Journeys and Acquisition of Ijāzāt

Although, the Egyptian was born in lower Egypt, in his youth he chose to reside in Cairo, where he would later built his own zāwiya.⁴³¹ He was also keen to visit other Tijānī centres and establish contacts and friendly relationships with fellow Tijānīs.⁴³² To this end, he visited many Islamic religious centres in the Middle East, as well as in North and West Africa. Over the course of his journeys to Palestine, Syria, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and more than once each to Sudan and Hijaz, he paid visits to some of the most distinguished Muslim and Tijānī scholars. In Syria he met Badr al-Dīn al-Ḥusaynī and received a number of authorizations pertaining to various religious sciences, such as Qurʾānic exegesis, jurisprudence and Kutub al-sitta (the six canonical sources of the Prophetic traditions in Sunnī Islam).⁴³³ During his travels to Morocco, he visited the spiritual master of the Kattāniyya order, ‘Abd al-Ḥayy al-Kattānī (d. 1382/1962).⁴³⁴ He, like the Syrian shaykh, seems to have issued ijāzāt to the Egyptian in many religious fields, including exegesis, jurisprudence, and Prophetic traditions, particularly the Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and Muwattā of Imām Mālik. For the later source, he also obtained an ijāza from Amat Allāh, the daughter of the famous Indian ḥadīth expert Shaykh ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Dihlawī.⁴³⁵ Other outstanding Sufi personalities

429 Shaykh Ahmad b. Ḥumma Tijānī was a great grandson of Ḥājj ʿAlī Tamāsīnī, the khalīfa of Aḥmad al-Tijānī and the first head of the al-Tijānī zāwiya in Temacine. He undertook the leadership of the zāwiya from 1927 until his death in 1978. For an account of his life, see: ʿAbd al-Bāqī Miftāḥ, Aḍwāʾ ʿalā al-shaykh al-Tijānī wa-atbāʿih, pp. 291-292.

430 ʿAbd al-Bāqī Miftāḥ, Aḍwāʾ ʿalā al-shaykh al-Tijānī wa-atbāʿih, pp. 288-289. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Ḥāfiẓ mentions several chains of transmission attained by the Egyptian. For a complete account of his ijāzāt in the Tijāniyya order, see: Aḥmad Muḥammad al-Ḥāfiẓ, Ḥujjat al-islām, p. 11-14. Al-Fātiḥ al-Nūr claims that the Egyptian received Tijāniyya from no less than forty Tijānī authorities, all of whom had reached the rank of quṭbāniyya. See: Al-Fātiḥ al-Nūr, al-Tijānīyya wa-l-mustaqbal, p. 199.

431 Rüdiger Seesemann, “The History of the Tijâniyya and the Issue of tarbiya in Darfur (Sudan)”, pp. 204-205.

432 This was a common goal and undertaking of leading Tijānī figures, which in addition to establishing contacts, was meant to bring them a certain amount of prestige and acceptance in Tijānī circles. Aḥmad Sukayrij travelled extensively in North and West Africa for the same reason. See: Jamil Abun-Nasr, The Tijaniyya: a Sufi Order in the Modern World, 1965. Another Tijānī figure known for his travels to different Tijānī centres is Ibrāhīm Niyās. See:

Rüdiger Seesemann, The Divine Flood, 2011.

433 Aḥmad Muḥammad al-Ḥāfiẓ, Ḥujjat al-islām, p. 14.

434 On ʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-Kattānī see: al-Ziriklī, al-Aʿlām, vol. 6, pp. 187-188.

435 Aḥmad Muḥammad al-Ḥāfiẓ, Ḥujjat al-islām, p. 14. ʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-Kattānī is identified by many as one of the most ardent enemies of the Tijāniyya. See, Jamil Abun-Nasr, The Tijāniyya: a Sufi Order in the Modern World, pp.

