Sīdī al-ʿArabī bin Aḥmad bin ʿAbd Allāh

(d.1166)

Masters of the Shādhili Path Series

Translated by Sidi Idris Watts

He was born on a Monday morning 9th Dhu al-Qaʿdah 1079. Sīdī

Aḥmad al-Yamanī1 said about him, “He bears much good and he will be
from amongst the righteous.”

He took from his father Sīdī Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad bin ʿAbd Allāh
and he was the one he depended upon and from whom he took his
discipline. He also took from Sīdī Aḥmad al-Yamanī. It was mentioned by
Aḥmad ibn ʿAjībah that he took the Jilāni Way from Aḥmad al-Yamanī. He
had many righteous followers among the most famous being Sīdī ʿAlī
al-Jamal and Muḥammad b. Yūnus as-Sarīfī2. Sīdī ʿAlī al-Jamal
mentioned that he heard his teacher say: “Some of the righteous men
of God said: ‘If an Arab Bedouin were to come to me urinating down his
leg I would be able to take him to knowledge of God in an instant,’ and
1
Sīdī Aḥmad al-Yamanī (d. 1113): He was born into a wealthy family from the south of
Egypt in the Sahara on the River Nile. When he received his spiritual opening his
family rejected him and he began to roam the land. He set off for the Pilgrimage.
There he took knowledge from the spiritual masters of the land. Then he went into
the Sudan and took from many teachers but finally headed for Morocco. He initially
stopped in the south in Sijilmāsah but later traveled to Fez. When he arrived in Fez,
he headed for the Qarawiyīn Mosque and slept there for the night. The next day he
entered the mosque in the Sirāj District known as al-Abbārīn and he ended up staying
resident there for the next two years. He was an intensely devout man in his worship
and people were drawn to him out of awe of his state. When he met Sīdī Aḥmad b.
ʿAbd al-Allāh, he married him to a daughter of his friend and gave him a house beside
his own and his zāwiayh in the Makhfiyyah District. They became extremely close
companions and rarely left each other’s side. He went on to teach Islamic Law in the
zāwiyah specifically from Khalīl, at-Tawḍīḥ and al-Mudawwanah. Moulay al- ʿArabī
described him as the spiritual pole of this contingent. Ibn ʿAjībah declared him ‘The All
Encompassing Spiritual Pole.’ He was affiliated to the Qādirī Order and it has been
mentioned that he was from the linage of ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jilānī. He is buried outside
the Gate al-Futūḥ of Fez and a dome was built over his grave. His grave is on the hill
just above the dome of Sīdī Yūsuf al-Fāsī to the left.
2
Sīdī Muḥammad bin Yūnus as-Sarīfī (d. 1200): He traveled east and took the
Khalwatiyyah Order from Muḥammad Fatḥā b. Sālim al-Ḥafnāwī in Egypt. Then he
came back to Fes and took the Shādhilī Order from Sīdī al-ʿArabī and finally took from
Sīdī Aḥmad aṣ-Ṣaqallī. He is buried outside the Gate al-Futuḥ and there is a dome built
over his grave. People used to gather at his grave on Friday and invoke God there.
I say, ‘If a Jew or Christian came to me I would take him to knowledge
of God in an instant.” Sīdī ʿAlī added, “I heard him say this whilst he
was in an intense state which came to him.”

He would not leave his home unless he was heading for the
zāwiyah or going to the need of others. He loved to hear the odes of
the Sufis being sung and they would greatly move him. He was a man
of silence. He only spoke when it was poignant. People were in great
awe of him. He kept himself to himself and did not love to appear
before the people.

Some of his wisdoms:

“Be careful not to forget to venerate and honour those through whom
you have received any form of opening. In honouring and venerating
the sanctity (God has given them) is a great means of opening for
increase in spiritual sustenance, good, spiritual mysteries and
enlightenment. Do not neglect this for it is a must for your sake.”

“Don’t fall in love with anyone but be loved, but if there is no choice
then only love those who love you.”

“We did not arrive (at knowledge of God) except through sharpening
our blade (i.e. through hard work).”

