Alawi bin Muhammad Mawla al-Dawila was an early Ba Alawi devotional figure of Tarim. Al-Mashra al-Rawi identifies him as a son of Muhammad Mawla al-Dawila and records that he was born in Tarim, memorised the Quran and grew up in the company of his father and his brother Abd al-Rahman al-Saqqaf.
The biography says that Alawi remained closely attached to Abd al-Rahman al-Saqqaf and benefited from his spiritual training. It remembers him for sustained worship, long prayer, asceticism, generosity and contentment with little.
Karamat in the received tradition
Al-Mashra al-Rawi preserves a number of karamat associated with Alawi. In one account, a severe flood trapped him and his companions near a mountain. He performed ablution from the floodwater, prayed two rak’ahs and struck the water with his staff, after which the flow was said to halt long enough for them to escape.
Another account relates that severe cold destroyed the crops around Tarim. When people told Alawi that his own crop must also have been ruined, he said that it had not been destroyed. The narrative says that when they inspected it, they found his crop unharmed.
The biography also preserves a story concerning a well that his father had first given to him and later reclaimed. When the water became blocked by a rock, the well was returned to Alawi and the source says that it returned to its previous condition. These reports are retained as part of the traditional devotional remembrance surrounding him.
Alawi died on a Wednesday, three nights before the end of Muharram in 778 AH.
Lineage and source note
Primary source: Al-Mashra al-Rawi fi Manaqib al-Sada al-Kiram Al Abi Alawi, volume 2, biography of Alawi bin Muhammad Mawla al-Dawila. It records his Tarim origin, relationship with his father Muhammad Mawla al-Dawila and his brother Abd al-Rahman al-Saqqaf, devotional life, attributed karamat and death in Muharram 778 AH.
The later chronicle Qiladat al-Nahr fi Wafayat Ayan al-Dahr independently identifies the same Alawi bin Muhammad Mawla al-Dawila, preserves his lineage through Muhammad Mawla al-Dawila and explicitly identifies him as the brother of Abd al-Rahman al-Saqqaf. Its death notice reports that the source before it read 878 AH but corrects that as an apparent error to 778 AH. This independently supports the identity, sibling relationship and 778 AH chronology preserved in Al-Mashra al-Rawi.
Scholarly connections
The source places Alawi under the formative influence of his brother Abd al-Rahman al-Saqqaf and says that he remained with him until he was trained under him. No broader teacher or student relationship is inferred beyond what the biography itself states.