Sufi Mystic Ahmadou Bamba Mbacke: The Islamic Gandhi of Senegal

Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Mbacke was adept in Sufi Mysticism and used it successfully to resist French imperialism in Senegal.

Sufi mystics followed a pious form of Islam and believed that a direct, personal experience of God could be achieved through meditation. … Sufism has come to mean those who are interested in finding a way or practice toward inner awakening and enlightenment.

Cheikh Aḥmadou Bamba Mbacke was born in 1270 AH (1853 AD) into a family of Qa’dirī scholars from the line of Shaykh ‘Abdu’l-Qādir al-Jīlānī.

He was the child of a Sayyid father and a Sayyid mother.

Senegal, at that time, was under French colonial rule governing smaller kingdoms throughout the country.

His father was the most well respected Qā’dī in his kingdom, erecting several Islamic schools and his mother was known for her effortless service to the community as well.

As a child, he preferred imitating his father in his devotional acts while having no desire to play with other children.

He spent the entirety of his youth in worship, studying the various Islamic sciences and teaching others.

With his father’s passing in 1882 and the end of the armed resistance against the French, Amadou Bamba founded the Mourīdiyya brotherhood which focused on the Qurʾān, Sunnah, and tenets of Ṣūfīsm; a calling of society back to traditional Islam.

This movement would slowly become the most effective weapon in battling the devastating social effects of imperialism.

Shaykh Amadou Bamba’s newly-founded group calling to traditional and prophetic Islamic ideals, The Mourīdiyya, united the Senegalese under a common banner of faith with emphasis on spiritual rectification and love of Allāh and The Messenger (ﷺ).

He also stressed the importance of earning permissible incomes in the lives of Muslims, to counter the beliefs of some of the Muslims of the time who deemed working for an income unnecessary.

Many Senegalese began to flee in large numbers every year just to consult Amadou Bamba and take refuge with him.

Being a luminary and spiritual visionary, Shaykh Amadou Bamba noticed the failure of the majority of military resistance against the encroaching European powers seeking control of Africa.

Like all the major Ṣūfī luminaries of the past, he found the oppression of the Senegalese as a symptom of the spiritual diseases that were present among the Muslims.

As the Shaykh’s Mourīdiyya brotherhood continued to attract large numbers, it emerged as a formidable resistance to French imperialism.

The Mourīdiyya were no longer just a religious revivalist movement, but a social revolution.

In 1887 Shaykh Amadou Bamba founded Touba (Arabic for Felicity and the name of a tree in Paradise) in a state of transcendence while sitting under a lone tree in the desert.

He envisioned a pilgrimage of his followers to this city that would mimic the hijrah of the prophet’s ﷺ followers to Madīnah so that Islam could flourish.

Here, the return to traditional Islamic life from colonial alienation and centralization of the Mourīdiyya movement would occur.

With the principles he established, Touba (just like Mecca) soon became a flourishing spiritual and financially-bustling city, exporting crops and the now-famous Cafe Touba coffee.

It would be from this West African Madīnah that the Shaykh’s teachings would spread to the rest of Senegal.

Shaykh Amadou Bamba Mbacke is most well remembered by his “Ṣūfī Resistance,” against the French.

While some of the Tijānī leaders of Senegal were calling to arms against the intruding French, Shaykh Amadou Bamba maintained an ‘unfazed’ approach where he continued inviting the people to Allāh, rather than struggling for ‘independence.’

The Mourīdiyya were to focus on their worship, reading of sacred texts, and Amadou Bamba strongly emphasized grudge-less and prophetic interactions (ihsan) with the colonizers.

Finding Amadou Bamba’s followers growing at an alarming rate, the French considered Amadou Bamba a threat to their rule over Senegal.

They feared a rebellion.

In 1895, The French took Shaykh Amadou Bamba to trial on accounts of raising an army against the state.

Although adamantly against violence, Amadou Bamba made his desire for a Muslim Senegal clear.

As a result, he was exiled to Gabon in Central Africa in hopes of quelling the growth of the Mourīdiyya.

The French believed that doing so would help the Senegalese forget the impeccable service of Amadou Bamba.

However, his exiles only fueled legends of miraculous survival stories of escaping torture, deprivation, and attempted executions at the hands of the French.

He returned in 1902 only to be exiled again for another four years to the deserts of Mauritania where he was honored by the ascetics and scholars.

During his exiles, he continued composing poems in praise of God and the Messenger (ﷺ) and writing books on fiqh, ‘aqīdah, tafsīr, and the like.

The French, realizing their attempts to destroy Shaykh Amadou Bamba had backfired, brought the Shaykh back to Senegal in 1907.

To their dismay, his popularity, influence and amount of followers were greater than ever.

Still considering him a threat, the French kept him under house arrest for the remainder of his life, away from his family and the city he created.

In 1919, he was accepted by the French administration and given award of “Knight of The Legion of Honor.”

He refused to wear the medal on account of materialism.

Shaykh Amadou Bamba passed away in 1927 without having seen the French leave his country.

He was successful, however, in his pacifist revival of the Senegalese Islamic identity.

He was buried in Touba where the Great Mosque of Touba was built.

Today, the city of Touba is home to nearly a million inhabitants.

All avenues of sins are prohibited in the city.

The city attracts millions more during the Grand Magal, a celebration of the beginning of the Exile of Shaykh Amadou Bamba, that helped the Senegalese Islamic revival to boom.

During this several-day celebration, lectures are given, Qurʾān is read, and group recitations of his poems are performed, similar to Mawlid celebrations.

A large portion of Senegal follows the Mourīdiyya order and Mourīdiyya communities exist all around the world today.

