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@seeker_ikb: You don't have to be a 'sufi shaykh' to be a wali. You seem to be a little obsessed with the formalities of tasawwuf Anyhow, Habib Zayn is a sufi Shaykh, and he has studied with the top Ba 'Alawi scholars (who were both fuqaha and sufiyyah) of his time i.e. Mufti of Tarim al-Habib Muhammad b. Salim b. Hafiz and al-Habib 'Alawi b. 'AbduLlah b. Shihab ad-Din. He taught alongside al-Habib Muhammad al-Haddar in al-Bayda' during the troubles in hadramawt, as well as al-Habib Salim b. 'AbduLlah b. Umar ash-Shatiri (another top figure of the Ba 'Alawis) in his Ribat in Madinah for 11 years. al-Habib 'Umar b. Hafiz was one of his students during his time at al-Bayda' . . . All the shaykhs he studied with whom I have mentioned are Sufi shaykhs and have multiple chains in tarbiyah going back to the messenger of Allah sallaLlahu 'alayhi wa alihi wa sallam, as well as all being sayyids, some of whom have what's known as the golden chain (like Habib Muhammad b. Hafiz), where every one of their fathers was a hafiz al-qur'an, 'alim and sayyid.

was-salam