Sidi Ahmed ibn Achir (d. 764/1349)

Apart from the Majiriya Sufi order of Abu Mohammed Salih Majiri (d. 631/1216), one other Moroccan Sufi order in the tradition of Shaykh Abu Madyan (d. 594/1179) deserves mention. This brotherhood, which was called at-Taifa al-Hahiya after its founder, Sidi Abu Zakariyya al-Hahi (d. end of seventh/thirteenth century), was based in the High Atlas mountains south of Marrakech. Although the disciples of Hahiya in the study of Sunni dogma and Maliki jurisprudence, their institutional exclusivism and fanatic allegiance to their Shaykh earned them the censure of most ulama. Particularly worrisome was the fact that Sidi al-Hahi enjoyed the complete allegiances of the masses and that many of his followers believed in his ability to supernaturally punish those who criticised him or left his order to follow other masters. Even the normally indulgent jurist and Sufi Ahmed Ibn Qunfudh (d. 810/1395), who allowed that "good sulaha" could still be found among the Hahiyun, felt it necessary to add that the limitation: "But do not believe that al the Hahiyun are alike."

Ironically, it was a member of this much-criticised group who was to inherit the mantle of Ghazalian Sufism that had been worn nearly two centuries earlier by Abu Madyan's first Shaykh, Sidi Ali ibn Harzihim (d. 544/1129). This person was the famous scholar and mystic Sidi Ahmed ibn Achir al-Ansari (d. 764/1349), a native of the town of Jimena in southern Spain who was to become the patron saint of the Moroccan city of Salé. Despite the fact that the present-day cult surrounding Ibn Achir's tomb recalls the unorthodox reputation of the Hahiyun by attracting devotees from among the mentally ill and the lowest strata of Moroccan society, the actual "Sidi Ben Achir" was reclusive and intellectual figure who earned his living as a copyist of books.

Contemporary of the great historian and Sufi Sidi Lisan ad-Din al-Khatib (d. 776/1356 in Fez), Sidi Ben Achir spent much of his youth in the Andalusian port of Algeciras (al-Jazira al-Khadra'), where he taught the Quran recitation and followed a malamati Sufi known as Sidi Abu Sirhan al-Ablah (the Simpleton). Being warned by al-Ablah about the imminent Christian occupation of Algeciras (ca. 744/1329), he took the opportunity provided by this threat to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca. Upon returning from the East, he joined his sister in Morocco, where the two lived for a time among the Andalusian émigré community of Meknes. After seeing to his sister's marriage, Sidi Ben Achir left to become a disciple of Sidi Abdellah al-Yabouri—an Andalusian refuge from the town of Evora—who was the master of a state-funded zawiya in the Marinid necropolis of Chella near modern Rabat. Foregoing the support that the state provided for students of such institutions, Sidi Ben Achir earned his own upkeep by teaching the Quran to young children and spent his spare time doing spiritual exercises and studying Sufi classics. When al-Yabouri died, Sidi Ben Achir moved across the Bou Regreg river to Salé, where he attached himself to the local Rabita of at-Taifa al-Hahiya. The Shaykh of this rabita, Sidi Mohammed ben Aissa, was a prominent disciple of Sidi Abu Zakariyya al-Hahi himself.

Once settled in Salé, Sidi Ben Achir assembled a like-minded group of disciples and embarked upon the study of Sufi texts. To support their efforts, the Shaykh and his students copied and sold many of the works that influenced their spiritual development. These included Kitab an-Anasaih (Book of Admonitions) and Kitab ar-Ri'aya li huquq Allah of al-Harith al-Muhasibi (d. 243/828), Qut al-Qulub by Abu Talib al-Makki (d. 386/996), and Ihya ulum ad-din by Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 526/1111). The sessions at t which these books were discussed were informal affairs and Sidi Ben Achir often downplayed his own level of expertise: "I am neither your Shaykh nor your teacher of the books of the ulama… So let none of you follow my example in anything that you do not first find in them. I am neither an example nor an imam, but a Muslim." Sidi Ben Achir spent each morning commenting on the texts that his companions read to him. After these sessions, he would pass the reminder of the day in retreat, either in a garden near Salé's Sabta gate or at a spot behind the city's congregational mosque, where he would face Makka and meditate.

