Abou Ben Adhem
Bharat Churiwala
Abou Ben Adhem
by Leigh Hunt
Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw, within the moonlight of his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,
An angel writing in a book of gold:-
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the presence in the room he said,
'What writest thou?' - The vision raised its head,
And with a look made of all sweet accord,
Answered 'The names of those who love the Lord.'
'And is mine one?' said Abou. 'Nay, not so,'
Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerly still; and said 'I pray thee then,
Write me as one that loves his fellow-men.'
The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night
It came again with a great wakening light,
And showed the names who love of God had blessed,
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.
Ibrahim Bin Adham (?—AD 777), also known as Abu Ben Adhem or Abou Ben Adhem, was an Arab Muslim saint and Sufi mystic. His full name was Sultan Ibrahim bin Adham, Bin Mansur al-Balkhi al-Ijli, Abu Ishaq.
Mewlana Rumi has extensively described the legend of Sultan Ibrahim Bin Adham in his famous Masnavi. Ibrahim Bin Adham was born in Balkh on the east of Khurasan. His family was from Kufa, the Capital of the Caliphate of Imam 'Ali ibn Abi Talib and a major Shia centre to this day. While some writers traced his lineage back to Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second Caliph, the family tree of his most prominent Sufi descendant according to a more reliable source, Nasab o-Nisbat Farid traces the lineage of Abu Ishaq Ibrahim bin Adham bin Mansur back to 'Abdullah, the brother of Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, and son of Imam Muhammad al-Baqir, the grandson of Imam Abu Abd Allah Husayn ibn Ali. From a historical point of view, it is understandable that the descendents of 'Ali ibn Abi Talib would conceal their identity, as they were regarded as rebels and heretics by the Ummayyad rulers and later even the Abbasid rulers, who not only murdered each of the Twelve Imams, except for the Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi the son of Imam Hasan al-Askari, but also murdered countless Sayyids for the sake of their throne and securing the Caliphate (succession) of Prophet Muhammad to themselves. As such, in his book 'Mashaikh e-Chisht', while writing about Sultan Ibrahim ibn Adham ibn Mansur al-Balkhi; the famous Indian Hadith scholar Shaykh al-Hadith Muhammad Zakariya al-Kandahlawi wrote:
"His ancestry through the medium of five predecessors, links up with Hadhrat Umar (radhiyallahu anhu). Some people claim that he was a Sayyid of the line of Hadhrat Husain (radhiyallahu anhu). He was born in the city of Balkh. His nickname was Abu Ishaq. Khwajah Fudhail Bin Iyadh (radhiyallahu anhu) had conferred the mantle of Khilaafate to him. Besides being the Khalifah of Hadhrat Fudhail, he was also the Khalifah of Khwajah Imran Ibn Musa, Khwajah Imam Baqir, Khwajah Shaikh Mansur Salmi and Khwajah Uwais Qarni (rahmatullah alayhim)".
Ibrahim was the King of Balkh but abandoned the throne to become a "zahid" (ascetic worshiper). According to Arabic and Persian sources like al-Bukhari and others, Ibrahim ibn Adham received a warning from God, through al-Khidr who appeared to him twice, and as such, Ibrahim abdicated his throne to take up the ascetic life in Syria. Again, since Ibrahim abandoned the throne, it is understandable that he would be forced to conceal his true identity, and accordingly his true genealogy. It is also clear then, that since Ibrahim ibn Adham migrated to Syria, the capital of the Ummayyads, which was under turmoil, as the Abbasids were planning their successful revolt, which resulted in the Battle of the Zab which spelled the end of the Ummayyad rule, that Ibrahim ibn Adham would conceal his lineage for his own safety. Ibrahim bin Adham died in 777 and is believed to be buried in the Syrian town of Jabala.[1] His mentor was Fudhail Bin Iyadh, whose mentor was Abdul Waahid Bin Zaid. His successor was Huzaifah Al-Mar’ashi.
His legend enlarged gradually from al-Bukhari to Abu Nu'aym al-Isfahani and after its full formation around the eleventh century, expanded to central Asia under the Mongols, Anatolia under Ottoman rule, North India in the age of the Tughluqids, and Malaysia during the seventeenth century as revealed in the works by R. Jones.
James Henry Leigh Hunt (1784–1859) made him famous in the Western world with the poem Abou Ben Adhem, which was published for a general audience in 1838. Hunt had written it out, and perhaps had composed it expressly, for Mrs Samuel Carter Hall's drawing-room album; it was first published by her husband in a gift book, The Amulet, in 1834.[2] Leigh Hunt had read in Barthélemy d'Herbelot de Molainville's Bibliothèque Orientale (1781) of the Islamic belief that on the night of Shab-i-Barat, "The Night of Records’ in the month of "Sha'ban" Allah takes the golden book of mankind and crosses off the names of those whom he is calling to him in the coming year, those whom he loves." The poem is by far the most famous that Hunt wrote.
As an interesting side note, he was quoted during the opening of the Alabama Constitutional Convention of 1901 as follows: "Abou Ben Adhem awakened from a dream, found an angel, writing in a book of gold the name of those whom love of God has blessed. "And is mine there?" he asked. But the angel answered, "Nay." "I pray thee, then," he said, "write me as one who loves his fellow men." The angel wrote and vanished. The next night it came again, with a great awakening light, and showed the names whom love of God had blessed. And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest." "[3]