The earliest known representative of the Sufi tradition in Morocco is a person so shrouded in legend. This legendary individual is the long revived is the Hassanid Sharif, Abu Said Mawlana Abu Silhama (the popular “Moulay Bousalham”; That of the Mantle), whose tomb stands at the al-Marja az-Zarqa (Blue Lagoon), between the city of al-‘Araich (Larache) and the mouth of the Sebou river. While Moulay Bousalham remains respected today as a great patron of the Arab inhabitants of the Gharb, or western coastal plains of Morocco, his origins go back much further in time –to a period at least two hundred years before the tribes that now venerate him first arrived in the region. His burial place, the “Blue Lagoon,” is even more ancient. Having once contained a small bay, whose mouth has long since been chocked by sand to form the present lagoon, the site of Marja at-Zarqa still exhibits ruins of very great antiquity, which are referred to in the local dialect as as-suwayir (Small Walls). Accoring to Eduard Michaux and Georges Salmon, organizers of the first French “Mission Scientifique” to Morocco at the turn of last century, the present Blue Lagoon occupies the site of an ancient Phoenician town called Mulelasha, which was mentioned by the Latin geographer Polybus as being situated on a promontory between the town of Lixus (Larache) and a river called the Subur (Sebou).
The folkloric account of Moulay Bousalham’s life, which Salmon found recorded in the nearby town of al-Qasr al-Kabir (Ksar el-Kebir), evidences borrowings from possible Christian, Khariji, and Shi’a traditions. As is common for many saints of unknown or forgotten backgrounds, the popular legends assumes Moulay Bousalham to have been a Hassan sharif (descendent of the Holy Prophet -peace and blessing be upon him) whose mother was named Fatima, after the Prophet’s child daughter. Echoing an Islamic legend about the Prophet Isa (“Jesus” peace be on him), the future saint is said to have been able to speak at birth and, in an interesting variation on the story of the Prophet Sidna Mohammed’s use of the wet-nurse Sayyida ‘Halima, resolved to fast with his mother in the month of Ramadan rather than accept the milk of another. The image of holy asceticism is strongly reinforced in this legend by the report that at the age of five Moulay Bousalham refused wo waste his time playing with other children, explaining his actions in the words of the Quran: “I have only created Jinns and men that they may serve me”. The young saint is also said to have cried constantly throughout his childhood, fearing the weight of his actions would have on the balance set before God on the Day of Resurrection. Moulay Bousalham’s tears stopped immediately after his mother’s death.
Many of the spiritual attitudes ascribed to the legendary figure of Moulay Bousalham indicate a general agreement with the practice of pious asceticism established by earlier Moroccan Sufis as Abu Abdellah Mohammed ibn Ismail al-Maghribi (d. 229/814). Much like the possibly paradigmatic biographical accounts set down by Abu Nu’aman Ahmed ibn Abdellah al-Isfahani (d. 430/1015), the local legend of this saint stresses his advocacy of reliance on the will of God (tawakkul), his maintenance of nightly prayer vigils, his humble supplications to God, his constant reading of the Quran, and his practices of frequent fasting. Indeed, the apparent similarities between the practices of Moulay Bousalham and the influence Maghribi Shaykh of Hilyat al-Awliya wa Tabaqat al-Asfiya are so numerous that one is tempted to assume, even without the evidence of a corroborating nasab (chain), that this legendry Sufi, either followed the spiritual method of Shaykh Abu Abdellah al-Maghribi (d. 299/911 in Sina’, Egypt) - student of Sidi Abul Hassan Ali ibn Razin al-Misri and teacher of Sidi Abu Ishaq Ibrahim al-Khawas (d. 291/904) - or was at least strongly influenced by it. The latter is know for the following verse,
After temporarily undergoing about of tearful remorse some years after his mother death, Moulay Bousalham is said to have discovered a “hadith" which stated: “On the seacoast of the Maghreb at al-Bab as-Saghir (The Small Gate) there is found a hermitage, near to which is the tomb of Joseph the son of Aristotle (Yusuf ibn Aristu), the Master of the Sages and master of Alexander… where al-Khidr prays before an assembly of men who have made him their imam. This place is called the “Hermitage of the Master of the Sages” (Ribat Sayyid al-‘Arifin). Moulay Bousalham apparently made his way to Tunis, where, mimicking the actions of the second/eight century Khariji rebel Maysara al-Mtaghri, he ladled water to shoppers in the local market while their children threw stones at him, Moulay Bousalham began selling pieces of wood to bath-house stockers and gave the bread he earned from his work to all the beggars and dogs that he encountered.
