Ahmad bin Umar bin Ali bin Ahmad bin Asad Allah Muhammad bin Hasan bin Ali was a Ba Alawi scholar and Qur’an teacher of Tarim. Al-Mashra al-Rawi fi Manaqib al-Sada al-Kiram Al Abi Alawi traces his lineage to al-Faqih al-Muqaddam and records that he became known as al-Muallim, “the teacher.”
He was born in Tarim, memorised the Qur’an and studied under his father, from whom he also learned religious discipline and conduct. Al-Mashra al-Rawi records that he also learned from a number of his father’s companions and acquired a grounding in the religious sciences.
Teaching the Qur’an became a defining part of his life. He devoted himself to instructing children, and Al-Mashra al-Rawi relates that a large number of pupils memorised the Qur’an under his supervision. It portrays him as devoted to Qur’an recitation, frequent fasting, night prayer and personal piety.
Spiritual states and karamat
Al-Mashra al-Rawi preserves accounts of powerful spiritual states associated with Ahmad. It relates that at times of stillness and spiritual audition he would become deeply overcome, weeping and crying out, with his body trembling intensely for an extended period. The work also attributes to him karamat and khawariq al-adat, extraordinary occurrences understood within the devotional tradition as saintly miracles, and says that these appeared involuntarily rather than through any deliberate claim or display on his part. These accounts form part of the traditional remembrance of his life preserved by the Ba Alawi biographical tradition.
Al-Mashra al-Rawi states that he died on a Thursday, nine nights into Jumada al-Akhirah in 829 AH. Its account of his final hours says that he gathered his companions, gave them counsel in accordance with the Qur’an and Sunnah, instructed those around him to recite the Qur’an sincerely, and himself repeatedly recited Surat al-Ikhlas until his death.
Source
Al-Mashra al-Rawi fi Manaqib al-Sada al-Kiram Al Abi Alawi, vol. 2, biography of Ahmad bin Umar bin Ali bin Ahmad bin Asad Allah Muhammad bin Hasan bin Ali.