Ba 'Alawiyya

It was founded by al-Faqih Muqaddam As-Sayyid Muhammad bin Ali Ba'Alawi al-Husaini, who died in the year 653 AH (1232 CE).

The members of this Sufi way are mainly sayyids whose ancestors hail from the valley of Hadramaut, in the southern part of Yemen, although it is not limited to them.

Most descendants of Muhammad known as sayyids gathered much followings due to their vast knowledge of Islam and its teachings, both esoteric and exoteric.

Thus all the 'Alawi sayyids of Hadramaut are his progeny, and his descendants has since spread far and wide to the Arabian Peninsula, India especially in the Southern state of Kerala along the Malabar Coasts, North and West Coast of Africa (the Islamic Maghreb), and the countries of the Malay Archipelago (Malaysia and Indonesia) spreading Sunni Islam of the Shafii school and the Ba'Alawi Tariqah brand of Sufism.

[7] It was through the Ba 'Alawiyya Scholars that Islam was spread to different parts of the World, particularly in Indonesia through the Wali Songo and the Philippines through the Lumpang Basih.

Imam Ahmad bin Isa al-Muhajir and his son, according to majority of historians, spread the legal school of Shafi'i and Ash'ari for theology.

The follower must love obscurity, dislike manifestation, withdraw from madding crowd, but he still has to warn and advice in matters of religious duty.

Books such as al-Burqa, al-Ma'arij, al-Kibrit al-Ahmar, al-Juz al-Latif were then written to preserve the gradual disappearance of the tariqa.