The Hajj Experiences of Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse

Shaykh Al-Haj Ibrahim Niasse (Ra)'s Amazing Experiences During His First Hajj In 1937 

Shaykh Al-Haj Ibrahim Niasse (Ra)'s Amazing Experiences During His First Hajj In 1937

As-Salam Alaykum Wa Rahmat-Allah,

We wish a Hajj Maqbul to all Hujjaj!

May Allah accept your pilgrimage to His Sanctuary and your Ziyarah to the Neighborhood of the Prophet (saw), and grant us all the same honor. Amin,

We share here some of Shaykh-al-Islam al-Haj Ibrahim Niasse (RA)'s amazing experiences during his first Hajj in 1937, as described in his Rihlah al-Hijaziyyah (Travelogue of his first Hajj)

The Sahib al-Faydah  (RA) described his inward experience of the Hajj thus:

تجردت عن ملبوسي اليوم محرما

تجرد  قلبي  عن  سواك  معظما

*

و إن طفت بالبيت المعظم قدره

إلهي فقلبي حول ذاتك  خيما

*

و سعيي بين الصخرتين مشاكل

لسعي مضى لي في الصفات تكرما

*

I removed my clothes today to adorn the Ihram

And my Heart removed all other than You, in honor of You

*

And indeed, when I circambulate around the Noble House (the Ka'bah)

O My Lord! My Heart has encamped around your Being

*

And my running between the two Mountains (Safa and Marwah)

Is complimentary to my (inward) running between your Attributes  (of Jalal and Jamal)

Upon looking at the blessed Ka'bah for the first time, Shaykh Ibrahim (RA) said:

اللهم إني نويت أن أتقرب إليك بالنظر إلى بيتك الحرام بالنية التي كان ينظر بها النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم

"O Allah! I intend to draw closer to You by looking at Your Sacred House with the same intention by which Your Prophet (SAW) used to look at it!".

The Shaykh (RA) also used to read his Divinely-Inspired Dua the Kanz al-Awliya in front of the Sacred Door of the Ka’bah. (I had the honor of doing the same during my last Umrah)

About the holy plains of Arafah the Shaykh (RA) wrote:

لبيك  تلبية  من  واصل  عرفه 

من كولخ منتهى الدنيا إلى عرفه

I pronounce  the Labbayk of a one who has Known and Arrived 

From Kaolack, the furthest point of the World to Arafah!

و الحمد في ذا و ذاك للإله  فما

للعبد مدخل في الأمر إن  عرفه

And all praise, in this and that, is for the Lord!

For the slave has no say in the matter, if he only knew!



A priceless voice of Sheikh Ibrahim Niass reciting the "talbiyah" while people around him were re-echoeing it during hajj season...

مقطع من صوت الغالي للشيخ الإسلام الحاج إبراهيم نياس يهتف التلبية والناس حوله يلبون في موسم الحج....

The Shaykh (RA) would also make this Dua when shaving the Hair of his head after the Pilgrimage:

اللهم هذه ناصيتي بيدك فاجعل لي بكل شعرة نوراً يوم القيامة و بارك لي في معيشتي

 و اغفر لي ذنبي و تقبل مني عملي

O Allah! This is my forehead in your Hands! So recompense me for every hair, a light on the Day of Judgment! Bless my livelihood, forgive my sin and accept my Actions!

As for the City of the Prophet (SAW), Madinah Munawwarah or Taybah (The Purified City), the Shaykh (RA) has written thousands of couplets in praise and yearning for it. More than 50% of his Diwan is about that. Here I just translate a few couplets from the Days of his Visit to Madinah Taybah:

يا طيبة المصطفى يا طيب رياك 

و الحسن  أجمعه يلقى من  محياك

علوت مكة ذات البيت إذ شرفت

بالبيت و البيت من طه فبشراك

مني  إليك  سلام  كلما  وردت 

بحجرة  المصطفى  أملاك  مولاك

O Taybah of the Chosen Prophet! How Sweet is your Fragrance!

Indeed, all beauty is encompassed in your Appearance!

You have surpassed Makkah, as Makkah is honored by the House (of God) 

And the House was ordained by Taha (SAW), so glad-tidings to you!

So accept Greetings from me to You

As long as the Angels of God roam around the Shrine of the Prophet (SAW)

Other than that, the Shaykh (RA) would also recite the Sirr al-Ziyarah prayer when would visit the Blessed Tomb of the Crown of Creation Sidina Rasul-Allah (SAW).

