islam and sufism in west africa

From Saifuddin: Islam and Sufism in West Africa

The world of Islam in West Africa has such a rich and interconnected relationship with the people and their culture that it is hard to imagine that there was ever a time Islam was not present. In fact it is hard to imagine Islam without also thinking of the distinctive characteristics of West African Islam. One of the reasons that Islam is so close to the hearts of West African people is because of Sufism. Sufism is a branch of Islamic Knowledge which concentrates on direct experience and the spiritual development of a Muslim. It is this area of knowledge that provides the social framework for Muslim communities in West Africa. This social framework can be seen in the Muslim communities from Senegal to Nigeria. According to Khadim Mbacke, author of Sufism and Religious Brotherhoods in Senegal, Sufi brotherhoods first appeared in West Africa during the 15th Century (although there are much earlier accounts). He explains that there was a natural and necessary acceptance of the Islamic Science called Sufism, which was essential to maintaining a straight path of religious purity.

Mbacke also says that Sufi associations provided a support system for Muslims to seek guidance and religious teaching. The two components which make up this essential support for the straight path are the shaykhs (”masters”) and the murids (”disciples”). The role of the shaykh is like that of a teacher however playing a much more extensive role in the a disciples life. Shaykhs advise the murids on all matters of life and have very specific obligations that they are to uphold to lead their murids in religious and private affairs. The murid likewise has responsibilities to his shaykh which includes a code of conduct. That code of conduct is typically patterned after those Believers who were closest to the Holy Prophet Muhammad (alayhi salatu wa sallim), in the way of the traditions that have been passed down from that time.

The largest groups of Sufi associations in West Africa are the Qadiri, the Tijani, the Mouride and Sammaniyya a branch of the Halveti Order. These orders were traditionally the leading resistance to social corruption, colonial rule and tyranny, such as the case with the Sanusi Sufi Order founded by Muhammad ibn Ali al-Sanusi and the Sammaniya, who led a revolt against Egyptian and British colonial rule in the Sudan.

Historically Sufism in West Africa has also played a significant role in the lives of women and women’s education. For example Nana Asma’u, a Fulani woman and daughter of well known Qadiri Shaykh, Uthman dan Fodio (who was also an initiate into the Naqshbandi Order), was an Islamic scholar of her own right. Asma’u was familiar with al-Ghazali’s treatise on the Duties of Brotherhood, a classic work of the highest degree. This treatise advises the devout Muslim on eight specific obligations toward his or her community members: material assistance, personal aid, holding one’s tongue, speaking out, forgiveness, prayer, loyalty and sincerity and affording relief from discomfort and inconvenience. And there were examples of the Sunnah of Muhammad (alayhi salatu wa sallim) to support these elements of society. Asma’u and her students promoted these principles in their own community speaking on the roles of women in society. By teaching women, Asma’u was by extension training whole families in orthodox Sufi practices that focused on following the Qur’an and Sunnah.

Lately, I have noticed a growing buzz of disappointment in the present status of Islam in African-American communities. African-American Muslims like Tariq Nelson and Marc Manley have expressed their disappointment on a number of important issues. And others are channeling their energies into developing a specific and unique American-Muslim identity. I would like to contrast all of these efforts by suggesting that establishing an authentic chain of transmission for Islamic knowledge and guidance is traditionally the means of success in religious reformation. Therefore, there needs to be an acceptance of authority. And a final question needs to be answered,

“From where are we getting our Islam?”

In conclusion, it should be noted that the element of Islamic knowledge which once allowed the West African communities to thrive is now nearly devoid from the Islam of their American-born descendants here in the United States. Perhaps this is partly because African-Americans are not taking their Islam from their own historical traditions but instead, the development of Islam in African-American communities is a milieu of pseudo-Islamic organizations, such as the Nation of Islam; the Moorish Science Temple of America; the Five Percent Nation, as well as course-work on Islam and the Middle East through American Universities and imported religious education through Saudi funding. Now that African-American Muslim community leaders are gathering (see MANA Conference) perhaps someone will raise this issue of authority and tradition and maybe find an answer in the near future, inshaAllah.

nur az zaman

I wouldn't necessarily insist on all the theological claims below, but I'm glad to support the discussion of such an important Muslim scholar. The following is from Yusuf Yearwood:

Nur az Zaman

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nurazaman/

This yahoo group is dedicated to An-Nur a Zaman (the Light of the age) Shehu Uthman Dan Fodio and the true flag bearers of the Shehu's minhaj (methodology) The Jama'ah of Shehu Uthman Dan Fodio in America. It is mentioned by the great wali (friend) of Allah Shaykh Mukhtar al Kunti "The perfected friends of Allah in this age are three. One is an Arab who resides beyond Syria. His light is the light of La illaha ill Allah. The other is a Fulani in the land of the blacks, Uthman Dan Fodio. His light is the light of the seal of the Messenger of Allah, which was on his left shoulder. As for the last one his light is the light of the heart of the Messenger of Allah" Based on this and many other statments, there is consensus that the great mujadid (renewer) of the 12th Islamic century was Shaykh Uthman dan Fodio.

