Dhu’l-Nun Abu’l-Fayd Thawban ibn Ibrahim al-Misri (796 – 859) was an early Egyptian Muslim mystic and ascetic of Nubian origin. Born in Upper Egypt, Dhu’l-Nun is said to have made some study of the scholastic disciplines of alchemy, medicine, and Greek philosophy in his early life before coming under the mentorship of the mystic Sadn of Cairo. He was celebrated for his legendary wisdom both in his own life and by later Islamic philosophers as one of the greatest saints of the early era of Sufism.
Quotations by Dhu’l-Nun…
Someone once asked Dhu’l-Nun, “When does the Sufi reach his goal?”
He said, “When he is as he was where he was before he was.”
So God most high has said, “When I love a servant, I am his ear, so that he hears by me; I am his eye, so that he sees by me; and I am his tongue, so that he speaks by me.”