The Appointment of Shaykh Ibrahim ibn ‘Abdullah Niyas al-Kawlakhi (q.s.)

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ 

When Shaykh Ibrahim ibn ‘Abdullah Niyas al-Kawlakhi (q.s.) entered upon the Sufi path, he took the Thariqa’ Tijaniyyah from his father.  The step was momentous, for it was within this thariqa’ that he was to play a major role.  It was a role without parallel since Shaykh ‘Umar ibn Sa’id al-Futi Thal’s (q.s.) earlier role in the spread of the Tijaniyyah.  Beginning with his father, Shaykh Ibrahim (q.s.) received many appointments as a muqaddam in the Tijaniyyah. 

Before he passed away, his father instructed Shaykh Muhammad Mahmud ash-Shinghity (q.s.) of Mauritania to appoint his son a muqaddam.  Shaykh ash-Shinghity (q.s.), however, told Shaykh Ibrahim (q.s.), “You have no need for an ijazah from a creature because you have your Appointment from the Creator.” 

He had additional appointments from al- Imam ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Alawi al-Haddad (q.s.) of Mauritania and Shaykh Muhammad al-Hafizh  ibn ‘Abd al-Lathif at-Tijani (q.s.) of Egypt, as well as Shaykh Abu al-‘Abbas Ahmad ibn al-Iyyashi as-Sukayrij (q.s.) of Morocco, the closest link to Shaykh Ahmad at-Tijani (q.s.) in silsilah.  He certified that Shaykh Ibrahim (q.s.) was khalifah of the thariqa’s initiator, Shaykh Ahmad at-Tijani (q.s.).  Of himself, Shaykh Ibrahim (q.s.) once said, “What I have in the way of ijazah and muqaddam authorisations would indeed fill a book.” 

Although he was the youngest of his father’s children, shortly after his father's death in 1922, he became the most outstanding among them.  He became, in fact, the most important murabith within his father’s house and throughout the area.  For the first time since the epoch of the founder, Shaykh Ahmad at-Tijani (q.s.), we find, within the thariqa’, an international grouping of Muslims.  Shaykh Ibrahim (q.s.) was a staunch advocate of restoring the proper ritual observances of the Prophet’s (s.a.w.) pure sunnah.  Some had become careless and begun to omit some of the recommended practices of the Prophet (s.a.w.).  This was particularly true with reference to the swalah.  For such things, Shaykh Ibrahim (q.s.) truly revived the sunnah.