ABU AL-qasim AL-qushayri's wasiyya to sufi novices: A testimony to eleventh century sufism

This paper seeks to examine al-Qushayri's (d. 1072) piece of spiritual advice that he directs to the Sufi novices of his days (al-wasiyya li-l-muridin). This wasiyya differs structurally and thematically from the rest of Qushayri's Risala. Conceptually, it relates more to Sufi communal life than the rest of the text. In analyzing wasiyya and its constituent divisions both structurally and thematically, this paper attempts to show that wasiyya was an independent literary unit added to Risala. It does so by demonstrating that wasiyya is more successful in connecting to the Sufi reality of Qushayri both spiritually and culturally. This paper also shows that several parts of wasiyya clearly correspond to later, well-established discussions of Sufi communal life and praxis.