Abenalarif
Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhmmad ibn Musa ibn Ata Allah al-Sinhaji, commonly known as Ibn al-Arif, Ben al-Arif or Abenalarif (Almería, 1088 – Marrakesh, 1141). Famous Sufi born in Almería. Although Asín Palacios believed him to be a teacher at the "Escuela de Almería" and a follower of the Masarri currents, other studies indicate that the thought of this author is much more complex: in him there are influences of oriental Sufi authors (his Majasin al-Mayalis, The Excellence of the meetings, follows the same pattern as the Manazil al-Sairin of al-Ansari), his initiation chain includes oriental masters of the jirqa of al-Junayd. On the other hand it remains unclear what was his relationship to his contemporary Ibn Barrayan. Although Asín Palacios believes that he was a student of Ibn al-Arif, the edition of the correspondence between the two by P. Nwya and Dandas (editor of another of Ibn al-Arif's, Miftah al-sa'ada), present an inverse panorama, since Ibn al-Arif calls Ibn Barrayan "my teacher", "my senior",...
Despite everything, the name that has endured is Ibn al-Arif, since later authors such as Abu Madyan and Ibn al-Arabi refer to him, citing his Mahasin al-mayalis, his poems and oral transmissions about his life.
One of the surviving narrations, which al-Tadili collects in his Tashawuf an al-riyal al-Tasawwuf, is that of his trip to Marrakesh by order of the Sultan of Marrakesh. Apparently they were interrogated because of the suspicions raised against them by the ulama. Although it seems that Ibn al-Arif fared better than his companion Ibn Barrayan, he died in this city, according to some hagiographers, a violent death. His tomb is known, located near the blacksmiths' souk, and has been (and continues to be) visited to this day.
Work
- Maḥāsin al-majālis, ed. critique and trad. french, Geuthner, Paris, 1933
- Mahasin al-machalis of Ibn al-Arīfed. Sirio, Malaga, 1987
- Miftah al-sa`ada wa-tahqiq fariq al-sa`adaTaha, Beirut, 1993