Sidi Ahmed ibn Idriss al-Fasi (d.

1252/1837)

Despite his importance, no substantial study has been devoted to the career of Abul Abbas Sidi
Ahmed ibn Idriss al-Hassani al-Araichi al-Fasi (d. 1252/1837); most accounts of him appear by way of
a preface lo studies or his pupils. And yet through his teachings, pupils, and family, he was
undoubtedly one of the key religious figures of the
19th century Arab Muslim world. Indeed, his influence, direct and
indirect, appears to have stretched from North Africa to Indonesia.
Three of his pupils from his immediate circle established major
brotherhoods, the Sanussiya, Khatmiya, and Rashidiya, from which
stemmed several other orders. Of his descendants one branch
established a local dynasty in southern Arabia that survived until
1933 when it was incorporated into the Saudi stale, while another
branch, somewhat belatedly, established an Idrissiya in Upper Egypt
and the Southern Sudan. Also significant is the influence exercised
by Ibn Idriss through those of his pupils who founded not major
orders but local schools propagating his teachings such as the
Egyptian Sidi Ali Abdelhaqq al-Qusi, or, who under his influence
founded or revitalised local or family orders, such as the
Majdhubiya and Ismailiya in the Northern or western Sudan
respectively. Finally, his influence was not confined to his family
and pupils; in the course of his travels, he initiated or gave
ijazas, both general and for specific text, or corresponded with
many scholars including such figures as Mohammed Hassan al-Madani
(d. 1847) and Mohammed ibn Ali Shawkani (d. 1834).

Yet Ibn Idriss remains an enigma. That he was very influential is
beyond doubt; why, is less easy to explain. His doctrinal position
was not unique; others held the same or similar positions. He wrote
relatively little; his teachings are known largely through the
writings of his students and contemporaries, his few surviving
letters, and through his litanies and prayers. The explanation must
lie in his personality; not so much what he taught, but how he
taught it. That, rather than doctrinal originality, best explains
the enormous authority he exercised over his students and
contemporaries and why established scholars so eagerly sought ijazas
from him. While the several accounts we have of him simply take his
spiritual authority for granted, his letters underscore its pastoral
nature. In letters to his closest pupils, such as his near
contemporary, al-Sanusi, or the much younger al-Uthman Mirghani, he
writes as a wise and loving master guiding them along the mystical
path; to his humbler followers, he gives simple and authoritative
rulings on a variety of matters that were both great and small.

Toward a biography

Ibn Idriss was born into a holy family at Maysur in the district of
al-`Araich (Larache) on Morocco's Atlantic coast; the date of his
birth is given as either Rajah 1173/February-March 1760 or
1163/1749-50, the latter date supported by Idrissi family tradition.
He was a descendant through the Imam Idriss b. 'Abdellah al-Mahd of
the Sharifian Idrissi dynasty, sometime rulers of Fez (788-974).
After the usual Quranic studies, Sidi Ahmed went at the age of about
20 to study at the Qarawiyyin mosque school in Fez. There he studied
a wide range of subjects under a number of teachers, who included
Sidi Mohammed at-Tawdi ibn Souda (d. 1209/1794), al-Majidri (or al-
Mijaydri) al-Shinqiti, Sidi Abul Mahawib Abdelwahhab Tazi (d.
1198/1783), and Abul Qacem al-Wazir. Other teachers referred to in
the sources include Abdelkarim Yazghi (d. 1784) and Mohammed Tayyeb
ibn Kiran (d. 1812). Ibn Kiran was later to teach al-Sanusi. Among
the texts Ibn Idriss studied were the works of Ibn Hajar al-
`Asqalani (d. 1499) and the Asanid of Ibn Suda from the latter's
period of study in Egypt.

It was from among the same teachers that Ibn Idriss took his Sufi
affiliations; he was initiated into the Khadiriya by al-Tazi and
into the Nasiriya Shadhiliya by al-Wazir, while al-Shinqiti taught
him the famous prayer attributed to Sidna Ali ibn Abi Talib, al-Hizb
al-Sayfi. In other words, Ibn Idriss received an education that
combined the formal religious sciences, apparently with an emphasis
on tafsir and hadith, with the mysticism of the brotherhoods. He
soon began to form a circle of students around him, to whom he
inveighed against the innovations (bida') of popular Sufism
(Tasawwuf sha'abi), exhorting to go back to the sources (usul) of
belief, the Quran and Sunna. This was to be the consistent theme of
his teaching throughout his life.

