Academia, University Occupations and Controversies

During the 1980s CE, ʿUmar Masʿūd lived for quite some time in Riyadh, where he worked as a lecturer in the Department of Business Administration within the Faculty of Management at King Saud University.⁴⁸⁰ In the course of his stay in the Saudi capital, he was a source of inspiration for the Tijānīs of the country, who would regularly come together in his house on the campus of the university. One of these visitors at the time, who would later become a sincere disciple, describes him as an extremely modern and reasonable Sufi whose command of religious sources attracted him to Sufism.⁴⁸¹

Towards the end of the decade, he left Saudi Arabia to settle in the city of Atbara, located some 310 kilometres north of Khartoum, in the River Nile State. His house came to be a gathering point for local Tijānīs to perform their rituals and benefit from the spiritual blessings of the shaykh. The house also served as a venue for debates with non-Tijānīs, some of which evolved into extended controversies, such as that which occurred between the Sudanese and his guest Hāshim al-Ḥusayn

477 In 1949, during a visit by Ibn ‘Umar b. Muḥammad al-Kabir, al-Ḥajjāz was appointed as raʾīs al-hayʾat al-ʿāmm li-l-ṭarīqa al-Tijāniyya fī l-sudan (president of the general assembly of the Tijāniyya brotherhood in Sudan). In 1976, he occupied the post of dean of the faculty of Islamic Studies at Omdurman Islamic University. For an account of his life, see al-Fātiḥ al-Nūr, al-Tijānīyya wa-l-mustaqbal, pp. 239-45; Muḥyī al-Dīn al-Ṭaʿmī, Ṭabaqāʾt al-Tijānīyya, pp. 224-228.

478 During his years as the spiritual head of the brotherhood from 1973 until his death in 1994, Bensālim b.

Muḥammad al-Kabīr visited Sudan many times. For his biography, see al-Fātiḥ al-Nūr, al-Tijānīyya wa-l-mustaqbal, pp. 185-190; Muḥyī al-Dīn al-Ṭaʿmī, Ṭabaqāʾt al-Tijānīyya, pp. 201-205.

479 For a complete list of his many masters, see: Haytham b. ʿUmar Tijānī, Shadharāt min tarjamat shaykhinā al-wālid, pp. 14-16.

480 The Sudanese was part of many different developmental, educational and administrative programmes at King Saud University. For a full account, see: Haytham b. ʿUmar al-Tijānī, Shadharāt min tarjamat shaykhinā al-wālid, pp. 11-12.

481 See:

http://sudaneseonline.com/board/52/msg/%D8%B4%D9%8A%D8%AE-

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Rajab, a Sudanese Salafī, which would later take the form of a bitter contest that was carried over into public discussions and even mosque sermons. According to ʿUmar Masʿūd, the Salafī fell short of proving his point; thus, he choose to attack the Tijāniyya through his book al-Qindīl li-kashf mā fī kutub al-Tijāniyya min l-zaygh wa-l-bātil (The Lantern to Reveal the Aberration and Deviation Embeded in Tijānī Books), which was filled with material inappropriate to the original issues that had sparked the controversy.⁴⁸²

While in Atbara, he worked for the Atbara Cement company for some time, before occupying many different administrative and pedagogical roles at the Nile Valley Univerisity, including as a member of the advisory committee, chairmanship of the committee for formulating curricula and Islamic studies at the faculty of education, membership of the board of professors, membership of the council of the faculty of Islamic and Arabic Studies and membership of the board of trustees of the sharīʿa law support fund. He also worked as vice dean of the faculty of commerce, and was finally elected as dean of the same college. His work at the college was abundantly praised by the authorities of the university.⁴⁸³ While it is unknown precisely when and for how long he occupied the post of dean, the controversy into which he entered with Shīʿīs of the city, over the issue of the impeccability of imāms, seems to have occurred during this time. At the last minute, it appears that the the Sudanese retreated from a public debate over the issue that had been planned to take place under the title Ḥiwār sākhin bayn al-Shīʿa wa-l-Duktur ʿUmar Masʿūd (A Heated Discussion Between the Shīʿa and Dr ʿUmar Masʿūd), due to information provided by Shīʿī sources. The reason for his sudden retreat was the unexpected appearance of a certain Shīʿī shaykh called Muʿtaṣim al-Sudānī, with whom the Sudanese had previously met, without informing him of the forthcoming debate.⁴⁸⁴ The same issue would nonetheless later form the topic of an informal discussion between the two that was held in ʿUmar Masʿūd’s office at the Nile Valley University, though without reaching a result.⁴⁸⁵ Like his Egyptian master Muḥammad al-Ḥāfiẓ, the Sudanese reportedly debated with Christians on many occasions, both within and outside of Sudan,

482 ʿUmar Masʿūd, Iṭfāʾ al-qandīl wa-bayān mā-fihi min al-kidhb wa-l-ghish wa-l-tahrif wa-l-tabdīl, p. 2.

