Shaykh Muhammad al-Hafiz al-Tijani (1897-1978)
Our master, the shaykh, the gnostic
of God, the Sayyid, Muhammad al-Hafiz al-Misri al-Tijani, was one of the
greatest scholars of Prophetic traditions (hadith) of Egypt in the twentieth
century, as well as a renowned Friend of Allah.
Al-Sayyid Muhammad al-Hafiz bin `Abdul Latif bin Salim was born
in the district of Munufiyya in Egypt in the year 1315 (c. 1897) to a family
connected to the noble Ahlul Bayt (household of the Prophet). After studying
the religious sciences in Cairo, Shaykh al-Hafiz traveled abroad to Syria,
Tunisia, Sudan, Algeria and Morocco in the pursuit of sacred knowledge. During
these blessed journeys, he gained precious diplomas (ijazahs) from some of the greatest
scholars of the time from the East and the West of the Islamic world, such as
Shaykh Badruddin al-Hasani of Syria, Sharif `Abdul Hayy al-Kattani and Sidi
Ahmad Sukayrij of Morocco, Shaykh Alfa Hashim of Medina and Shaykh `Abdul Baqi
al-Ansari of Mecca.
After his period of learning, Sayyidina Muhammad al-Hafiz
totally dedicated himself to the teaching of Hadith. He taught the entire
multi-volume Sahih al-Bukhari more than 40 times in Egypt, and many
other books of Hadith as well. It is said that he used to know them by heart.
It is narrated that when he went to Fez, Morocco, to visit the blessed tomb of
Shaykh Ahmad Tijani, he was asked by the shaykhs in Fez to teach them Imam
al-Nawawi’s famous “Forty Hadith” collection, which he did from memory.
He authored many great works on Hadith, Qur’anic exegesis (tafsir), history and Sufism (tasawwuf), and made tahqiq (verification) of many original gems
in the field of Hadith, which were part of his private library which also has
one of the best collections of manuscripts in Egypt. For this he had copied and
collected manuscripts from the most ancient libraries in Mecca, Medina,
Jerusalem, Damascus, Cairo, Fez, Tunis, Sudan and other centers of Islamic
learning that he had visited. Shaykh Dr.`Abdul Halim Mahmud, the Rector of
al-Azhar, wrote in Sidi al-Hafiz’s obituary, “the Imam al-muhaddithin (leading
hadith scholar) has died.”
Shaykh al-Hafiz also took part in the Jihad against the English
in Egypt in the early 1900’s, and even Imam Hassan al-Banna, founder of the
Muslim Brotherhood, used to seek his advice. In 1951, he began editing a
magazine dedicated to promulgating traditional Islam, called Tariq
al-Haqq (“The
Path of Truth”), which was widely read throughout Egypt. He also debated and
defeated the Orientalists in Cairo during his time. His renown as a scholar even
reached Western literary circles, and his important biography of al-Hajj Umar
Futi Tal was translated into French by the Canadian scholar Fernand Dumond in
1983.
Exceeding all of this by way of distinction, however, was the
fact Shaykh Muhammad al-Hafiz used to meet Sayyidina Muhammad Rasulullah in a
state of wakefulness. This was clear indication of his high spiritual station (maqam) in sainthood (wilaya).
He was originally involved
in the honorable Khalwati, Naqshbandi, and Shadhili tariqahs, then left all of
them to take the Way of Shaykh Ahmad Tijani at the hand of the Mauritanian
Shaykh, Sidi Ahmad al-`Alawi al-Shinqiti.
Numerous people from all walks of life took the Tijani Spiritual
Path from Shaykh al-Hafiz and attained great spiritual heights. He was as
famous as a Spiritual Master par excellence as he was a hadith scholar of the
age, a combination extremely rare in modern times. His Tijani Zawiyah in Cairo
was and remains a great center of spiritual refreshment for those who live in
or visit Cairo. His books on tasawwuf and tariqa are considered gems of spiritual
knowledge.
Our late teacher, Sayyid Muhammad bin `Alawi al-Maliki of Mecca,
was a very keen student of Shaykh Muhammad al-Hafiz in Hadith and tasawwuf when
he was studying at the Azhar. He would fondly remember the “blessed gatherings”
of Shaykh al-Hafiz, and always referring to him as “a great Wali of Allah”, and
would often mention some of his miracles (karamat).
In fact, the Sayyid always mentioned him in the forefront of the list of his
teachers in all his ijazahs.
Shaykh Muhammad al-Hafiz was in close correspondence with most
of the leading Tijani authorities of his time, including Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse.
Shaykh Ibrahim had the occasion to visit the zawiya of Shaykh al-Hafiz during an official
state visit to Egypt in 1961. In the presence of the Tijani notables of Egypt,
Shaykh Ibrahim referred to Shaykh al-Hafiz as “a man who is without doubt an
inheritor (khalifa) of the
Shaykh Sidi Ahmad Tijani, whose description matches that of the Shaykh as I
myself know him to be.” In other words, whoever has seen the face of Shaykh
al-Hafiz has seen the face of Sidi Ahmad al-Tijani; a rare compliment since the
Prophet himself assured Shaykh Ahmad Tijani that whoever saw the Shaykh’s face
would die in a state of good faith.
Shaykh al-Hafiz al-Tijani passed away in 1398 (1978) in Cairo.
He was succeeded by his learned son Shaykh Ahmad Muhammad al-Hafiz, who
authored a detailed biography of his father. Among those who were blessed to
achieve spiritual education at the hands of Shaykh Muhammad al-Hafiz was the
Italian Shaykh Abd al-Samad Paolo, who has translated and commented several
important Sufi works (amongst them the Kitab al-ta‘arruf of Kalabadhi and the Mahasin
al-majalis of
Ibn al-‘Arif) into Italian.
Shaykh Muhammad al-Hafiz was indeed a giant of the twentieth
century. May Allah be pleased with him, and may we benefit from his example,
steeped as he was in both the Sacred Law (Shari’a)
and the Divine realities (Haqiqa),
as a paradigm of true Muslim scholarship continuing into modern times.
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