Upon leaving Tunis, the saint next met an Andalusian Sufi named Sidi Abdelljalil at-Tayyar (The Flier), who accompanied him to Ribat Masmuda at the foot of a mountain on the Moroccan coast. Proceeding from there to the region of Asila, Moulay Bousalham next arrived at the “House of the Sun” at a place known as Rijal al-Shammash (Men of ash-Shammash), where he found the graves of 45 saints who had died of the plague while searching for the legendary of al-Bab al-Saghir. According to this legend, the 45 earned their nickname by making their invocations in the rays of the sun during the cold days of the Moroccan Winter. The text consulted by Salmon goes on to relate that Moulay Bousalham found some of these pious ascetics sill alive, now totally blinded by their constant invocations in the sunlight. Others had been rendered unable to stand, while still others wore long, uncut beards and hair.
After leaving Shammash, still in search of al-Bab al-Saghir, Moulay Bousalham found a blue-eyed man who exhibited “all the characteristics of a complete saint” (a delicate constitution, sweetness of demeanour, and a shining visage) wearing the patched clothing (muraqqa’a) of a Sufi adept. When Moulay Bousalham asked permission to serve him, the man, who was named Sidi Abderrahman al-Azraq, refused, saying that Moulay Bousalham himself was the individual referred by the legend. After proceeding some distance along the coast, the two were surprised to encounter Abdelljalil al-Tayyar, who had left Ribat Masmuda before his companion, fishing at the entry of the bay. When asked how he had arrived, he said that three angles –one in front of him, one behind, and one to his left – had taken him there and the place where he fished was none other than the long sought-after al-Bab al-Saghir, so named because the two hills flanking the narrow entrance to the Bay reminded visitors of the Straight of Gibraltar.
Straight of Gibraltar
After asking God to make the fish found in the bay a cure for an illness, the three saints then entered the tomb of Joseph, the son of Aristotle. There they made the ritual greeting the dead and began to recite the Quran. No sooner had they begun to do this than Abderrahman al-Azraq fell to the ground, lifeless. The other two rose from their places, and while looking about for a suitable shroud to bury their companion, saw two strangers approaching along the beach, bearing the shroud that they desired. Moulay Bousalham, plagued with doubt as to their identities, uttered a cry and fell lifeless as well, after which Abdelljalil al-Tayyar and the unknown visitors buried both saints beside the bay. Immediately following their burial, a violent wind and tick fog rose up from the sea. When it cleared, three tombs could now be found on the shore. Sidi Abdelljalil distraught with grief at being left behind, remained crying for eight days and nights until he too, died and was buried near his companions.
Probably no one will ever know the career of the Moulay Bousalham. That the graves of on the shore at Marja az-Zarqa (today named after Moulay Bousalham) predate the vast majority of their kind in Morocco, however, is beyond doubt. Mira't al-Mahasin (The Mirror of exemplary qualities) of Sidi Mohammed ibn Yusuf al-Fasi (d. 1052/1637), the well-known biography of the tenth/sixteenth Morocco Shadhilite Jazouli Shaykh Sidi Abul Mahasin Yusuf al-Fasi (d. 1013/1598) mentions the continuous popularity of pilgrimages to the tomb of Moulay Bousalham during its author’s lifetime and claims that a golden commemorative plaque had long stood at the entrance of the saint’s tomb, which read: “Here are three tombs, among which God Most High has hidden that of Abu Said, called Moulay Bousalham, whose death occurred a little after the year 340.”