483 Haytham b. ʿUmar al-Tijānī, Shadharāt min tarjamat shaykhinā al-wālid, p. 12.

484 ʿAbdallāh al-Ḥasan, Munāẓarāt fi l-imāma, vol. IV, n.p., Sharikat Dār al-Muṣṭafā li-Iḥyā al-Turāth, n.d, pp. 621-623; ʿAbdallāh al-Ḥasan, Munāẓarāt al-mustabṣirīn, n.p, n.d, pp. 433-435.

485 For further details, see: ʿAbdallāh al-Ḥasan, Munāẓarāt fi l-imāma, pp. 636-642; ʿAbdallāh al-Ḥasan, Munāẓarāt al-mustabṣirīn, pp. 448-458.

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particularly in Great Britain. He is said to have known both the Old and the New Testament by heart, which proved to be a significant asset in his altercations with Christian missionaries.⁴⁸⁶ In the course of his academic career at the Nile Valley University he appeared at a number of international conferences, such as the Conference of the Union of Arab Universities on the Islamization of Knowledge, held on 2 February 1994 CE, and the Sufi Studies Conference in Sudan, held jointly by the Universities of Bergen and Khartoum on 28 December 1995 CE. On 23 June 1999 CE, he left the university and moved to the capital, Khartoum, to teach economics at the prestigious Jāmiʿa Ifriqiyā al-ʿĀlamiyya (International University of Africa),⁴⁸⁷ which was first established as al-Maʿhad al-Islāmī al-Ifrīqī (The Islamic African Institution) in 1966, then became the al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-Islāmī (The Islamic Culture Centre) in 1977 CE, and was finally elevated to the status of university in 1991 CE. The university currently hosts students from around seventy-five different countries. At present, the Sudanese dedicates his energy and time to Sufism, hosting the Tijānīs of the Arkuweet neighbourhood, where he lives, at his house. The Friday evening gatherings there are particularly important for his disciples and other Tijānīs who visit the shaykh for spiritual purposes.⁴⁸⁸

2.5.Writings

ʿUmar Masʿūd is one of those Tijānī shaykhs who dislike circulating their books in public; for that reason, most of his writings remain unpublished, and some of his writings are reportedly missing, for the same reason.⁴⁸⁹ Of his published writings, the majority are said to have been printed between 1995 and 1997 CE. He has a number of treatises to his name, covering a wide range of topics in various of the Islamic sciences.⁴⁹⁰ While having written on different topics, he is best known for his polemical writings in defence of the brotherhood, and is therefore credited as a defender of the order in present-day Sudan. His fame is apparent both inside and outside of the country. Many of his TV appearances in Sudan, as well as in other North African countries, may

486 Haytham b. ʿUmar al-Tijānī claims that his father, ʿUmar Masʿūd, could recite the holy books of Christianity from memory in Arabic as well as in the widely spoken European languages of English and French. Online conversation with Haytham b. ʿUmar al-Tijānī Masʿūd, May 9, 2017.

487 Haytham b. ʿUmar al-Tijānī, Shadharāt min tarjamat shaykhinā al-wālid, p. 13.

488 Online conversation with Khalid Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (one of ʿUmar Masʿūd’s disciples), May 5, 2017.

489 Online conversation with Haytham b. ʿUmar al-Tijānī, May 9, 2017.

490 According to one of his disciples, he wrote about seventy books and treatises: Online conversation with Khālid Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, May 6, 2017.

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be found on YouTube. Paying visits to the Tijānīs of North Africa, particularly in Fez, where the corpse of the founder of the brotherhood is buried, continues to be one of his main pursuits. Of those of his writings that are known to us, some are available online, while others are either ready to be published or as yet unfinished.⁴⁹¹ For a list of his writings, see appendix V.

491 See: https://ashsyifa.wordpress.com; http://atijania-online.com/vb/showthread.php?t=5813 last consultation 6.5.2017; See also the back cover to ʿUmar Masʿūd’s Akhtāʾ al-Albānī wa-awhāmuhu fī Kitāb al-tawassul:

anwāʿuhu wa-aḥkāmuhu (khabar Malik al-Dār), n.p. [Khartoum], n.d.

