[The Shaykh’s Imprisonment in Alexandria]
Shaykh ʿIlm al-Din al-Barzali (1) and others relate that in the month of Shawwal of the year 707 AH the head of the Sufis in Cairo—Karim al-Din al-Āmulī (2)—together with Ibn ʿAṭāʾ (3) and a company of roughly five hundred people, lodged a complaint with the authorities against Shaykh Taqī al-Din because of his statements about Ibn ʿArabī and others.
The matter was therefore referred (4) to the Shafiʿi chief judge.
A formal session was convened, and Ibn ʿAṭāʾ levelled a number of accusations against him, none of which could be substantiated (5). The Shaykh declared only that help is to be sought from Allah alone: not even the Prophet ﷺ may be invoked for deliverance in a way that constitutes worship (6); rather, one may use him as a means (tawassul) and seek his intercession before Allah (7).
(1) In al-Muqtafi, 3/379; the laqab “Ilm al-Din” is absent from MSS F and K.
(2) This is Abd al-Karim b. al-Husayn, Abu al-Qasim Karim al-Din al-Amuli, a Sufi who headed the Saʿid al-Suʿadaʾ khanqah until he was deposed after fellow Sufis accused him of serious improprieties. Al-Dhahabi remarks that the Sufis proved his immorality on sixteen separate counts. D. 710/1310; see Aʿyan al-ʿAsr, 3:133–134; al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya, 18:86, 108; al-Durr al-Kamina, 2:397.
(3) This is Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Abd al-Karim b. ʿAtaʾ Allah, Taj al-Din Abu al-Fadl al-Shadhili, a Sufi who spoke on behalf of the order in his day. D. 709/1309; see al-Durr al-Kamina, 1:92, and al-Manhal al-Safiy, 1:106.
(4) MS F reads: “faraddu” (so they sent them back).
(5) The other manuscripts read: “shayʾ minha” (anything of it).
(6) The words from “illa … yustaghathu” (“except … help is sought”) are missing in MS B.
(7) MSS F and K read: “walakinahu” (however, he).