Ibn Idriss seems to have become a figure of controversy, becoming
involved in disputes with the ulama at the Qarawiyyin. This may be
the reason why, in the middle of 1212/1797-98, Sidi Ahmed set out
with an entourage from Fez on the pilgrimage; he was never to return
to Morocco. Travelling via Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, he stopped
at Benghazi, where he taught people from Jabal al-Akdar and Barqa.
He then took a boat from Benghazi directly to Alexandria, arriving
apparently in early 1798, some few months before Bonaparte's
invasion From Alexandria he travelled up to Cairo where he gave a
series of public lectures at al-Azhar which huge audiences attended,
a number of whom went with him when he continued on to Mecca at the
end of 1213/1798-99 or the beginning of 1214/1799-1800.

Sidi Ahmed was to stay in Mecca, except for the years spent on his
two, possibly three, extended visits to Upper Egypt, until his
enforced departure for the Yemen in 1243/1827-28. From the outset,
he appears to have encountered hostility from the Meccan ulama, but
to have enjoyed the support and patronage of the Sharif Ghalib ibn
Musa, emir of Mecca between 1788 and 1814. It was the latter who
granted Sidi Ahmed the palace (saray) of al-Jaafariya in Mecca for
the use of himself and his followers.

Emir Ghalib was himself driven out of Mecca by the Wahhabis under
Sa'ud ibn Abdellaziz in 1803, but the latter is said to have treated
Ibn Idriss with the greatest respect, giving him a silk robe and
protecting his followers. Interestingly, Sidi Ahmed only left Mecca
in 1813, the year that the Wahhabis were expelled from the holy city
by the forces of Mohammed Ali Pasha. Together with Sidi al-Uthman
Mirghani, he crossed the Red Sea to al-Zayniya, a village near Luxor
(al-Uqsur) approximately half way between Qina and Isna. Al-Zayniya
was apparently a religious centre of some importance as well as
being at the end of some short desert crossing from the Nile to the
Red Sea coast. Ibn Idriss may have visited al-Zayniya before; in his
Bulaq, Mohammed Hijrasi suggests that during his first stay m Egypt
he visited Upper Egypt where he was initiated into the Khalwatiya by
Sidi Hassan ibn Hassan Bey al-Qina'i, a student of the Qutb Mahmoud
al-Kurdi (d. 1186/1771). This latter is credited to have initiated
his master Sidi Abdelwahhab Tazi as well as Moulay Abul Abbas Ahmed
Tijani (d. 1230/1815). It was during this apparent second visit,
between 1813 and 1817, that al-Uthman Mirghani was permitted by In
Ibn to undertake a dissemination journey (nashr) through the
northern and western Sudan, a journey that was lo lay the
foundations of the Khatmiya tariqa.

Sidi Ahmed returned to Mecca in 1817. But conditions there were
beginning to turn against him; there was continuing tension between
the Sharifian Zayd clan, to which his patron Ghalib belonged, and
the occupying forces of Mohammed Ali. Ten years later, in 1243/1827,
matters finally came to a head. Mohammed Ali transferred the
position of emir from the Zayd to the 'Awn clan, while the Meccan
ulama seemed to have used the demarche to bring charges of heresy
against Sidi Ahmed ibn Idriss. In the same year, Sidi Ahmed was
forced to leave; he set out for the Yemen with all his pupils except
for al-Sanusi who stayed behind to act as his master's agent in
Mecca.