Among the well-known students of Sidi Ben Achir are the Andalusian Sidi Abul Abbas Ibn Abbad ar-Rundi (d. 792/1377; buried in Bab Laftouh District, Fez) and the venerated Yemenite master Sidi Mohammed al-Hadrami (d. 787/1372), teacher of the grand Moroccan Shadhilite Sidi Ahmed Zarruq (d. 899/1484). According to al-Hadrami who became a disciple of Sidi Ben Achir in 763/1361, the way of this Shaykh was based on ten principles that were derived from the doctrines of al-Muhasibi. These included: (1)  pious caution (wara'), (2) asceticism (zuhd), (3)God-consciousness (taqwa), (4) obedience to divine commands and prohibitions, (5) desire for afterlife, (6) moderation in one's earnings, (7) observance of the rights due to God (ari'aya li huquq Allah), (8) the avoidance of slander and backbiting, (9) scholarship in religion, (10) the practice of ethics. So great was Sidi Ben Achir's emphasis on combining theoretical knowledge with ethical practice that he used to say, "Knowledge ('ilm) without practice ('amal) is like a tree without fruit."

To those who were not his disciples, Sidi Ben Achir was a reclusive saint who was paradoxically sought out as an object of pilgrimage because it was so difficult to find him. The biographer Ahmed Ibn Qunfudh (d. 810/1407) testifies that the Shaykh fled from his presence when they first met in 763/1361. Since Ibn Qunfudh was then employed as a judge for the Marinids, Sidi Ben Achir's reaction may have been due to his fear of exposing himself to the sins of one who passed judgment over others. When the Marinid Sultan Abu Inan Faris, who had come to power by deposing and eventually murdering his father, sought Sidi Ben Achir's counsel in 757/1342, the Shaykh went to extraordinary lengths to avoid meeting him.

Sidi Ben Achir's reclusiveness, however, did not prevent him from speaking out on matters of principle. Soon after Abu Inan's aborted visit, the Shaykh wrote a brutally frank letter to the Sultan, in which he criticised the deposition of Abu Inan's father, Abul Hassan al-Marini, and condemned Abu Inan's luck of social justice. After disavowing any political motives of his own, Sidi Ben Achir admonished the Sultan with this warning: "Know that God watches over you at every moment in time, at every hour, at every breath, and at every blink of the eye. [Know that] you must encounter Him, that He will ask you about what you have done, and that His justice will envelop you. He will also ask you about the affairs of your subjects and what you have done for them."

To prevent Abu Inan from failing further into error, Sidi Ben Achir advised his to study al-Muhasibi Kitab ar-ri'aya li huquq Allah, so that "perhaps through the baraka of this [book] God will enable you to acquire the fear of God and mercy, which will be the means of your deliverance." Finally, the Shaykh gave the Sultan some practice advice: "The Commander of the Faithful must remember that neither his servants nor his bodyguard will save him. Instead, they will flee from him on the Day of Judgment as he will flee from them. God will not grant you anything unless you maintain Him in your heart and act according to what He has commanded and forbidden you to do. In a reply to Sidi Ben Achir, Abu Inan accepts the Shaykh's criticisms but offers the excuse that "all who hold power are unjust and despotic, are delivered by their confidants, and allow their intimates to carry them away with their passions." Less than two years later, in 759/1358, the Sultan would be assassinated by these very intimates, the "Shaykhs of Banu Marin," who feared his attempts to replace the Marinid system with an Almohad-style centralised state. 

 

Shrine of Sidi Ben Achir, Salé

 © 2008 Dar Sirr