Abu-Sa'id Abu'l Kheyr is revered as one of the fathers of Sufism and the Rubaiyat. His philosophy of self annihilation in the path of divine love became popularized by Rumi two centuries later.

His understanding of Islam was different—nearness and understanding of God is achieved through selflessness and love. The "I" was to be abandoned if closeness to God was to be achieved.

Abu Said was born in North Eastern Persia a thousand years ago. He was educated in Islamic scholarship and lived and practiced as a Muslim cleric. At a certain point he developed a revolutionary new understanding of being and presented it in the form of poetry. He used, what seems, simple love poems as a way to express and illuminate mysticism. His philosophy was sustained and propagated in a Sufi center he founded in Nishapur.