“Do not feed your wisdom except to those who are in utmost need for
it; otherwise conceal it and deny all knowledge.”
Sīdī Aḥmad at-Tijānī3 took blessing from him as mentioned in his book
‘Jawāhir al-Maʿānī’ (the Jewels of all Meaning) as well as Sīdī Muḥammad
at-Tawdī bin Sūdah4.

He is buried near his father close to the dome of Sīdī Yūsuf al-Fāsī
in the graveyard outside the Gate al-Futūḥ in Fes.

3
Sīdī Aḥmad b. Muḥammad at-Tijānī (d.1230) A descendant of the Prophet  through
Muḥammad ‘the Pure Soul’, he was born in the year 1150 in a village called ʿAyn Māḍī
in the south of Algeria. He memorized the Qurʾān when he was seven years of age
and then went onto study knowledge until he had become well-versed in the
sciences. When he was twenty one years of age he set off for Fez in search of the
righteous. This was in the year 1171. The first man he met was Moulay aṭ-Ṭayyib al-
Wazzānī from Wazzān. He took from him and was given permission to issue the litany
of the order to others but he refused simply because he was too busy with his own
spiritual discipline. Then he met Sīdī Aḥmad b. Muḥammad aṣ-Ṣaqallī al-Ḥusaynī but
he did not take from him or even address him. He also met Sīdī Muḥammad b. ʿAbd
Allāh and took blessing from him. He initially took the Qādirī Order but he soon left it
and then took from the Nāṣarī Order from Sīdī Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh at-Tazānī from
the region of the Rīf and soon put that order aside as well. Later on he took from the
order of Sīdī Aḥmad al-Ḥabīb as-Sijilmāsī aṣ-Ṣiddīqī from one of those with authority in
the order but again he left it. He finally took from Sīdī Aḥmad aṭ-Ṭawwāsh from the
region of Tāzah. Soon after he left Fez and headed for the Sahara and stayed there for
the next five years, teaching, worshipping and furthering his own studies. Then he
moved to Talimsān in 1181 where he taught Qurʾānic exegesis and Prophetic tradition.
From there he intended to perform the Pilgrimage in 1186 but he was held up in
Tunisia for a whole year due to circumstances. He was able, after that year, to move
onto perform the Pilgrimage and as he did he took from every scholar and righteous
man he would. Whilst he was in Zawāwah he met Sīdī Muḥammad Fatḥā b. ʿAbd ar-
Raḥmān al-Azharī and took from him the Khalwatiyyah Order. Whilst he was in the
Ḥijāz he met with many others who he took from. Once he completed his stay there
he moved back to Talimsān in 1188 and continued his teaching and worship. He
returned back to Fez also with the intention to visit Moulay Idrīs II in 1191 and he
remained there for a time going back and forth to the shrine. It was in the Saharan
village of Abī Ṣamghūn and later in Atwāt where he met Sīdī Muḥammad al-Fuḍayl and
other righteous men and received his opening. The Prophet  personally came to him
and gave him permission to propagate his own order to the people after all this time
that he had been running away from them. This was in the year 1196. After some
time in Abī Ṣamghūn he headed back to Fez with the intention to settle there in 1213.
He said, “I took from many a teacher in this discipline but God did not ordain for me
to obtain my goal from them. Our reliance and teacher of this path is the greatest of
all creation .”
4
Sīdī Muḥammad at-Tawdī bin Sūdah (d.1209) His family originated from Andalusia.
He was one of the biggest scholars of his time in Fez without question. He took from
many scholars and spiritual masters of his time such as Sīdī Aḥmad b. Muḥammad aṣ-
Ṣaqallī al-Ḥusaynī. On his pilgrimage to the Arab Peninsula he met with Murtaḍā al-
Ḥusaynī, the commentator of Imām al-Ghazālī’s work ‘Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm ad-Dīn’ and they
took from each other. His is most famous for his commentary on Saḥiḥ al-Bukhārī. He
was a great lover of Moulay ʿAbd as-Salam bin Mashīsh. He visited him over seventy
times in his life. His is buried in his zāwaiyh in the Zaqqāq al-Baghl District.