A great Sufi leader, an accomplished Maliki scholar, a poet and an erudite, spirited writer, the late al-Shaykh Abd al-Mahmud al-Hafyan of Tabat (1919–1973), author of The Bequest (Al-Wasiyya), left a great legacy of scholarly works in all fields of the traditional Islamic sciences. Yet although his contributions to the science of the sharia are outstanding, it is his contributions in the field of haqiqa that most highly rank him amongst the most distinguished of Sufi Muslims.
Sharia for Sufi Muslims is the base of their belief, laws and practice. Haqiqa is the essence, the fundamental truth that leads, through worship, devotion and the love and fear of Allah, to the knowledge and recognition of the Divine, Allah. It paves the way to harmonious living in this world and to eternal bliss in Paradise. Thus to describe Sufism simply as mysticism and Sufis only as mystics is to deny both their base and their legitimacy. The haqiqa of the Sufi Muslim cannot exist without the Qur’an and the Sunna (Prophetic traditions).