Ibrahim ibn Adham, Prince of Balkh turned ascetic: Scholar in Islamic History

Scholar

ScholarPrince of Balkh turned ascetic

Ibrahim ibn Adhamإبراهيم بن أدهم

c. 718-782 CE (traditional)Traditional date, disputedBalkh

A prince of Balkh who, tradition says, gave up his throne to live by the work of his hands.

Stories tell that while hunting he heard a voice asking whether he was created for this, and he left his palace for a life of poverty. He worked as a harvester and gardener in Syria, refusing to eat anything not earned honestly, and died on the Byzantine frontier.

What grew out of it?

He became a model of renunciation for Sufis everywhere.

The lesson

Honest earning and a free heart are worth more than a throne.

Who else is linked?

Balkh Umayyad Caliphate Abbasid Caliphate

Who lived at the same time?

Al-Saffah Marwan ibn Muhammad Yazid ibn al-Walid Ibrahim ibn al-Walid Al-Walid ibn Yazid Al-Mansur Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik Charles Martel

Source: history · Wikipedia

Everyone and everything in the timeline

People named in the Quran and the hadith, the Prophet's ﷺ family and Companions, scholars, rulers, the nations of the Quran, the world's empires and the places where it all happened. Where scholars differ, each entry says so.