Ibn Idriss' reputation was already known in the Yemen and the
contrast between his reception by the networks of scholarly clans
there and hostility of the Meccans is striking. Indeed, one recent
study, describes Ibn Idriss coming as contributing to a Sufi revival
in the Yemen. But among the Yemeni scholars were ulama who had
attained the highest rank of ijtihad; in other words, whose
doctrinal position was very close to that of Ibn Idriss. He went
first to Mukha in the far south where he stayed for four months,
before moving to Zahn: where he was the guest for nearly a year of
the town's mufti Abderrahman ibn Sulayman al-Ahdal (d. 1835). From
Zabid he travelled north via Bayt al-Faqih and al-Hudayda to al-
Qutay and Bajil. His progress along the coastal region of the Yemen
seems to have been marked by extraordinary enthusiasm; wherever he
went, he initiated into his order or gave ijazas for a wide range of
texts, mainly the canonical collection of hadith and Ibn Hajar. His
position was undoubtedly enhanced by a warm recommendation from the
great Yemeni scholar, Mohammed Shawkani, whom he did not actually
meet but with whom he corresponded. Among those he taught was, for
example, the Qadi of Bait al-Faqih, Abderrahman ibn Ahmed al-Bahkali
(d. 1836). To the young al-Hassan b. Ahmed Akish Damidi (d. 1872),
he taught the Risala (Letters) of Abul Qacem al-Qushayri (d.
467/1052) and Ibn Ata'Allah Sakandari's (d. 709/1294) Hikam
(Spiritual Aphorisms); to Abu Bakr ibn Abdellah al-`Attas (d. 1866)
his prayer, as-Salat al-A'adhamiya. But these were by no means the
only scholars he met; both Yemeni and Idrissi sources give many more.

There were, however, to be in the Yemen echoes of his deputes it Fez
and Mecca. Abu Bakr ibn Mohammed Tihami (d. 1843), hearing that Ibn
Idriss had rejected the exoteric (dhahir) interpretation of certain
Quranic verses, "since it did not concern to Sufi principles (qawa'd
as-sufiya),'' wrote a refutation called Talbis Iblis, "The Devil's
Deceit," the title recalling Ibn al-Jawzi's teaching mocking attack
on Sufism in his lime. To this, another Yemeni scholar, Ibrahim ibn
Yahya Damidi, responded with a counter-blast. Harmony prevailed in
the end; al-Hassan Akish records,

(Tihami) came into contact with our Shaykh through some of his
students and received a pardon. The pardon was both requested and
expected by Tihami, since he was one of the eminent, and slander
upon the reputation of the ulama is a mortal poison.

The doctrinal difference seems to have disappeared in the face of
Ibn Idriss' spiritual status. After nearly two years of travel, Ibn
Idriss came, in 1244/1828, to the town of Sabya in the district
of `Asir. 'Asir's ruler, Ali ibn Mujathlhil (d. 1834) welcomed him
and gave him a grant upon which to live. Now an old man, Ibn Idriss
seems to have decided to settle in Sabya. Once more, as before in
Fez and Mecca, his teaching begin to provoke opposition, this lime
from a group or Wahhabi-inspired ulama led by one Nasir al-Kubaybi.
Matters, came to a head just over a year later, when in Jumada 11
1245/November 1829, Ibn Mujathlhil ordered a public debate
(munazara) to be held between al- Kubaybi and Ibn Idriss, a debate
recorded verbatim by al-Hassan Akish. The debate is too long to be
analyzed here, but characteristic is Ibn ldriss' criticism to
Mohammed ibn Abdelwahhab,

We do not deny his merit. His intention was righteous in what he
did. He eliminated innovations and unfortunate practices, but that
mission was smeared by excess. He declared those Muslims who had a
belief in anything other than God Most High to be unbelievers, and
moreover allowed them to be killed and their property to he seized
without justification.

Ibn Idriss died in Sabya on 21 Rajab 1253/21 October I837. Of his
descendents, one branch later emerged as the Idrissi dynasty
of `Asir, while another branch, founded by his sons Mohammed and Abd
al-`Ali propagated what became the Idrissiya Tariqa in Upper Egypt,
based on al-Zayniya, and around Dongola and Omdurman in the northern
Sudan, where they settled and still live.

Ibn ldriss' teachings

Ibn ldriss' teachings fall within the parameters of two fundamental
doctrinal positions: as regards fiqh; a rejection of taqlid and the
madhabs, and a return to the Quran, the Sunna, and the ijma'a of the
Companions; as regards Sufism, an emphasis on the Prophet (peace and
blessing be upon him) as the way to God. The two positions were, of
course, two sides of the same coin; a purer Islam emphasising the
believer's own personal way to salvation and "intellectual honesty."

