A Muslim Convert Once Before

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ On the story behind the composition of Dala’il al-Khayrat , Imam Ahmad ibn Muhammad asw-Swawi al-Maliki ( q.s. ) related that one day, Imam Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Jazuli ( q.s. ) went to perform his ablutions for the prescribed prayer from a nearby well but could not find any means to draw the water up.  While thus perplexed, he was seen by a young girl who called out from high above, “You are the one people praise so much, and you cannot even figure out how to get water out of a well?”  So, she came down and spat into the water, which welled up until it overflowed and spilled across the ground.   Imam al-Jazuli ( q.s. ) made his ablutions, and then turned to her and said, “I adjure you to tell me how you reached this rank.”   She said, “By saying the Blessings upon him whom beasts lovingly followed as he walked through the wilds.”  But she did not tell him the exact swalawat she recited then.   ...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is taken from “The Story of Dala’il al-Khayrat ” by Shaykh Nuh Ha Mim Keller.   Dala’il al-Khayrat , the most celebrated manual of Blessings on the Prophet ( s.a.w. ) in history, was composed by the Sufi, wali , Muslim scholar of prophetic descent, and barakah of Marrakesh, Imam Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Jazuli ( q.s. ).   Born and raised among the Gazulah Berbers of the Sus region in southern Morocco, he studied the Qur’an and traditional Islamic knowledge before travelling to Fez, where he memorized the four-volume Mudawwanah by the Maliki mujtahid , Imam Sahnun ibn Sa’id at-Tanukhi ( r.a. ), and met scholars of his time such as Imam Ahmad ibn Ahmad az-Zarruq ( q.s. ), and Shaykh Muhammad ibn ‘Abdullah Amghar ( q.s. ), who become his shaykh in the thariqa’ .   Shaykh Amghar ( q.s. ) traced his spiritual lineage through only six masters to the great founder of their order, Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali i...