Report about my blessed trip to Morocco, April 2014

Bismillahi’r-Rahmani’r-Rahim

As-salatu wa’s-salam ‘ala Rasulihi’l-karim

On Thursday the 3rd of April I left for Morocco with the intention of studying some
Qur’an in the Moroccan desert (Sahara, south of the city ar-Rashidiyyah) and
improving my Arabic. I had a short leave of 4 weeks alhamdulillah.

For 4 weeks long I kept a journal and what follows is a summary of what I wrote down
coupled with insights and benefits for students of knowledge with a particular interest
in Morocco. From the beginning I need to state that nothing went as I planned it.
Allah took me to a completely different direction than wanted. This reminds us of a
saying of sidi Abu’l-Hasan al-Shadhili (r.): “If you must plan, and how can you not
plan, then plan only for how not to plan!” Instead of studying Qur’an I ended up
exploring the world of tasawwuf.

I was blessed to visit many places and meet many people and I had some wonderful
experiences alhamdulillah.

I’ll first list the places I have visited in a more or less chronological order:

1. Marrakech

2. Qala’at Mkounah / Zawiyah ‘Abd al-Malik

3. Fez

4. Qala’at Mkounah / Zawiyah ‘Abd al-Malik

5. Ait Sawoun

* Ouad(i) Dar’a:

4. Zagora
5. Tamegroute

6. Unknown place between Zagora en Akdez

7. Ouarzazate

8. Unknown place near Ourzazate

9. Marrakech

10. Qala’at Sraghnah

11. Bani / Awlad (?) ‘Iyad

12. Beni Mellal

13. Unknown place close to Beni Mellal

14. Berrechid

14. Bouskourah

15. Casablanca

16. Fez

17. Rabat

18. Kenitra

19. Salé

20. Temara

Madaris and zawaya I visited:

- Madrassah Bin Yusuf, Marrakech

- Zawiyah ‘Abd al-Malik, Qala’at Mkounah

- Madrassah and Kuttab (‘Abdallah Gannun) Masjid Hafsah, Fez (Mont Fleurie)

- Jami’ah al-Qarawiyyin, old (in the medina) and new (outside the medina)
- Zawiyah al-‘Alawiyyah ad-Darqawiyyah ash-Shadhiliyyah in Fez

- Zawiyah sidi ‘Ali al-Jamal, Fez

- Zawiyah Muhammad b. Nasir al-Dar’i, Tamegroute

- Zawiyah and madrassah Sidi Ibrahim bin al-Basir in Bani / Awlad (?) ‘Iyad

- Masjid and zawiyah of sidi shaykh Ahmad Tijani, Fez

- Madrassah Bou ‘Inaniyyah, Salé

And some other places I forgot or didn’t know the name of.

Scholars I met:

- Shaykh Mortada Albumashuli, Qala’at Mkounah

- Shaykh mawlay al-Hashimi, Qala’at Mkounah

- Shaykh ‘Abdullah al-Haddad, Fez

- Shaykh Isma’il b. al-Basir, Bani / Awlad (?) ‘Iyad

- Shaykh ‘Abd al-Mughith bin al-Basir, Berrechid

- a Tijani shaykh called Ibrahim, Fez (originally from Senegal)

- Shaykh mawlay Isma’il, Fez

- Ustadh b. Muhammad al-Wahhabi, (from Tanger) in Fez

- Shaykh Hassan al-Kittani, Rabat

And other ‘ulama whose names I don’t know or forgot.

Graves of awliya and ‘ulama I visited:

- Qadi ‘Iyyad, Marrakech

- Imam al-Jazuli, Marrakech

- Imam al-Sabti, Marrakech

- ‘Allamah Ahmad Sukayrij, Marrakech

- Mawlay ‘Abd al-Malik, Qala’at Mkounah

- Sidi ‘Abd al-Wahid ibn ‘Ashir, Fez

- Sidi ‘Abd al-‘Aziz al-Dabbagh, Fez

- Sidi Ahmamush b. Ahmamush, Fez

- Mawlay Idris, Fez

- Sidi ‘Ali b. Harzihim, Fez

- Sidi Qasim al-Khasasi, Fez

- Shaykh Ahmad Tijani, Fez

- Sidi Yusuf al-Fasi, Fez

- Shaykh Abu Bakr al-‘Arabi, Fez (not buried at the graveyard of Bab Futuh, but at the
one near Bab Boujloud)

- Sidi Ahmad b. Muhammad b. ‘Ashir, Salé

- Sidi ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Harathi, Salé

- Sidi ‘Abdallah b. Hassun, Salé

- Sidi al’Arabi as-Sayah, Rabat

And other awliya whose names I forgot.

