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4 w The Founding of the Muridiyya The Muridiyya evolved gradually from a loose network of disciples and sheikhs to an institutionalized Sufi order between the 1880s, when Amadu first adopted tarbiyya as a method of education, and 1904, when, in Mauritania, he received the wird that consecrated the new tariqa. The dominant scholarship on the Murids, however, overlooks this long process of incubation, focusing mainly on the death of King Lat Joor in 1886 and the subsequent French colonial takeover, two events often presented as the turning points in the emergence of the Muridiyya. One consequence of this approach is that it has downplayed the role of the spiritual and cultural in the founding of the tariqa and overemphasized the impact of political and economic structural factors. This chapter aims to correct this imbalance by demonstrating the centrality of religious innovations, beliefs, and motivations in the founding of the Muridiyya . It describes and analyzes the spiritual itinerary of Amadu Bamba and discusses how his thoughts and practices—and people’s responses to his ideas and actions—informed the development of the Muridiyya. The chapter offers a thorough analysis of the Murid doctrine, method of education, and organizing principles. It also stresses the crucial role of the disciples and sheikhs as active agents in the founding of the Murid organization. It examines how sheikhs’ and disciples’ understanding and embodiment of Amadu Bamba’s thinking helped to give the Murid tariqa some of its most distinctive features. amadu bamba’s conception of sufism Amadu Bamba’s path to Sufism was paved by his family tradition and his scholarship . In previous chapters, we have seen that his ancestors belonged to the 77 You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. Qadiriyya and that it was through his family that he was first initiated into this tariqa. Qadiriyya teachings were reflected in Amadu Bamba’s writings and practices, but his thought on Islamic mysticism was also influenced by Sufi thinkers and writers outside the qadiri order. Bamba was a reader of wellknown Sufi masters such as Abu Talib al-Makki (d. AH 386 [996]), Ghazali (d. 1111), Ibn Atta Allah (d. 1309), and al-Yadaali, as well as their local commentators , including the Kunta and Daymani families of the western Sudan. Indeed, his writings are replete with quotations from these scholars. Among the Sufi thinkers, Ghazali had the greatest influence on Bamba, who classified him among the renovators of Islam and the great imams. He often referred to him as his master.1 Ghazali, who was both a legist and a Sufi, was known for his effort to reconcile the rigorous and rational interpretation of Islam by the ulamas, or learned Muslims, with the spirituality and esotericism of the mystics. He was also a staunch advocate of independence of thought for scholars. Commenting on the relations between rulers and clerics, Ghazali observed that although obedience was owed to the unjust prince, one should not condone his injustice. He noted that the devout Muslim should avoid the court and the company of the unjust ruler and should rebuke him, by words if he can safely do so or by silence if words might encourage rebellion.2 Similar statements pervade Amadu Bamba’s writings. For example, in Tazawudu Shubaani, he wrote, “Those who frequent them (the unjust rulers) because of their wealth, share in the corruption which is the source of their power.”3 Amadu Bamba’s conception of Sufism echoed the debates and compromises that have marked the relations between Sufi and anti-Sufi scholars since the twelfth century.4 In his attitude as well as in his teachings, he was careful to combine the two dimensions of legitimate Sufism outlined by Ibn Khaldun in his commentary on Ghazali: that is, Sufism as a “science of praxis” rooted in the sharia and Sufism as mysticism geared toward the education of the heart. He viewed tasawwuf, or mysticism, as a central element of Islam but only second to tawhid, the science of the oneness of God, and sharia, which he considered to be the soul and body of the religion.5 This preoccupation was reaffirmed in his teachings and his scholarly works, in which tawhid and Islam (worship) always came before ihsaan (purification). Bamba’s idea of Sufism was shaped by a desire to blend mysticism, sharia...

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