al-Niffari

Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Jabbar al-Niffari was a Sufi (Islamic mystic) writer of the tenth century CE whose life is almost entirely undocumented. Even his name is a clue rather than a record: "al-Niffari" points to Niffar — ancient Nippur, in present-day Iraq — but no source confirms he was born or lived there. The place and date of his birth are simply unknown; later tradition holds that he died "somewhere in Egypt," with the year often given as 354 AH / 965 CE. That date is a commonly repeated estimate, not a securely attested fact, and some accounts describe him as a wandering ascetic who left no settled trail.

He is remembered for two short Arabic collections, the Kitab al-Mawaqif ("Book of Standings") and the al-Mukhatabat ("Book of Addresses"). In them, brief, intense passages are cast as words God causes the mystic to receive. His signature idea is the waqfa — a "standing" or "stay" in which the seeker is halted directly before God, beyond ordinary knowledge and even beyond the named spiritual "stations" of earlier Sufism.

Almost everything later writers knew about him comes from a commentary by 'Afif al-Din al-Tilimsani and from passing mentions in figures such as Ibn 'Arabi. The English scholar A. J. Arberry edited and translated his works in 1935, which brought him to wider notice. Within Sufism his standing is honored; his relation to the wider tradition is debated, since early Sufi literature largely passed him over.