I received the idhn (permission) -which is like an ijazah- from shaykh Mortada to
read:

- The wird of shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib1

- The famous Nasiri du’a2

1
See here for an English translation and short commentary: https://bewley.virtualave.net/wird.html
2
See here: http://bewley.virtualave.net/Nasiri_Dua.pdf; for a nice introduction to this du’a read here:
http://bewley.virtualave.net/Nasiri.html; for more material on this du’a see here:
http://www.deenislam.co.uk/dua/Nasiri-and-Munfarija.htm
 - The Hizb ul-Bahr from Abu’l-Hasan al-Shadhili3

Reciting any of these awrad, adhkar or ahzab without an idhn is allowed but a lack of
respect (su al-adab) shaykh Mortada told me.

The wird of shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib was recited almost every day of my trip.
There are some (partial) commentaries on this wird:

- One by shaykh Muhammad bin al-Habib himself in the Diwan called

Ta’iyyatu’l-Wird ash-Sharif
- One by shaykh sayyid Hammud ibn al-Bashir from Algeria, called
“Commentary on the Hizb of Gnostic Du’as”, a student of shaykh
Muhammad bin al-Habib

The Diwan is a special and blessed book and anyone who reads it will confirm this. I
read it was also used to instruct the children of the fuqara the Arabic language due to
the high level of the Arabic. It contains -next to suwar from the Qur’an- qasa’id about:

- tasawwuf
- ‘aqidah
- adab and akhlaq
- shama’il of the Prophet s.a.w.s.

And some qasa’id from other authors than shaykh Muhammad bin al-Habib as well.
Shaykh Mortada gave us some insights into the Diwan while we were travelling.

And next to this I met other ‘ulama, imam’s, many honorable students of the Qur’an,
tullab, fuqara and other interesting and otherwise ‘normal’ people.

I like to give a special thanks to all the people who helped me before and during this
trip. You know who you are, I’ll not mention you by name. May Allah reward all of you
plentiful.

3
See here: http://www.almirajsuficentre.org.au/Awrad%20PDFs/Hizbul%20Bahr.pdf (Arabic and English); for
an audio, see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNqubcH_TwE
Marrakech

I visited Marrakech twice during my trip. I had spent one night before in Marrakech in
1997, on my way to Agadir, and all I remembered was the Jama’a al-Fna, the big
central square.

There are several interesting things in Marrakech to do and see. You can’t miss the
Jama’a al-Fna of course. Fna is al-fana and it reminded me of the Sufi concept al-
fana fi’Llah4 although the square is more about fana fi’d-dunya.

When there you definitely have to visit the so called Saba’at ur-Rijal, the Seven Men,
the 7 patron saints or awliya of Marrakech, may Allah have mercy with all of them. I
didn’t manage to visit all of them but I visited about 4 of them alhamdulillah. The most
important one is of course imam Muhammad b. Sulayman al-Jazuli, author of the
famous, blessed and celebrated Dala’il al-Khayrat. I visited his grave twice, on the
second time I visited Marrakech during my trip on one day due to something Allah
wanted. We read some Qur’an and part of the Dala’il at his grave. I wasn’t able to
visit him the days I stayed in Marrakech initially at the beginning of my trip. Then I
only visited the qubbah (dome) of Qadi ‘Iyad and ‘allamah Ahmad Sukayrij
rahimahumullah and of some saint whose name I forgot (I think it was sidi ‘Abd al-
‘Aziz at-Tabba’a rahimahullah). Finding the domes/zawaya of these 7 awliya in the
city on your own is not easy and you will need day or so to visit all of them and pay
them your respects by praying for them and yourself and reading surah al-Fatihah,
Yasin etc. Best thing is you have a guide. The qubbah of Qadi ‘Iyyad is the farthest
one if you start from the central square Jama’a al-Fna, next to the city wall, a far
walk. The last saint I visited was sidi Abu’l-‘Abbas as-Sabti rahimahullah. For more
detailed info about these 7 awliya there used to be a very good article online by Dar-
Sirr but that website is offline sadly enough. I’d say the graves of imam al-Jazuli and
Qadi ‘Iyyad are the most important ones which you can’t miss.

Something definitely worth a visit is the Madrassah Bin Yusuf5, which is pretty easy to
find in the medina of Marrakech. This Qur’an(ic) madrassah doesn’t function anymore
and is a museum nowadays, open to Muslims and non-Muslims alike. It was open

4
Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib rahimahullah actually as a qasidah about this in his Diwan which we will
mention below. The title of that qasidah is Ha’iyyatu al-Fana fi’Llah
5
See: http://www.medersa-ben-youssef.com/
and functioning until 1960, as the biggest (Qur’anic) madrassah in Morocco, named
after sultan ‘Ali bin Yusuf b. Tashfin, the son of the famous Murabitun ruler Yusuf ibn
Tashfin6. Here you can get a good glimpse of how students used to live and also see
the splendor of the madrassah. One of its most famous and best teachers was
shaykh Muhammad al-Ifrani (1670-1747 CE). He was a historian, imam and khatib.

