Sheikh ahmed tijani biography

SHAYKH AHMAD AL-TIJANI AND THE Formation OF THE TIJANIYYA

[Excerpts from Zachary Artificer, On the Path of the Prophet: Shaykh Ahmad Tijani and the Tariqa Muhammadiyya (Atlanta, 2005), p. 24-77. Renovate with permission of publisher.]

Sidi Abu Abbas Ahmad al-Tijani was born in decency Southwest Algerian oasis town of Show the way Madi on the twelfth of Saphar in the year 1150 (1737 C.E.). He was a descendent of honourableness Prophet Muhammad through Fatima Zahra’s chief son Hasan and later through Mawlay Idris, the celebrated founder of Maroc. His father was Sidi Muhammad troublesome. al-Mukhtar b. Ahmad b. Muhammad delicate. Salam, a prominent scholar whose cover hailed from the Moroccan Abda dynasty and whose grandfather had immigrated show Ain Madi fleeing a Portuguese raid less than a century before Shaykh Tijani’s birth. This same ancestor was perhaps one of the more notable of the Tijani line prior let down Shaykh Ahmad Tijani, and it in your right mind reported that he used to imply so much in spiritual retreat (khalwa) that he would have to run to the five prayers in authority mosque with his face covered, contrarily onlookers would fall so heedlessly livestock love with him that they would thereafter never be able to take from him. Shaykh Tijani’s mother, Aisha, was the daughter of Muhammad unhandy. Sanusi (no known relation to Muhammad al-Sanusi, the founder of the Sanusiyya), and was noted for her deference and generosity.

The young Shaykh Tijani continuing in the scholarly tradition of surmount family and city, memorizing the Qur’an by the age seven before uneasy to the study of jurisprudence (fiqh and usul al-fiqh), Prophetic traditions (Hadith), explanation of the Qur’an (tafsir), Qur’anic recitation (tajwid), grammar (nahw) and creative writings (adab), among other branches of grandeur traditional Islamic sciences. According to honesty Jawahir, the Shaykh mastered all longawaited these fields at a very growing age, in part due to distinction force of his resolve but along with because of the quality of jurisdiction teachers. Among his first instructors were masters of their fields, such bit Sidi Mabruk Ibn Ba’afiyya Midawi al-Tijani (not mentioned in the Jawahir orangutan being a relation to Ahmad Tijani), with whom he studied the Mukhtasar of Sidi Khalil, the Risala don the Muqaddama of Ibn Rushd (Averoes) and the Kitab al-‘Ibada of al-Akhdari.

Shaykh Tijani’s prodigious capacity for learning speak angrily to such an early age is explained in the Jawahir by the Shaykh’s own statemet: “When I begin peninsula, I never turn from it.” Interpose another passage describing his love supply the people of religion, the Jawahir describes him as a youth recognize powerful intelligence, such that nothing fleeing his realization. Thus it was go off at a tangent even after he had mastered honesty sciences available in Ain Madi predominant had become by the age virtuous twenty, according to the Jawahir, capital great scholar, jurist and man grounding letters such that people were nascent to partake of the knowledge make a fuss over this newest Mufti (a scholar accredited to issue legal decisions), his hunger for more knowledge pushed him have got to leave the city of his foundation in 1171/1758.

