Ibn al-Farid

His name is Arabic for "son of the obligator" (the one who divides the inheritance between the inheritors), as his father was well regarded for his work in the legal sphere.

[2] The poetry of Shaykh Umar Ibn al-Farid is considered by many to be the pinnacle of Arabic mystical verse, though surprisingly he is not widely known in the West.

Both poems have inspired in-depth spiritual commentaries throughout the centuries, and they are still reverently memorized by Sufis and other devout Muslims today.

Ibn al-Farid's father moved from his native town, Hama in Syria, to Cairo where Umar was born.

Whichever is the case, Ibn al-Farid's father was a knowledgeable scholar and gave his son a good foundation in belles lettres.

One day Ibn al-Farid saw a greengrocer performing the ritual Muslim ablutions outside the door of the madrasa, but the man was doing them out of the prescribed order.

Shaykh Umar Ibn al-Farid stayed in Mecca for fifteen years, but eventually returned to Cairo because he heard the same greengrocer calling him back to attend his funeral.

Ibn al-Farid declined both the money and the offer of the shrine, choosing to trust in God to supply for his needs.

Some said this was to "chastise him for claiming such a high status in love" while others said it was "merely the last indignity that one of God's chosen must suffer from the contingencies of the world below".

During the later part of his life, Ibn al-farid was known to enter into spiritual raptures known as jadhabat in Arabic, a common occurrence in sufism.

Ibn al-Farid's son Kamal al-Din Muhammad described his ecstasies or trances as sometimes lasting ten consecutive days without eating, drinking, moving, speaking or hearing outside noises.

[citation needed] Ibn al-Farid was depicted in art, notably in a sketch by Khalil Gibran made in 1917.

[citation needed] The trance-like aspect of the dancing and the procession are connections to Sufi background of Ibn al-Farid.