In his rejection of taqlid, Ibn Idriss was doctrinally very close to
the Wahhabis and Shawkani. He expounded his own distinctively
mystical interpretation of the Quran and hadith. This, naturally,
brought him into conflict with the Meccan ulama. According to his
disciple Sidi al-Uthman Mirghani, "He was rejected by the people of
Mecca and the reason for their rejection (inkar) was reliance
(`amal) on the Sunna in a much as he did not follow a madhab, but
relied only on the Book of God and the Sunna."

His assertion of ijtihad appears in all his scholarly encounters,
with the Meccans, with the Egyptian Ahmed al-Sawi (d. 1825), or in
the Yemen. What is less clear is whom he considered qualified to
exercise ijtihad; certainly not every Muslim. Shaykh Ibn Idrissi
points out, "As for the ijtihad of the Companions and the successors
(at-tabi'in) following the example of the Messenger (peace and
blessing be upon him), it is not a matter within the capacity of
everyone.'' His rejection of taqlid seems to have been paralleled by
a distaste for its experts. He states, "Beware of those who ascribe
to themselves learning (ilm) without acting in accordance with it
and have traded their faith for the world."

Central to his mysticism was the concept of Tariqa Mohammediya,
namely that there was only one "way," that of the Prophet, who alone
could act as intermediary between the seeker and God. Sidi Ahmed
Akish Damidi reports,

He, the teacher (at-ustadh) said, "The leaders of this tariqa took
their way through intermediaries (bi-wasita), but I took my tariqa
from the Messenger (peace and blessing be upon him), without any
intermediary; thus my way is the Mohammediya Ahmediya; its
beginning and its end is the Mohammedian light."

The dogma of Tariqa Mohammediya was not, of course, new, but it did
lay great stress on sanction by Prophetic revelation, a dogma
fundamental to Ibn Idriss and his students. As one example, a
Sudanese saint, Sidi Mohammed al-Majdhub (d. 1832) was initiated
into the Khatmiya by al-Uthman Mirghani during the latter's journeys
in the Sudan. Subsequently, he went to Mecca and studied with Ibn
Idriss. While in the Medina, the Prophet (peace and blessing be upon
him) appeared to him, ordering him to leave the Khatmiya and return
to the tariqa of his ancestors, the Shadhiliya (after the Moroccan
Sidi Abul Hassan Shadhili; d. 656/1241). He returned to the Sudan,
settling at Sawakin on the Red Sea coast, where he established a
zawiya from which he propagated his own order, known as the
Mohammediya Shadhiliya Majdhubiya.

Ibn Idriss' method of teaching seems to have been essentially
informal. A circle grew up around him, be it in Fez, Mecca, or
Sabya; his relationship with his students varied no doubt in
proportion to the latter' age, learning, and status in the mystical
way. Thus, his letters to Sidi Mohammed ibn Ali Sanusi seem much
more as between equals relatively than those to Sidi Uthman
Mirghani, which are written very much from walid to walad (a father
to son). Indeed, in one letter to Sidi Mirghani, he urges him to be
guided by Sanusi, since the latter was "a true likeness of us"
(nuskha shabiha minna). There was no formal hierarchy or distinctive
dress, although he did occasionally present the Sufi liver (khirqa)
or send one of his gowns "as a blessing and likeness {tahabbub)."
His form of teaching was the majlis or open lecture. Sidi Ibrahim ar-
Rashid (d. 1874) records that on one occasion he held six majalis in
three days; two a day, one after the evening prayers, the other
after the morning prayers.

The forty or so surviving letters to and from Sidi Ibn Idriss
conform the impression of extraordinary spiritual status; the series
of letters to and from Sidi Uthman Mirghani are within the classical
tradition of the spiritual master guiding a novice who oscillates
between exaltation and self-doubt. To others he writes on more
prosaic matters. Thus in two letters to a student in Sudanese Nubia,
he rules on the admissibility of amputating an otiose finger, on the
use of burnt date stones as a cure for diarrhoea, on whether one
should pray ever the bier or one who has neglected virtue (tariq
salah), and on the leaning of a writing tablet (law'h), upon which
Quranic verses have been written against the wall. The latter point
gives a good illustration of his style of argument.