Historians felt that the historical Moulay Bousalham was an Idrissi sharif who fled the city of Fez after its conquest by the Fatimi commander Musa ibn Abil-‘Afiya in 317/902. Based on the fact that the ruins of a “Dar Moulay Bousalham” can be found on a hill near the old castle of Hajrat al-Nasr (Escarpment of the Eagle), a fortes situated among the Sanhaja tribes of Ahl Sarif, Banu Yusuf and Sumata. The castle was built by the Idrissid Emir Moulay Ahmed Mizwar (the grandfather of al-Qutb Mawlana Abdessalam ibn Mashish (d. 622/1207) who became disenchanted with politics and devoted himself to a life of worship and asceticism. Sometime before the turn of the tenth century, or just before the Idrissite state became a bone of connection between the Fatimids of Ifriqiya and the Umayyads of Spain, he moved from Fez to northern Morocco and established himself at this castle. As his nickname, Mizwar (Berber. lion or leader) implies, this great grandson of Moulay Idriss II was adopted as a spiritual leader by the tribes who lived near his mountaintop stronghold. Historians assumed that that Moulay Bousalham had pretended to be of Egyptian origins in a effort to secretly raise a force of anti-Fatimi partisans.
The Idrissi lineage postulated for Moulay Bousalham by historians may well be correct, since their hypothesis is supported by a number of details in the legend. Just as likely, however, is the possibility that the saint settled on the coast near the Banu Gofret tribal homeland in order to combat the eefects of the syncretistic heresy preached by the Berber “prophet” ‘Hamin ibn Mannullah az-Zarwali al-Muftari (“The Faslsifier”, d. 315/900). The latter possibility has the advantage of being in accord with the common Sufi practice in Morocco of building ribats (hermitages) and mosques at the boundaries of regions noted for heterodoxy or unbelief. It is perhaps significant in regard to Moulay Bousalham’s unusual stress on the healthful effects of eating fish, that fish, along with eggs, were the only foods specifically forbidden by Hamim to the followers of his “Berber Islam”.
Shrine of Moulay Bousalham
The most important point to be made about the legend of Moulay Bousalham is that it contains many of the themes that would later become commonplace in folk tales about Sufis in Morocco. Sharifian decent, conflict with local authority figures, the manifestation of miracles early in life, evidence of spiritual election from birth, pious and ascetic practices so severe that the one who carries them out sets himself irrevocably beyond the confines of normal society, the symbolic conferral of blessings on places and things –all of these elements of later hagiography are given full expression in this story. Especially noteworthy is the legend’s attempts to relate sanctity and the possession of esoteric knowledge to the presence of the ubiquitous yet shadowy figure of Mawlana Abul Abbas al-Khidr (peace be upon him), who, early on in the story of Moulay Bousalham, is associated with Joseph the son of Aristotle at al-Bab al-Saghir.
The Tradition of al-Khidr in Moroccan SainthoodAl-Khidr, sometimes called or al-Khadir (The Green One), is a mysterious, unnamed protagonist in the Glorious Quran (18:56-82) who is said to have taught the mysteries and paradoxes of life by God Almighty Himself from His own Presence. In later Sufi tradition al-Khidr most commonly appears as a harbinger for the esoteric knowledge that the seeker derives from gnosis and is thus a pivotal figure in the concept of al-insan al-kamil, the paradigmatic or “perfect” man. In the Quran, however, he appears only in the guise of “one of God’s servants,” and as such occupies a rank theoretically lower that that of the Prophet Moses (peace be upon him), who nonetheless perceiving al-Khidr’s superior wisdom, desires to serve him. Al-Khidr, demonstrating his greater powers of clairvoyance (firasa), at first refuses the prophet, saying: “How can you have patience about things concerning which your understanding is not complete?” After being assured by Moses that the latter will serve him unquestionably, al-Khidr next proceeds to confound the Lawgiver of Israel by carrying out three apparently meaningless acts: scuttling a boat belonging to poor fisherman, killing a youth the two encountered on their way, and fixing a wall in town whose inhabitants had just refused them hospitality. Upon parting with Moses, al-Khidr chides him for objecting to these actions and explained that the boat was scuttled, but left reparable, to save its owners from loosing it by seizure; the youth had rebelled against God and would be a source of pain and grief to his pious parents; the wall, on the other hand, was the property of two neglected orphans who lived in a callous and uncaring town and its restoration would reveal a treasure left buried for them by their righteous father.
