We have been tracing the roots of the Tariqa Muhammadiyya movements of the 19th century in history, from the time of the Messenger of Allah (pbuh), and have arrived at Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha’rani/al-Sha’rawi (d. 1565). As we said before, our next stop was Ahmad Muhammad al-Dajani, who had taken many Sufi paths through the line of Sha’rani, there being only two people between them. But since one of the main features of the Tariqa Muhammadiyya is waking vision of the Prophet (pbuh), we will start our story a little earlier.
At around the beginning of the 16th century, a Sufi shaykh by the name of Ahmad left the Jerusalem suburb of al-Dajaniya (later known al-Jaaniya) and moved to Jerusalem, after which he received the appelation al-Dajani, which would henceforth become the surname of his descendants. This Ahmad al-Dajani was considered to be the “Pole of the Gnostics” and the “Paragon of the Mystics” of his time, and was known as Shihabuddin. Shihabuddin Ahmad would receive instruction from the Circassian shaykh Muhammad Ibn Arraq of Damscus, as well as Ibn Arraq’s own shaykh Ali ibn Maymun. These two were Hanbali sufis who revived and propogated the thought of Ibn Arabi in Syria and Turkey in the sixteenth century, and as the greatest defenders of Ibn Arabi in their time, we will see some parallels between them and between al-Qushashi and Ibn Idris. Furthermore, Ibn Maymun’s tariqa, the Khawatiriyya (aka the Arraqiyya), would be one of the Sufi paths that al-Sanusi took and considered to be very important and discussed in his book al-Salsabeel al-Muin. Thus we see many connections already to the later Tariqa Muhammadiyya figures.
Now Shihabuddin Ahmad al-Dajani saw in a waking vision the spirit of God’s Messenger David, who said to him, “Save me oh Ahmad, for my rescue will be at your hands.” What God’s Messenger, peace be upon him, meant by that is that his tomb at Mt. Zion was in the hand of Christian monks. So Ahmad al-Dajani worked hard toward getting control of David’s Tomb[1]. As we know from Ottoman court records, the Ottoman sultan Sulayman the Magnificent expelled all the Christians from Mt Zion in the mid-16th century and gave Mt. Zion as a waqf (religious endownment) to shaykh Ahmad al-Dajani and his followers and descendants, and put the Tomb of David under his care[2].
Another important famous vision that happened to Shihabuddin was when he was in his khalwa and the Messenger of God, Muhammad (pbuh), appeared to him in the waking state and told him to learn Arabic grammar, giving him some basics. Later, Shihabuddin would become an expert in the subject.
Now one of Shihabuddin’s many sons, Yunis, moved to Medina, where his grandson Ahmad was raised and grew up. Ahmad Muhammad Yunis al-Dajani (d. 1661) would grow up to become (arguably) the most famous and important scholar in the Hijaz at his time, and would be known as Safiyy al-Din al-Qushashi. He was mufti of both the Maliki and Shafi’i madhaahib in Medina, and the shaykh of the Naqshbandi Tariqa. As a Sufi, he and his student al-Kurani would become pivotal links between the Sufism of India, Southeast Asia, and Arabia. Furthermore, the two of them became the greatest authorities on, and defenders of, Ibn Arabi in their time. When controversies related to Ibn Arabi arose, whether in India or Morocco, a letter would be sent to them for clarification. This reminds us of Ali ibn Maymun, shaykh of Shihabuddin Ahmad al-Dajani’s tariqa, and reminds us of Ahmad ibn Idris, who defended Ibn Arabi in open debate with the Wahhabi scholars of Asir. As for the khirqa, or Sufi cloak of initiation, in the path of Ibn Arabi, he inherited it from the line of al-Sha’rani, with two people in between.