There is no objection to this. Indeed, the tablet upon which is
written the Quran has, its origin from the earth. And the earth has
its origin from the water. And the earth has its origin from the
Light of our Lord Mohammed (peace and blessing be upon him). And the
origin of everything is pure, and leaning the tablet against the
wall is likewise, and the Book likewise."

Ibn Idriss and his pupils

It is difficult to discuss all of Ibn Idriss' disciples and the
movements that stemmed from them. His pupils fall roughly into three
categories; those who established major brotherhoods; those who
propagated his teachings but whose endeavours were only consolidated
into orders by the generation that followed them; and those who
established local schools and or circles teaching Idrissiya
doctrines.

The first group; including Sidi Mohammed ibn Ali Sanusi, Sidi Uthman
Mirghani, Sidi Ibrahim al-Rashid (d. 1874), and his own family, the
Adarisa. The transmission impulse is well illustrated in the career
of al-Mirghani; as a young student of Ibn Idriss in Mecca, al-
Mirghani was sent by his master "Balgha" in the bilad Jabarata,
probably the Baqla region in Eritrea. He came up against the
hostility of the local ruler and prudently returned to Mecca. When
he accompanied his master to al-Zayniya in 1813, the latter sent him
to preach in al-Manfalut and Asyut, apparently without great
success. But it was al-Mirghani who urged his teacher to let him go
to the Sudan; at first, Ibn Idriss was reluctant:

As to what you have said about going to the Sudan, it will be very
inconvenient; it will be a very long journey. If you can avoid it,
do so. As for the holy men of the Sudan, they have been bearing
extreme burdens, and they wish to lay them upon the shoulders of
others.

After receiving a Prophetic vision, the master relented. But here
follows an ambiguity; during his travels in the Sudan al-Mirghani,
25 or 26 years old, appears to have claimed to have been a mujtahid.
This may he deduced from an undated fatwa denouncing him written by
the Egyptian scholar, Hassan al-Attar (d. 1853), in response to a
request from a certain Mohammed ibn Said al-Karaksi of Shendi. Al-
Mirghani also began to initiate people into his own order, the
Khatmiya (literally, the seal of the orders). The ambiguity is
reinforced by the letters exchanged between the two; they suggest a
difficult relationship with the master constantly needing to reprove
or restrain his student. A factor complicating their relationship
may have been that of Ibn Idriss' closest students, al-Mirghani
alone came from a Meccan Sharifian family. The ambiguity of al-
Mirghani's relations with his Shaykh contrast with the
straightforwardness of Sanusi. The latter, after studying with Sidi
Ahmed ibn Idriss in Mecca, spent two years with him in the Yemen,
and it was not until after Sidi Ahmed's death that he formally
established its tariqa with its first zawiya at Abu Qubays just
outside Mecca.

Among those orders that stemmed directly or indirectly from the
generation following the Sidi Mohammed Sanusi and Sidi Uthman al-
Mirghani were the Ismailiya, the Majdhubiya, and the Rashidiya; from
the latter came the Salihiya and Dandarawiya. Sidi Ismail al-Wali
never met Shaykh Ibn Idriss, being initiated into the Khatmiya by al-
Mirghani when the latter visited al-Ubayyid in Kordofan in 1816. He
subsequently broke away on the basis of divine and prophetic
injunctions and formed his own order. Like most of the Ibn Idriss-
inspired orders, the Ismailiya were keen lecturers: Sidi Ismail and
his son, Sidi Mohammed al-Makki (d. 1906), undertook combined slave-
raiding/proselytizing expeditions into the Nuba Mountains of
southern Kordofan. Like Sidi Ismail al-Wali, Sidi Mohammed al-
Majdhub was first initiated by Shaykh al-Mirghani, but later went
and took from Ibn Idriss in Mecca. As we have seen, he also broke
away from the Khatmiya.