The obvious destination for prole seeker of Islamic knowledge in birth Maghrebi context was Fes, the traditional political, intellectual, cultural and religious head of the area. According to depiction Jawahir, the young Shaykh Tijani tired his time in Fes studying Custom and generally seeking out the ancestors of piety and religion. Among emperor teachers in Fes were many notable for their knowledge and saintliness. Their names are provided here to present Shaykh Ahmad Tijani’s contact with heavygoing of the more significant luminaries type eighteenth-century Moroccan Sufism. Al-Tayyib b. Muhammad al-Sharif of Wazan (d. 1180/1767), who was head of the Wazzaniyya Muhammadan order at the time and justness student of the famous Shaykh Tuhami descending from the Jazuli shaykh Ahmad al-Sarsari, gave Tijani permission to earn spiritual instruction, only to have grandeur young scholar refuse so that subside might work harder on himself a while ago becoming a spiritual guide. Sidi Abdullah b. ‘Arabi al-Mada’u (d. 1188) was likewise impressed with his student, effective him that God was guiding him by the hand, and before Tijani left him, the old scholar thoroughly his student with his own keeping. Another scholar to predict to Tijani an exalted spiritual attainment was Sidi Ahmad al-Tawash (d. 1204). From Sidi Ahmad al-Yemeni, Shaykh Tijani took nobleness Qadariyya Sufi order, and from Abu Abdullah Sidi Muhammad al-Tizani he took the Nasiriyya order. He also took the order of Abu Abbas Ahmad al-Habib al-Sijilmasy (d. 1165), who came to him in a dream, position his mouth on his, and coached him a secret name. Although Tijani did receive spiritual permission (idhn) overlook these orders, his association with them should not be considered the positive element in his spiritual development. However the imprint of his early relation with these orders was not wholly lost with the later development have possession of the Tijaniyya, and their emphasis tolerance an elite “orthodox” Sufism, firmly fixed within the bounds of the Qur’an and Sunna, was an essential entity of Shaykh Tijani’s new order, chimp will be seen later in prop three.

Even from the time of Shaykh Tijani’s first visit to Fes, dignity young scholar’s ascendent motivation seemed authorization be the attainment of a celestial opening (fath). So when another pills his teachers, Sidi Muhammad al-Wanjili (d. 1185), a man known for empress saintliness, predicted for him a maqam (spiritual station) of Qutbaniyya (Polehood) equivalent to that of Abu Hasan al-Shadhili, but that his fath would comprehend in the desert, Tijani hastened king departure from Fes. The Jawahir accounts that he spent some time be grateful for the desert Zawiya of the popular Qutb Sidi Abd al-Qadir b. Muhammad al-Abyad (known as Sidi al-Shaykh) heretofore returning to Ain Madi, only money leave his home soon again form return to al-Abyad before moving never-ending to Tlemcen. His activities during that time consisted of teaching Qur’anic explication (tafsir) and Hadith in whatever immediate area he happened to be staying stretch continuing an apparently rigorous practice catch the fancy of asceticism, including frequent fasting and superogatory worship. During his stay in Tlemcen, he received through Divine inspiration bigger assurance of his coming grand illumination.

It was from southwest Algeria, then, avoid Shaykh Ahmad Tijani set out get round 1186/1773 to accomplish the requisite Islamic pilgrimage (Hajj). Shaykh Tijani’s first level of note en-route to Mecca was at Algiers, where he met Sidi Muhammad b. Abd al-Rahman al-Azhary (d. 1793), a prominent muqaddam (spiritual guide) of the Khalwatiyya Sufi order who had received initiation at the workmen donkey-work of Shaykh al-Azhar Muhammad al-Hifni. Illustriousness Khalwatiyya, originating in fourteenth century Peninsula, had become by the eighteenth hundred, under the tutelage of Mustafa al-Bakri, one of the most prominent at once in Egypt and a locus storeroom Islamic and Sufi renewal.

Shaykh Tijani’s relationship with this order was perhaps loftiness most significant influence upon his meditating prior to his waking meetings right the Prophet, and he did slogan leave Algiers before receiving initiation rot the hands of al-Azhary. No clear in your mind such an encounter would have wanting additional impetus to meet, as of course later would, some of the day’s most renowned Khalwati scholars, such introduction Mahmud al-Kurdi and Muhammad al-Samman, long-standing passing through Egypt and the Hijaz.

Shaykh Ahmad Tijani’s journey East brought him also to Tunis, home of authority famous Zaytuna mosque and university, which predates both the Azhar in Port and the Qarawin in Fes. Mood of the ease with which alien scholars could integrate into diverse Islamic communities, upon his entry into Port, Shaykh Tijani immediately met with rectitude people of saintly renown, such gorilla Sidi Abd al-Samad al-Ruhwij, and took up teaching at Zaytuna, this tight his syllabus including Ibn ‘Atta Allah’s Kitab al-hikam. It seems he prefabricated enough of an impression on nobleness scholars there for the Emir, Disregard Ali (r. 1757-1782), to offer him a lucrative permanent teaching position throw in the towel Zaytuna. But the Emir’s request confidential the opposite effect on Shaykh Tijani to that which was hoped optimism and, reportedly not wanting to rebut dependence on state authority, he lengthened his journey East.

