Shaykh Ibrahim ibn ‘Abdullah Niyas al-Kawlakhi (q.s.) & His Da’wah

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ 

Shaykh Ibrahim ibn ‘Abdullah Niyas al-Kawlakhi (q.s.) travelled throughout the world in order to spread Islam.  He was instrumental in turning Senegal into a Muslim majority country.  In Ghana alone, he converted no fewer than eight thousand Christians and pagans to Islam.  He was feared as a “terror” by Christian missionaries in West Africa.  He was not only an erudite and versatile scholar, but also a prolific writer who wrote over 70 books on various subjects including fiqh, Arabic language and grammar, ethics, taswawwuf, sirah, tafsir and many other Islamic disciplines.  He was a poet of the highest order composing eight anthologies.  He was awarded the title of “Shaykh al-Islam” by the head of al-Azhar, Imam Muhammad Mahmud Shaltut (r.a.).  This title is only given to Islamic scholars who have attained a level of competence and mastery in at least 25 disciplines in the religious sciences. 

He advocated for mass education for both males and females.  In reference to this, Shaykh Ibrahim (q.s.) said in a speech that “women should compete with men in knowledge”.  It is because of this that women of the path are found to be well versed in Qur’an and ahadits.  Suffice to say that all his daughters have memorised the entire Qur’an and are scholars in their own right; they engaged in the continuous education of women and children throughout sub-Sahara Africa.  He also established a zawiyah in Kaolack which is now an institute that is affiliated with al-Azhar, through which thousands of students all over the world attend to complete their studies.  This was imitated by his disciples who established many of these zawiyat all over Africa, causing literacy to be improved.  At a time when the Muslim world were still rejecting the recitation of Qur’an over the radio and other electronic gadgets such as loudspeakers, he issued a fatwa that not only was it permissible, but compulsory for Muslims to embrace these inventions because they promote piety and helped to spread Islam.  He was among the first West African Islamic scholars to write a book explaining the rules of pilgrimage to Makkah for those traveling by plane. 

Not only did Shaykh Ibrahim (q.s.) emphasise Islamic knowledge, he also encouraged Western education as is evident in the speech he gave for the Mawlid at Kaolack in 1386 AH where he addressed the Muslim youth saying, “Go ahead and be vanguard in all things, for the future of nations is based on its youth, and make every effort to seek and do your best to acquire knowledge; not only Islamic knowledge and mathematics but also be part of and co-operate with those whose zeal is to discover the unknown and unseen things of this world.”  By the last part, he meant the sciences.