The Shaykh (RA) also writes:

"And among the signs of the acceptance of our Dua and fulfillment of all our desires was that whenever we would lift our hands for Dua, the rain would pour. This happened with the Abd al-faqir by the Ka'bah, by Arafah, and by Mina. And there were other matters which I cannot reveal".

The noble Caretaker of the Holy Ka'bah, Shaykh Abd-Allah al-Shaybi also gave Shaykh Ibrahim (RA) the rare permission to be alone inside the Holy Ka'bah with some of his special disciples!

It is also well-known that his Eminence the Emir of Kano, Sultan Abd-Allahi Bayero, who came from a Qadiriyyah family, prayed to meet the Qutb al-Ghawth of the Tijaniyyah in the precincts of the Blessed Ka'bah, and then immediately saw Shaykh Ibrahim (RA) in front of him. Thereafter, he took the Tariq al-Tijani from Shaykh Ibrahim (RA) in front of the Maqam Ibrahim and invited him to make his famed visit to Nigeria, where tens of thousands submitted to the Tariqah.

Many other important Tijanis also asked Shaykh Ibrahim (RA) to renew the Tariqah and Taqdim for them during his stay in the Holy Land. Among them were:

-Al-Sayyid Ali al-Tayyib, the great Idrisid Hassanid Sharif and Medinite Shaykh who spread the Tariqah in Indonesia and who was a descendant of the venerable Sidi al-Tayyib al-Sufyani (RA)

-Al-Sayyid Ali al-Kutbi, Host of the Tijanis in Makkah

-Al-Shaykh Abu'l-Qasim bin Ibrahim, Head of the Ulama of Sudan

-Al-Sayyid Muhammad al-Shinqiti, grandson of the great Mauritanian Tijani Master Sidi Muhammad al-Mukhtar al-Shinqiti (RA) who took from 40 of the disciples of Sayyidina Shaykh al-Tijani (RA). He also gave the Tariqah to the Sultans of Turkey, Egypt and Darfur. He died in Sudan.

Shaykh Ibrahim (RA) also mentioned that a person in Jeddah whom he recognized as the Khidr (A.S.) informed him that he is the Qutb of the Age.

He also mentions that a Moroccan Sharif from Fez greeted him at the corner of the Holy Ka'bah and told him that he was informed by one Meccan Saint that he would meet the Ghawth of the Age at the Corner of the Ka'bah during the Hajj this year, and because of the Ghawth's presence, everyone else's Hajj would be accepted. Shaykh Ibrahim (RA) asked the Sharif, "So who did you meet at the Corner of the Ka'bah?". The Sharif replied, "You"!

The Shaykh (RA) also mentions that in the holy plains of Mina, a Wali met him and told him:

أنت رجل ورثت مقام رجل ساكن في قرية فاس

 "You are a man who has inherited the Maqam of a Man from the town of Fez!"

In Makkah as well, he was also given the glad-tiding by the Moroccan Saint who migrated from Fez to Madinah, al-Sharif Ahmad al-Tibir (RA), that:

إني رأيتك تتولى جميع المشارب

"I have seen you take over all the Masharib (Methods and Understandings)."

All of this is taken from the Shaykh’s amazing Travelogue entitled al-Rihlah al-Hijaziyyah al-Ula in which he documents his first Hajj as well as his first Visit to Morocco. 

It is must read for anyone who wishes to know more about the early years of the Faydah.

What we have mentioned and translated is a tip of the iceberg. The Travelogue itself contains numerous Duas, Intentions and Actions for every point of the Hajj and Ziyarah, from leaving one’s home to entering again into one's home!

It also includes many of Shaykh Ibrahim’s experiences during this Amazing journey to Makkah, Madinah and Fas.

Of course, the Shaykh (RA) himself writes that what he did not mention in his work is far more than what he did:

و ما كتمناه مما لا أبوح به 

أضعاف أضعاف ما كنا كتبناه

And what I have concealed and cannot reveal 

Is multiple and multiple times more than what I wrote!

May Allah grant us all a Hajj-Mabrur and Ziyarah Maqbulah. Amen.

(See above pictures of Shaykh-al-Islam in Ihram)

Servant of the Tijani Door 

Fakhruddin Owaisi al-Tijani