{{Infobox religious biography|religion=Islam | era = Islamic golden age | name = Abū Bakr 'Abdollāh b. Moḥammad b. Šahāvar b. Anūšervān al-Rāzī | title= Najm Al-Din Razi | birth_date = 573/1177 | death_date = 654/1256 | Maddhab = Sufi | school_tradition= Kubrawiyya | ethnicity = Persian | main_interests = Sufism | influences = Najmeddin Kubra |works = Mirsad Al-Ibad Men Mabda' Ela Al-Ma'ad }} Abū Bakr 'Abdollāh b. Moḥammad b. Šahāvar b. Anūšervān al-Rāzī () commonly known by the laqab, or sobriquet, of Najm al-Dīn Dāya, meaning "wetnurse" (573 AH/1177 – 654 AH/1256) was a 13th-century Persian Sufi. Hamid Algar, translator of the Persian Merṣād to English, states the application of "wetnurse" to the author of the Merṣād derives from the idea of the initiate on the Path being a newborn infant who needs suckling to survive. Dāya followed the Sufi order, Kubrawiyya, established by one of his greatest influences, Najm al-Dīn Kubrā. Dāya traveled to Kārazm and soon became a morīd (pupil, one who follows the shaykh master and learns from him, undergoing spiritual training) of Najm al-Dīn Kubrā. Kubrā then appointed Shaikh Majd al-Dīn Bagdādī as the spiritual trainer who also became Dāya's biggest influence. Dāya constantly refers to al-Dīn Bagdādī as "our shaikh." When his master, Najm al-Dīn Kubrā, was murdered in 618/1221, Dāya fled to Hamadan, then to Ardabil, and then to Anatolia where he finally settled with a fellow contemporary master Rumi. There he put the teachings of his master Najmeddin Kubra into a writing in Persian called by the Arabic title Mirṣād al-ʻibād min al-mabdaʼ ilāʼl-maʻād (ِِArabic: مرصاد العباد من المبدأ الی المعاد) which is shortly known as Merṣād al-ʻebād, and has gained prominence as a major reference text on Sufism and Islamic theology. The critical edition of Merṣād al-ʻebād by Mohammad-Amin Riahi was published in 1973 in Tehran and since then has been continued to be in print. This is a closely annotated scholarly edition, along with a comprehensive introduction on the life and works of Najmeddin Razi, which has been the major reference for later studies on Najmeddin Razi and Sufism. Merṣād al-ʻebād was translated by Hamid Algar into English as The Path of God's Bondsmen: From Origin to Return.Biography Rāzi was born in Rey, then one of the major centers of urban life and culture in pre-Mongol Iran, in 1177. At the age of 26, Rāzī travelled through Syria, Egypt, Ḥejāz,