Tariqa muhammadiyya

In following his family scholarly tradition, Shaykh Abu Abbas Ahmad memorised the Holy Qur'an by the age of seven years and then went on to study the sciences of fiqh and usul al-fiqh, Hadith, tafseer, tajweed, grammar and literature. He is known to have said “When I begin something, I never turn from it.”  This is testified by the fact that he mastered these sciences amongst others by the age of 20 then in 1758 left his home town for Fes, Morocco in pursuit of further knowledge.

In Fes he met many teachers and studied in different areas then began teaching Tafseer of Qur'an and Hadith. He also regularly fasted and committed extra acts of worship. In 1773, having returned to Algeria, he decided to take a trip to perform the Hajj. On route, he met a prominent spiritual guide of the Khalwatiya tariqa, Al-Azhary in Algiers. Further along his journey east towards Makkah, he met scholars in Tunis, and was offered a position at the infamous Zaytouna mosque and university to which he declined as he did not wish to be dependent on the state. 

Just after Ramadan 1774, he arrived in Makkah and stayed long enough to perform the rites of the Hajj. During his stay as was his custom, he sought out people of goodness, piety, righteousness and happiness. His search led him to a mysterious saint from India, Ahmad bin Abdullah al-Hindi, who had made a vow to speak to no one except his servant. On knowledge of Tijani’s presence at his house, al-Hindi sent him the message, “You are the inheritor of my knowledge, secrets, gifts and lights,” and informed the pilgrim that he himself was to die in a matter of days (it came to pass on the exact day al-Hindi had predicted for himself), but that he should go visit the Qutb (Pole) Muhammad al-Samman when in Medina.

After completing his Ziyara of the Prophet's tomb ﷺ, which he had longed for a long time, Shaykh Tijani went to visit the renowned Shaykh Muhammad Abd al-Karim al-Samman who was also a member of the Khalwatiyya tariqa, his disciple, Ahmad al-Tayyib spread his ideas in the Sudan as the Sammaniyya tariqa. Before Shaykh Tijani left, al-Samman informed him of certain secret “names” and told him that he was to be the al-qutb al-jami’ (the comprehensive Pole).

On returning from Makkah, he met scholars again in Cairo and showed his deep respect for different tariqas. The beginning of a distinctive “Tijani” tariqa was with the appearance of the Prophet Muhammad to Shaykh Ahmad Tijani in a waking vision. This occurred in 1784, in Abi Samghun. The Prophet ﷺ informed him that he himself was his initiator on the Path and told him to leave the shaykhs he had previously followed. The Shaykh then received the basis of a new wird and was given permission to give spiritual training to the creation in both the general and unlimited. The Prophet ﷺ told him: “You are not indebted for any favor from the shaykhs of the Path, for I am your means (wasita) and your support in the spiritual realisation, so leave the entirety of what you have taken from all the tariqas."

With this event, in 1798, Shaykh Ahmad Tijani and some close companions settled in Fes and news of his blessings and charismatic personality spread out throughout the Maghreb. Sultan Mawley and Shaykh Tijani had a scholar-disciple relationship and were close. The sultan supported Shaykh Ahmad with accommodation and found, in Shaykh Tijani's behavior and teachings, the Shari’a. The Shaykh’s sufism, the Tariqa Muhammadiyya, (the path of the Prophet ﷺ) attracted the sultan because it was within the Islamic sacred law. Before the end of his life, Shaykh Ahmad had attracted thousands of followers and sent out Muqaddams as far as Makkah and Mauritania.

By order of the Prophet ﷺ in 1800, the Tijaniyya zawiya was set up in Fes which still exists to the present day. He passed in 1815 at the age of 80. He left behind him a firmly established order, the Tariqa Muhammadiyya, which inspired many of his later followers to renew and spread Islam in diverse communities far from the mother zawiya in Fes. Shaykh Ahmad Tijani was buried in his zawiya in Fes, which today remains a center of congregation for Tijanis around the world.