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West Africa |
ISLAM
What are religious brotherhoods in Islam?
How do they work?
We give here
the examples of the Tidjaniyya and of Mouridism
In West Africa, most Muslims are more or less attached to a Marabout. And most Marabouts are connected in some way to a religious brotherhood. Through this link, then, most Muslims are connected to a brotherhood — either a simple liking for a particular brotherhood or true affiliation.
Origin and organisation
To understand the «brotherhoods» in Islam, we’ve got to go back to the history of Sufism, Islam’s mystical path. The brotherhoods find their origin within the great Muslim mystics of the first centuries of Islam. Right from the beginning, men and women, through meditation on the sacred texts, through asceticism and total abandonment to God, have shown their quest for God. These holy people were called «sufi» perhaps because of the woollen (sufi) garment some of them used to wear. The 9th and 10th centuries, the golden age of Sufism, witnessed the rise of great Sufis; their lives and the subjects they dealt with were transmitted through oral tradition and then collected in anthologies. Gradually, especially from the 12th century onwards, disciples gathered around these Masters who were recognised for their religious science, their piety and their spiritual influence. The disciples themselves also wanted to enter into contact with God and benefit from the blessings of the Sufis. Thus the “Ways”, which we call brotherhoods and which are like ways to salvation, were born. The «Ways» normally bear the name of the Master who is their patron. In some regions such as West Africa, local brotherhoods have sprung up and these have played an important role in the process of islamisation.
A kind of comparison can be made between the major religious orders in the Catholic Church and the brotherhoods in Islam. As leader of a brotherhood you will find a Master who lives near the tomb of its founder. He is assisted by a council; he receives many visitors and is surrounded by his disciples. He’s the one who appoints or invests new local Masters — these must be people who’ve proved themselves worthy to hand on the Master’s teaching, his spiritual virtue, his blessing, all of which the Master received in turn from the Founder and through him, from the Prophet Mohammed himself.
The various local Masters, popularly called «Marabouts», also receive the power to admit new members who among themselves are called «brothers» — hence the name «brotherhood.»
Spirituality and practice
The Master is a guide for his disciple. The disciple submits to his master «as a corpse in the hands of the one who washes the dead» with an oath of allegiance. The Master shows him the right direction, the right Way. The disciple has to cross several spiritual states before reaching the final states: i.e. intimacy with God and self-obliteration into the mind of God.
Often, however, the disciple doesn’t get that far and more than an initiation and a spiritual direction, he expects from his Master a share in his benefits in that the Master has inherited a supernatural power, a Blessing from the Founder. In Mali, it is said that the disciple waits to be «guaranteed» i.e. he wants an efficacious blessing which will permit him to have a successful life both here below (marriage, children, successful enterprises, work, health, material goods) and in the life to come in Paradise. Popular belief is that this blessing can even be transmitted by the simple touch of the Master.
As Muslims, the members of the brotherhoods are held to the practice of the Five Pillars of Islam, though each brotherhood also has a particular practice. Among the exercises practised we have vigils (often given over to the recitation of the Koran), or supplementary fasts, retreats, recitations («wird»). Each brotherhood has its own «wird», an element of self-identification: a collection of formulas, of surahs from the Koran, and prayers, either read or sung at precise moments a number of times each day.
They also practice another characteristic exercise called «dhikr» which leads those who exercise it to «remind themselves about God», through repeating, with an ever-sustained rhythm, either the profession of faith or of one of the most beautiful names of God, or simply the pronoun «Him». These «dhikr» sessions are high points in the brotherhood. Each has its own particular way of conducting the exercises: Standing or sitting, accompanied or not by music or dance.
By examining a concrete example of one or other of these brotherhoods implanted in West Africa, we will better understand what they represent on the spiritual, economic and political levels. As Gilles Veinstein writes: «The brotherhoods’ main aim is to transmit a spiritual message. But they inevitably develop a temporal powers.»
The Tidjaniyya
This brotherhood takes its name from its founder, El-Tidjani, born in the region of Laghouat (Algeria) in 1737 and died at Fez (Morocco) in 1815. Following a journey to the holy places of Islam where he listened to the teachings of respected Masters, he had a revelation during a retreat in an oasis. This was an apparition of the Prophet Mohammed who asked him to found the brotherhood which today bears his name, taught him the «wird» and called upon him to begin his work of spiritual direction.
Those who enter the brotherhood must do so in an exclusive manner and commit themselves never to leave it. Furthermore, they claim to belong to a superior class of Muslims. El-Tidjani maintained that he had received the very spirit of Mohammed and also the special mission to be his Caliph on earth, to propagate his teaching and his «wird.» From that follows the absolute obligation of obedience of the disciple towards the Master who initiated him. In return, he rests assured of the intercession of the Founder with the Prophet who guarantees him pardon, treasures of divine grace and Paradise.
Extension in West Africa: After the death of the Tidjaniyya’s founder, the brotherhood spread into West Africa. The first adherents were members of a Moorish tribe from Walata in Mauritania. Although not belonging to this tribe, the Tidjaniyya’s greatest propagator, El-Hadj Omar Tall, would begin his work from this tribe.
