"THE GNOSTIC ('ÂRIF)
One day a Moor came to the house of Njàarem. When he introduced himself, Serigne Ma Banji Ndiaye asked him his name. The Moor replied: "The emperor of the Gnostics". Thus, Serigne Ma Banji left and informed Serigne Touba. The latter asked him the name of the Moor. Serigne Ma Banji replied: "He says he is called the Emperor of the Gnostics. Serigne Touba said: "Tell him to wait a little.
Serigne Ma Banji returned and said to the Moor: "Serigne Touba asks you to wait a little." The Moor replied, "No! Tell him I cannot wait. I am in a hurry." When Serigne Ma Banji conveyed the Moor's words to Serigne Touba, the latter replied, "Tell him that the gnostic is always satisfied in the condition he is placed."
Serigne Ma Banji came back to the Moor and told him Serigne Touba's answer. When he finished speaking to the Moor, the latter held my hand and said: "If you return, tell him that I inherited this name from my father, but I am not a gnostic." When Serigne Ma Banji transmitted the Moor's answer to Serigne Touba, the latter replied: "He only told the truth. If he was among them, when I asked him to wait, he would wait. For gnostics are always satisfied to remain in the condition they are in."
Author: Cheikh Abdallah Fahmi
"THE PRISON
Serigne Touba once asked some of his disciples about the meaning of the hadith: "The life of this world is the prison of the believer and the paradise of the disbeliever. ( Muslim)
They answered: "The world is a prison for the believer but also a paradise for the disbeliever".
Serigne Touba said to them: "If you refer only to the literal meaning, the understanding will be very limited.
It is then that he asked the following question: "How is the lower world a prison for the believer?
Thus he said:
"Paradise is the place where the believer naturally dwells. Anything that can prevent him from going to paradise is a prison for him. Similarly, hell is the place where the disbeliever naturally resides. Anything that can prevent him from going to that hell is a kind of paradise for him.
If the lower world appears to be a prison for the believer, this does not mean that he should sit idly by while in this world.
In this regard, a prisoner should never think that staying in a prison is an act of bravery. What is the bravery of a prisoner? His bravery is to have the intention to repent and return to his home (paradise) quietly at the end of his sentence.
To achieve this, he must not harm the other prisoners (creatures) or his Lord who has placed him in the prison (lower world). If his behaviour is just that, he will return to his home (paradise) in peace at the end of his sentence.
However, if he continues to disobey his Lord and harm the other prisoners (creatures), it means that he has not regretted at all the acts that brought him to prison. If this is the case, he will be sent to a prison of higher rank (hell) at the end of his sentence. This hierarchy also exists in the organisation of prisons by the colonial administration. For this reason, if a prisoner continues to commit offences, the administration will move him to a higher ranking prison."
Author: Cheikh Abdallah Fahmi
"Sheikh Mohammad Rachid Ndiaye recounted according to Serigne Matar binta lo that Khadimou Rassoul took him by the elbow and asked him three times: perhaps you will worship idols when I join the supreme companion. Each time he replied: how can someone know you and worship idols.
Khadimou Rassoul said: O Matar, do you know what idol worship is?
Serigne Matar said: perhaps you can explain it to us.
The Sheikh said: That is to say, if someone bears my name or holds a piece of my baraka and you venerate him for that and you give him pious gifts (hadiya) while he does not perform the obligations and does not abstain from the prohibitions, this veneration is like the worship of idols. Now whoever worships idols will go with them to hell."
Author: Cheikh Abdallah Fahmi
"THE SHOULDER OF SERIGNE MA BANJI N'DIAYE Serigne Ma Banji Ndiaye recounted the following: From a young age, I have always suffered from severe pain in my shoulder. To avoid pain at night, I slept on my back or on the opposite side. Several times, I went to see Serigne Touba to complain about the pain. One day, sitting very close to him, I began to write on the ground with my finger the following expression: “So be it! And so it will be!” I had picked up this habit since the daara. It is with this that I learned to write. While I was writing, Serigne Touba pulled my shoulder and said to me: "Do you forget that it is part of the good behavior of the believer to abandon everything that does not involve profit." As soon as my body frees itself, it tells me this: “It must be a well-established habit in you? I answered: “Yes! So he said to me: "Certainly it's a habit deeply rooted in you, you have to give it up." From now on, it is necessary to write this: “Disclosing the faults of a person is an illicit thing as well as slander”. I said, “I won't. Because I understood the purpose of your act. You would like to heal my shoulder and it's done. It was on this day that the pain disappeared."