When the Moses and al-Khidr story begins, Moses has presumably already left Egypt, climbed the mountain, and brought back the Law. One would think that such a quest, laying as it does the whole basis foe the three great monotheisms, would be enough. But Moses seeks something beyond even that great act, something described as Majma’a al-Ba’hrayn (“the Meeting of the Two Seas”). The Moses-al-Khidr story structured around this second esoteric quest, which begins with Moses telling his servant, “la bra’hu ‘hatta ablugh majma’a al-ba’hrayn aw amdiya ‘huqubaa”, “I will not give up until I find the meeting of the Two Seas or pass epochs in the quest.” Who exactly is Moses’ servant? He has sometimes been identified as Joshua, son of Nun (peace be upon both of them). But as is so often the case is sacred narrative and related genres of traditional storytelling, the hero’s sidekick, like his antagonist, might best be viewed as the hero’s double rather than an independent character. Here, the servant seems to represent Moses’ lower, mundanely human nature, whereas Moses himself is the divine prophetic personage. Moses’ proclaiming the goal of his quest to his servant might best be seen as his higher, prophetic, divine nature saying to his fallible human side, “I will not give up even if it takes me a very long time to reach my goal.” Later when the servant forgets the fish, we may again see that it is really Moses’ lower, human side that has slipped up, forcing his divine side to turn back and set things right. Interestingly, the servant will mysteriously disappear from the moment Moses finds his new, higher double in the person of al-Khidr.
The “Meeting of the Two Seas” image not only gives Moses’ quest a direction and a goal, but also serves as the story’s first supernatural event. It may be objected that there are real places where two seas do meet, Gibraltar, Tierrra del Fuego, and Cape Town being three if the most spectacular, and that therefore this image is not supernatural or miraculous. The sea itself is already a potentially fantastic image, except perhaps those who are forced to live too close to it for too long. Many Sufis have remarked on how the sight of the sea, an immeasurably vast expanse that is alive with motion, whose greatest bulk lies hidden from view, can be counted on to provoke a sense of wonder in those who contemplate it. How much more fabulous would it be to stand at the meeting of the two seas. The power of this image, the extraordinary quality hinted at by the doubling of the seas’ infinity, lead us a way from any mundane conception of sea-as-mere-object, toward mystical and symbolic dimensions of indication. Moses’ quest becomes something much larger than the search for a particular geographical location, as the object of his quest is raised to the plane of the mystical.
Alongside the poetic function of the “Two Seas” image lines another, perhaps higher metaphorical meaning. The sea is a symbol of how phenomenal multiplicity veils and conceals the underlying unity of Reality. Sidi Abderrahman al-Jami (d. 1492) says,
Existence is a sea, with waves constantly raging, Of the sea the common people perceive nothing but the waves. Behold how out of the depth of the sea there appear innumerable waves, On the surface of the sea, while the sea remains concealed in the waves.The “Meeting of the Two Seas” then, may be the spiritual state where this double vision is overcome, where what has been as two seas suddenly becomes one. Moses’ exoteric quest, then, would be for the direct, experimental knowledge of the state of fana’, or annihilation, the total nullification of the ego-consciousness into absolute unity. If we look at the “Two Seas” metaphor in another light, it could also stand foe the state beyond fana’, which is called baqa’, the ultimate and highest state of consciousness.
