SANKORE'

Institute of Islamic - African Studies International

مجموع يشير

,

This is An Aggregate Sketch Of the Virtuous, Spiritual and Social Structure

Of the Jama`at of Shehu Uthman ibn Fuduye`

By

Waziri Uthman Gidadu ibn Muhammad Layma Translated & edited by

Shaykh Muhammad Shareef bin Farid

Copyright © 1431/2010 Muhammad Shareef

Published by SANKORE'

Institute of Islamic - African Studies International

The Palace of the Sultan of Maiurno

Maiurno، Sennar، Sudan

www.sankore.org / www.siiasi.org

Book design by Muhammad Shareef All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced، stored in any retrieval system، or

transmitted in any form or by any means، electronic or otherwise، without written permission of the

In the name of Allah the Beneficent the Merciful, may Allah bless our master Muhammad and grant

him abundant peace All praises are due to Allah the Lord of the worlds, who illuminated the hearts of His close friends with the Lights of His

love and nearness and who created and sent the master of His messengers and the seal of His prophets, our master Muhammad,

may Allah bless him and grant him peace with the religion of Truth in order to make it thrive over all religions, even though the

polytheist may hate it.

Any cursory study of the community of Shehu Uthman ibn Fuduye` will demonstrate that it was constructed on an

organized spiritual merit system where leadership and sway over the community was acknowledged and accepted based upon

learning (`ilm) and piety (taqwa). From an esoteric perspective, this community was not based upon gender, where spiritual

stations were mastered by men alone. Degel was a spiritually egalitarian society where both men and women strove and achieved

the highest stations with the Absolute Being. In his Munaajaat, the Shehu laid out a global spiritual hierarchy, not dissimilar to a

provisional government or pre-sovereign state in which the awliya arranged themselves in ranks and took up spiritual functions or

responsibilities in the society due to achieved spiritual stations. This is what the Turubde` Muslims established in the town of

Degel. This small village first developed and revolved around the personage of Fuduye` Muhammad ibn Uthman, the father of the

Shehu, who settled the village after moving from Maghanimi a small village in southern Niger. By 1804, Degel had grown into a

small town of no more than 25,000 people. Like all rural settlements, Degel had push factors which drove people away such as

few amenities, no river or forest. The soil was rocky and the land comprised of alluvial rocks unsuited for extensive agriculture.

The advantage of the alluvial rocks is that fresh well water was easily accumulated below the surface of the soil. Degel was away

from the trading routes which linked the commerce centers of the central Bilad’s-Sudan. It also lacked the typical characteristic of

most Fulbe` settlements- a huge cattle population. The Fulani of Degel were not like normal Fulbe` settlement which subsisted on

the rearing of livestock. The commodity of Degel which attracted people from all over region was the transmission of the Islamic

sciences.

Fig. 1: The northeastern corner of the town of Degel, with limited agriculture activity close to its gates.

On my visit to Degel in Ramadan January of 2000, I was told by the custodians of the land that there were more than

3,333 awliya buried in there. Degel comprised of a close knit community of jurists, clerics and scholars who purposely cultivated

a sense of austerity and asceticism which made it a center of sought after baraka, knowledge and mysticism. Thus, the

transformative ideas which later gave birth to the Sokoto Caliphate was initially born out of a starkly Spartan village, renown for

having a strong desire for intellectual and personal perfection exemplified in part through turuudi customs and values.

