A Line from “The Removal of Confusion”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ 

The following is a line from Kashif al-Ilbas an Faydhah al-Khatm Abu ‘Abbas, “The Removal of Confusion: Concerning the Flood of the Saintly Seal”, referring to Shaykh Abu al-‘Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad at-Tijani (q.s.), as written by Shaykh al-Islam, Shaykh Ibrahim ibn ‘Abdullah Niyas al-Kawlakhi (q.s.): 

“Sufism is not wearing a robe that you patch.

And it is not the shedding of tears when the singers sing.

It is not crying out, nor dancing, nor musical entertainment.

And it is not the swooning as if you had become possessed.

Sufism is rather your serenity, without distress

And following the truth of the Qur’an and the Religion.” 

Kashif al-Ilbas is a compendium of insights from the Sufi tradition concerning the Path to ma’rifat of Allah (s.w.t.).  This is a major text of the Tijaniyyah thariqa’: one of the world’s most vibrant and least-studied Sufi orders.  Founded by Shaykh Ahmad at-Tijani (q.s.) in the Maghrib in the late eighteenth century, this Sufi order has spread throughout out sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.  Kashif al-Ilbas a work which contributed to the spread of the Tijaniyyah in twentieth-century West Africa, demonstrates the fruitful dialectic between Sufi traditions and the continued relevance of knowing Allah (s.w.t.) through the Sufi path.