142 3. Aḥmad b. al-Hādī al-ʿAlawī al-Shinqīṭī

Written information on the life of Aḥmad b. al-Hādī (henceforth occasionally here “the Mauritanian”) is hard to find. The limited data presented here is largely derived from informal conversations with Prof. Dr. Muhammad Yahya Wuld Babah (b. 1374/1953), a Mauritanian scholar of philosophy who had close contact with Aḥmad b. al-Hādī during the latter’s life time.

Prof. Babah reportedly had a friendly relationship with Aḥmad b. al-Hādī, to the extent of sharing tea-drinking sessions with him on many occasions.⁴⁹² Another informant who happened to have met the Mauritanian Tijānī a few times, and who provided me with information on him, is Ghassān b. Sālim al-Tūnisī of Saudi Arabia.⁴⁹³

3.1.Early Life and Education

Aḥmad b. Hādī was born into a Tijānī Sufi family of the Idwa ʿAl tribe, near the village of al-Nabbāghiyya, in the Qibla district of the Tararza province of Mauritania. Judging from the recorded age at which he died and date of death, he seems to have been born around 1945 CE. He received his early education within the family, particularly from his father al-Hādī b. Bidī,⁴⁹⁴ one of the notable scholars of the region. According to the local tradition, young seekers of knowledge were expected to learn the holy book of the Qurʾān by heart; only then could they proceed to the study of other religious sciences. There is thus a strong probability that Aḥmad b. al-Hādī underwent the same process.

Apart from his father, he studied under Muḥammad Fāl Abbā (b. 1939 CE),⁴⁹⁵ a contemporary Tijānī scholar of Idwa ʿAl tribe, who played a crucial role in shaping the spiritual world of his

492 Conversation with Prof. Babah, Bayreuth, April 20, 2017.

493 Ghassān b. Sālim al-Tūnisī told me that his acquaintance with Aḥmad b. al-Hādī went back thirty years, to when he first met the shaykh at the house of a certain Sīdī Aḥmad Wuld Ṭalba, in Medina, coincidentally the same time at which Ghassān had decided to join the brotherhood. Online conversation with Ghassān b. Sālim al-Tūnisī, August 9, 2017.

494 Al-Hādī b. Bidī should not be mistaken for al-Hādī b. al-Sayyid, a well-known disciple of Ibrāhīm Niyās who is said to have played a crucial role in the expansion of the Niyassiye Tijāniyya in Nigeria. The latter is a descendant of Mawlūd Fāl of the Idayqub tribe (the tribe of al-Yaʿqūbiyyīn). Conversation with Prof. Babah, Bayreuth, April 21, 2017.

495 Muḥammad Fāl Abbā b. ʿAbdallāh b. Muḥammad Fāl al-ʿAlawī (his full name) is accepted as one of the foremost contemporary authorities of the Tijāniyya brotherhood. For an account of his life, see:

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disciple, who in his writings, frequently refers to him as “our master Abbā (shaykhunā Abbā)”.⁴⁹⁶ The Mauritanian studied various Islamic sciences at the Maḥḍara, (mobile Bedouin Lerning Institution) of Muḥammad Fāl Abbā, whose students are introduced to a wide range of sciences, such as the sciences of the Prophetic traditions, jurisprudence and its principles, Islamic philosophy, dialectical reasoning, Arabic grammar, and the art of eloquence and poetry. Aḥmad b.

al-Hādī would later take on the responsibility of teaching jurisprudence at the same compound.⁴⁹⁷ 3.2.Affiliation to Sufism

As per usual in that region, as he grew up, Aḥmad b. al-Hādī became affiliated to the Tijāniyya brotherhood. He is said to have been introduced to the order by his maternal grandfather Muḥammad al-Amīn b. Baddī, a grandson of Muḥammad al-Ḥāfiẓ al-ʿAlawī.⁴⁹⁸ He was thus an heir to the spiritual heritage of the man responsible for the introduction of the order to West Africa.

Apart from this sanad (chain of transmission) via al-Ḥāfiẓ, he possessed another which ran via Muḥammad al-ʿArabī b. al-Sāʾiḥ, the author of Bughyat al-mustafīd. This chain of transmission was obtained from his master Muḥammad Fāl Abbā, one of whose grandfathers, Muḥammad Fāl, had reportedly met al-ʿArabī b. al-Sāʾiḥ in Fez during a pilgrimage journey to the holy lands and had thus been reintroduced to the order.⁴⁹⁹