Although Degel was rural in its makeup, its men and women were the purveyors of the sciences peculiar to urban

communities. In fact, the leaders of the Fudiawa who settled Degel, traced its genesis to the cosmopolitan trading and learning

center of Timbuktu. They had links particularly with the northern Sankore` quarter of the city; where the judiciary and ahl’l-`ahad

wa mi`thaaq resided, taught and created an intercontinental learning/trading system that stretched from the 3 Futas, along the

northern bend of the Nile in Massina, Jenne`, Kabara, Tinbuktu, Gao; across the trading networks of the Zaberma, Gurnu, Air, to

the city of Agadez; in the west it stretched across the Sahara to the cities of Walata, Merrekesh, Meknes Sus’l-Aqsa, Fez, Rabat

and the trading cities of Andalusia, the Basque, Sardinia, Sisili, Malta, Milan, Vienna and Venice. Or how could Shakespeare have

been inspired to develop a character such as the wealthy Moorish prince (amir) who sailed from the furthest Barbary coast to woo

the hand of Portia. The Sudanic edge of this global network linked ancient trading centers such as the Asantehena, the Oyo, Benin,

Dahomey and the primordial trading town of Kano, (where it is alleged that there is no item or commodity which cannot be found

in its walls.1)

1 I can testify to this from the knowledge of tasting. During the early days of Ramadan, in January of 2000, I was set up at two

locations: the Center of Islamic Studies at the University of Shaykh Usuman Danfodio; and the Waziri Junaidu History Bureau in

Sokoto. My mission in 1999 from the Sultan of Maiurno was to digitize the entire corpus if possible of the two archives and

convey these copies to the town of Maiurno; but also to grant digital copies of the archives of Maiurno over to the custodians of

the two archives in Sokoto. About ten days after the E`id’l-Fitr, I was able to complete what was possible from the two archives,

download the Maiurno archives and arrange them all in alphabetical order. All the work has not been completed. The most

important library to be digitized is that of the private library of Waziri Junaydu ibn Muhammad al-Bukhari. A problem I ran into

was that I ran out of read/writable cd roms and worse, I accidentally broke the power card to my NEC laptop. This was during the

It was a lucrative network which, I argue, emerged from the scholarly learning networks linked from west Africa to the

Hijaz and beyond to Iraq, southeastern Asian Pacific Muslim communities. The town of Degel was a sought of retreat away from

the bustling trading towns, where wondering scholars and students could stay to either learn or transmit learning and erudition.

Degel would have been equivalent to Wudang Mountain to Taoist, or even the northern Shaolin Temple among the Buddhists. It

was a place of spiritual retreat and downtime from the often stress and intensity of commerce and the perils of long distance trade.

Often caravan leaders would make their way to Degel to inquire about some contract or legal dispute. Many times advanced

mystics would settle in Degel in order to complete their spiritual journey at the hands of the numerous spiritual guides of the

Fudiawa ethnicity.

Fig. 2: The author, Muhammad Shareef, at the entrance of the gate of Degel.

early days of Ramadan, when I was about a third through with the archives of the CIS. I searched through the old Sokoto market

and the IT centers and internet cafes run by the Yoruba and Ibo in the city; but I could not find what I needed. One Ibo brother

who was fluent in English, said to me: ‘If you can get to Kano, you will be able to find whatever you’re looking for.’ This was

corroborated by the leader of the leather working guild in Sokoto, who said that there was a Hausa adage that said exactly that: “If

what you want cannot be fund in Kano, then it does not exist.” To prove this, he decided to drive me hundreds of kilometers east

to the town of Kano to see if I can find a replacement power cord for a rare NEC laptop and about one hundred read/writable CD

rom discs. We had to stop in Zamfara to fix a busted pipe, but by midday we reached the Kano market. I was set upon by a host of

traders hawking their goods. I asked the brother driving to wait for me while I got the items. He was worried that I might get

overwhelmed by the harkers and end up losing my money or worst. Well, I sold Muhammad Speaks Newspapers, bean pies and

fish in many of the big cities on the east coast of the United States, so I knew the game. My sight caught a brother sitting under a

card box shed painting dye on the alwah (Arabic lawh) wooden boards used for memorization of the Qur’an. There were several

small color pictures of Shaykh Muhammad al-Kabara and his son plastered on the wall behind the craftsman. When our eyes met,

I smiled and said: “as-salaamu alaykum wa rahma tullah”. His eyes softened and he smiled showing all his teeth; and pronounced:

“wa alaykum as salaam wa rahma tullahi wa barakatuhu Yaa Mallam Laafiya Low?” To which I said: “al-hamdullillahi”. I took a

seat next to him and took a close look at his craftsmanship. It was symmetrical and streamlined as a writing board should be; with

curves and handles at either end making the boards fit, conveniently, on the left thigh for reading; or lie flat on the lap for writing.