24-25. For al-Kattānī’s anti-Tijānī sentiments, as reported by al-Hilālī at a time when the latter was still affiliated to the order, see: al-Hilālī, al-Hadiyya al-hādiya, pp. 13-14. Muḥammad al-Ḥāfiẓ’s visit to such a personality, known

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with whom the Egyptian exchanged ijāzāt were Aḥmad Sukayrij of Morocco⁴³⁶ and Alfā Hāshim, who was the leading Tijāni muqaddam in Hijaz until his death. In addition the renewal of his adherence to the Tijāniyya, al-Ḥāfiẓ received authorizations in Kutub al-sitta from Alfā Hāshim.⁴³⁷ In the first half of the previous century, the holy lands were a favourate destination for scholars from all around the world. This fact enabled al-Ḥāfiẓ to visit many scholars during his travels to Hijaz. There, he met a number of shuyūkh, including ‘Abd al-Bāqī al-Anṣārī Shaykh ʿAbd al-Sattār al-Ṣīddīqī al-Hindī, ʿAbdallāh al-Ghāzī al-Hindī, and Ḥusayn b. Muḥammad al-Ḥusaynī (in Mecca), and Muḥammad al-Khafājī al-Dimyāṭī,⁴³⁸ collecting and exchanging as much ijāzāt as he could. Amongst the countless authorizations he received over the course of his journeys, his favourite was the one issued by Muḥammad al-Kabīr, a great-grandson of Aḥmad al-Tijānī and the head of the brotherhood at the time. Muḥammad al-Kabīr is said to have provided al-Ḥāfiẓ with a full authorization (al-iṭlāq al-ʿāmm) to initiate people into the order, as well as to appoint as many muqaddams as he would like to. Tijānī sources speak also of a mysterious guarantee obtained from the shaykh by the Egyptian, which was to raise eyebrows and cause a certain jealousy in Tijānī circles.⁴³⁹ Muḥammad al-Kabīr was not the only descendant of the supreme master of the order to authorize al-Ḥāfiẓ: the Egyptian had the privilege of meeting and receiving authorizations from several other members of the Tijānī family including Sīdī Maḥmūd b. Sīdī al-Bashīr.⁴⁴⁰ Another precious ijāza for which, exclusively, he travelled to Sudan, was the one issued by Sharīf Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Munʿim (1353/1935), known as “the man with the golden silsila”,⁴⁴¹ directly connecting him to the supreme leader of the Tijāniyya through Muḥammad

for his anti-Tijānīsm, consolidates our conviction in the the moderateness of al-Ḥāfiẓ, which can also be observed in the fact of his moderate responses to opponents, which sometimes even evoked criticism from his fellow Tijānīs.

436 In Morocco, besides visiting the leading defender of the order at the time, Aḥmad Sukayrij, the Egyptian met with many other Tijānī scholars, such as Muḥammad Al-Naẓīfī, the author of al-Durra al-kharīda. See, Aḥmad Muḥammad al-Ḥāfiẓ, Ḥujjat al-islām, p. 13.

437 Aḥmad Muḥammad al-Ḥāfiẓ, Ḥujjat al-islām, p. 15.

438 Another of al-Ḥāfiẓ’s authorizations in Kutub al-Sitta was provided by Muḥammad ‘Abd al-Bāqī, with different authorizations obtained from the rest of the scholars mentioned here. See: Aḥmad Muḥammad Ḥāfiẓ, Ḥujjat al-islām, p. 15.

439 Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Ḥāfiẓ refers to this guarantee without further description of its contents. However, some of the statements of Muḥammad al-Kabīr provide us with a clue allowing us to estimate the nature of the guarantee:

the head of the brotherhood is said to have referred to the Egyptian as “beloved in dārayn” (meaning both here and hereafter), regardless of the latter’s acts or conduct. This suggests that the guarantee issued was of admission to paradise in the company of Muḥammad al-Kabīr. See: Aḥmad Muḥammad al-Ḥāfiẓ, Ḥujjat al-islām, p. 13; Al-Fātiḥ al-Nūr, al-Tijānīyya wa-l-mustaqbal, p. 199.

440 Aḥmad Muḥammad al-Ḥāfiẓ, Ḥujjat al-islām, p. 13. For a full list of the descendants of Aḥmad al-Tijānī from whom Muḥammad al-Ḥāfiẓ received ijāzāt, see: Muḥyī al-Dīn al-Ṭaʿmī, Ṭabaqāʾt al-Tijānīyya, p. 59.