So al-Khidr is known and revered wherever the Quran is read, and has entered local folklore across the Islamic land from Morocco to Indonesia. The Quranic figure of al-Khidr, stripped of its later association with the Prophet Sidna Ilyas (“Elijah” peace be upon him), appears in the above account as nothing less than the paradigm, par excellence of the Sufi shaykh, while the Prophet Moses (peace be upon him), who normally would be regarded as superior in rank to a mere saint, in reality serves as his disciple. Seen in this light, it is easy to understand how al-Khidr came to epitomize the Hermetic tradition for generations of early Sufis throughout the Islamic world. In Morocco in particular, al-Khidr was to become associated with the hierarchy of saints, as evidences by the following account from at-Tadili's at-Tashawwuf,
After the Prophet Sidna Mohammed (peace and blessing be upon him) had died, the Earth cried out to God, Who said, “I will put on your surface people from among the community (of believers) whose hearts will be like the hearts of prophets, and I will not leave you without them until the Day of Judgment.”
[The Sufi Ahmed ibn Mohammed al-‘Abid, speaking to al-Khidr in a dream,] said, “How many are they?”
“Three hundred,” al-Khidr replied, “and they are the saints. Seventy are the nujaba (Noble Ones), forty are the awtad (Supporters), ten are the nuqaba (Deputies), seven are the ‘urafa (Master Gnostics), three are the mukhtarin (Chosen Ones), and one is the ghawt (Nurturer)… Among them will be one who heart is like that of Moses, one whose heart is like that of Noah, one whose heart will be like that of Abraham.”
I said, “Is Abraham the greatest among them?”
“Yes,” replied al-Khidr.
In a recent treatise, the great Tijanite Shaykh Sidi Mohammed ibn al-Arbi Sayeh (d. 1309/1894) documents in his Kitab Bughyat al-mustafid li-shar'h minyat al-murid (Aspiration of the Beneficiary in the Commentary of the Desire of the Seeker) a report he took from Kitab Nuzha (The Picnic) of the Nasirite master Sidi Ahmed ibn Abdellqadir al-Nastawi,
A Sufi speaking to al-Khidr asked him, “You know all the saints (by name)?”
- “Yes,” he replied, “I do know the Assembly of the Circle (ahl ad-daira) and some others. (But) There are some I do not know.”
- “How many are they (i.e. Assembly of the Circle)?” The Sufi asked.
“One, Three, Four, Seven, Ten, Forty, Seventy, Three Hundred.” (Al-Khidr elaborated) “Had the (saints of the) Seventy witnessed the states of the (saints of the) Forty, they would endorse their execution, the way things went between me and Moses. For water tastes different from honey, and honey tastes different from wine, and wine tastes different from milk. The latter being the source of the Assembly of Control (ahl at-tamkiin).
Nevertheless (interestingly enough) the flower (as-saqi) of one group (of saints) is not (necessarily) the identical flower of the other. You may find (as a result) two intoxicated saints drunk with diverse flavors. Sometimes a single flower provides each saint with his glass. Each receives provision based on the share he had received at the Day of “Am I not Your God (Quran)?” (alastu bi-rabbikum”, i.e. when God Most High had created spirits, He asked: “Am I not Your God? And their answer was ‘Yes’. The faithful rejoined peacefully, others, forcibly).
Al-Khidr is the patron saint of travelers in general and traveling Sufis in particular, from whom he serves as both prototype and mentor. Al-Khidr’s association with the color green, with verdure, and with water him an especially appealing figure for those who voyage in dry climates, as pilgrims and Sufis often do, where these elements are quite literally associated with the forces of renewal of life. His name derives from the Arabic consonants Kh-D-R, a root meaning “green”. And his green color is symbolically significant: he became green by diving into the Spring of Eternal Life. His green color represents that knowledge which is ever in contact with life as it is actually lived, presumably as opposed to knowledge that is dead, fossilized, pedantic, rigid, dogmatic. One can see why this makes him an appealing emblem for Sufis, who have for centuries been among the most dedicated and effective opponents of dogmatism and scholasticism. His green implies rebirth, regeneration, as in spring, the season, as well as spring, the source of life-giving water. Al-Khidr’s green color also implies a connection with wilderness, fields and meadows. Al-Khidr’s green is also the green of the sea, “symbolizing the limitless immensity and vastness of knowledge, especially esoteric knowledge.