In a poem dedicated to Touba, Shaykh Amadou Bamba wrote: “My lord has blessed me with a place that rid me with all obstacles the minute I entered it.”

It is a part of traditional Sunni ‘aqīdah to believe in the miracles of the awliyā’.

 

Some of His Astonishing Miracles

 

1. In what is reported to be his greatest physical miracle, Shaykh Amadou Bamba was in chains in transit on a boat to Gabon.

He requested to pray but that was denied.

But he broke through his chains, and jumped off the boat to find a prayer mat floating on the water.

He began praying on it and returned to ship when he finished. French accounts of this event even exist, similar to the account of Jesus walking on water.

He was said to survive being thrown in a furnace by the French, and drank tea with the soul of the prophet (ﷺ) in it, similar to the story of Abraham, and when thrown into a den of hungry lions, was able to make the lions fall asleep, similar to the powers of Daniel.

2. His light was considered so radiant, that he often covered his face as to not overwhelm others.

3. As he said himself, his miracles, were to be found in his poems praising Allāh and the messenger (ﷺ).

His poems weighed in total about seven tons.

He ascribed virtues to certain poems. Some poems are said to have powerful habit-altering effect when recited frequently.

4. Touba has become flourishing city of remembrance of God which also is the most financially stable city in Senegal.

The city’s administration has even been asked for financial assistance from the country’s government.

5. Within a hundred years, his tarīqah (spiritual path) has become one of the largest in West Africa with several more communities throughout Europe and America.

6. His mother reported no pain during pregnancy, and would find him sitting in his dad’s prayer area as a child.

His parents said he would cry when hearing impermissible musical instruments.

7. He was well known among the traditional scholars of the Ummah at the time including Imām Yusūf al-Nabahani in Lebanon and the scholars of the Hijāz who asked him to make du’ā when the House of Sa’ud took power in the Arabian Peninsula.

8. Imām Yusūf al-Nabahani dreamt he was told that Shaykh Amadou Bamba was the greatest of poets alive.

The Imām composed a poem in praise of Shaykh Amadou Bamba: The following is a line: “Whosoever has missed [the chance, opportunity to meet] Ahmad al-Mukhtar ﷺ and also the khādim of the mukhtāri (“Amadou Bamba”) is someone who has lost.”
من فاته أحمدالمختار من مضر وفاته خادم المختار مغبون

9. While he previously took ijāzah and allegiance (bay’ah) with scholars of other spiritual paths, those same teachers ultimately gave him allegiance; a classic case of the student surpassing the teacher.

 

His Greatest Student was The Audacious Ibrahim Fall

 

His 40th student, Sheikh Ibrahim Fall (1855–1930) founded the Mouride Brotherhood movement in West Africa.

Well known in the Mouride Brotherhood, Ibrahim Fall established the influential Baye Fall movement.

Ibrahim Fall belonged to an aristocratic Wolof family from Cayor.

A scholar confirms that Fall came out of an animistically influenced Muslim tradition, but believes Fall’s family was nevertheless prosperous and traditionally powerful in Cayor.

Other sources contend that Fall’s grandfather, the Damel Dethialaw, was a ruler of the Cayor kingdom.

Ibrahima Fall was born around 1855 in a northern village, Ndiaby Fall, Cayor.

His original tyeddo name was Yapsa Khanth Fall.

Aamadu Bàmba Mbàkke later gave him the name Ibrahim Fall.

Ibrahim Fall was a son of Amadou Rokhaya Fall and Seynabou Ndiaye.

At an early age, Ibrahim Fall learned the Qur’an in a neighbouring village, Ndiaré.

Fall achieved major Arabic sciences such as theology, fiqh, tafsir, grammar and rhetoric.

Savishinsky (1994) tells us that Ibrahim Fall had “reputation for ferocity and extraordinary strength” (p. 212).

Another scholar claims that Fall was viewed as a troubled man who seldom went with his peers and often remained alone in the bush.

However, all agree that the turning point of his life was Fall’s search for Shaikh Aamadu Bàmba Mbàkke.

One major study of Ibrahim Fall reports that two versions exist of his search for Shaikh Aamadu Bàmba.

In the first version, Fall is rich merchant who travelled in Cayor, Jolof and Saloum. But after meeting Aamadu Bàmba Mbàkke in Mbacké Bari, Fall gave up business to become Bamba’s disciple.

In the second version, which is more commonly believed in Senegal, Ibrahim Fall in 1882 went on looking to Aamadu Bàmba Mbàkke.

Scholars state that Ibrahima Fall knew that his destiny dictated him to search for him. Without any knowledge of him, Ibrahima Fall went on looking for the best Muslim teachers.

Ibrahim Fall tested Serigne Massamba Syll and after Serigne Adama Gueye. Adama Gueye conducted Ibrahim Fall through mystic ways to Aamadu Bàmba Mbàkke in 1883.

The encounter between Ibrahima Fall and Aamadu Bàmba Mbàkke defined the beginning of Mouridism.

Savishinsky claims “Fal (Ibra Faal) performed his obeisance to Ahmadu Bamba in crown-slave style disrobing and falling forward to the ground.”

Serigne Bassirou (1995) narrates the famous speech that Ibrahima Fall and Ahmadou Bamba exchanged:

Ibrahima Fall: “If I found only your gravestone, be aware that the force of my intention would satisfy my objective”

Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba: “If I found only the stars and the sky that Muhammad watched at, I’m sure that I could attain my objective with my strong love of the prophet […] Know that from this life, I’ll neither protect you from sun nor provide you material goods. I accept you if you follow God recommendations”.

In this way, the contract started between Fall and Aamadu Bàmba Mbàkke.

From this moment, Fall followed the Ndiguel “orders” of the Shaikh until Fall’s death in 1930.