The lawh when it is first carved is the bright tan color of clean wood, but after extensive usage the board ends up looking grayish

brown. After a few minutes of small talk about my country, work, but especially my sufic affiliations, we got around to discussing

my reason for being in the Kano market. I pulled the damaged power card out of my bag and handed it to him. He looked at it,

turned to a boy which looked just like him and uttered something in Hausa so fast that I was unable to decipher it. Off the boy ran

into the center of the huge rambling and bustling market. The craftsmen then placed a tea kettle on a couple of hot coals and

started making ment tea. By this time, my driver, joined us and we all had a lively conversation about the excursion between

Nigeria and western Sudan and the Qaadiri shaykhs that reside along this long track. Within twenty minutes the boy returned with

an exact replica of my broken NEC power cord. My driver looked at me and shrugged his shoulders : ‘I told you so’. We

negotiated on a price that was agreeable to everyone, including the craftsman for his hook-up. I then took out a sample of the

read/writable CD roms that I required and the amount, thinking that it was unlikely I would fine exactly what I was looking for.

The craftsman told his son to go to the Ibo electronic store just around the corner and ask the proprietor’s son to come and take a

look at what I had. Within minutes, I was looking at an eighteen year old boy with what seemed to me an African take on hip-hop

gear. Once he heard I was from the states, he seemed to light up and talk about his uncles in Silver Spring Maryland, Houston,

Texas and Chicago Illinois. You can see that this young man was deep into hip-hop culture. The young boy looked at my CD

roms and immediately said that his father had them in stock. Within twenty-minutes I was given a bag of about fifty CD roms

which proved to be more than I needed; and far less expensive than I expected. By eleven oclock that evening we were pulling

into the city of Sokoto after a hard ride from Kano. It was true, there was no commodity that could not be found in the market of

Kano..

In his Rawdat’l-Janaan, Gidadu ibn Layma informs us that Degel became a place of visitation for awliya from as far

away as Morocco, the Hijaz and Iraq. In one account Gidadu said: “Among the miracles of the Shehu is that the disciples of

Shaykh Abd’l-Qaadir always came to him in his home in Degel bringing news from Shaykh Abd’l-Qaadir. The disciples used to

alight in the house of his brother Abdullahi who came with him to the house of the Shehu`.” In yet another account, he said: “some

of the saints of Allah who reside in Baghdad saw a light shining radiantly in the heavens from the direction of the West. So, one of

them flew from Baghdad until he reached the village of Degel and alighted upon a tree called in the language of Fulfulbe bilughati

and in the language of Hausa danya. This tree was in a land in the direction north of the land of the Shehu`. Muhammad

Kari`angha sent someone to go and call the Shehu`. So the Shehu` came with him to meet the man. The Shehu` made the saint

welcome and gave him the greetings. The saint of Allah said: ‘I came from Baghdad to see the place of this light which we saw

coming from here. Nothing keeps me from alighting upon your earth except that it is still the lands of disbelief.’ Subsequently, the

Shehu` and Muhammd Kari`angha flew with the saint of Allah bidding him farewell until they reached a place called Tanbagarka,

which was west of the lands of the Shehu` by three miles. There they took leave of him and returned.” According to Hausa oral

traditions, it was on their return together to Degel, that the Shehu and Muhammad Kari`angha made a spiritual pact (`ahad) as

master and disciple to make the earth of the central Bilad’s-Sudan a place where all the awliya will not only place their feet, but be

a place of refuge for them, retreat and frequent visitation. Degel became the center of this effulgence that spread throughout

regions and unified the seven traditional Hausa states with the other seven states under their authority. This unification took place

a half a century prior to the unification of Italy and Germany. Unlike the unifications to the north in Europe, the unification of the

(7/7) fourteen states of the central Bilad’s-Sudan began as a spiritual union, and I mean ‘union’ in the operative sense – as ‘union’

came to be known among the middle class guilded craftsmen that initiated the ‘revolutions’ that swept over Europe at the time.