The Jama'ah of Shehu Uthman dan Fodio in America is directly connected to the broader community of Shehu Uthman through our Sultan, Al Haj AbuBakr ibn Muhammad At-Tahiru (residing in Mayurno, Sudan)the 16th caliph and direct descendent of Shehu Uthman dan Fodio. We are dedicated to reviving the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (sawws) by following the traditions of those great scholars who came before us and by adhering to the minhaj (methodology) of Shehu Uthman Dan Fodio and his community until the advent of Al-Mahdi(Peace be upon him).

This yahoo group is open to all Muslims.

a fatwa on pan-arab racism

A Fatwa on Pan-Arab Racism
by Muslim and former Black Panther, Dhoruba Bin-Wahad

In the Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful

As-Salaamu-alaikum,

Peace and Greetings to All.

I bear witness that there is no Illah but Allah, I bear witness that Muahammad ibn Abdullah is the Prophet of Allah.

We Muslims of African ancestry face difficult decisions. We stare the grim consequences of our multifaceted heritage in the face of; consequences of the long nightmare of enslavement by Europeans; preceded by an epoch of mercantile slavery and war at the hands of Arabs. Embedded in the fiber of our folk memory are dim recollections, like historical cultural DNA, of the successive waves of conquests - ancient and not so ancient that swept through North Africa - Hittites of antiquity, the Romans, Greeks, Arabs, and ultimately Northern Germanic clans of Western European origin, each left their legacy and impact upon Africa and our ancestors, and hence upon us.

We are today the sum total of what we were yesterday. That sum represents both failure and success, triumph and defeat, the sacred and the profane. Sometimes it seems as though we “can't win of losing.” Ask yourself, what became of our Moorish glory and hegemony over a third of Europe? Of what significance today are the trade routes and commerce of Songhay, or Dahomey, and the Niger Delta states to the political and moral bankruptcy of today's African nation-states? What have we truly learned? In what relevancy lie the appreciation of “Maroon” culture by declaring it a “national heritage” while depreciating the revolutionary impulse for freedom the burned in the hearts of Africans who became Maroons? Enslaved by a system of dehumanizing trade and commerce against their will, they revolted, organized resistance, and built a self-containing culture to keep their independence. Of what relevance are they today? Yes even our victories are subject to the vicissitudes of Time...“By the token of time [humans] are at lost”. Indeed we often are, but it is our consciousness, our intellect, our God given quality of “insight” or the human gift of abstract thought, that qualify us as Earth's vice-regent and therefore capable of learning from the past, overcoming the present, and plan our own salvation. As Muslims we are never done telling ourselves that we were molded in the best of images, We, Muslims are Guardians, not destroyers of life. Part of Creation – not above it. Nonetheless, we, like all living things are created beings. And as such we were created in different communities, of different colors, not as a basis for hatred, animosity, or war, but to appreciate the infinite variety of human possibility – to love each possibility in its own right.

But the age in which we now find ourselves will forever be shaped and judged by our actions and responses to the legacy history has imposed upon us all. There are events unfolding within western civilization and cultures of the East that are of the utmost importance to our physical survival, and the reemergence of a genuinely liberating Islam and progressive Ummah. These events have not only a history, they also are major struggles in which our freedom and salvation are at stake. These events represent for the benefactors of racism, exploitation, injustice, avarice, and elitism serious challenges as well. And we need be mindful of the monopoly on violence the benefactors of injustice, racism, and exploitation have, and their proven disposition to use legal and extralegal violence to hold on to power and privileges.

click here to read entire "fatwa"
click here for more from/about Dhoruba Bin Wahad

african islam and islam in africa: encounters between sufis and islamists

book review by Korwa G Adar, Journal of Third World Studies, Fall 2001 of African Islam and Islam in Africa: Encounters Between Sufis and Islamists Rosander, Eva Evers and David Westerlund, (eds.). Athens, OH.: Ohio University Press, 1997 358 pp.