Author: Cheikh Abdallah Fahmi
"THE BENEFITS OF HADIYA
Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba says: the hadiya leads the aspirant to bliss, elevates him to the highest station, increases his wealth, lengthens his life, makes him honorable in the eyes of people and places him above his generation.
It preserves the aspirant from the two angels of the grave, allows him to easily and quickly cross the siraat bridge, preserves him from trials, misfortunes and earthworms in the grave. And still other things...
The hadiya abounds in so many favors that neither pen nor tongue can enumerate. A single hadiya contains twelve thousand favors and it is the smallest dimension of the hadiya. It also contains other favors that only God the Most High knows."
Author: Cheikh Abdallah Fahmi
"A disciple came to visit Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba and told him: "I am very worried". And the Sheikh asked him why. The disciple replied: "I am afraid that future generations, by their behaviour, will destroy the foundations of the path that you have so well traced". The Shaykh said to him: "There is no chance that this path will be destroyed, because when I leave this world I will leave with destruction (yàqu) and leave self-destruction (yàqulé).
Words reported by S. Allaaji Mbacké
Translation into French: Seydina Omar Ba.
Moral: one can always lay the groundwork to undermine the foundations of Muridism through inappropriate behaviour, but the strategy will always backfire on the forgers, even when they claim to be Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba.
A very good week to all."
Author: Cheikh Abdallah Fahmi
"Tawhid and spiritual realisation
The Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) used to say: The best thing that I and all the prophets before me have brought is the formula 'la ilaha illa Allah' (No god but Allah). Allah is the Arabic word for the Divine. This formula implies the denial of all divinity and the affirmation of the Divine Oneness.
Tawhid is the science of knowing Allah by His names and attributes and thus understanding His activity and imperatives. The multiplicity of names and attributes and the paradox of His activity have always been a subject of misunderstanding in many traditions and have led to the heresies and polytheism that polluted the primordial tradition. From Adam until the Prophet Mohammad peace be upon him, the prophets taught divine oneness (Tawhid).
In the Islamic tradition there were 124,000 prophets (anbiya) of whom 313 were prophets sent with messages and therefore messengers (Rusul). There were 104 revealed books, the details of which we will give in order to better penetrate this primordial tradition which is the universal teaching whose current passes through all the ancient traditions.
Only metaphysical knowledge allows one to rise intellectually beyond the different forms of expression of religions which are rather exclusivist in the exoteric order.
Indeed, by addressing those who are endowed with reason, it is possible to rise spiritually and intellectually in order to understand or contemplate the universal truths. In order to understand and assimilate this unity of prophetic teaching, we must remember that Allah warns us in the Qur'an that Satan (Ibliss), the sworn enemy of mankind, makes no distinction between the sons of Adam, whom he has vowed to mislead and take to hell, where he will rule over them: "Did I not warn you, O sons of Adam, that Satan is an irreducible enemy to you, and that you must worship me, for this is the true way. He has led generations before you astray, are you not aware of this? This is the hell of which you have been warned, and you are part of it because of your deeds. (Surah Ya sin verses 61-62-63)
Allah also says: "Satan will say when the judgment is confirmed, Allah promised you the truth and I misled you and I had no power over you except that I called you and you responded to my call. Do not hold anything against me and I do not hold anything against you. Do not blame me for anything but blame yourselves. (Surah Ibrahim verse 22)
The sons of Adam, instead of knowing each other and exchanging knowledge and virtues, spend their time fighting and depreciating each other, and for this reason they have grouped themselves into different communities with different traditions and have locked themselves into ethnic or political or ethical or theological systems that particularise them while refusing what is foreign to their system."
Author: Cheikh Abdallah Fahmi
"There's individual destiny and collective destiny. Each human have multiple scenarios on the (lawhoul mahfouz). All time he have to do choices and according to his choice some scenarios become actual and others scenarios stay virtual. This part of knowledge is in science of Tawhid in the chapter of qada and qadar. The best book on the matter is mawahiboul Qoddous of Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba"
Author: Cheikh Abdallah Fahmi
"In any case, we cannot be sure, but we must try every possibility of living it and that with all the indications. And apply during the last third of Ramadan"
Author: Cheikh Abdallah Fahmi
"We have this calendar to look for laylatul qadr.
If Ramadan starts on a Monday it will be the 19th
Tuesday will be the 25th
Wednesday will be the 17th
If it's Thursday it will be the 23
If it's Friday it will be the 29th
If it's Saturday it will be the 21st
If it's Sunday it will be the 27th
But it must coincide with the other benchmarks especially that it is the day before Friday."