These networks of clerical/craftsmen/trading communities stretched from as far north as Tuat in one of the oasis of southern

Algeria to the southern ports towns of Dahomey. These guilded craftsmen were key drivers of the development, the

systematization and eventual unification of these fourteen warring states.

Fig. 3: the grave of Muhammad Sa`d ibn Shehu Uthman ibn Fuduye` who died at age 25 during the Shehu times.

Degel was one of the spiritual centers that acted as a way station between trading centers, but more importantly, it was a

way station between this life and the Next. From Katsina came Umar Dullaje`, from the highlands of Cameroon came Modibo

Adamu, from the Sullebawa Fulbe came Ali Jeddo, from the western lands of Massina came Ahmadu Lobo, from Zamfara came

the legendary Muhammad Tukur and there were so many more. To the turudbe`, Degel was a place of pilgrimage, to encounter

the many awliya residing there. Many of them were alive during the Shehu’s time, such as his uncles Muhammad Sad,

Muhammad Sanbu, Abd’r-Rahman and Uthman Binduri and his many aunts. But many of them had passed away and were buried

there which added a inviolability to the area of Degel, such as the saintly son of the Shehu, Muhammad Sa`d2; and two of his

wives who were so close that they died the same day and were buried together in the same grave.3

Fig. 4: the graves of two of the wives of the Shehu, who sages that were so close that they died on the same day and requested to buried together.

2 See figure 3.

3 See figure 4.

It was in Degel that the Shehu attained the station of the qutb’l-aqtaab (the axis of all the spiritual poles). This entailed

having mastery over all the 124,000 sages, the governing system of the awliya, as well as those unique sages (al-afraad) who due

to the nature of their magnetic connection (jadhab) to Allah are outside of the administration of the sages (daa’iraat’l-awliya).

Like any revolution or social transformation, a provisional government must be established first in the hearts of the revolutionaries.

It was Thomas Paine who laid out the direction of the revolution established by the 13 colonies of America. There then emerged

ideologues of all persuasions such as Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, Madison and Hamilton who persuaded by the eloquence of

Paine first established a provisional government in theory based on principles designed to overturn the sovereignty of the British

crown; and they did just that.

Fig. 5: The custodian of Degel showing the place where the Shehu normally made his ablution.

During that same volatile period the Fudiawa established a spiritual community in Degel which had the same impact

upon the intellectuals, sages and literary families of the central Bilad’s-Sudan, that Paine and his colleagues had on the 13 colonies

of America. However, in this case, the ideologues were not influenced by the lofty yet subversive ideas of the ‘enlightenment’; but

by the inward looking self transformation of the Living Sunna and unfathomable mysticism of Shehu Uthman ibn Fuduye`. It was

in Degel that the hearts of the global awliya were drawn to Africa, yet again. At the head of all the sages, (whose status was

confirmed by none other than Sidi Mukhtar al-Kunti al-Kabir); sat the Shehu in Degel governing a network of scholars, sages,

saints and mystics that stretched from the Futas to Cameroon; from the desert oasis town of Tuat, the barren mountains of Air to

the rich and luxuriant ninety-nine hills of Kordofan; from the Oyo on the Niger to Talha on the Blue Nile, from Deling in the

Malian sahel to the west African port town of Tokar on the Red Sea. I myself came across Arabic poems praising the humble

young shaykh from Degel named Uthman in the towns of Gedarif and the remaining Mirghaniyya spiritual centers along the

borders of Sudan and Ethiopia. In one tradition the acclaimed qutb of the east, Uthman Mirghani acknowledged the superior status

of his namesake, Shehu Uthman bi Fudi of Degel.

