Uwais Qarni, known also as Saint Uwais Qarni (Arabic: أويس بن انيس القرني‎, also transliterated Oways b. Anis al-Qarni, Oveys Gharani and Veysel Karani) was a Muslim mystic, martyr and philosopher of Yemen who lived during the lifetime of Muhammad, but never met Muhammad personally.^[1] As reported by the renowned historical scholar Ibn Battuta, Uwais' tomb is found in Ar-Raqqah, Syria, where he was killed in the Battle of Siffin, where he fought on the side of Ali. Another shrine was made in his honor in Baykan, in the Siirt Province of Turkey.^[2]

Life[link]

Qarni converted to Islam during Muhammad's lifetime, though they never met in person. Yet Qarni was fully aware of Muhammads spiritual presence at all times of his life. The Uwaisi form of spiritual transmission in the vocabulary of Islamic mysticism was named after Uwais Qarni, as it refers to the transmission of spiritual knowledge between two individuals without the need for physical interaction between them. Not long after a meeting with Ali, Qarni left Qaran for Kufa, modern Iraq. He fought for Ali against Muawiyah I at the Battle of Siffin in 657.^[3]

Attributed sayings and prayers[link]

The following are sayings attributed to Uwais Qarni

• "An aim is required before embarking on an action; therefore, if your aim is to find God and his Prophets, then you will surely reach your aim."
• "And choose a friend who is able to free you from all else."
• "What is considered as modesty during Islamic Prayer?", he was asked. "For you to be so attuned that even if an arrow pierces you, you remain unaware of it."
• "Be such on the path of God, so that no one exists for you but Him."
• "I wanted a high position in life, I found it in modesty. I wanted leadership, I found it in giving advice. I wanted dignity, I found it in honesty. I wanted greatness, I found it in poverty. I wanted lineage, I found it in virtue. I wanted majesty, I found it in contentment. I looked for peace and found it in asceticism."

The following prayer is attributed to Uwais Qarni:

"In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. O God! I call you, and want no other but you. God, I desire You only. I call upon You, O You who bring comfort to those who are scared, and give refuge to those in need. You open hearts, and are in possession of all good. You bring stability to weariness, and purify all wrongs. You write out our good deeds and allow us to ascend. I ask of You to provide us with good intentions and not to subject our beings with dark objectives. O God, O Merciful, I call upon all Your Names, and all Your kindness which shall not remain hidden. I call You, upon Your most treasured Name, the Name which shall grant my prayer to be heard and answered quicker by You. Amen, O Lord of the worlds."

See also[link]

• Salaf
• Sufism
• Tabi‘in
• Uwaisi

References[link]

External links[link]

• Film on Uwais Al Qarani subtittled by Al-Masumeen.com
• Maktab Tarighat Oveyssi Shahmaghsoudi (School of Islamic Sufism)
• The Extreme Mourning of Uwais al-Qarni, Shia Website
• Islamic Sufism Genealogy, November 2004, Tehran University Publications
• The Uwaisi Transmission of Spiritual Knowledge (Naqshbandi-Haqqani website)
• About Uwais al-Qarni, from "The Children Around the Table of Allah," by Shaykh Muhammad Sa'id al-Jamal ar-Rifa'i
• Uwais Qarni(رضي الله عنه)