Sidi Ibrahim al-Rashid (d. 1874) joined Ibn Idriss' circle at a
later date than al-Mirghani or al-Sanusi. Born into a family living
near Karima in the northern Sudan of sharifian descent, Sidi Ibrahim
was said to descend from Sidi Ahmed ibn Yusuf al-Rashid (d. 1524),
founder of the Rashidiya or Yusufiya order in Morocco. After a
traditional education, Ibrahim went first to Mecca and then to Sabya
in 1248/1832, staying with Ibn Idriss until the latter's death. Most
accounts suggest that Ibrahim was closest, both personally and
spiritually, of all his students to Ibn Idriss, if not his
acknowledged successor. Sidi Ibrahim al-Rashid then moved across the
Red Sea to al-Zayniya; after a lengthy and successful propagation
journey in the northern Sudan, where he initiated followers into the
Tariqa Mohammediya Ahmediya, he returned to Mecca. Here, he again
became involved in the continuing dispute over spiritual succession
to Ibn Idriss and was twice accused of heresy before the council of
ulama (the first occasion was in 1273/1856-57). He rebutted the
charges so successfully that he won many followers from among the
pilgrims from Syria and India. It was his nephew, Sidi Ibn Mohammed
Salih al-Rashidi (d. 1919) who was responsible for organising the
Rashidiya into an independent order, although for reasons that are
unclear, Ibn Mohammed Salih broke away in 1887 to form his own
order, the Salihiya. The Salihiya soon spread widely in Somalia; one
of those initiated by Ibn Mohammed Salih was the Somali leader, Sidi
Mohammed Abdellah (Abdille) Hassan.

The eastern dimension of Ibn Idriss' influence has yet to be fully
explored. The Idrissi tradition was taken to Minagkbeau in central
Sumatra by Shaykh Padri who had encountered Ibn Idriss in Mecca
before his return to Sumatra in 1803.

A final category of Shaykh ibn Idriss' students are those who
founded not orders, but local schools propagating his teachings.
There are several examples; one from Egypt is Sidi Ali Abdelhaqq al-
Qusi (d. 1877) who studied with Ibn Idriss and then spent five years
with Sidi Mohammed ibn Ali Sanusi in Cyrenaica before to return and
settle and Asyut. He established a local school and, like his
teachers, that "The gate of ijtihad is always open," and wrote two
words on the subject. Our first Sudanese example is Sidi al-Haj
Mohammed Ballol al-Sunni, a Bidayri from Kurti in the northern
Sudan, who stayed with Ibn Idriss for seven years. It was his master
who bestowed upon him the laqab, al-Sunni. On his return to the
Sudan, he undertook a series of propagation journeys before settling
at Qarri, just north of Khartoum. His school still (1982) flourishes
under his grandson, Sidi al-Sadiq al-Sunni, and still teaches the
doctrines of Ibn Idriss. Another Sudanese example was also a
Bidayri, but a student of al-Rashid; Sidi Abdullahi ad-Dufari
studied with al-Rashid in the Hijaz before returning to the Sudan.
After a period of travelling, he finally settled at al-Kawa on the
White Nile. It was al-Dufari who provided a link between Ibn Idriss
and the Sudanese Mahdiya, since once of those he taught the awrad
and ahzab of Ibn Idriss was Sidi Mohammed Ahmed, the future Mahdi.





















The Ahmadiyya Muhammadiyya tariq of Ahmad ibn Idris, though independent, is connected to the
Shadhiliyya order and based on its principles. But before we look at how these two orders are
connected, let us look at the principles of the Shadhiliyya order as described by Abd al-Aziz al-
Dabbagh, the shaykh of al-Tazi, who in turn was the shaykh of Ahmad ibn Idris.

Al-Dabbagh was asked the following question:

What is the difference between the Way of al-Shadhili and his followers, and the Way of al-Ghazali
and his followers? the first seems to be fully centered around gratitude and joy to the Giver without
any exertion or struggle, while the other seems to be focused on spiritual exercises (Riyadah) and
hunger and staying awake and tiring acts of exertion, so are they both in congruence on the necessity
for Riyada? and Imam al-Shadhili seems to command (his followers) to have gratitude after coming
close to Arrival (Wusul) or upon reaching it, or even to have gratitude and joy in Allah from the first
moment of the Path. And could both Ways be taken at the same time by one person, or is it that you
cannot benefit from one unless you avoid the other? Please give a thorough response