Last but not least: the Kutubiyyah mosque and complex. This is the top three of
Islamic sites in Marrakech. I attended the jumu’ah prayer there the day after I arrived.

Only later I found out the grave of Ibn Rushd rahimahullah (d. 1198 CE), the author
of Bidayat ul-Mujtahid, is also in Marrakech, but perhaps not very well known.

Qala’at Mkounah / Zawiyah ‘Abd al-Malik

From Marrakech I went to Qala’at Mkounah, more specific to the area around
Zawiyah ‘Abd al-Malik, where shaykh Mortada lives with his family. (From now on I
needed to and could speak Arabic only.) For this I had to cross the Atlas mountains
by bus. It was a 6 hour trip through a very beautiful landscape with high mountain
peaks and strange desert views. Qala’at means castle or fortress (hisn) and
Mkounah could refer to either the mountain or the river. Qala’at Mkounah is known
for several things:

- the roses (al-wurud) and products like rosewater etc.; they have a yearly rose
festival in May when the roses are fully grown and seeable everywhere at the borders
of the grounds owned by the people

- daggers, although the men don’t really carry them anymore

- the tribes, it is a tribal area, clearly marked by signs like Ait …, Ait …; Ait means
qabilah; Ait is for the Berbers (Amazigh) and Beni is used for the Arab tribes in
Morocco.

Shaykh Mortada lives near the Zawiyah ‘Abd al-Malik, a zawiyah named after his
grandfather (rahimahullah), a scholar and wali, who has been buried close to the
mosque near his house, while his own house is also a zawiyah at the same time. I

6
See here: https://bewley.virtualave.net/tashfin.html
was his guest and slept there. The son of his uncle, shaykh mawlay Hashimi still lives
in the Zawiyah ‘Abd al-Malik with his family. That zawiyah is unique in Morocco as it
unites both the Darqawi and Tijani Sufi paths. See here a video about the zawiyah
with shaykh Mortada: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMRLIIyDACY In that
zawiyah there is a library with some very old manuscripts of Islamic books. Shaykh
mawlay Hashimi lives there and all he does is study, read books, teach and do dhikr.
Sometimes he goes to the mountains for three months or more to do da’wah
masha’Allah. Shaykh Mortada is a leading shaykh of the Darqawi order in Morocco
and a Maliki faqih, member of the Majlis ‘Ilmi in his area. He studied with his father
who was also a shaykh (rahimahullah). He told me he still studies with ‘ulama in the
Atlas mountains. They, they shaykh and his family, are of Arab descent related to the
Prophet s.a.w.s. and function as people who make islah between the tribes whenever
there are problems, a noble job with many responsibilities. His family has done that
for a very long time. Shaykh Mortada also has a yearly mawsim of some days, to
gather the fuqara of the tariqah worldwide, and this year it was to be end of May
insha’Allah. I didn’t have enough leave to stay for that occasion. Qala’at Mkounah is
a beautiful and remarkable place to visit. The landscape, the houses (qasbah’s) of
mud, the people (Berbers and dark skin), nature etc. In Qala’at Mkounah we visited
many people and attended many social gatherings and gatherings of dhikr, with the
common people, fuqara, tullab and ‘ulama. Our constant “companions”7 were the
Qur’an and the Diwan of shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib rahimahullah. We were
given insights in and explanations of parts of the Diwan. The gathering were always
closed with the so called qasidah of departure of the Diwan. Parts of the Burdah of
al-Busiri rahimahullah were also sung at several occasions (just like Hamza Yusuf
said he heard it everywhere in Mauritania) and I remember a scholarly discussion
about whether or not Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani rahimahullah wrote a commentary on the
Burdah or not (there are some 90 commentaries on the Burdah).8 Ibn Hajar al-
Haythami rahimahullah did for sure but if Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani did is not really sure,
information about it is very difficult to find. Much of the poetry / qasa’id in the Diwan
of shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib and his wird can be found online. An example of
one of the qasa’id from the Diwan is the qasidah on Allah’s Most Beautiful Names,

7
This means we constantly recited the Qur’an and sung qasa’id.
8
According to the author of a thesis on the Burdah he actually did. Read here (pag. 50):
https://dar.aucegypt.edu/bitstream/handle/10526/1334/2008sumroseaslan.pdf?sequence=1
which can be seen and heard here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSzyA1dBzDE#t=82 This is actually filmed in the
madrassah Imam Nafi’ in a place near Goulmima, where I initially wanted to study
Qur’an. I heard a live performance of it during one of the gatherings we attended.

It was in one of the villages surrounding Qala’at Mkounah, that shaykh Mortada
arranged for me to study Qur’an at a madrassah. The system was explained and
there are basically two kinds of madaris (in the whole of Morocco):

1. The ones funded by government awqaf;

2. The ones maintained by muhsinin.

Some of the ummahat mutun studied in the traditional madaris of Morocco:

- Matn Ibn ‘Ashir (‘aqidah, fiqh and tasawwuf)

- Lamiyyatu’l-Af’al (sarf: morphology)

- Al-Burdah (praise on the Prophet s.a.w.s.)

- Al-Hamziyyah (praise on the Prophet s.a.w.s.) by al-Busiri

- Al-Ajurumiyyah (nahu: syntaxis)

After giving it some thought he said I could better go to a madrassah in Fez as that
would be easier for me. It was too difficult to arrange study for me at the madrassah I
had wanted, south of ar-Rashidiyyah, due to the law and the fact it was a little far
away from Qala’at Mkounah and the madrassah near Qala’at Mkounah itself would
also be difficult.

So I went to Fez although I didn’t plan to go there at all. I took his advice.

Fez

During my trip I visited Fez twice. I had visited Fez before several times and thought I
knew it a little but I really didn’t I realized afterwards. Fez has many hidden treasures
and gems to discover. In Fez I was to enroll in the madrassah belonging to Masjid
Hafsah, in the neighborhood of Mont Fleurie, in the new part of the city, far from the
medina. It was a beautiful and big masjid with the kuttāb right across the street. After
fajr and maghrib one hizb of the Qur’an was read in a very beautiful way in jama’ah in
Warsh. One thing people need to know that if they go and want to study Qur’an in
Morocco is that they will need to learn the recitation style of Warsh as Hafs is not
common. And they will need to realize that the prayer is conducted in the Maliki way
with only one salam at the end of the prayer in most masajid and sadl, especially in
the countryside and amongst the people of tasawwuf. I stayed in a flat with young
students of the Qur’an from Spain, UK, Belgium and Mexico. I saw them using a lawh
and writing with burned sheep wool soaked in water and a pen made from bamboo
masha’Allah. To join the madrassah I needed to register with the new Qarawiyyin
university (outside the medina) as they overlook all madaris in Fez. The government
wants to know who studies where and you can’t join a madrassah without registering
with them. We made an appointment but didn’t get a hold of the responsible person.
So this didn’t work out. The few days I was in Fez we went to some majalis of dhikr.
One in the zawiyah of sidi ‘Ali al-Jamal rahimahullah (in the medina, al-Andalus; he
was the shaykh of Mawlay al-‘Arabi al-Darqawi rahimahullah) and one in the rather
new zawiyah of shaykh ‘Abdullah al-Haddad (in the neighborhood of Bin Suda)9, a
scholar of the outward and inward sciences. Those were beautiful and interesting
gatherings. In the zawiyah of sidi ‘Ali al-Jamal they read from a book of hikam which
were explained by a shaykh, the last student of shaykh Sharqawi. In the ‘Alawi
zawiyah of shaykh ‘Abdulllah al-Haddad we had kind of an international gathering of
people -fuqara- from several countries (Morocco, Sweden, Spain, Canada, Brazil and
the Netherlands) masha’Allah. We read from the Diwan of shaykh ‘Ahmad bin
Mustafa al-‘Alawi rahimahullah. Between shaykh ‘Abdullah and shaykh al-‘Alawi there
was only one person in the silsilah of the tariqah, shaykh ‘Ali al-Budaylami
rahimahullah, a hadith scholar and faqih and student of shaykh al-‘Alawi.10 I came to
find out that shaykh ‘Abdullah was the shaykh of one of the main translators of Sunni
Publications, for whom I also work.

9
See here: http://www.zawiyaalawiya.com/
10
See here: http://www.zawiyaalawiya.com/the-shaykh.html
In Fez I first heard about imam Ibn Khayyat11 rahimahullah and his early work on
Muslim history. He was a teacher of imam al-Bukhari rahimahullah and in his work
(at-Tarikh) there is a lot of attention for and stress on the isnad.

After a short stay in Fez -nothing seemed to work out the way I wanted - that two
brothers and me went back to Qala’at Mkounah, to shaykh Mortada. Allah was taking
me to the direction of the path of tasawwuf. Perhaps I wasn’t worthy of studying and
learning the Qur’an until I had learned to purify my heart first, at least that is how it
felt and still feels at the moment. And perhaps I needed to more structured and
disciplined and a more focused niyyah. The shaykh gave us permission to recite the
Hizb ul-Bahr for our journey back to him and we did after entering the bus. More on
Fez will follow later below.

Back in Qala’at Mkounah and our travels with shaykh Mortada

We started our journey in Qala’at and ended in Casablanca. I will mention some of
the highlights of this special journey we undertook, all by car. The first part we spent
in the south of Morocco and -together with the shaykh and three other brothers- by
car we travelled all the way up to Tamegroute, near the Algerian border, in the
desert. In Tamegroute we visited the beautiful zawiyah of shaykh Muhammad bin
Nasir al-Dar’i rahimahullah and it was there where I gave my (unintentional) bay’ah to
shaykh Mortada, by receiving permission the read the Habibiyyah wird and the
famous du’a against oppression shaykh Muhammad bin Nasir al-Dar’i wrote and
which is still recited all over the world, a du’a fit for these times as well if we think of
the oppression of Muslims worldwide. We read some Qur’an at his grave, his du’a
and also the so called Munfarijah by shaykh Ibn al-Nahwi rahimahullah.12

This du’a has been beautifully translated into English by Hamza Yusuf hafizahullah
(as: The Prayer of the Oppressed). One can listen to the du’a online here in
different styles:

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APrOYCHnMzk
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_q6s3paBHo

11
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalifa_ibn_Khayyat
12
See here: http://www.daralhadith.org.uk/?p=516
 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyUC3q89fYs
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XU4lX7W3k2E

It was very special to receive the idhn to recite the du’a in the zawiyah of its author.
Some extra info on the name of the author: he is called “al-Dar’i” because he is from
ouad / wadi Dar’a, which is a very large ouad and a land of awliya and ‘ulama in
Morocco according to shaykh Mortada. It is filled with graves of awliya and zawaya.
In the Diwan of shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib we can find two qasa’id of his
students from this area:

- Sidi Muhammad ibn al-Habib al-Dar’i

- Sidi ‘Abdullah ibn al-Habib al-Dar’i

May Allah have mercy on them both. Shaykh Mortada told us that one of them, I can’t
remember who, memorized all the books he had and gave them to Zawiyah ‘Abd al-
Malik and they are still existent in the library (khizanah) there. Shaykh mawlay
Hashimi read from them.

Another highlight was our visit to the zawiyah and madrassah of sidi Ibrahim bin al-
Basir in Bani / Awlad (?) ‘Iyad, in the center of Morocco, in the Anti-Atlas mountains,
not far from Beni Mellal. (This was during the second part of our trip where another
brother joined us and where we crossed the Atlas mountains and continued our
journey to Marrakech and ended in Casablanca.) This was a traditional madrassah
with around 200 students who are being taught Ash’ari ‘aqidah, Maliki fiqh and
(Junaydi) tasawwuf, next to tahfiz of the Qur’an. We were received and showed
around there by shaykh Isma’il bin al-Basir hafizahullah, a scholar of the outward and
inward sciences. A beautiful and very good place to study. They were erecting a new
building and have plans to develop further into a university. At the moment they had
no foreign students but they will welcome them in the near future insha’Allah;
students will get a room and visa will be arranged, all students are funded by the
muhsinin. The dhikr after salat al-fajr was very special. All students there memorize
the Qur’an and are being taught in the Islamic sciences at the same time. We were
also shown the large and old library of the zawiyah which contained many old books
and manuscripts.
Shaykh Gibril Fouad Haddad wrote a beautiful account of his visit there in 2000,
which can be read here: http://www.abc.se/~m9783/n/wqm_e.html

These were the two main highlights of our travels with shaykh Mortada which lasted
for almost two weeks. We visited many places and people and we benefitted from his
adab and akhlaq and of course his knowledge. Shaykh Mortada is also a shaykh of
the outward and inward sciences, always quoting from the Qur’an and hadith and
from poetry. We learned also from his wisdom and advice. Few of the things he
mentioned I will always remember, like:

- Reciting 80 salawat on the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) right after salat al-‘asr

See here for the proofs:

- http://www.hadithanswers.com/the-80-durood-salawat-after-asr-on-fridays/

- http://eshaykh.com/hadith/authenticity-of-hadith-about-durood-sharif-to-recite-after-
asr-on-friday/

- The important role of zawaya in spreading traditional Islam in Morocco

- Signs of a true Sufi shaykh and how to find him; I refer for this to the Diwan of
shaykh Muhammad bin al-Habib, especially to the chapter:

a. Rajaz Khawariq at-Tariq / The Miracles of the Tariq

b. The story of shaykh Abu Hafs from Algeria how he found shaykh Muhammad bin
al-Habib

- All Sufi turuq go back to the Prophet s.a.w.s. As it is said in the Burdah:

“And they all obtained from Rasulullah (s.a.w.s.)” I have heard this being said many
times by several people.

Or like they say: “The water is one and the flowers are diverse.”

- The disappearance of mahabbah between the Muslims and its causes.

- What is a majdub?

- Explanation of the saying of ‘Umar radi’Allahu ‘anhu in Sahih al-Bukhari: Taffaqahu

qabla an tasawwadu.

- Shaykh Mortada told me I belonged to the lucky people because I got to meet the
people of Allah. This reminds me of the saying that if Allah wants you, He guides you
to His people. And: “Allah doesn’t lead anyone to the path except that He wants them
to complete it and reach Him.”

- Receiving the idhn for a wird from Sufi shaykh can be a bay’ah to him.

- The hadith of the Prophet (s.a.w.s.): “Ballighu ‘anni wa law ayah” has a different
meaning for ‘ulama (‘ilm/shari’ah) and ‘awwamm (akhlaq/haqiqah).

On our way to Casablanca we visited a brother of shaykh Isma’il bin al-Basir in a city
at the coast called Berreshid, he was called shaykh ‘Abd al-Mughith bin Basir,
chairman of the Majlis ‘Ilmi there. He gave us some of this time and gifted us with a
beautiful copy of the Qur’an in Maghribi script.

When we finally arrived in Casablanca at night I decided to go back to Fez the next
morning because my luggage was there. I was exhausted and out of clean clothing.

Fez revisited

I came to realize and understand a lot of things about tasawwuf -although it is most
probably just a very tiny fraction of a part of it- during my trip. And something kept
pulling me back to Fez as if Allah wanted to teach and show me something.

Back in Fez I had a couple of days before I needed to be in Rabat. I attended the
Jumu’ah prayer in Masjid Hafsah and after that I went to the medina to buy some
gifts. I attended the dhikr in the Tijani zawiyah after salat al-‘asr and it was beautiful
and overwhelming. I loved it. The other times I was in Fez I didn’t get to enjoy the
dhikr here.

In the taxi I met a wise driver who said the Moroccan had one big problem –and in
fact it is a problem most people suffer from- and he expressed it as follows:
‫ﻧﺣن ﻓﻲ ﺣﺎﺟﺔ اﻟﻰ ﻗوم ﻓﻌﺎل ﻻ ﻗوال‬

We are in need of a people who act and don’t talk. (Freely translated)

One of the things I learned during my trip is that after almost 10 years years of being
Muslim I really knew nothing compared to all the people I had met during my trip until
now and that my nafs and shahawat kept me from moving ahead.

Twice I tried to attend a lesson in al-Qarawiyyin but it didn’t work. Both of the times it
was because of a holiday. But what I received back from Allah for it was worth more.
The first time I met the very old shaykh al-‘Ayyashi (almost like sahib Dala’il al-
Khayrat) and his son again at al-Qarawiyyin and the second time we actually
attended a very nice majlis where the Dala’il al-Khayrat was recited.

Some of the highlights in Fez you can’t miss and which were not mentioned above:

- The graveyard of Bab al-Futuh where many ‘ulama and awliya have been buried.

This reminds me of the saying that the East is the land of the Prophets and the West
is the land of the saints.

- The reciting of the Tijani wazifah after the ‘asr prayer in their zawiyah/masjid. Watch
and listen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Sg-cKZdDTs In reality -attending
it in person- this is even more beautiful and very powerful. The Tijani path is a
separate tariqah, without connections to Abu’l-Hassan al-Shadhili (Shadhiliyyah) and
‘Abd ul-Qadir al-Jilani (Qadiriyyah) rahimahumullah. All of the turuq -except the Tijani
tariqah- in Morocco go back to these two saints. The Tijani tariqah falls within the so
called Tariqah Muhammadiyyah movement of the 18th century CE.13 We were invited
at the house of the khadim of shaykh Ahmad Tijani in the medina and there we met
Tijani’s from Sudan, Senegal and Guinee Bissau. One of them was a shaykh and he
explained a lot to me about the Tijani path and told me some amazing things. Some
of those things I’ll share here. He said the Arabic letter mim is what separates al-
Ahad (Allah) from Ahmad (the Prophet s.a.w.s.). The letter mim signifies death (al-
mawt), meaning the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w.s. is the door to Allah. He also told
me a lot about the significance of the number 5 in Islam. Shaykh Ahmad Tijani is the

13
Read more here about the movement called Tariqah Muhammadiyyah: http://riyada.blogspot.nl/
khatm of the awliya. Their tasbih is different from most others, it has 5 distinctive
parts for:

1. Istighfar

2. Salat ‘ala’n-Nabi

3. Haylalah

4. Salat al-Fatih

5. Jawharah al-Kamal

- The gathering and recital of the Dala’il al-Khayrat on Saturdays led by shaykh
mawlay Isma’il in his mosque (which is being restored) and zawiyah. This place is a
little difficult to find but it is near Bab Guissa. At this gathering we met a family
member of Ibn Mashish rahimahullah from -ustadh Wahhabi from Tanger- who
organizes readings of the Dala’il on Saturday’s at the maqam of Ibn Mashish and he
told us a lot about Ibn Mashish. The best commentaries on the Salat al-
Mashishiyyah according to him are:

a. the sharh of shaykh ‘Abd al-Majid b. Tayyib b. Kiran

b. the sharh of shaykh Ibn ‘Ajibah for its simplicity and clarity (has been translated to
English by Suraqah ‘Abd al-‘Aziz)

The impact and importance of Ibn Mashish in Morocco is big. Next time I visit
Morocco I will need to pay a visit to him insha’Allah.

The gathering we attended in Fez was very special. The zawiyah was packed with
young and old people and there were some other foreigners. Once again an
international gathering of people from Morocco, Sweden, the UK (but originally
Syria), the U.S. and the Netherlands. My stay in Fez was once again concluded with
the Dala’il, just like last time. Shaykh Isma’il and his family keep it alive in Fez.

Still on my list to visit in Fez are:

- A visit to masjid al-Andalus, once a center of learning competing with al-Qarawiyyin.

- Attending some lessons in al-Qarawiyyin

- The Tijani dhikr on Friday

- The Jazuli zawiyah

And more places and people, if Allah allows me.

A last booktip for every murid: The Basic Research by Ibn ‘Ajibah.14

Rabat, Salé, Kenitra and Temara

The last days of my stay in Morocco were spent in 4 different places although mostly
in Rabat. I had to be in Rabat for a wedding of a dear friend in the nearby city of
Kenitra ( around 25 km); through his family I got in contact with tasawwuf and the
Darqawa in Morocco. I actually owe them a lot of gratitude and thanks and we ask
Allah to reward them bountiful. They are truly blessed and special.

I Rabat I rented a room in a beautiful riyadh in the old town and at night we had a
meeting (the night before the wedding) in Salé. I met another old friend there as well
and he told me his family name originated from a Sufi tariqah called the Hamadsha,
similar to the ‘Isawiyyah, and referred me to a study on them in English: “The
Hamadsha; A study in Moroccan Ethnopsychiatry” by Vincent Crapanzano, a
very tough read.

Some things worth to visit in Rabat and Salé:

- The small medina of Oudaya; here is Rabat’s oldest masjid and it’s all blue/white
houses and tiny streets. You will have some stunning views on the sea from here.

- The maqam of sidi al-‘Arabi al-Sayah rahimahullah. Beautiful but hidden from sight
a little bit, near the medina of Oudaya.

- The unfinished mosque with its pillars and huge minaret -which looks like the
Kutubiyyah of Marrakech- near the graves of the Moroccan kings Muhammad the 5th
and Hassan the 2nd rahimahumullah.

14
Read more about it here: http://www.deenislam.co.uk/mix/basic_research.htm
- The maqam’s of:

a. the other Ibn ‘Ashir, sidi Ahmad b. Muhammad;

b. sidi ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Harathi, with a striking green dome, and

c. sidi ‘Abdallah b. Hassun, the main and most well-known saint of Salé.

- The Tijani zawiyah in Salé (I didn’t get to visit the Tijani zawiyah in Rabat)

- The big mosque in the medina of Salé

- The Bou ‘Inaniyyah Madrassah in Salé

In Rabat and Salé everything is at walking distance.

For students of the Qur’an a visit to the Imam Dukkali markaz with shaykh Sahabi, in
Salé is a must.

When in Rabat I decided to pay shaykh Hassan al-Kittani, one of my teachers, a visit
the day before I left. I had met him last year as well and wanted to see him again. I
went to his house and I was lucky to join him for a lesson in nearby Temara. He was
teaching from the famous Murshid al-Mu’in, the ‘aqidah section. Together with a few
students we had a lesson and afterwards we read some ahadith from the Muwatta
and had dinner. The lesson was being recorded and transmitted online through
Paltalk. A nice and blessed gathering to conclude my stay in Morocco. The next
morning I had to leave with sadness in my heart.