v t e Sufism and Tariqa Ideas Qutb Wali Abdal Fakir Dervish Tazkiah Baqaa Fanaa Haal Keramat Haqiqa Ihsan Irfan Kashf Lataif Manzil Marifa Nafs Noor Sufi cosmology Sufi metaphysics Sufi philosophy Sufi poetry Sufi psychology Sulook Yaqeen Silsila Practices Anasheed Dhikr Haḍra Muraqaba Qawwali Sama Whirling Ziyarat Sufi orders Azeemia Akbarī Alians Ba 'Alawī Bayramī Bektashī Chishtī Galibī Gulshanī Ḥurūfī Idrīsī Jelvetī Jerrahī Khalwatī Kubrāwī Madarī Malāmatī Mawlāwī Mourīdī Naqshbandī Naqshbandi Uwaisī Khalidiyya Nasuhī Ni'matullāhī Nuqtawī Qadirī Qalāndārī Rifa'ī Safāvī Shadhilī Suhrawardī Sunbulī Tijanī Ussakī Uwaisī Zahedī Notable early Sufi saints and mystics Abdul-Qadir Gilanī Abul-Khayr Ahmad Ghazālī Ahmed Yasāvī Al-Ghazālī Al-Hallaj al-Misrī Al-Qāsim al-Qunawī Amīr Kulal Ardabilī Ata Allah Attar Balım Sultan Baha ūd-Dīn Naqshband Bande Nawāz Baqī Billah Bastamī Bhita'ī Bulleh Shah Shah Waliullah Dehlāvī Farīd ūd-Dīn Fozail Gālib Gharīb Nawāz Ghujdawanī Ghulam Farīd Sheik Edebali Gül Baba Hajji Bayram Hajji Bektash Hazrat Mai Safoora Qadiriyya Haddad Hamadānī Hansvī Harabatī Baba Hasan Basri Mahmud Hudayī Hujwirī ibn ʿArabī Jābir ibn Hayyān Jahangasht Jamī Jan-e-Jānāān Jazoulī Junayd Baġdādī Kākī Kaliyarī Karkhī Kharaqanī Kubrā Nāimī Najib al-Suhrawardī Nasīmī Mansur Al-Hallaj Ni'matullāh Nizām ūd-Dīn Nurī Otman Baba Pir Sultan Qutb ūd-Dīn Haydār Rabbānī Rabia Basri Razī Rifa'ī Rukn-e-Alam Rūmī Ibrahim ibn Adham Saadī Salman al-Farisī Sanai Mevlana Halid-i Bagdadi Sarı Saltuk Semnanī Shadhilī Shahāb al-Dīn Suhrawardī Shams Tabrizī Shiblī Shirazī Sultan Walad Surkh Bukhari Taj al-Dīn Gilanī Umar al-Suhrawardī Uwais al-Qarni Yunus Emre Magtymguly Pyragy Zakariya Zarruq Notable modern Sufi saints Auliya Azeemi Nagpuri Meher Ali Sheikh Muhammad Uthman Sirajuddin Qadeer Piya Muhammad Maliki Gohar Shahi Tahir ul-Qadri Tahir Allauddin Taqi Usmani Abdal Hakim Murad Nazim Al-Haqqani Hisham Kabbani Nuh Keller Nooruddeen Durkee Abdalqadir as-Sufi Zaheen Ghulam Mustafa Reshad Feild Ahmad al-Alawi Ashraf Ali Thanvi Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Abd al-Rahman al-Shaghouri Omar Shah Haeri Raza Khan Syed Shujaat Pir Zulfiqar Abdullah Naqshbandi Sufi Barkat Ali Hafiz Qamaruddin Saheb Qibla Fultali Feisal Abdul Rauf Osman Nuri Topbaş Sufi studies Aguéli Almqvist Burckhardt Chittick Corbin Ernst Frager Guénon Hixon Lindbom Lings Nasr Schimmel Sells Shah Schuon Topics in Sufism Art Fiction History Music Poetry Shrines Texts Portal

Mohammed Lawal Uwais was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria from 1995 until 2006. Later he chaired a commission that published a controversial report on electoral reform.

Uwais is the son of the Chief Alkali, and later Waziri of Zaria emirate.^[1]

Electoral reform report[link]

After retiring from the Supreme Court, Uwais chaired a panel on electoral reform that submitted a report on 11 December 2008 with recommendations that included establishing commissions to deal with Electoral Offences, Constituency Delimitation and Political Parties Registration and Regulation. Some of the power vested in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the State Independent Electoral Commissions would be transferred to the new commissions. The committee recommended proportional representation in elections to the Federal and State legislatures and to the local government councils.^[2] The report also recommended that the head of the Independent National Electoral Commission should be appointed by the judiciary rather than the President. This recommendation was rejected by President Umaru Yar'Adua.^[3]

Yar'Adua forwarded a modified version of the Uwais report to the legislature in 2009, drawing considerable criticism since many felt that recent elections had been deeply flawed and that basic reforms were required.^[4] In March 2010, Acting President Goodluck Jonathan forwarded an unedited version of the report to the National Assembly for approval, by implication saying that the recommendations should be implemented in their entirety before the 2011 national elections.^[5] The issue of power to appoint the INEC head remained controversial. Before Jonathan had resubmitted the report, the Senate Committee on the Review of the Constitution had rejected the recommendation to transfer this power to the judiciary.^[6] After the resubmission, deputy chief whip of the Senate, Mohammed Mana, argued that letting judiciary appoint the INEC chairman violated the principle of separation of powers, since the judiciary was responsible for hearing the cases arising from elections.^[7]

References[link]

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