THE WORD OF TIJANIYAT

“Tijjaniyya” can be located with the appearance of the noble Prophet Muhammad(S.A.w) to Sheikh Ahmad Tijani in a waking vision, even in appear to him phisically. This occurred in 1784, in the desert of Abu Samghun. The Prophet Muhammad informed him (Sheikh Hamad Tijjani R.T.A)that he himself was his initiator on the Path and told Sheikh Hamad Tijani to leave all the sheikhs, he had previously followed. The Sheikh Hamad Tijani then received the basis of a new wirid and was given permission to give “spiritual training to the creation in both the general and unlimited (Itlaq). The Prophet told him: “You are not indebted for any favor from the any sheikhs of the Path again. I am your means (Wasilla) and your support in the spiritual realization, so leave the entire of what you have been taken from all the Sheikhs. "Says" Prophet Muhammad S.A.W

Sheikh Ahmad Tijjani R.T.A and a group of his closest companions took up residence in beginning of 1213/1798. By the time of his arrival in Fes, Sheikh Hamad Tijjani widely famous as a scholar possessing of religious charisma blessing (Baraka) had spread throughout the whole warld. so that, his entry into the city was a matter of importance issues for the political and religious establishment. The Sheikh Hamad Tijani was met by a delegation of scholars selected and arranged by the Sultan. The relationship that developed between Sheikh Tijjani and Sultan Mawlay Sulayman is important in understanding the religious personality. After all series of tests to ascertain the veracity of Tijjani’s claims to sainthood, such as giving the saint money in a manner he would not have been able to accept as a man of religion, Mawlay Sulayman became closely linked to the newcomer, appointing him to his council of religious scholars and gave Sheokh Tijani a large of house. The Sultan’s initiation into the Tijaniya has often been denied by non-Tijjanis, but Tijjanis have maintained his discipleship to their Sheikh. Tijani tradition has chronicled a series of letters between Sheikh Tijani and the Sultan was clearly indicating the Sheikh-disciple relationship. In one exchange, the Sheikh  Hamad tojani writes the Sultan urging him to fear God and keep to His command and then informs him of the some of the benefits of the Tijaniya (wirid) as how he was told by the Prophet Muhammad and tells him of the proper manners for experiencing the vision of the Prophet. The Sultan replied,

The ransom of our parents, our master and our Sheikh and our Muhammad example, Abu ‘Abbas Sheikh Hamad Tolijani. I praise God to you and to Him (Muhammad) and I send blessings and peace upon His noble soul. Your most blessed lines have reached us, and we praise God the Most High on account of what He has made special for us by the people from the pleasure of the master (Sheikh Hamad Tijjani R.T.A), the Messenger of God  and this matter I do not want, that I should allow myself to leave its performance, and I am not safe from losing or neglecting its fulfillment. So, I pray that you remove me from all that.  Not to prevents me from  looking at his the Prophet’s noble face, that [you may] surround me with the degree of those close to the glory of the Messenger of God. And [this] is needed of you, since you know that my righteousness is a righteousness from my guardianship of God over them the people, and that my corruption is their corruption, so the prayer for me is a prayer for the general population.

Aside from whatever esoteric connection existed between the Sultan and the founder of the Tijjaniyya, another explanation of Mawlay Sulayman’s warm reception of Sheikh Ahmad was the fact that the Sultan “found, in the person of Sheikh Tijjani, the symbol that personified by his behavior and his teaching, the indelible precepts of the Shari’a.” Certainly, the Sheikh’s situation of Sufism firmly within Islamic sacred law, while maintaining the ascendancy of the Toriqat Muhammadiyya, the “path of the Prophet,” over both Sufi and Fiqh (jurisprudence) historical traditions, would have been attractive to the reform-minded Sultan.