Salaf

Muslim theologian (874–936)

Persian Muslim theologian (853–944)

Salaf (, or ), also often referred to with the honorific expression of al-salaf al-ṣāliḥ (, ), are often taken to be the first three generations of Muslims. This comprises companions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad (the ), their followers (the ), and the followers of the followers (the ). Their religious significance lay in the statement attributed to Muhammad: "The best of my community are my generation, the ones who follow them and the ones who follow them", a period believed to exemplify the purest form of Islam. The generations of Muslims after the third are referred to as the Khalaf.

Muslim scholar

Islamic Theologian

Mother of Shia Imam

Abū Sulaymān al-Dārānī () was an ascetic sage of the 2nd–3rd/8th–9th century and one of the earliest theoreticians of formal mysticism in Islam.

10th-century Samarkand Sunni-Hanafi scholar