INTRODUCTION TO THE TIJANIYYA BROTHERHOOD 1 The Tijaniyya dates back to the end of the eighteenth century, being founded by Ahmed al-Tijani in Morocco. He was born in 1737 to a black mother and a father who was a venerated man of learning. Ahmed al-Tijani felt the call of Sufi life when he was twenty-one years old. By this time he already had a firm foundation of Islamic learning. He travelled to Fez seeking to meet Sufi sheikhs, and applied himself to the study of the Prophetic traditions. Before he returned to Algeria, he had joined three Sufi brotherhoods including the Qadiriiya and the Nasiriyya. In 1772, he commenced his pilgrimage to Mecca during which he was initiated into the Khalwatiyya order. Once in Mecca, he came under the Indian Sufi sheikh, Ahmad b. Abdullah, who died two months later. In 1782, Ahmad al-Tijani announced to his followers that the Prophet had appeared to him in daylight and authorized him to start his work of spiritual guidance and assigned to him the wirds (litanies) of his order, marking the beginning of the Tijaniyya order. In 1789, he moved to Fez, where he found favour with the Sultan, and in spite of the hostility of the local population towards him, the movement flourished through Algiers, Tunisia, Morocco and Mauritania. He remained there until his death in 1815. The founder of the Tijaniyya wrote no treatise of his teachings at his death. The beliefs and doctrines are instead taken from books written by three of his companions containing re-scripts, expositions of theological questions, and aphorisms made by al-Tijani. Courtesy of Wollof Resources.
Posted on: Thu, 22 May 2014 11:12:52 +0000
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