The regular devotions of the orders members

he regular devotions of this Way are the recitation of the noble Quran, seeking

forgiveness, the incantation of the phrase there is no god except Allah, prayers of blessing upon the Prophet (may Allah bless him and give him peace), sidi Muhammad al-Mahdy (may Allah be pleased with him) wrote the following: The Muhammady devotion is composed of three things, the first being to say I seek Allahs forgiveness 100 times, and the great supplication for seeking forgiveness 70 times. The second being the formula there is no god except Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, in every glance and breath by the number encompassed in the knowledge of Allah repeated anything from 300 to 3,000 to12,000 to 24,000 times, the first number being for those who seek its blessing, the second being for those who walk the way, and the third for the people of divestment and secluded devotions. The third being the prayers of blessing upon the Prophet (may Allah bless him and give him peace), in any of the formulas known as al-Umyah or al-Fatihyah, or al-`Adhymyah, which is the best of the three formulas to use, 100 times for the people who seek only the blessing of the order, and 2,000 for the people who walk the Way and the people of divestment especially those in seclusion, the crux being how much a person is able to do, the main link being made by imagining the Prophets form (may Allah bless him and give him peace), the form imagined being that described in the Shamil of al-Tirmidhi, focusing on his image in ones faculty of imagination and driving out any other imagery, but this should not be done by the latter two groups (those who travel the Way and the people of divestment) except when they establish the following Sunna (recommended actions done by the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, but not considered obligatory) prayers which add up to 32 cycles, which when added to the 17 cycles of obligatory prayers which added to the Witr add up to 18 cycles making the total 50 cycles. The Fajr being 2 cycles, the Dhuha being 4 cycles, 4 before Dhuhr, followed by two after Dhuhr, 4 before `Asr, 2 After Maghrib, 2 after Isha, 10 being cycles performed in the middle of the night, two being the prayer of 2 cycles known as Shaf` which can be joined to the one cycle of Witr or done separately. If one of the Brethren misses his one his night prayers he should make it up by doing the same number of cycles at night and visa-versa. (Abridged from the the outpouring of lordly grace al-Fyuwdhat al-Rabbanyah by Ahmad alSharif)

Daily life of the Zawiya

he Sanusi lodges, where instrumental in focusing the activities of the order in each stage

of its development, each lodge included a mosque which also functioned as a center of learning having dormitories for its resident community of students, lodging for the head of the lodge and his family, as well as other support staff, a guest house, a library, its own plot of land and herd of live stock, for the Sanusiya although an austere and ascetic order did not advocate living off the handouts of others but rather that the brethren should be self supporting, each lodge being a self contained community, the brethren were expected to work the land, they were trained in crafts such as blacksmithing, as well as horse riding and marksmanship. The brethren would meet twice a week to recite the litanies in a group, the litany being made up of a recitation of the Quran as well as the litanies of sidi Ahmad Ibn Idris. The brethren would also meet for the congregational pray and have a continuous program of study, which included the study of Quran, Hadith, jurisprudence, theology, history, poetry, Tassawuf, and the other sacred sciences. Among the books on the reading list are the following: 1) Sahih al-Bukhary 2) Mwatta al-Imam Malik 3) Bulugh al-Maram by Ibn Hajar al-`Asqalany 4) Risalat Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawany 5) Al-Hikam al-`Atayah

Those of the brethren who showed exceptional abilities in their studies, were sent to the mother lodge in Jaghbub to further their studies, so that they may one day became leaders within the order, heads of lodges and callers to the faith. The lodges also served the function of an impartial judiciary to arbitrate in local disputes for the members of the order were drawn from all quarters of Libyas tribal society, therefore it became a source of unity for Libyas divisive tribes, all of which were linked to the order by the bonds of kinship.

Bibliography Al-Salabi, dr. `Ali Muhammad Muhammad, al-Haraka al-Sanusiya fi Libya, volume 1 of 3, Dar albayarek, Amman, 1999.

Vikr, Knut s., Sufi and Scholar on the Desert Edge: Muhammad bin `Ali al-Sanusi and his Brotherhood, Hurst and Company, London, 1995

Translations of the Litanies

Translation of the Tahlil of sidi Ahmad ibn Idris:

"

T I

here is no god except Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, in every glance and

breath by the number encompassed in the knowledge of Allah." Translation of the Great supplication for seeking forgiveness by sidi Ahmad ibn Idris:

" n the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate, I seek forgiveness from Allah the
Majestic, whom there is no god but he the Ever Living, the Self Sufficient, forgiver of wrong action, Possessor of Majesty and bounty, turning to him in repentance from all acts of disobedience, wrongs, sins and from every wrong action I have committed intentionally or by mistake, outward or inward, in speech or action, in all my movements and in every stillness, in my thoughts and breaths one and all forever and ever, from the wrongs I know as well as those I know not, by the number of all things encompassed in your knowledge, enumerated by the Book, inscribed by the Pen, and by the number of all things brought into being by Your Power, chosen by Your Will, and by the words of Allah as befits the Majesty of Our Lords Countenance, His beauty, His Perfection, as He would love and be pleased with." Translation of the majestic prayer of blessing on the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) al-Salat al-`Adhimiah of sidi Ahmad ibn Idris:

" n the name of Allah, the Merciful, the compassionate, O Allah I ask You by the light of
the Countenance of Allah the Majestic, which encompassed the pillars of the throne of Allah the Majestic, and established the worlds of Allah the Majestic, to bless or liege lord Muhammad the possessor of great rank, and the family of the Prophet of Allah the Majestic, as befits the Majesty of Allah the Majestic, by the number of every glance and every breath known only in the Knowledge of Allah the majestic, a blessing that is on-going by the eternity of Allah the Majestic, in honour of your rank our liege lord Muhammad you who possesses such sublime character, and give him and his family peace identical to these blessings, and join me to him as you joined the spirit to the self, outwardly and inwardly, in my waking state and my sleeping state, making him O my Lord a spirit for my essence in everyway in this world before the next, O Majestic."

Bibliography

Awraad sidi Ahmad ibn Idris, Compiled and Published by Dar Jawami` al-kalam, Cairo.