محمد بن سليمان الجزولي

al-Jazuli (RH)

Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Jazuli

Also known as: Imam al-Jazuli, Muhammad al-Jazuli, Sidi Ben Slimane, al-Simlali

c. 807–870 AH · c. 1404–1465 CE

Sufism & Theology Maliki Sufism

Moroccan Sufi master of the Shadhili path, author of Dala'il al-Khayrat, the most widely recited book of blessings on the Prophet ﷺ.

Al-Jazuli was born around 1404 among the Jazula Berbers of the Sus in southern Morocco, in a family that traced its descent to al-Hasan, the Prophet's grandson. He studied at the Saffarin madrasa in Fez, where his room is still shown to visitors, and then spent years in Makkah, Madinah and Jerusalem. Back in Morocco he took the Shadhili path from Muhammad Amghar at Tit on the Atlantic coast, and after a long period of retreat he began to teach.

In Fez he compiled Dala'il al-Khayrat, a collection of blessings and greetings on the Prophet ﷺ arranged in portions for each day of the week. It became one of the most widely recited devotional books in the Muslim world, from Morocco and the Ottoman lands to India and the Malay world, and many finely illuminated copies survive. At Afughal in the Haha region he gathered a very large following, and his way, the Jazuliyya, became the leading branch of the Shadhiliyya in Morocco; his later followers helped bring the Saadian dynasty to power. He died in 1465, by some accounts poisoned. Around 1524 his body was moved to Marrakesh, where his tomb is one of the shrines of the city's Seven Saints.

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