Rifai Tradition الطريقة الرفاعية

Lineages and masters

One root, many branches

A Sufi path lives by its chain: each guide authorised by the one before, back to the Pîr and through him to the Prophet. The Rifāʿī tree has many branches, and its own books do not always tell the chain the same way. Here each version is shown as its source gives it.

I. The Pîr's own chain

Three chains of the path are given for Sayyid Ahmad al-Rifāʿī in the sources at hand. All reach the Prophet through Imam ʿAlī; they differ in the masters between. The Risale gives two side by side and says both are true.

Through Junayd · Risale-i Rifaiyye, version A

  1. The Prophet Muḥammad
  2. Imam ʿAlī
  3. Ḥasan al-Baṣrī
  4. Ḥabīb al-ʿAjamī
  5. Dāwūd al-Ṭāʾī
  6. Maʿrūf al-Karkhī
  7. Sarī al-Saqaṭī
  8. Junayd al-Baghdādī
  9. Abū Bakr al-Shiblī
  10. ʿAlī al-ʿAjamī
  11. Abū ʿAlī al-Rūdhbārī
  12. Ghulām b. Turkān
  13. Abu'l-Faḍl b. Kāmah al-Wāsiṭī
  14. Abu'l-Faḍl ʿAlī al-Qārī al-Wāsiṭī
  15. Sayyid Ahmad al-Rifāʿī

Through the Imams · Risale-i Rifaiyye, version B

  1. The Prophet Muḥammad
  2. Imam ʿAlī
  3. Imam Ḥasan
  4. Imam Ḥusayn
  5. Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn
  6. Muḥammad al-Bāqir
  7. Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq
  8. Mūsā al-Kāẓim
  9. ʿAlī al-Riḍā
  10. Maʿrūf al-Karkhī
  11. Sarī al-Saqaṭī
  12. Muḥammad Ruwaym al-Baghdādī
  13. Abu'l-Qāsim al-Sandūsī
  14. Muḥammad Ubay al-Kirmizī
  15. Abū Saʿīd Yaḥyā al-Najjārī
  16. Abu'l-Manṣūr al-Ṭayyib
  17. Manṣūr al-Baṭāʾiḥī
  18. Sayyid Ahmad al-Rifāʿī

Through ʿAlī al-Riḍā and Junayd · Atik (after Öztürk)

  1. The Prophet Muḥammad
  2. Imam ʿAlī
  3. Imam Ḥusayn
  4. Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn
  5. Muḥammad al-Bāqir
  6. Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq
  7. ʿAlī al-Riḍā
  8. Maʿrūf al-Karkhī
  9. Sarī al-Saqaṭī
  10. Junayd al-Baghdādī
  11. Abū Bakr al-Shiblī
  12. ʿAlī al-ʿAjamī
  13. Abū ʿAlī al-Rūdhbārī
  14. Ghulām b. Turkān
  15. Abu'l-Faḍl al-Wāsiṭī
  16. ʿAlī al-Wāsiṭī al-Qurashī
  17. Sayyid Ahmad al-Rifāʿī

Atik notes that other sources differ by two or three names — some with Ḥasan al-Baṣrī after ʿAlī, some adding Mūsā al-Kāẓim.

In their words · Risale-i Rifaiyye

The Risale adds that the Pîr's chain through his father is itself his chain of the path, “so that in his chain there is no one but the Ahl al-Bayt.”

A note

Versions A and B meet at Maʿrūf al-Karkhī, and A and Atik's chain run together from Junayd to the Wāsiṭī masters. The differences lie in the links nearest the Pîr — exactly where the biography names both his uncle Manṣūr and his teacher ʿAlī al-Wāsiṭī as guides. That could explain why different lines remember different chains — but it is a possibility, not a finding: no independent source yet corroborates any of the three.

II. Lines followed on this site

III. The branches compared

Two of the sources list the branches of the order. Atik, from an earlier Turkish reference work, gives fourteen and calls them institutionalised but interdependent, with similar rites distinguished mainly by their founders' names. The Risale gives twenty-two, with founders. Every branch in Atik's list also appears in the Risale's.

Branch (Risale spelling)Founder, per the RisaleIn Atik's 14?
SayyâdiyyaSheikh Aḥmad ʿIzz al-Dīn al-ṢayyādīYes — Sayyâdiyye
İzzeddîniyyaSheikh Aḥmad ʿIzz al-Dīn al-Baṣrī—
KiyâliyyaSheikh Ismāʿīl al-KayyālīYes — Kıyâliyye
NûriyyaSheikh Nūr al-Dīn al-ḤudaysīYes — Nûriyye
İzziyyaSheikh Ḥusayn al-ʿIzzī—
FanâriyyaSheikh Shams al-Dīn al-FanārīYes — Fenâriyye
BurhâniyyaSheikh Burhān al-Dīn IbrāhīmYes — Burhâniyye
FazliyyaSheikh Jamāl al-Dīn b. Faḍl al-HindīYes — Fâzıliyye
JandaliyyaSheikh Jandal b. Muḥammad al-RifāʿīYes — Cündiyye
JamîliyyaSheikh Jamāl al-Dīn al-ʿIrāqīYes — Cemâliyye
DîrîniyyaSheikh ʿIzz al-Dīn al-DayrīnīYes — Dirîniyye
AtâiyyaSheikh Muḥammad ʿAṭiyya al-RifāʿīYes — Atâiyye
SabsabiyyaSheikh Sulaymān al-SabsabīYes — Sebsebiyye
KatnâniyyaSheikh Sayyid Ḥasan al-QaṭnānīYes — Katnâniyye
ImâdiyyaSheikh ʿImād al-Dīn al-AkbarYes — İmâdiyye
MaʿrûfiyyaSheikh Maʿrūfī — probably Fatḥ al-Maʿārif, founder of the Maʿrifiyya—
UlvâniyyaSheikh Aḥmad al-ʿUlwān—
Harîriyya—Yes — Harîriyye
Wâsıtiyya——
Jabartiyya——
Ajlâniyya——
Aziziyya——
In their words · Risale-i Rifaiyye

The Risale also holds that the chains of the Badawī, Shādhilī, Dasūqī, Saʿdī and Yasawī paths pass through the Pîr, so that these orders “originated from the Rifāʿiyya” before becoming separate paths. This is the community’s own understanding.

IV. Rifâî and Rufâî

The two spellings name one order. “Rifâî” is the literary form, from the founder's ancestor Rifāʿa; “Rufâî” spread as the popular pronunciation. From the 1970s some in Türkiye used “Rufâî” for groups keeping the traditional ceremonies and “Rifâî” for Kenan Rifâî's circle. In 1988 Atik's source found an Ankara group under Sheikh Galip Kuşçuoğlu still holding the traditional ceremonies, alongside the Istanbul circle's cultural work. This site uses “Rifāʿī” for the whole tradition.