Mouride
The
Mouride brotherhood (
الطريقة المريدية, Aṭ-Ṭarīqat al-Murīdiyya or simply
مريدية, Murīdiyya in
Arabic) is a large
Islamic Sufi order (
ṭarīqa) most prominent in
Senegal and
The Gambia, with headquarters in the holy city of
Touba, Senegal (
Tuubaa in Wolof,
طوبى, Ṭūbā in Arabic). Mourides sometimes call their order the
Way of Imitation of the Prophet. The followers are called
mourides (
murid in Wolof), from the Arabic word
murīd (literally "one who desires"), a term used generally in
Sufism to designate a disciple of a spiritual guide (
murshid). The Mourides have large mercantile communities in
Paris, France and
New York City,
USA. Their beliefs and practices constitute
Mouridism.
The Mouride brotherhood was founded in 1883 by
Shaykh Aḥmadu Bàmba Mbàkke (1850-1927) (Aḥmad ibn Muhammad ibn Habīb Allāh, also called
Khadīmu r-Rasūl or "Servant of the Prophet" in Arabic and
Sëriñ Tuubaa or "Holy Man of Touba" in Wolof). He was born in the village of Mbacké (
Mbàkke Bawol in Wolof) in the
Kingdom of Baol, the son of a marabout from the
Xaadir (Qadiriyya) brotherhood (the oldest in Senegal). Amadou Bamba was a Muslim mystic and ascetic
marabout who wrote tracts on meditation, rituals, work, and
Qur'anic study. He is perhaps best known for his emphasis on work, and his disciples are known for their industriousness. Although he did not support the French conquest, he did not wage outright war on them as several prominent
Tijaan marabouts had done. He taught, instead, what he called the
jihād al-'akbar or "greater struggle," which fought not through weapons but through learning and fear of God.
Bamba's followers call him a "renewer" (
mujaddid in Arabic) of
Islam, citing a hadith that implies that God will send renewers of the faith every 100 years (the members of all the Senegalese brotherhoods claim that their founders were such renewers). Bamba's fame spread through his followers, and people joined him to receive the salvation that he promised. Salvation, he said, comes through submission to the marabout and hard work, a departure from conventional Islamic teaching.
The French colonial rulers worried about Bamba's growing power and potential to wage war against them. He had converted various kings and their followers and probably could have raised an army if he had wanted. The French sentenced him to exile in
Gabon (1895-1902) and later in
Mauritania (1903-1907). However, these exiles fired wild legends about Bamba's miraculous survival of torture, deprivation, and attempted executions, and thousands more flocked to his organization. On the ship to Gabon, forbidden from praying, Bamba is said to have broke his leg-irons, leapt overboard into the ocean and prayed on a prayer rug that appeared on the surface of the water, so devout was he. Or, when the French put him in a furnace, he simply sat down in it and drank tea with
Muhammad. In a den of hungry lions, the lions slept beside him, etc.
By 1910, the French realized that Bamba was not waging war against them, and was in fact quite cooperative. His doctrine of hard work served French interests. His movement grew, and in 1926 he began work for the great mosque at Touba where he is buried. After his death, he has been succeeded by his descendants as hereditary leaders of the brotherhood with absolute authority over the followers.
One famous disciple of Bamba,
Ibrahima Fall, started a sub-group of the Muridiyya called the
Baye Fall (
Baay Faal in Wolof), many of whom substitute hard labor and dedication to their leaders for the usual Muslim pieties like prayer and fasting. They dress in colorful ragged cloths, wear their hair in
dreadlocks, carry clubs, and act as security guards in the annual
Grand Magal pilgrimages to Touba. Baye Fall are unusual in that some of them freely drink alcohol and smoke cannabis, things forbidden by orthodox Islam. They are very noticeable, and somewhat pushy, features of Senegalese society. A prominent member of the Baya Fall is the Musician
Cheikh LoMany mainstream Muslims consider the Mourides' extreme adulation of Amadou Bamba, and his lineage of successors, to be blasphemous, since the latter gets more attention than the Prophet
Muhammad, and Touba is ranked over
Mecca.
Amadou Bamba has only one surviving photograph, in which he wears a flowing white robe and his face is mostly covered by a scarf. This picture is venerated and reproduced in paintings on walls, buses, taxis, etc. all over Senegal.
The Mouride brotherhood has attempted, with considerable success over the years, to dominate politics in Senegal. In Paris and New York, its followers are mostly small street merchants. Profit is deemed holy. They send large sums of money back to the brotherhood leaders in Touba. Recent Prominent Mouride include
Abdoulaye Wade who is the current president of Senegal. Mr. Wade is a devout Mouride (while his defeated opponent
Abdou Diouf belongs to the
Tijaniyya movement), Mr Wade surprised many, especially outside his country, when the day after his election, he travelled to Touba, to seek the blessing of the Grand Marabout,
Serigne Saliou Mbacke.
*
Touba, Senegal*
Amadou Bamba*
Murid*
Article on Shaykh Ahmadou Bamba as Peacemaker*
Official Home Page of the Muridiyya Khidmatul Khadim School*
A modest tribute from Tidjani Négadi (Oran University, Algeria)