All of the above lends support to the observation that al-Khidr’s symbolism of immanence, of divine nature, is balanced by a countervailing symbolism of transcendence. Every living thing is born, grows, and dies; al-Khidr transcends nature by virtue of his immortality. Less obviously, al-Khidr’s green color and astonishing behavior represent a divine essence in human form. For human beings can be many things, but green flesh tones, like immortality, are not among their attributes. So al-Khidr is an apparent human being who, in reality, is other-than-human. His radical alterity is highlighted in the Quran, in which his knowledge and actions flow from a realm beyond the human; by Sufi hagiographies, which represent tale after tale in which an apparent astonishingly reveals himself as the other-than-human Green Immortal: and by folkloric stories in which al-Khidr typically figures as the archetypal mysterious stranger. Al-Khidr’s ability to instanteously appear and disappear and travel at will, a talent shared by saints, ruptures the space-time grid or chronotope that structures representations of ordinary experiences. And his proclivity for anonymously shape-shifting into the guise of an ordinary man who bestows blessings on those who can distinguish his true identity shreds the most basic kind of representation, naming, which gives rise to the illusion of individual identity.
However, al-Khidr’s ensemble of antinomian qualities does not set him at odds with dominant religious values. Al-Khidr’s lack of a fixed adobe, and his complete dedication to God and to the cause of bringing others closer to God, serve as models for Sufi though and action. Symbolically, his traveling anonymity, his lack of home and identity, represents the annihilation of ego and worldly concerns, a sort of deterritorealization of the soul, which is the goal of Sufi aspirants, who ser out traveling both to emulate al-Khidr, and in hopes of meeting him. Indeed, the meeting of al-Khidr-motif, whose archetype is the Quranic narrative in Surat al-Kahf (Ch. 18), is itself an archetype of the meeting with the Sufi Shaykh. When the aspirant finds the right spiritual master, he is advised to cleave to that master with absolute devotion and maintain the devotion until the highest level of wisdom are attained, and the disciple in turn becomes a master. The disciple, in short, must figuratively grab the master’s sleeve and not let him go until the spiritual treasure is bestowed.
Finally, al-Khidr’s legend implies that one should always be always on the lookout for al-Khidr, who goes about in disguise and may be encountered anywhere, especially in public places as thoroughfares, markets, and mosques, is related to Sufi meet-the-master-in-the-market motif. Sufis asserts the existence of hidden hierarchy of saints, the holiest of who are likely to don common garb al-Khidr’s habit of initiating people by way of surprise or shock, which often extends to radically unexpected, even aberrant behavior on his part, parallels one of the chief attractions and dangers of travel, the subjecting of the self to the possibility of radical novelty and alterity. One never knows what lies around the next bend in the road, or what one might encounter beyond the next oasis.
Al-Khidr: From Moulay Bousalham to Shaykh Abul Abbas TijaniFor early Sufis in both the Muslim East and the West, al-Khidr most commonly appeared as the Shaykh of Shaykhs and Supreme Spiritual Guide –the paradigmatic possessor of insight (basira) and esoteric wisdom (‘hikma). After the sixth/twelfth century, when the efforts of Shaykh Sidi Abu Hamid al-Ghazali's (d. 526/1111) and early earlier mystics to harmonize Sufism with the Islamic legalism and reach full fruition, al-Khidr began to lose his axial position in Sufi doctrine and began to be replaced as a model for esoteric spirituality by the Holy Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) himself, who was no seen as the ultimate synthesis of saintly and prophetic attributes. The final outcome of this process was the defacto replacement of al-Khidr by the Prophet in the wake of Tariqa Shadhiliya. Shortly before he passed away, in 656/1241, Shaykh Abul Hassan Shadhili (d. 656/1241) said,
Al-Khidr said to me, “O Ali I will be there for your companions after you.” To which I replied, “No, I will be there for my companions, both the living and the dead.”