Born around 1795, his father being a devout educated Marabout and a member of the noble family of Fouta Toto in Senegal, Omar Tall went to the Moors of Walata where he received his first initiation into the Tidjani Way. He gave himself over to an ascetic, mystical life, and became a learned person and eventually a convert to the Way. After a pilgrimage to the holy places of Islam where he received a second initiation into the brotherhood, he launched into teaching and then went around recruiting and preparing the Holy War (djihad) against those non-believers who refused all attempts at conversion.
This Holy War spread over a great part of present-day Mali and Senegal, finally confronting the Peul Empire of Macina which was Muslim, the excuse being that the latter had allied themselves with the pagan Bambara of Segou and thus were hypocrites. Omar Tall settled in the capital of Macine but a revolt broke out. He was forced to flee and found refuge in a cave in the Bandiagara cliffs, where, in February 1864 he died because of a landslide. The legend spread that he did not die but simply disappeared.
Over and above all these stories of struggles, victories and defeats, there’s the figure of the Master — a man stamped with mysticism and with a noble idea of his mission — to purify and propagate Islam by means of a new, militant brotherhood. Omar Tall’s most important work, «The book of the Spears,» is a commentary on the doctrines of Tidjaniyya and aims to enlighten all who are prepared to listen, in the rules of the Way. He instructs all to remain humble and to have complete faith in Allah, for the way of his adoration and praise of the Prophet is fundamental.
Today — Because of the wars he waged, Omar Tall is hated in some regions, but his brotherhood is still very much alive today and is quite influential. It is characterised by the value of its élite, clearly superior to others. Its members manifest a high cultural and social behaviour and are open to progress. But it’s true that the behaviour of some disciples in their veneration of their master, smacks rather of superstition.
One of the Tidjaniyya’s best known masters is Tierno Bokar Salif Tall (1875-1940), the «Wise Man of Bandiagara», whose teaching and details of his life have been transmitted to us by Amadou Hampate Bâ. Grand-nephew of El Hadj Omar Tall, Salif Tall studied the Koran and its commentaries and also the great Sufi masters in a family atmosphere permeated with piety. In 1908, at the request of his friends, he agreed to look after the training of the children of Bandiagara, spending his life «from his bed to the mosque, from the mosque to his friends, but all the while attached wherever he was, to the concrete situation of those children confided to him and later, to the adults who became his disciples». At 62, Salif Tall left the Tidjaniyya of the Tall and joined a new reformed branch, the Hamalliya. Accused of treason, he died three years later, almost in solitude.
Here’s an extract from his teaching: «My dearest wish is that all the religious confessions on earth will be reconciled with each other and rely on each other to form a moral and spiritual canopy supported by the three buttresses of Love, Charity and Fraternity. There is only one God. Thus there can only be one Way leading to Him, one Religion whose different temporal manifestations can be compared to the spreading branches of one unique tree. That Religion can only be called TRUTH. Its dogmas must be: Love, Charity and Fraternity»
The Mûrîdiyya or Mouridism
Mouridism is an sub-Saharan black African brotherhood and more particularly Senegalese and Wolof. It is estimated that 33% of Senegalese belong to this brotherhood. It’s name does not come from its founder but from the Arabic term «mûrîd» which means «a disciple completely committed to following a master».
Its founder, Amadu Bamba, was born around 1850 in the Wolof region of Senegal at a troubled period when the nobles and the French colonial troops clashed. After the defeat of the Wolof armies in 1886, he gathered together numerous disciples coming from all levels of society, at Baol in the centre of Senegal. People were completely at sea after their defeat by the French and its here that Amadu Bamba found his adherents. His followers were organised into groups for farming, growing first of all millet and then groundnuts. Their numbers grew rapidly, which worried the French authorities who were afraid they would start a rebellion. Amadu Bamba was arrested by the French in 1885 and deported, first of all to Gabon, then to Mauritania and finally to northern Senegal. Amadu Bamba was only able to return to the Wolof area in 1913 and he died here in 1927. He’d received a revelation that he should build his centre and a large mosque in Touba, but he’d never been able to do so. He was, however, buried in Touba.
Amadu Bamba’s writings show him to be man of unshakeable faith, imbued with gentleness, with his feet firmly on the ground, someone who enjoyed his work and was close to God. His teaching was practical: To make orthodox Islam known far and wide and to lead his disciples to God. Mouridism has as its specificity that there is a privileged relationship between Master and disciple. The disciple depends absolutely on the Master. In fact, this special relationship is none other than the traditional relationship already present in Wolof social relations. The brotherhood is organised in a significant hierarchical society. Each year, the Mourides come together for «the Magal», i.e. the Great Pilgrimage to Touba.
Mouridism has a great deal of influence in Senegal’s political life. Until recently, no politician could be elected to office without the approval of the brotherhood’s Marabouts. The Mourides have made an important contribution to the development of groundnut cultivation. Its work communities, initially concerned with agriculture, have now developed into commercial enterprises and have important trade networks from New York to Hong Kong, taking in Europe en route. Throughout the world, there’s a thriving Mouride import-export business, with its own financial distribution channels and its own ways of transporting goods. In Senegal, you can see many hawkers in the towns and villages who are working for their Master. One thing you can be sure of, they can count on their brotherhood’s support and they know that their Master will never abandon them. They also know that through their Master, they will receive Amadu Bamba’s blessing and so will attain Paradise.
 | Guy Vuillemin, PISAI, Italy, August 2000 — © Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment |
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PeaceLink 2000 - Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgement