SHAYKH MUHAMMAD AL-HAFIZ AL-MISRI
By: Imam Fakhruddin Owaisi
Our master, the shaykh, the
gnostic of God, the Sayyid, Muhammad al-Hafiz al-Misri al-Tijani, was one of
the greatest scholars of Prophetic traditions (hadith) of Egypt in the
twentieth century, as well as a renowned Friend of Allah.
Al-Sayyid
Muhammad al-Hafiz bin `Abdul Latif bin Salim was born in the district of
Munufiyya in Egypt in the year 1315 (c. 1897) to a family connected to the
noble Ahlul Bayt (household of the Prophet). After studying the religious
sciences in Cairo, Shaykh al-Hafiz traveled abroad to Syria, Tunisia, Sudan,
Algeria and Morocco in the pursuit of sacred knowledge. During these blessed
journeys, he gained precious diplomas (ijazahs) from some of
the greatest scholars of the time from the East and the West of the Islamic
world, such as Shaykh Badruddin al-Hasani of Syria, Sharif `Abdul Hayy
al-Kattani and Sidi Ahmad Sukayrij of Morocco, Shaykh Alfa Hashim of Medina and
Shaykh `Abdul Baqi al-Ansari of Mecca.
After
his period of learning, Sayyidina Muhammad al-Hafiz totally dedicated himself
to the teaching of Hadith. He taught the entire multi-volume Sahih al-Bukhari more than 40 times in Egypt, and many
other books of Hadith as well. It is said that he used to know them by heart.
It is narrated that when he went to Fez, Morocco, to visit the blessed tomb of
Shaykh Ahmad Tijani, he was asked by the shaykhs in Fez to teach them Imam
al-Nawawi’s famous “Forty Hadith” collection, which he did from memory.
He
authored many great works on Hadith, Qur’anic exegesis (tafsir), history and Sufism (tasawwuf),
and made tahqiq (verification) of many
original gems in the field of Hadith, which were part of his private library
which also has one of the best collections of manuscripts in Egypt. For this he
had copied and collected manuscripts from the most ancient libraries in Mecca,
Medina, Jerusalem, Damascus, Cairo, Fez, Tunis, Sudan and other centers of
Islamic learning that he had visited. Shaykh Dr.`Abdul Halim Mahmud, the Rector
of al-Azhar, wrote in Sidi al-Hafiz’s obituary, “the Imam al-muhaddithin (leading
hadith scholar) has died.”
Shaykh
al-Hafiz also took part in the Jihad against the English in Egypt in the early
1900’s, and even Imam Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, used
to seek his advice. In 1951, he began editing a magazine dedicated to
promulgating traditional Islam, called Tariq al-Haqq (“The
Path of Truth”), which was widely read throughout Egypt. He also debated and
defeated the Orientalists in Cairo during his time. His renown as a scholar
even reached Western literary circles, and his important biography of al-Hajj
Umar Futi Tal was translated into French by the Canadian scholar Fernand Dumond
in 1983.
Exceeding
all of this by way of distinction, however, was the fact Shaykh Muhammad
al-Hafiz used to meet Sayyidina Muhammad Rasulullah in a state of wakefulness.
This was clear indication of his high spiritual station (maqam) in sainthood (wilaya).
He
was originally involved in the honorable Khalwati, Naqshbandi, and Shadhili
tariqahs, then left all of them to take the Way of Shaykh Ahmad Tijani at the
hand of the Mauritanian Shaykh, Sidi Ahmad al-`Alawi al-Shinqiti.
Numerous
people from all walks of life took the Tijani Spiritual Path from Shaykh
al-Hafiz and attained great spiritual heights. He was as famous as a Spiritual
Master par excellence as he was a hadith scholar of the age, a combination
extremely rare in modern times. His Tijani Zawiyah in Cairo was and remains a
great center of spiritual refreshment for those who live in or visit Cairo. His
books on tasawwuf and tariqa are considered gems of spiritual knowledge.
Our
late teacher, Sayyid Muhammad bin `Alawi al-Maliki of Mecca, was a very keen
student of Shaykh Muhammad al-Hafiz in Hadith and tasawwuf when he was studying
at the Azhar. He would fondly remember the “blessed gatherings” of Shaykh
al-Hafiz, and always referring to him as “a great Wali of Allah”, and would
often mention some of his miracles (karamat). In fact,
the Sayyid always mentioned him in the forefront of the list of his teachers in
all his ijazahs.
Shaykh
Muhammad al-Hafiz was in close correspondence with most of the leading Tijani
authorities of his time, including Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse. Shaykh Ibrahim had
the occasion to visit the zawiya of Shaykh
al-Hafiz during an official state visit to Egypt in 1961. In the presence of
the Tijani notables of Egypt, Shaykh Ibrahim referred to Shaykh al-Hafiz as “a
man who is without doubt an inheritor (khalifa) of the
Shaykh Sidi Ahmad Tijani, whose description matches that of the Shaykh as I
myself know him to be.” In other words, whoever has seen the face of Shaykh
al-Hafiz has seen the face of Sidi Ahmad al-Tijani; a rare compliment since the
Prophet himself assured Shaykh Ahmad Tijani that whoever saw the Shaykh’s face
would die in a state of good faith.
Shaykh
al-Hafiz al-Tijani passed away in 1398 (1978) in Cairo. He was succeeded by his
learned son Shaykh Ahmad Muhammad al-Hafiz, who authored a detailed biography
of his father. Among those who were blessed to achieve spiritual education at
the hands of Shaykh Muhammad al-Hafiz was the Italian Shaykh Abd al-Samad
Paolo, who has translated and commented several important Sufi works (amongst
them the Kitab al-ta‘arruf of Kalabadhi
and the Mahasin al-majalis of Ibn
al-‘Arif) into Italian.
Shaykh
Muhammad al-Hafiz was indeed a giant of the twentieth century. May Allah be
pleased with him, and may we benefit from his example, steeped as he was in
both the Sacred Law (Shari’a) and the
Divine realities (Haqiqa), as a
paradigm of true Muslim scholarship continuing into modern times.
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