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 III
Conditions of membership in the Tijaniyya Order

The following conditions are explained in Rimâh, 1, 211-28, from which these passages are translated (see also VE, 2 3 3 - 9). Only the first twenty-one conditions are obligatory for all members; the last two are encouraged for those who can achieve them.

  1. The shaykh who transmits the adhkâr should be authorized to do so by proper initiation (talqîn) from the founder or by someone who has been properly authorized to do so.
  2. Those who seek initiation must free themselves from the wird of any other shaykh which may have been required of them and abandon such a wird and never return to it.
  3. One must not visit any saints living or dead (implying that the disciple is bound to the one shaykh who has initiated him).
  4. One must seek to observe the five daily prayers in a group and to fulfill the requirements of the sharî'a.
  5. One must ceaselessly love the shaykh until his death, and one must love the successor (khalîfa) to the shaykh and all that which was close to the shaykh, such as his chosen followers and his directives, in the same way that one loved the shaykh.
  6. One must not think that he is secure from the ruses of God (see Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions, 127-8).
  7. One must not express any insult, hatred or animosity toward the shaykh.
  8. One should persevere with the wird until death.
  9. One must maintain a firm belief [in the tarîqa].
  10. One must remain free from all blameworthy acts.
  11. A disciple should be properly authorized to recite the dhikr through a genuine initiation (talqîn) by someone who has received a genuine authorization from the founder or from another authorized person.
  12. One must gather in a group for [the recitation of] the wazîfa and for the recitation (dhikr) of the hailala on Friday afternoon.
  13. One must not recite the jawharat al-kamâl without performing the ritual ablution with water.
  14. One must refrain from any activities which might result in the rupture of good relations between himself and his fellow-men, and especially between himself and his brothers in the tarîqa.
  15. One must not be negligent of the wird, such as delaying it from its proper time, except for good cause.
  16. One must not presume to bestow the wird without a genuine authorization to do so.
  17. One must respect everyone who has been affiliated with the shaykh, especially the eminent members of the tarîqa.
  18. [For the recitation of the dhikr, one must be concerned for the cleanliness of one's clothing and one's person;
  19. one must be concerned for the cleanliness of the place where one is sitting;
  20. one must sit and face the qibla unless one is travelling, one is very close to the Ka'ba, or one is in a group;
  21. and one must refrain from speaking [words other than the dhikr] unless absolutely necessary.
  22. If one is able, one should envision the image of the founder before him from the beginning of the dhikr until its end, and one should seek assistance from him. And what is preferable to that, and more beneficial, more exalted and more accomplished, is to envision the Prophet.
  23. One should call to mind the meanings of the formulations of the dhikr if one is able to understand them.