Zachary Wright

An article on the Tijani Sufi Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse and his influential Kashif al-Ilbas, “The Removal of Confusion”, living proof that West African Muslim scholarship in the early twentieth century was cosmopolitan, diverse and both innovative and deeply rooted in the Islamic tradition.

The Kashif argues in a nutshell that acquiring the experiential knowledge of God (ma‘rifa) is the essential purpose of human existence, and that a “flood” has come within the ranks of the Tijaniyya to spread the Sufi path of Seal of Saints, Shaykh Ahmad al-Tijani, thereby reconnecting people to the Divine in a time of ignorance and distance from God.

Click here to view the PDF.

Republished here with thanks to Islamic Africa Journal and Prof. Wright.