We also see from al-Sanusi’s writings that al-Qushashi was initiated into the Hatimiyya Tariqa (the way of Ibn Arabi) through a chain that goes back to his great grandfather Shihabuddin Ahmad. Al-Sanusi says,
And I relate this tariqa with the (same) chain to Abu al-Baqaa al-Makki who said, “And this tariqa came to our shaykh (Safiyy al-Qushashi) from his father shaykh Muhammad and to him from his father shaykh Yunus knows as Abdul Nabi, and to him from his father the shaykh of his time, my master the shaykh of noble lineage Ahmad ibn Ali al-Dajani and to him from his shaykh the shaykh Muhammad bin Arraq and to him from the great gnosic shaykh Abil Fadl Muhammad bin Muhammad known as al-Imam…[and it goes on until it reaches] Muhyiddin bin Ali bin al-Arabi al-Hatimi [and then it goes on to two more people above him].”[11]
But the one thing that al-Qushashi was most famous for, and the thing that is always written in all biographical mentions of him, is that he learned the entire Qur’an at the hands of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) both in sleep and while awake. Of course he had by then memorized the Qur’an, but “high” chains of Qur’anic recital are very highly prized, whether for their shortness (in the number of people in it going back to the Prophet), or for the fame of certain scholars in it. And so the Meccan scholar al-Ujaymi could write with pride that he was honored to have recited the Qur’an at the hands of al-Qushashi, who had recited the Qur’an at the hands of the Prophet. This, of course, reminds us of the founder of one of the Muhammadan Ways, Ahmad al-Tijani, who had also taken the Qur’an from the Prophet, and who had given it with this “high” chain to al-Sanusi.
This brings us to another thing shared between al-Qushashi and al-Tijani, and others in the history of the Tariqa Muhammadiyya. Al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi (d. 912) was probably the first to write about what he called the Seal, or Khatam, of the Awliya. In his writings, he spoke of a great Sufi who will come much later in time, and who will be the Seal of Wilaya. Yet, while definitly speaking of someone who will come later, al-Hakim seemed to be hinting that he himself had reached that level. So is he then speaking of a spiritual level, or of a person? It is likely that he meant both. Being a seal does not necessarily mean, as in the case of Prophethood, being the last. Instead the word “seal” means a different thing for wilaya, as Ibn Arabi explains:
The Seal is not called the Seal because of the moment in which he appears, but because he is the one who most completely realises the station of direct vision (maqaam al-’iyaan). [7]
Ibn Arabi claimed to be the Seal of Muhammadan Wilaya, the one fortold by al-Tirmidhi, and the Seal for all times. Yet Sitt Ajam, the woman who became his spiritual successor, and claimed to have understood him more than any of his direct, or living, students, also claimed to have been a khatm[8]. In her understanding then, being a khatm is probably a spiritual station. This is what al-Qushashi wrote on the margins of one of the books in his library: He said that the Khatmiyya is a spiritual station that has always existed and that there will always be one person who has reached this station in every age, until the end of times. He himself, says al-Qushashi, had reached this station and become the khatm.
Two other main figures in the Tariqa Muhammadiyya movements will claim this station: Ahmad al-Tijani and al-Mirghani. Both of them called themselves the Khatm, and al-Mirghani’s tariqa became known as the Khatmiyya. And interestingly enough, while Ahmad ibn Idris never seems to have claimed such a thing for himself, his successor al-Sanusi referred to him in a letter to a disciple as “The last of the great gnostic poles” (khaatimat al-’aarifeen al-aqtaab al-idhaam)[3]. The word used in this instance, khaatima, is of the same arabic root for khatm and means “end”, “final”, “closing”, “conclusion”, or “finale”. So perhaps al-Sanusi is saying that Ibn Idris would be the last gnostic pole of a certain caliber, and that there will be ones after him but not of the same caliber of greatness; and if this is what he meant then this is different than calling him a khatm.
Finally, al-Qushashi seems to have been the common “ancestor” of all the future Muhammadan Ways. For example, we see that Abd al-Karim al-Samman, founder of the first Tariqa Muhammadiyya (later known as the Sammaniyya), has chains that go back to al-Qushashi[4]. By default, this would be the same for Ahmad al-Tijani’s Tariqa Muhammadiyya (later known as the Tijaniyya), because it branched off from the Sammaniyya. Al-Qushashi’s successor Ibrahim al-Kurani wrote a book called Ithaaf al-Dhaki at the request of his Indonesian disciples, and this work was quoted in al-Hajj Umar’s Rimaah, the most important book of the Tijaniyya order and one of the major Sufi texts of West Africa[5].