441 Sharīf Muḥammad ʿAbd Munʿim was a disciple of Muḥammad Ghālī Shinqīṭī, the khalīfa of Aḥmad

al-Tijānī. Originally from upper Egypt but residing in Kordofan, the sharīf was reportedly born before 1800. The

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Ghālī. He is also claimed to have received the Tijānī litany directly from Aḥmad al-Tijānī by means of spiritual transmission (al-akhdh al-rūḥī).⁴⁴² In addition to gaining precious ijāzāt on his journeys, the Egyptian was keen to stop and visit libraries, expanding his personal knowledge and gathering manuscripts not available elsewhere. Some of the most valuable manuscripts in the library that he was later to establish were obtained during these journeys.⁴⁴³ Anecdotes related by Tijānīs disclose the extent of his thirst for knowledge; he would enter a library and continue to stay there until he had read all of the books that were not available elsewhere. Another sign of his love for knowledge was his extravagance in collecting and copying manuscripts from the various libraries that he visited. His personal library at Cairo is perceived to be one of the richest in the East.⁴⁴⁴

As a specialist in the ʿulūm al-ḥadīth, the Egyptian dedicated the better part of his life to teaching and educating students in the sciences of the Prophetic traditions. Indeed, his expertise in the sciences of ḥadīth caught the attention of many. ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm Maḥmūd (d. 1397/1978), the grand shaykh of al-Azhar from 1973 CE until his death, did not hold back from posthumously praising him as the shaykh al-muḥaddithīn fī-ʿasrihi (the most expert master of ḥadīth of his era).⁴⁴⁵ He taught Ṣaḥiḥ al-Bukhārī more than forty times, and many other collections of ḥadīth that he is said to have known by heart. Muḥammad Mutawallī al-Shaʿrāwī (d. 1419/1998), the minister of awqāf in 1976 CE; Dr Muṣṭafā Maḥmūd (d. 14 /2009); Muḥammad Sayyid Ṭanṭāwī (d. 1431/2010), 30 the shaykh of al-Azhar between 1996 and 2010 CE; ʿAlī Jumʿa (b. 1372/1952), the grand muftī of Egypt between 2003 and 2013 CE; Ibrāhīm Ṣāliḥ (b. 1358/1939), the chairman of the supreme

Egyptian was able to meet him in the village of Umm Saʿdūn in Northern, Kordofan in the January of 1935, the year in which the sharīf died at an extremely advanced age. Rüdiger Seesemann, The History of Tijâniyya and the issue of tarbiya in Darfur (Sudan), p. 403. For an account of his life, see: Al-Fātiḥ al-Nūr, al-Tijānīyya wa-l-mustaqbal, pp.

223-226.

442 His son Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Ḥāfiẓ claims that his father’s spiritual illumination (fatḥ) took place at an extremely young age. See, Aḥmad Muḥammad al-Ḥāfiẓ, Ḥujjat al-islām, p. 9.

443 For some of the manuscripts and precious books he collected from various libraries, including Dār la-Kutub al-Miṣriyya, the library of ‘Akka, and the library of Medina, see: Aḥmad Muḥammad al-Ḥāfiẓ, Ḥujjat al-islām, pp. 6-7. For the names of some of the libraries that he visited during his journeys, beside those located in Egypt, see:

Aḥmad Muḥammad al-Ḥāfiẓ, Ḥujjat al-islām, p. 25.

444 A good example of his thirst for knowledge is his dedication of a period of no less than four years to making a copy of the book al-Maṭālib al-ʿāliya fī zawāʾid al-masānīd al-thamānīya of Ibn Ḥajar, which he found in the library of Medina during one of his numerous visits to the city. See, Aḥmad Muḥammad al-Ḥāfiẓ, Ḥujjat al-islām, p. 7.

445 Aḥmad Muḥammad al-Ḥāfiẓ, Ḥujjat al-islām, p. 16. The same epithet is used by ʿUmar Masʿūd, one of his Sudanese disciples. It is claimed that he repeatedly passed the examinations that were set for him by other scholars, who wanted to put his knowledge of the ḥadīth to test, often ending in a display of extreme reverence and respect on their part toward the Egyptian. See Aḥmad Muḥammad al-Ḥāfiẓ, Ḥujjat al-islām, p. 50.

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council for Islamic affairs of Nigeria and ʿUmar Masʿūd al-Tijānī are among his long list of students.⁴⁴⁶