Shaykh Abd al Ghani al- Nablusi (r.a)

Abdal al Ghani al Nablusi's Autograph
Shaykh al Islam 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nablusi [d. 1143A.H/1733C.E]
'alayhi al-rahmah wa'l-ridwan
'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi radi Allahu anhu was born in Damascus in 1641[C.E] into a family of Islamic scholarship. His father, Isma'il 'Abd al-Ghani, was a jurist in the Hanafi school of fiqh and contributor to Arabic literature. 'Abd al-Ghani showed diligence in the pursuit of Islamic knowledge and before the age of twenty he was both teaching and giving formal legal opinions (fatwa). He taught in the Umawi Mosque in Damascus and the Salihiyya Madrasa, his fame as an accomplished Islamic scholar spreading to all neighbouring Islamic cities. He died in 1733[C.E] at ninety years of age, having left behind hundreds of written works in virtually all the Islamic sciences.
His status as a scholar and wali (friend of Allah) is also unstintingly acknowledged by Islamic scholars who came after him. As a prolific contributor to Hanafi fiqh, there is hardly a work in the school that appeared after him that does not depend on or discusses his legal opinions. In the well known and most depended upon work in Hanafi fiqh, Radd al-Muhtar, commonly known as The Hashiya of Ibn `Abidin, the author and Imam of the school in his time, Muhammad Amin ibn 'Abidin (d.1836), frequently quotes the legal opinions of Shaykh 'Abd al-Ghani, referring to him with a reverence and respect that is not apparent in the mention of other scholars quoted in his work. Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Tahtawi (d.1816), the al-Azhari Shaykh of the Hanafi Jurists, in his well known Hashiya of Maraqi al-Falah, when discussing a legal opinion of Shaykh 'Abd al-Ghani refers to him as "The knower of Allah, my master 'Abd al-Ghani (al-arif billah Sayyidi 'Abd al-Ghani)". It is unthinkable that such eminent scholars should lend such respect to and depend on the scholarship of an individual who might remotely be accused of heresy. Nor is it thinkable that the numerable godfearing scholars who came after them and use and quote their works would find that acceptable (Ibn 'Abidin's work in particular has been used since it was authored by Islamic rulers implementing the shari'a in government, by judges, muftis, jurists and students of Islamic Law). This is particularly true in view of his book Wujud al-Haqq (On True Being), which details his Sufi ontology and which he taught in public seminars to hundreds of contemporary scholars in his own lifetime.

I believe that a valid point can be made here; namely, that in the time of such scholars as Ibn 'Abidin and al-Tahtawi Islamic culture was a great deal more integrated and balanced than it is today, such that Sufism was understood by shari'a specialists and even considered necessary for a complete understanding and practice of the Din. In the time in which we live Muslims have been engulfed by a civilization that is completely materialistic in its outlook. I believe that this saturation of the worldly has had the adverse effect on the Muslims of making it difficult for them to comprehend anything beyond the physical, which is why the words and experience of the Sufis seem alien to them. This over emphasis on the material also seems to be the reason that modern day reform minded Muslims have found the concept of an anthropomorphic god acceptable as well as the focus of religion being limited primarily to the outward manifestations of the shari'a only, such as salat and hijab for example, without there being any emphasis on internal development. It is not uncommon to find that such an attitude leads to a spiritual crisis of stagnation and meaninglessness, when after several years of practice the initial sense of euphoria of faith fades and one no longer feels the forward motion of increasing in closeness to Allah Most High.
Regarding the scholarship of Shaykh 'Abd al-Ghani radi Allahu anhu, one need only read his works to understand how truly brilliant this man was. In whatever subject he addressed, he wrote as an authority, whether Hanafi fiqh, hadith, Islamic ontology and metaphysics, Arabic literature, Quranic readings or other. Some of his works have been published, while the majority are still in manuscript form. Any skeptic could avail himself his works and make an honest investigation.

Coutesy : Spiritual Foundation http://www.spiritualfoundation.net/sufisshaykhs5.htm#111014245

Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shaykh Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi (March 19, 1641—March 5, 1731), an eminent Muslim scholar and Naqshbandi Sufi, was born in Damascus in 1641 into a family of Islamic scholarship. His father, Isma'il Abd al-Ghani, was a jurist in the Hanafi school of Sunni Islam and a contributor to Arabic literature. Abd al-Ghani traced his descent to the city of Nablus in Palestine, hence his surname Nabulsi ("of Nablus").[1]
Abd al-Ghani showed diligence in the pursuit of Islamic knowledge and before the age of 20 he was both teaching and giving formal legal opinions (fatwa). He taught in the Umawi Mosque in Damascus and the Salihiyya Madrasa, becoming renowned throughotu the region as an accomplished Islamic scholar.
He died and was buried in Damascus in 1731 at 90 years of age. He left behind hundreds of written works in virtually all the Islamic sciences.
His works
Idâh al-Maqsud min wahdat al-wujud (Clarifying What is Meant by the Unity of Being)
Sharh Diwan Ibn Farid (Commentary on Ibn Farid's Poem)
Jam'u al-Asrâr fi man'a al-Ashrâr 'an at-Ta'n fi as-Sufiyah al-Akhyar (Collection of the secrets to prevent the evils castigate the pious Sufis)
Shifa' al-Sadr fî Fada'il Laylat al-Nisf Min Sha'bân wa Layllat al-Qadr (Curing the heart on the Vitues of the night of Nisfu Sha'ban and The Night of Qadr), private manuscript collection, unpublished.
Nafahat al-Azhar 'Ala Nasamat al-Ashar
al-Sulh bayn al-ikhwan fi hukm ibahat al-dukhan, ed. Ahmad Muhammad Dahman (Damascus, 1924).
Ta‘tir al-anam fi tafsir al-ahlam, ed. Taha ‘Abd al-Ra’uf Sa‘d, 2 vols. (Damascus, n.d.)
al-Haqiqa wa al-majaz fi al-rihla ila bilad al-sham wa misr wa al-hijaz, ed. Ahmad ‘Abd al-Majid al-Haridi (Cairo, 1986).
Nihayat al-murad fi sharh hadiyat Ibn al-‘Imad, ed. ‘‘Abd al-Razzaq al-Halabi (Limmasol, 1994).
al-Hadiqa al-nadiyya: Sharh al-tariqa al-muhammadiyya, 2 vols. (Lailbur, 1977).
Hillat al-dhahab al-ibriz fi rihlat Ba'albak wa-al-Biqa' al-'aziz.
Kitab 'ilm al-malahah fi 'ilm al-falahah.
References
Islamic Cultural Centre. (1970). The Islamic Quarterly. Islamic Cultural Centre, p.86.
Barbara von Schlegell, "Sufism in the Ottoman Arab World: Shaykh ‘‘Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi" (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1997.
Smoking and "Early Modern" Sociability: The Great Tobacco Debate in the Ottoman Middle East (Seventeenth to Eighteenth Centuries)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abd_al-Ghani_al-Nabulsi"