Arriving in Mecca fair after Ramadan in the year 1187/1774, Shaykh Ahmad Tijani stayed long ample supply to accomplish the rites of nobleness Hajj. During his stay there do something also, as was his custom, soughtafter out the people of “goodness, holiness, righteousness and happiness.” His search roguish him to a mysterious saint evade India, Ahmad b. Abdullah al-Hindi, who had made a vow to write to no one except his retainer. On knowledge of Tijani’s presence abuse his house, al-Hindi sent him depiction message, “You are the inheritor try to be like my knowledge, secrets, gifts and lights,” and informed the pilgrim that sharp-tasting himself was to die in unornamented matter of days (it came assail pass on the exact day al-Hindi had predicted for himself), but put off he should go visit the Qutb (Pole) Muhammad al-Samman when in Medina.

After accomplishing the ziyara (visitation) to righteousness Prophet’s tomb, where “God completed top aspiration and longing” to greet rendering Prophet, Shaykh Tijani went to arrival the renowned Shaykh Muhammad Abd al-Karim al-Samman (d. 1189/1775). Like al-Kurdi, al-Samman was a member of the Khalwatiyya order, being one of two group of pupils given full ijaza (permission) by Mustafa al-Bakri; the other was al-Kurdi’s shaykh, Muhammad al-Hifni. Aside for his ground intellectual and spiritual prowess, al-Samman has become famous on account of selection disciple, Ahmad al-Tayyib (d. 1824), who spread his ideas in the Soudan as the Sammaniyya order. Before Shaykh Tijani’s departure, al-Samman informed him disturb certain secret “names” and told him that he was to be leadership al-qutb al-jami’ (the comprehensive Pole).

On government return from the Hijaz, Shaykh Tijani stopped in Cairo and visited Mahmud al-Kurdi, the Khalwati representative in Empire whom he had first visited tempt his way to the Hijaz. Nobleness Jawahir reports that many of illustriousness ‘ulama of the city came put your name down visit the travelling scholar during that second visit. Demonstrating his profound get the gist for his teachers of the Khalwati tradition, Tijani accepted from al-Kurdi have knowledge of be a muqaddam (propagator) of goodness Khalwati order in North Africa. Though Tijani’s later initiation at the work employees of the Prophet would obviate well-fitting need, the Jawahir reproduces the cycle of transmission (silsilah) of the Khalwatiyya, stretching from the Prophet through Prizefighter ibn Abi Talib, Hasan al-Basri, Junayd, Umar al-Khalwati (from whom the give orders derives its name), Bakri, and Kurdi (not to mention all the names) to Shaykh Tijani.

The beginning of dialect trig distinctive “Tijani” order can be come to pass with the appearance of the Soothsayer Muhammad to Shaykh Ahmad Tijani interject a waking vision. This occurred make happen 1784, in the desert oasis more than a few Abi Samghun. The Prophet informed him that he himself was his inventor on the Path and told him to leave the shaykhs he esoteric previously followed. The Shaykh then stodgy the basis of a new wird and was given permission to check up “spiritual training to the creation be bounded by [both] the general and unlimited (itlaq).” The Prophet told him: “You financial assistance not indebted for any favor differ the shaykhs of the Path, give reasons for I am your means (wasita) deed your support in the [spiritual] consciousness, so leave the entirety of what you have taken from all illustriousness tariqas.”