Fig. 6: The private masalla of the Shehu where he would perform his superogatory prayers, meditations and remembrance of Allah. The

descendents of Shaykh Abd’l-Qaadir ibn Mustafa performing superogatory raka`t before àsr prayer. It was in this town, Degel, that the Shehu was granted the stations of Imam’l-Awliya, Mujaddid’d-Deen, Nuur’z-Zamaan,

Sayf’l-Haqq and Muhy’s-Sunna where the reform of the central Bilad’s-Sudan first began. The custodian showed me the place

where the Shehu used to make his ablution, as well as his private place of meditation and prayer; along with the place where the

Shehu conducted instructions and the congregational prayers.4 There were only two constructed buildings on the entire gated area

of Degel: [1] a building which housed the tombs of the Shehu’s father, Fuduye` Muhammad and the Shehu’s wife, Maymuna;5 and

4 See figures 5, 6 and 7 respectively.

5 See figures 8, 9 and 10.

[2] a small room which resembled a monk’s enclosure.

6 Today, the entire enclosure of the town of Degel is a graveyard for more

than 3,333 awliya. When the jama’at of the Shehu made the hijra from Degel to Gudu, it was total. They left no one behind except

those sages and saints who were buried there. Gidadu ibn Layma described the cause of the mass hijra from Degel in his

Rawdat’l-Janaan where he said: “The disciples of Shaykh Abd’l-Qaadir always came to the Shehu in his home in Degel bringing

news from Shaykh Abd’l-Qaadir. The disciples used to alight in the house of his brother Abdullahi who came with him to the

house of the Shehu`. One day the Shehu` made the intention to make the hijra to Innaama, but the disciple came and informed him

that Shaykh Abd’l-Qaadir ordered him to wait until the proper time of hijra. So the Shehu` waited for some time until when the

disciple came to the Shehu` and said, "Verily Shaykh Abd’l-Qaadir sent me to you to teach you that the time of the hijra has

arrived." It was at that time that the Shehu` made the hijra to Gudu.”

Fig. 7: this is the location of the Shehu’s outside lectures as well as the place of the congregational prayer. Sitting in prayer is one of the Sokoto

descendents of Shaykh Abd’l-Qaadir ibn Mustafa; the aeronautical engineer, Moijye.

Although, Gudu was the location for the new dispensation, Degel still remained the spiritual center from where the

Fudiawa initiated the reform movement which influenced every region of Islamic African society and civilization. The influence

which Degel had upon the subsequent years in the development of Sokoto was considerable. For more than 27 years the Shehu

resided in Degel and made it the spiritual center of what would develop into a well organized clerical, trading and professional

network – a provisional spiritual government – that latter transformed into the first continent wide Caliphate that united all the

Hausa states into a cohesive whole. It was this explosive revolutionary period prior to the hijra from Degel and its aftermath

which Gidadu ibn Layma depicted in his Rawdat’l-Janaan. Gidadu later composed this text in your hands, the Majmu` Yasheer,

citing the virtues, spiritual ranks and achievements which the Shehu had attained; along with the merits and ranks of those in the

jama`at of the Shehu. Gidadu then circumscribed a map of the neighborhood of the Shehu in Degel in order to show those awliya

who lived as the Shehu’s neighbors. Some say that this work, the Majmu` Yasheer, was inspired by the wife of Gidadu, Nana

Asma, the learned daughter and disciple of the Shehu; who wanted to map the families neighboring the compound of the Shehu.

According to the Waziri family, Nana Asma made this request from her husband after studying a work on keeping the ties of

kinship by her half brother and Sultan, Muhammad Bello. Gidadu was a close friend of Muhammad Bello; and his chief advisor

(wazir); an office that I believe was shared with his wife, Nana Asma. I mean that Nana instituted the archival sector of the

wazirate and saw to it that important text were rewritten and that appropriate compositions were composed and distributed. She

was also the most important door to the judiciary that women had at that time. On many occasions she walked the female litigants

to the courts herself or composed writs explaining their cases to judges.

