webPulaaku
History. Culture. Islam

Louis Brenner
West African Sufi
The Religious Heritage and Spiritual Search of Cerno Bokar Saalif Taal

University of California Press
Berkeley & Los Angeles. 1984. 215 p.

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Appendix II
The litany of Tijani prayers

The Tijani litany consists of three sets of prayers which are recited at specified times in addition to the five daily prayers required of all Muslims. They are the wird, the wazîfa, and the hadra. This terminology can be somewhat confusing.
Hampâté Bâ says (in VE, 231) that all these prayers together constitute the Tijani wird, although al-Hajj Umar refers to them collectively as the adhkâr and employs the term wird to designate only the first set of prayers (called by Hampâté Bâ, the lâzim). Umar specifically states that it was the first set of prayers which the Prophet Muhammad ordered Shaykh al-Tijani to transmit to all Muslims who requested them. Abun-Nasr also employs this usage. This interpretation suggests that entry into the Tijaniyya order was effected by receiving an authorization to recite the wird (the first set of prayers listed below) and that authorizations to recite the other prayers were granted later. This procedure seems to have been the intention of Shaykh al-Tijani, and would conform to the progressive or “initiatic” nature of membership in the order which is suggested in much of the literature.
The following information is from Rimâh, 1, 229-30, although the translations of the texts of the prayers are from Abun-Nasr, The Tijaniyya, 50-7. This information can also be found in VE, 231-6.

The wird includes three recitations to be recited twice daily, in the morning, before the dawn prayer, and in the afternoon.

  1. 100 times the formula “I beg forgiveness from God.”
  2. 100 times the salât al-Fâtih: “O God, bless our master Muhammad, who opened what had been closed, and who is the seal of what had gone before; he who makes the Truth victorious by the Truth, the guide to Thy straight path; and bless his household as is the due of his immense position and grandeur.”
  3. 100 times “There is no god but God,” called the La'ilaa' ha il'Allah.

The wazîfa includes four recitations recited at least once daily before the morning prayer, but a second time in the evening if one wishes.

  1. 30 times the formula, “I ask forgiveness ftom God, the Great, of whom there is no other god but Him, the Living and the Self-subsisting.”
  2. 50 times the salât al-Fâtih (as above).
  3. 100 times “There is no god but God.”
  4. 11 or 12 times the jawharat at-kamâl: “0 God, send benediction upon and salute the source of divine mercy, a true ruby which encompasses the centre of comprehensions and meanings, the son of Adam, the possessor of divine Truth; the most luminous lightning in the profitable rain-clouds which fill all the intervening seas and receptacles; Thy bright light with which Thou has filled Thy universe and which surrounds the places of existence.
    O God, bless and salute the source of Truth from which are manifested the tabernacles of realities; the source of knowledge, the most upright; Thy complete and most straight path.
    O God, bless and salute the advent of the Truth by the Truth; the greatest treasure, Thy mysterious Light. May God bless the Prophet and his household, a prayer which brings us to knowledge of him.”

The hadra is a group recitation held each Friday afternoon during which the hailala or simply the name Allah is recited. The number of recitations is not specified.