Cheikh Ibrahima Niasse
Basic Information
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Posted By:
alhousseynou Ba
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Posted:
May 21, 2017
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Last Updated:
May 21, 2017
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Members:
1
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Views:
19
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Likes:
4
Category:
Artist, Band or Public Figure » Chef
Tags:
#Islam
#allah
#Prophet Muhammad
#Baye miss
#Ibrahima niass
Location:
Kaolack, Kaolack Region, Senegal -
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Description:
Shaykh al-Islam Ibrahim Niasse
The following biography is based on “Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse: Revivalist of the Sunnah,” a paper presented by Shaykh Hassan Cisse to a Northwestern University conference on Muslim Scholars in Africa (1984).
Shaykh al-Islam Ibrahim Abd-Allah... moreShaykh al-Islam Ibrahim Niasse
The following biography is based on “Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse: Revivalist of the Sunnah,” a paper presented by Shaykh Hassan Cisse to a Northwestern University conference on Muslim Scholars in Africa (1984).
Shaykh al-Islam Ibrahim Abd-Allah Niasse
Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse (1900-1975) was West Africa’s most renowned Islamic scholar in the twentieth century. His followers numbered in the millions and comprised the largest single Muslim movement in West Africa (Hiskett, 1984). He was also well-known among the ulama and leaders of the broader Muslim world and a member of such organizations as the Muslim World League (Rabitat al-‘Alam al-Islami based in Saudi Arabia, of which he served as Vice President), the World Muslim Congress (Mutamar al-‘Alam al-Islami; Karachi, Pakistan), the Islamic Research Assembly (Majma’ al-Buhuth al-Islamiyya; Egypt) and the High Council of Islamic Affairs (Majlis al-‘Ala li al-Shu’un al-Islamiyya; Egypt). Following a trip to Cairo, Egypt, in 1961, he became widely known as “Shaykh al-Islam” after having led the Friday prayers in the prestigious Azhar mosque.
Shaykh Ibrahim also maintained close relations with several prominent leaders in the independence movements during the 1960s, such as Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana), Ahmad Sekou Touré (Guinea) and Gamal Abd al-Nasser (Egypt). He campaigned tirelessly for governments to respect the rights of Muslims and the oppressed world-wide. He spoke out on several international causes, such as Israeli aggression toward the Palestinians, but he was also interested in interfaith issues and maintained good relations with Vatican representatives. He also became involved in social concerns, stressing racial equality and the rights of women. In regards to the latter, the Shaykh encouraged women to “compete with men in knowledge.”
The mosque in Medina-Baye Kaolack, SenegalShaykh Ibrahim Abdullah Niasse was born in rural Senegal, the son al-Hajj Abdullah Muhammad Niasse. Al-Hajj Abdullah (d. 1922) represented the culmination of a long line of Islamic scholars in the Senegambia region, and was himself a well-traveled and consummate shaykh, attracting students from all around the region as far away as Mauritania. Shaykh Ibrahim was educated primarily at the hands of his father, with full access to his father’s extensive library. Shaykh Ibrahim mastered at an early age from his father the full range of Islamic sciences: the Qur’an and its interpretation, the Hadith and their explanation, jurisprudence and Sufism.
In reference to his educational background and achievements, Shaykh Ibrahim said, “I learned Qur’an and Hadith first from my shaykh, my father, and he, from his father. I received an ‘ijaza (diploma from the majalis al-‘ilm) first from my father in both Qur’an and Hadith, then from Abdur-Rahman b. alHajj-1-‘Alawi (Mauritania) and another ‘ijaza from Shaykh Ahmad Sukayrij (Morocco) who himself had earned some six hundred ‘ijazas from six hundred different shaykhs whose names are mentioned in his book, where he writes, ‘The first one to whom I gave authorization in all these chains of transmission was the Khalifa al-Hajj Ibrahim Niasse.'” Shaykh Ibrahim once said concerning his scholarly credentials: “What I have in the way of ‘ijaza and muqaddam authorizations would indeed fill a book.”
As for the content of his teaching, it was nothing more or less than the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad and its revitalization. Throughout his life, the example of the Prophet was his means and end. Shaykh Ibrahim used to say, “If the best of mankind, the Prophet is moving, even I shall follow him step by step; and the day he stops from there I shall never move.” Elsewhere in a poem, Shaykh Ibrahim wrote, “If I am asked, what is your madhhab (school of jurisprudence) and who is your beloved, I can answer that it the Prophet, and none other.”
Shaykh Ibrahim was the best example of a Sufi according to the description “The Sufi is the son of his hour (ibn waqtihi).” He will respond to the needs of the time. At every moment he is dealing with the requirements of that moment. The Muslim who is greatest in understanding is he who submits to the rule of his hour. That is, he gives everything the position it requires in action and speech. He is a person moving with time in a circle. He does not attempt to stop time, not to become stagnant in it, nor to regress in it. His effort is aimed at continually moving forward. In the season of Ramadan he reads Qur’an and Hadith and presents their explanations. In the season of Hajj, he expounds the virtues of the Muslim pilgrimage. At the time of Mawlid, he recites the Prophet’s Sira or Biography.
All of this behavior characterized the Sufism of Shaykh Ibrahim. It was based on action and practice, traveling all over the Muslim world, giving speeches, writing pamphlets. In every endeavor, his goal was to... less
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