He answered,

The Way of Gratitude (Shukr) is the original Way, and it was the Way traveled by the hearts of the
Prophets and the Pure Ones among the Sahaba and others, and it consists of worshipful devotion
(Ibadah) of Him Most High with sincerity in servanthood and being free of all personal aims and
selfish portions, coupled with recognition and admittance of ones own impotence and deficiency
and inability to fulfill the rights of Lordship, and that all of that become established and settled in the
heart in every passing moment and hour. So when He (Most Exalted) saw their truthfulness in that,
He rewarded them in accordance with what His overflowing Generosity would dictate, such as an
opening into His Knowledge and obtainment of the secrets of secured belief (Iman) in Him.

And when the folk of Striving heard of the attainments of these, they made these attainments their
ultimate aim and desire, and sought them through acts of fasting, praying at night, periods of
solitude (Khalwa), until they obtained whatever they obtained.

Therefore, in the first Way (of Gratitude) the move (Hijrah) was from the beginning towards
Allah and His Messenger, and not towards spiritual illumination and unveilings, whereas in the other
Way (of struggle) it was towards the obtainment of spiritual openings and levels and degrees in that.
The walking in the first Way is a walking of hearts, while in the second Way is a walking of bodies;
and the Opening (Fath) in the first is of-a-sudden, without the servant having any expectation or wait
for it, so that while the servant is busy with repentance and seeking forgiveness, the manifest
opening comes to him.

Both Ways are correct, but the Way of Shukr is more correct and more sincere. Both Ways are
agreed upon the necessity for spiritual exercises and strivings, but in the first it is a striving of the
hearts, by upholding the attachment between him and Allah Most High, and stationing the heart
constantly at His Door, and fleeing to Allah in both states of motion and stillness, and striving to stay
away from any periods of heedlessness (ghaflah) between moments of wakeful presence (hudur) in
a word, it consists of firm attachment of the heart to Allah and perpetuity in that state, even if
outwardly one does not find (in them) great acts of worship. This is why you would find such a
person fasting sometimes and feasting other times, sleeping sometimes and staying awake other
times, sleeping with their spouses, and performing other duties of the religion which would appear in
contradistinction with a way of life of bodily and physical Riyadah.

As for the second way, the move (Hijrah) is towards spiritual openings and levels. Then after the
Opening, some of them remain stuck in their primary intention, so that his heart becomes attached
to the things he witnesses, and he becomes happy and content with the unveilings and walking on
water and moving long distances in short periods of time (lit: folding up of distance), and he sees
that this is the ultimate goal. These are the people whose hearts are emptied of Allah from the
beginning of their affair till its end, among those who are the greatest of losers in their acts, whose
strivings are misguided in this life, while they imagine that they perform excellently (Quran 18:103-
04).

But others (among this second way) change their intentions after the Opening, and Allah has mercy
on them and takes them by the hand, so that their hearts become attached to Allah, and turn away
from anything else. And this state which occurs with them is the beginning state for those in the first
Way (of Shukr) so look at the great separation existing between the two!

So in summary, the traveling in the first Way is a traveling of hearts, and in the second Way is a
traveling of bodies, and the intention in the first Way is pure, and in the second is mixed and impure,
and the Opening in the first is of-a-sudden and unexpected, and in the second is obtained through
secondary means and efforts, and this is how the two Ways are divided. Also, in the first Path, the
Opening (Fath) is only obtained by the believer (mumin) knower (arif) beloved (habib) close one
(qarib), in distinction with the second Path, in which one hears of certain monks and rabbis
undertaking physical acts of spiritual striving through which they attain to some degrees and ranks. In
all of this we speak of physical and spiritual acts of striving and exertion in an absolute sense,
regardless if they come from someone on the Path of truth or falsehood, and we are not referring
specifically to the Riyadah of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (may Allah be pleased with him), for he is a true
leader and a real saint.

as for your asking whether both ways can be taken by one person at the same time, then yes it is
possible, for there is no contradiction in having ones heart attached to Allah Most High in all
moments, and undertaking outward acts of Mujahadah and Riyadah (e.g., fasting, praying at night,
etc), and Allah knows best.