Shaykh Ahmad Tijani and a travel of his closest companions took invalidate residence in Fes beginning in 1213/1798. By the time of his appearance in Fes, Shaykh Tijani’s fame slightly a scholar possessing religious charisma moral blessing (baraka) had spread throughout representation Maghreb, so that his entry bump into the city was a matter sell some importance for the political remarkable religious establishment. The Shaykh was tumble by a delegation of scholars chosen by the Sultan. The relationship give it some thought developed between Shaykh Tijani and Foremost Mawlay Sulayman is important in event the religious personality of both soldiers. After a series of tests acquiescent ascertain the veracity of Tijani’s claims to sainthood, such as giving honesty saint money in a manner yes would not have been able assign accept as a man of 1 Mawlay Sulayman became closely linked cast off your inhibitions the newcomer, appointing him to surmount council of religious scholars and bestowal him a large house (“the Abode of Mirrors”). The Sultan’s initiation test the Tijaniyya has often been denied by non-Tijanis, but Tijanis have wellkept his discipleship to their Shaykh. Tijani tradition has chronicled a series staff letters between Shaykh Tijani and magnanimity Sultan clearly indicating a shaykh-disciple association. In one exchange, the Shaykh writes the Sultan urging him to alarm God and keep to His person in charge and then informs him of honourableness some of the benefits of decency Tijani wird as told him soak the Prophet, and tells him state under oath the proper manners for experiencing magnanimity vision of the Prophet. The Dominant replied,

The ransom of our parents, munch through master and our shaykh and bright and breezy Muhammadan example, Abu ‘Abbas Sidi Ahmad. I praise God to you service to Him and I send blessings and peace upon His noble Sibyl. Your most blessed lines have reached us, and we praise God influence Most High on account of what He has made special for subsequent by them from the pleasure pressure the master, the Messenger of Deity … and this matter I physical exertion not want that I should affair myself to leave its performance, explode I am not safe from drain or neglecting its fulfillment … [and I pray that you] remove colossal from all that prevents me overexert looking at his [the Prophet’s] well-bred face, that [you may] surround escapism with the degree of those button up to the glory of the Go-between of God. And [this] is necessary of you, since you know range my righteousness is a righteousness alien my guardianship of God over them [the people], and that my bane is their corruption, so the entreaty for me is a prayer pursue the general [population].

Aside from whatever recondite connection existed between the Sultan near the founder of the Tijaniyya, concerning explanation of Mawlay Sulayman’s warm admission of Shaykh Ahmad was the event that the Sultan “found, in class person of Shaykh Tijani, the badge that personified by his behavior tell his teaching, the indelible precepts pale the Shari’a.” Certainly, the Shaykh’s outcome of Sufism firmly within Islamic sanctified law, while maintaining the ascendancy garbage the Tariqa Muhammadiyya, the “path manipulate the Prophet,” over both Sufi crucial Fiqh (jurisprudence) historical traditions, would be born with been attractive to the reform-minded Sultan.

The Shaykh’s time in Fes was contemptuously occupied with the solidification of honourableness tariqa and the training and transmission out of muqaddams (propagators). Before say publicly end of his life, he challenging attracted thousands of followers and portend out muqaddams such as Ali Harazem al-Barada, Muhammad Ghali and Muhammad al-Hafiz as far away as the Hijaz and Mauritania. Before the completion heed the Tijani zawiya, his followers reduce at the Shaykh’s own house, loftiness House of Mirrors. This house jar still be visited today, and allowing it has fallen into a circumstances of disrepair, its original majesty has not been lost. It has information bank expansive courtyard decorated entirely with shocker and yellow zellij tile work communicate a large fountain in the interior, flanked by a number of flat that include what was the Shaykh’s library, a room for khalwa (spiritual retreat), a salon, the bedroom, ethics kitchen, etc., with rooms for class Shaykh’s family and guests on dignity second floor. It is easy succeed imagine the house serving as description center of prayer and for glory teaching and diffusion of the Shaykh’s ideas.

Established in Fes, the Shaykh’s mass continued to grow, prompting him crush 1215 (1800), by order of blue blood the gentry Prophet, to begin construction of depiction Tijani zawiya that still serves significance a place of congregation for representation order to this day. The transcription of this fabulous specimen of Maroc artistry was financed by Tijani’s following as well as from his shine funds. Shaykh Ahmad Tijani passed chomp through this world in 1230 (1815) encounter the age of eighty. He evaluate behind him a firmly established anathema, the Tariqa Muhammadiyya emphasis of which inspired many of his later suite to renew and spread Islam get your skates on diverse communities far from the common zawiya in Fes. Shaykh Ahmad Tijani was buried in his zawiya escort Fes, which today remains a affections of congregation for Tijanis around distinction world.