The career of al-Qutb Shaykh Sidi Abdellaziz Debbarh (“al-Dabbagh”; d. 1132/1717), appears to have played an axial role between the Tariqa al-Mohammediya movement of the eleventh/seventeenth century, the Shadhiliya and Qadiriya order. He was himself a student of al-Khidr. Sidi Abdellaziz Debbarh tells us for eleven years he went from Shaykh to Shaykh in a vain search for mystical revelation. He used to visit the tomb of Sidi Ali ibn Harzihim (d. 559/1144) every Thursday evening. There, alone with others who spent the night in the shrine, he would recite al-Burda, a poem by Sidi Mohammed Sharafuddin al-Busairi (697/1282) written in honor of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him). One night as he was leaving the shrine, he encountered a man who told him things about himself that he could not have known if he were not a saint. Sidi Abdellaziz asked him to teach him a wird and dhikr. At first the stranger ignored the request, but after much insistence, the man (later revealed to him as al-Khidr) agreed, provided Sidi Abdellaziz swore by God that he would faithfully recite the prayer he taught him and never leave it. He told him to pray 7.000 times a day,
Oh God! By the grace of Sidna Mohammed ibn Abdellah, peace and blessing be upon him, I ask you to unite me with Sidna master Mohammed ibn Abdellah in this life before the next one.
The illiterate Moroccan Ghawth Shaykh Abdellaziz did as he was told and was guided to Shaykh Sidi Omar ibn Mohammed al-Huwwari (d. 1125/1810). This latter is connected to Sidi Mhammed ibn Nasir Dar’i (d. 1085/1674) through Sidi al-Arbi al-Fashtali (d. 1090/1675): the father-in-law of Sidi Abdellaziz’ mother. Shaykh Abdellaziz describes in the Ibriz how he inherited the spiritual secrets (asrar) of his Shaykh Sidi Omar after his death, and shortly thereafter experienced the fath –opening or revelation— an extraordinary experience in which he fell himself expanding until he was able to perceive the entire cosmos and all that was in it. The following day, he encountered a Qadiri Shaykh from Borno, Nigeria called Sidi Abdellah ibn Abdelljalil al-Barnawi (d. 1116/1704), who had been sent by God to guide him, and three days afterward he had his first waking vision of the Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him). At this, al Barnawi rejoiced saying,
"Oh Abdellaziz, before today I worried about you, but today, since God has united you with His mercy, the lord of existence, peace and blessing be upon him, my heart is secure and my mind is at ease.”
The
Shaykh Tariqa
al-Ahmediya al-Mohammediya al-Tijaniya,
al-Qutb
al-Maktum Mawlana Abul Abbas Ahmed Tijani
said, as related by his student al-Khalifa al-Akbar
Abul
Hassan Sidi Ali Harazem Berrada
(d. 1212/1797), in
Kitab
Jawahir al-Ma'ani
(The Jewels of Indications) that it is a characteristic of the rank of the
ghawth
(also known as the ‘Qutb’)
to see the Holy Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) while awake, at all
times. Unique initiatory chains tie the Mohammediya Tijaniya order with
Sidna al-Khidr. Shaykh Sidi Ahmed Tijani received from his Khalwati master
Sidi Mahmud al-Kurdi al-Misri (d. 1186/1771) a unique authorization in the
Istighafr
of al-Khidr and the
Musabba’at al-‘Ashr
Prayer (The Ten Invocations Recited Sevenfold each), which he took directly
from al-Khidr. The latter received the prayers as gifts from the Holy
Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him). With disdain Sidi Ali Harazem
narrates in the
Jawahir that
such a short chain in the prayers exisits but in this Mohammediya Tijaniya
order. Interestingly enough Sidi Mohammed ibn al-Arbi Sayeh (d. 1309/1894)
stated, as exposed in
Kitab
Kashf al-Hijab
of al-Qadi Sidi Ahmed Skirej (d. 1366/1940), that al-Khidr passed by the
Zawiya al-Kubra to notify Shaykh Tijani to celebrate the
Laylat al-Qadir
(Night of Destiniy) on the
19th of Sahhaban.