One last thing for interested students of the Murshid: I came to find out that shaykh
Hassan had been working with other people on a new edition of the Murshid al-
Mu’in with some changes on the section of ‘aqidah, a simplified ‘aqidah free from
logic and kalam. I had a copy of it in my hands. It hasn’t been printed yet for
publication.

Some benefits and insights for students of knowledge

- Remind yourself of the expression by Yahya b. Yahya when he sat in the circle with
Imam Malik rahimahullah and for the first time elephants entered the city and
everyone ran of to see them except him: “I didn’t come for the sake of an elephant”
(‫ )ﻣﺎ ﺟﺋت ﻻﺟل ﻓﯾل‬i.e. I came here to study and not for any other reason. A student of
knowledge doesn’t go to Morocco as a tourist or for reasons of tourism.

- Morocco is now one of the most safe and best countries in the Arabic speaking
world to go and study traditional Islam in my humble opinion although largely
undiscovered.

- Travel (safar in Arabic) is to suffer (most probably this English word originates from
Arabic if we would look at the root letters), I experienced that. Travelling is part of
seeking knowledge and it doesn’t go with ease and/or comfort. The Prophet s.a.w.s.
said in a sound hadith: “Travelling is part of the punishment of Hellfire.” (Bukhari and
Muslim) This doesn’t mean that travelling is something dispraised though.

- You can join the daily lessons in Jami’ah al-Qarawiyyin in the medina for FREE; just
as it was back in the old times; even if you are there for just a short period, you take
what you can get from the ‘ulama there and benefit. All you need to do is tell the
admin there out of adab. The lessons that are taught there are the advanced and
higher levels. There is a schedule. The lower levels are taught at the new Qarawiyyin
outside the medina.

- For a private teacher just ask around in the Jami’ah al-Qarawiyyin or in the area
around it.

- Morocco is the land of tasawwuf and turuq, a land of awliya and ‘ulama, a land of
dhikr and qasa’id.

- Seeking knowledge is not about what you want and what you plan to do. Allah will
take where you need to be.

- Next to studying the Islamic sciences you need tasawwuf. This reminds one of the
importance of purifying your heart.

- The importance of suhbah with a shaykh and tullab to improve you adab and
akhlaq.

- The importance of the Burdah, the Dala’il al-Khayrat, Matn Ibn ‘Ashir, the
Hamziyyah, the Diwan of shaykh Muhammad bin al-Habib and the Diwan of shaykh
Ahmad bin Mustafa al-‘Alawi in the daily lives of many Moroccan people. Most
Moroccan people in Europe have lost their connection to these texts.

- The importance of having a wird. The one who doesn’t have a wird is like a qird (a
monkey) as the ‘ulama say.

- The importance of (singing) qasa’id.

- The importance of learning Arabic. In Morocco there are several centers for learning
Arabic.

- For memorization of the Qur’an and other texts Morocco is the number one country.
Memorization is by dabt al-sadr and dabt al-kitabah with the lawh.

- Fez is the scholarly and spiritual center of Morocco, the center for ‘ilm and
tasawwuf.

- The desert of Morocco is the best place to memorize Qur’an and to learn adab and
akhlaq.

- The importance of adab and akhlaq with everyone you meet. Shuyukh, teachers,
fellow students, fuqara and other people, in fact all of Allah’s creation. Adab and
akhlaq come before ‘ilm. ‘Ilm without adab and akhlaq is nothing. Shaykh ‘Abdullah
al-Haddad told us: “Knowledge is like salt and adab is the flower. To bake a good
bread you need a little bit of salt.”

- There is an essential difference between a shaykh of tarbiyyah in a tariqah and a

shaykh of the outward sciences. A shaykh of tarbiyyah in a tariqah doesn’t
necessarily need to be a shaykh in the outward sciences and speak Arabic.

- Knowledge doesn’t come to you. You need to go to those who teach it.

- Knowledge doesn’t come in one go, it needs struggle, perseverance, dedication,

time.

- Morocco has a strong oral culture.

- Spent time with students of knowledge to see how they live.

- The social coherence of the Moroccan people, especially outside the cities and the
importance of dhikr in social gatherings.

- The importance of suwar Yasin and al-Waqi’ah.

- Deprivement of sleep.

- Khidmah towards your shuyukh and fellow students.

- The adab of sleeping and travelling.

- A true shaykh and sayyid is someone who serves his students.

- Dhikr makes the difference.

- Check your niyyah.

- Don’t complain and try and do without or with less at least.

Conclusion

With this I end my account and I presented it in an abbreviated form to you. I ask
Allah it will benefit everyone who reads it. I ask Allah to accept my journey and
forgive me my sins.

Allah’s poor slave Harun

End