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Makki and The nourishment of hearts (Qut al-qulub) in the context of Early Sufism

Makki and The nourishment of hearts

Very little is known about the life of Abu Talib al-Makki (d. 996 CE) with the exception of a few minor details.

The lacuna in the historical source material led Richard Gramlich to lament “the meager information which has come down to us with respect to the life of Abu Talib.”

And yet although Makki’s life is cloaked in obscurity, his Nourishment of Hearts (Qut al-qulub) is not.

It was one of the most widely read attempts in early Islam to explain the rules which should govern the inner life as well as demonstrate the harmony of the science of the inner life with the more outward or “exoteric” formulations of Islam.

The work had such an impact on Abu Hamid al-Ghazall (d. 11119 in his own personal spiritual quest, as he would confess in the Deliverance from Error ( al-Munqidh min al-daldl 9, 3 that it would eventually become one of the main sources of inspiration for the Revival of the Religious Sciences (Ihya ‘ulum al-din).

One might even go so as to argue that the Ihya’ was in many ways an exegetical elaboration of Makki’s earlier work, infused with Ghazall’s personal insights and organized according to his own analytic genius. 4 Due to the degree to which