. The views of the Sufis representing the Sunni tradition on this issue follow a unique path. Because the esteem and spiritual depth assigned to ʿAlī (d. 40/661) and his progeny by most Sufis of the Sunni tradition resembles the Shia approach in certain regards, some believe that this perspective emerged as a result of a Shia-Rāfiḍa influence. However, the source of the understanding of Ahl al-Bayt, which emerged under the example of the views of Yaḥyā Shirvānī (d. 1466), the second founder of the Khalwatiyya order—a highly influential and well-known order amongst Sunni Muslims—, was not Shia-Rāfiḍa, but Sunni Sufi tradition, which kept the Prophet's sunna/teachings alive in its full meaning. The view adopted by the Sufis does not correspond entirely to the Sunni or the Shia-Rāfiḍa view but is, in fact, its own perspective.