The Gardens of the Gnostics

Ab Zakariyy Muyi’d-dn Yay ibn Sharaf an-Nawaw (631 AH/1233 CE – 676 AH/1277 CE) was an exemplary scholar of the hadith, Ash‘ar kalm and the Shfi‘ madhhab, noted for his commentary on a Muslim, his collection of Forty Hadith, the Riy a-lin, the Adhkr, which is a collection of dhikr and du‘ from the Qur’n and the hadith, and a number of other significant works.

The Garden of the Gnostics (Bustn al-‘rifn) is Imam an-Nawaw’s work on taawwuf, drawing as is his wont on the Qur’n, with careful choice of hadith, and the sayings of the first generations (salaf) and eminent later people.

Aisha Bewley is the translator of a large number of classical works of Islam and Sufism, often in collaboration with Abdalhaqq Bewley, notably The Noble Qur’an – a New Rendering of Its Meanings in English; Muhammad, Messenger of Allah – the translation of Q ‘Iy’s ash-Shif’; the Muwaa’ of Imam Mlik ibn Anas; and Imam an-Nawaw’s Riy a-lin.