[1]

It is on these principles of the Shadhili path that the Ahmadiyya Muhammadiyya tariqa is based.
Shaykh AbdulGhani Saleh al-Jaafari, current head of the Jaafari branch of the Ahmadiyya
Muhammadiyya (the Jaafariyya Ahmadiyya Muhammadiyya tariqa) states:

This tariqs foundation was laid by my master Abul Hassan al-Shadhili, and its base was established by
my master Ahmad ibn Idris, and its building was constructed and its pillars raised by my master the
Imam Saleh al-Jaafari, may God be pleased with them all. And so that everyone knows this
historical fact, the Shadhili school of Sufism was spread and promoted by master Ahmad ibn Idris and
then my master the shaykh Saleh al-Jaafari erected its pillars and completed its building.

Therefore the Jaafari tariqa is the Jaafari Idrisi Shadhili Sufi school. [2]

In fact, shaykh Ahmad ibn Idris wrote a treatise called The Treasures of the Radiant Jewels in The
Principles of the Shadhiliyya Order, which he introduces by saying,

I beheld in the Shadhiliyya Order matters of exalted import which surpass the bounds of compilation
as regards their glory and beneficience, yet the order does possess (a fixed number of) principles
upon which it is founded. The purpose of the treatise is to gather these principles together.

Then Ahmad ibn Idris mentions that he has taken this order from many shaykhs but lists only the
last one he took from his shaykh al-Tazi, saying afterwords:

About this chain, al-Mursi has said, This, our path, has been validated from Pole to Pole, all the way
back to the Prophet (pbuh), thus it is known as the Path of the Poles .

In the sixth principle, Ibn Idris describes how the Prophet and Khidr came to him and gave him the
litanies of his own order, the Ahmadiyya Muhammadiyya. However before the Prophet (pbuh) asked
Khidr to instruct Ibn Idris in the litanies, he first ordered al-Khidr to implant in me the dhikrs of the
above-mentioned Shadhiliyya order, and he implanted them in me in the Prophets presence. *3+

This tells us that although the Ahmadiyya Muhammadiyya is an independent tariqa with its own
litanies, it is based on the Shadhiliyya tariqa, for the Shadhiliyya litanies were implanted into shaykh
Ahmad ibn Idris before he was given his own litanies.

And he who looks at Imam Muhammad bin Ali al-Sanusis al-Manhal al-Rawiyy can find tens of
different chains of the Shadhiliyya tariqa that he took, including its many branches such as the
Nasiriyya, the Ghaziyya, the Rashidiyya, the Zarruqiyya, the Rashidiyya Zarruqiyya, the Bakriyya
Zarruqiyya, the Arousiyya, and the Jazuliyya- all branches of the Shadhili tariqa that al-Sanusi was
initiated into, most of them through his master Ahmad ibn Idris.

Regarding the last branch of the Shadhiliyya mentioned above, the Jazuliyya, it has its own history
with the concept of the Tariqa Muhammadiyya. As we have mentioned elsewhere, the tasliya on the
Prophet is one of the cornerstones of the Tariqa Muhammadiyya movements, and the Imam al-Jazuli
(d. 1465) is the author of Dalail al-Khayrat, the the best known and most widely disseminated book
of prayers on the Prophet Muhammad.*4+ The third major shaykh of this tariqa, the Moroccan
Abdallah al-Ghazwani (d. 1529), used the term al-Tariqa al-Muhammadiyya to describe something
very similar to the later Tariqa Muhammadiyya movements.[5]

A final connection between the Shadhiliyya order and the concept of the Tariqa Muhammadiyya is
the idea of seeing the Prophet while awake and being instructed by him instead of by any other
human figure. These concepts were present in the Shadhili tariqa since its inception: on the former,
we canquote al-Shadhilis successor al-Mursi who said, If the Prophet (pbuh) was veiled from my
eyes as long as the blink of an eye, I would not consider myself as one of the Muslims. As for the
latter, al-Shadhilis companion Makin al-Din al-Asmar is quoted as saying, I was not reared
(spiritually) except by the Messenger of Allah (pbuh).

Thus we can see the close relationship between the Shadhili tariqa and the Tariqa Muhammadiyya,
and in particular the Ahmadiyya Muhammadiyya tariqa and its branches.