This interdisciplinary book deals with an important subject, Sufism and Islamism in Africa. Specifically, it examines the relationship between Sufism, that is, African Islam and Islamism or Islam in Africa. It is a collection of Twelve Chapters by experts who have examined various aspects of the subject. Most of the scholarly works which have been done on the subject have focussed mainly on critical Islamist views on Western-centred ideas and life. The book focuses on the "intra-Muslim relationship between Sufis and Islamists" as its main point of departure. Apart from using Islamization as a mediator between tradition and modernity, sharia (Islamic law), jahiliyya (ignorance about Islam), tahara (purity), and baraka (blessing), among others, are treated in the book as some of the central levels of conceptualization.

In the Introduction Eva Evers Rosander details concepts such as Sufism, Islamism, and Ismaization of tradition and modernity. Rosander argues that Sufi orders or brotherhood have had great political and religious impact in Africa over the centuries. Apart from benefiting from the British colonial rule in Tanganyika the author states that the Sufi orders gained considerable political influence in the 18th and 19th centuries while at the same time collaborated with the French colonialists in North and West Africa at the expense of the nonMuslims.

In his Chapter John Huwick argues that for many centuries there has been intense interaction between Muslims in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Arabo-Islamic world. These include travel by African Muslim scholars to the Arabo-Islamic world, the inflow of visitors to the Sub-Saharan Africa, the formation of pan-African Islamic organizations and networks as well as membership in international Islamic associations are some of the contributing factors to the linkage between Muslims in Africa and those in other parts of the world. Huwick states that because of the continued contacts with the Arabo-Muslim world SubSaharan Africa is increasingly being integrated into the Muslim world at the expense of the West.

The "eternal dichotomy" between Sufistic, rural and popular religious practices and the learned, urban and elitistic Islam in the Maghrib region of North Africa constitute the main focus of George Joffe's Chapter. He states that irrespective of the fact that the two Islamic orientations do not intermingle they form part of a dynamic complementary and dialectical social process. Joffe argues that this has been the long standing tradition in the Maghrib religious culture. He emphasizes that Islamic radicalism has a negative impact in popular forms of Islam, comparing it to what prevailed in the area during the colonial period. Joffe found out that the impact of Islamic radicalism in the societies in the Maghrib region varied from country to country. In Tunisia, for example, the Hizb Nahda, the Harakat al-Islami (or the 15-21 Movement as it is also known) and the Hizb al-Tahri-ral-Islami which had influence in the 1970s and 1980s had virtually been eliminated. Similarly, the al-Adl wa'l-Ahsan and al-Shabiba al-Islamiyya committed to the violent overthrow of the monarchy in Morocco have either been successfully repressed or co-opted into the government. However, the Algerian case differs in that the Islamic radicalism, notably led by the Front Islamique du Salut (FIS), the Groupe Islamique Arme (GIA) and the Armee Islamique du Salut (AJS), have destabilised the country for a number of years.

Abdullahi A. An-Na'im's chapter focuses on Islam and human rights in the Sahelian region in Africa. The author puts into proper theoretical perspective the relationship between Islamic religious and customary practices and international law norms. He finds some correlation between Islam and cultures of the Sahelian peoples. He stresses that cultural diversity which prevails in societies need not be a hindrance to the growth and legitimacy of international law, particularly in relation to human rights. He argues that such a view is in conformity with what is prevailing in a number of countries in Sahel except Sudan. The author argues that the Sudanese leadership does not recognize human rights because they equate human rights regime with Western values and norms. The author states that Islamization which is taking place in the Sahel region is not unique in that it is similar to what prevailed in the 18th and the 19th centuries, with jihad playing important role. An-Na'im, however, points out that Islamic views of human rights are different from international human rights norms in that non-Muslims and women are seen to be unequal and inferior.

The controversial and contentious issue of translation of the Quran into other languages is the theme which is examined by Justo Lacunza-Balda. In West Africa the arabisants have a strong view that Quran was originally given by God in Arabic and as such cannot be distorted by way of translations. They condemn the practice where, for example, the Mouride women in Senegal sing religious songs in Wolof, their founder's language. The same negative views about the translation of the Quran prevails in Nigeria. The author argues that the main disagreement about the authenticity of the translation of the Quran in East Africa is mainly due to the existing translations which were done by a Christian and others by a member of the Ahmadiyya movement, regarded as non-Muslim. However, the author states that Muslim translators are the advocates of the need for the translations of the Quran in Swahili, the lingua franca in the region.