As for al-Qushashi’s other main student, Abul Baqaa al-Ujaymi, he was the link to Ahmad ibn Idris and al-Sanusi, though al-Sanusi seems to have some chains that go back to al-Qushashi through al-Kurani as well. It seems that al-Ujaymi gave initiation to Ahmad ibn Idris’ shaykh al-Tazi. And as for al-Sanusi, that was not the only chain of his that went back to al-Ujaymi: he had tens of them. Al-Sanusi has many chains going back to al-Qushashi, though many different people, which is no surprise considering the importance of al-Qushashi and his disciples. But most of his chains go back to al-Ujaymi in one way or another, and he even quotes him extensively, copying almost an entire book of his and placing it in his book Al-Salsabeel al-Mu’in! And he often quoted al-Ujaymi’s definition of the Tariqa al-Muhammadiyya, which includes the following:
The Meccan scholar, Abu ‘l-Baqa’ al-Ujaymi said: The basis of this path [the tariqa Muhammadiyya] is that the inner being of the one who follows it is absorbed in the vision of [the Prophet’s] dhat (his body, made up of light), peace be upon him, while he is zealously imitating the Prophet outwardly in word and deed, busying his tongue with the tasliya [invoking blessings upon him], and devoting himself to him at all times, whether in seclusion or in public, until honoring the Prophet comes to dominate his heart and to permeate his inner being to such an extent that he need only hear the Prophet’s name and he starts trembling, his heart is overwhelmed beholding him and the visible appearances of the Prophet emerge before his inner sight. Then God will bestow upon him His clemency, outwardly and inwardly. Thereafter, he will see a vision of the Prophet in many of his dreams while asleep as a first step; secondly he will see him unexpectedly while dozing off. Finally, he will see him awake. [6]
Al-Sanusi even calls al-Ujaymi shaykh mashayikhna, or the shaykh of our shaykhs. When discussing the Tariqa Muhammadiyya and all his chains for that tariqa, he lists more than one going back to al-Ujaymi, including the following:
- Al-Sanusi took the Tariqa Muhammadiyya from al-Badr al-Mustaghanmi from al-Sindi[9] from Abd al-Qadir al-Siddiqi al-Makki from al-Ujaymi.
- Al-Sanusi from al-Jamal al-Ujaymi (al-Ujaymi’s grandson) from al-Murtada al-Zabidi from Abi al-Tayyib al-Fasi al-Madani from al-Ujyami.
- Al-Sanusi from each of al-Jamal, al-Attar, and al-Jamal al-Ujaymi, from al-Fattani from al-Ujaymi from al-Qushashi from al-Shinnawi from Abd al-Wahhabi bin Abd al-Quddus from al-Khawwas.
- Al-Sanusi from each of al-Jamal, al-Attar, and al-Jamal al-Ujaymi, from al-Fattani from al-Ujaymi from al-Qushashi from al-Shinnawi from al-Shaarani from al-Khawwas from al-Matbooli.[10]
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1. Al-Nabahani. Jaami’ Karaamaat al-Awliyaa’. On Ahmad al-Dajani.
2. Layish, Aharon. ” Waqfs’ and Sufi Monasteries in the Ottoman Policy
of Colonization”. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African
Studies, University of London, Vol. 50, No. 1. (1987), pp. 69.
And U. Heid, Ottoman Documents on Palestine, 1552-1615, Oxford 1960, 149,
no. 97.
3. Saleh al-Jaafari. A’taar Azhaar Aghsaan Hadheerat al-Taqdis. Cairo: Dar Jawami’ al-Kalim, pg 107.
4. “Glimpses into Early Wahhabi Thought” (riyada.blogspot.com/2006/09/glimpses-into-early-wahhabi-thought.html).
5. Martin van Bruinessen. “Kurdish `Ulama and their Indonesian Disciples”. (www.let.uu.nl/~martin.vanbruinessen/personal/publications/Kurdish_ulama_Indonesia.htm)
6. Combination of translations from Radtke, “Ibriziana: Themes and Sources of a Seminal Sufi Work”, and R.S. O’Fahey, Enigmatic Saint: Ahmad ibn Idris and the Idrisi Tradition.
7. Stephen Hirtenstein, The Unlimited Mercifier: The spiritual life and thought of Ibn Arab, pg 139.
8. Based on the yet unpublished Master’s thesis of Fatima al-Zahra’ Langhi.
9. Muhammad Hayya al-Sindi, the main teacher of, and source of influence on, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. See riyada.blogspot.com/2006/09/glimpses-into-early-wahhabi-thought.html
10. Muhammad bin Ali al-Sanusi, al-Manhal al-Rawiyy al-Rai’q, al-Majmu’a al-Mukhtara, Manchester: 1990, pg 50.
11. Muhammad bin Ali al-Sanusi, Al-Salsabeel al-Muin, al-Majmu’a al-Mukhtara, Manchester: 1990, pg 46.