Whatever, the case, Gidadu composed this work describing the special qualities of the Shehu and his jama`at; but also

included a map of the community of Degel. It is clear that Gidadu did this in order to indicate that the vast Sokoto Caliphate with

its entire regional, continental and international network began in the sufic/clerical turudbe` community of Degel. I believe that

the settlement pattern of the Degel community was intentional and pre-calibrated with an advanced spiritual objective. In order to

map the pre- sovereign government of Degel, one has to examine the arrangement of the individual homes surrounding the home

of the Shehu. It must be understood that the home of Shehu Uthman was the home of his father, Fuduye` Muhammad. His first

wife, Maymuna was buried in her own home, and Fuduye` Muhammad was buried in the same room with her. This means that the

Shehu had inherited the zaure` of his father. Under the Shehu’s direction Degel became a spiritual center for the Qaadiriyya,

Shadhaliyya, Khalwatiyya and the other individualized spiritual paths that emerged in the Azawad, Air and the zawaaya of the

upper Niger bend. Degel was one of those many outwardly inconspicuous towns that functioned as African spiritual centers.

During my trips to Wudang mountain and the northern Shaolin Temple in China, I saw a similar function as I witnessed in Degel.

It was a place of baraka where the edifice, the stone carving, the fetish was not something that can be measured, weighed and

assessed by anthropologist; but Degel’s edifice, fetish and carving was an illumined human being. It was in Degel that Shehu

Uthman composed his renown Munaajaat (Divine Intimate Discourse) in which he unfolded the blue print of a global network, an

Ezekiel city in the sky, a provisional government. Thus, when these spiritual treasures made the hijra, they left nothing behind

except the graves of some 3,333 turudbe` sages. The Shehu went on to follow, what Nana Asma called the Circle Journey, in

which he and his disciples constructed a unified Caliphate a dome of Islam in the central Bilad’s-Sudan.

6 See figure 11.

www.sankore.org/www.siiasi.org

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم وصلى الله علي سيدنا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه وسلم تسليما بسم اهللا الرحمن الرحيم وصلى اهللا على النبي الكريم، الحمد هللا حق حمده والصالة والسالم علي سيدنا محمد نبيه

فهذا مجموع يشيرى بعض خصال الشيخ عثمان وبعض ما من اهللا به عليه وذكر بعض ما من اهللا به على جماعته نشير فيه إل

من الخصال الحميدة نردق من ذلك بذكر جيرانه في مقامه بدغل من جهات داره األربع، وال بد من وضع صورتها ليتمكن .وضع أسماء أولئك الجيران في أماكن جهاتهم واهللا المعين وبه نستعين

ذه واعلم أن خصال الشيخ الحميدة كثيرة ال يتكلفه حاصر بأحصائها ولكن أمهاتها هي ه: فأقول وباهللا التوفيقفادة بالعلوم؛ أ الثالثدعوة بالمقال؛ الثانيةمنها تربية الناس بالهمة والحال قبل المقال؛ االولى: العشرة التي سنذكرها

جمع الله المدن لنا علمائها وأهل الصناعات والحرف السادسةحسن السياسة؛ الخامسةالحسن الدعوة إلى الله؛ الرابعةقوة الجسد مع ما معه من التاسعةقوة القلب؛ الثامنةسالم ببركته؛ جمع الله لنا جموع اإل السابعةوالغزو ببركته؛

.الذب عن الضعفاء العاشرةمراض؛ األ

والخواص ،خلعة الملك الثالثو خلعة العلم؛ الثانيةو خلعة الوالية؛ الولىا: لبسه ثالث خلعاتأثم ان الله تعالى تباعهم يرون ا من االولياء يشهدون االولى، والعلماء ومن تحتهم من المقلدة والطلبة يرون الثانية، وكل الدنيا من الملوك و

. الثالثة، انتهىمهاتها هذه االربعة التي أيضا ال يحصى، ولكن أيرة فكث: ما ما من الله به على جماعته من الخصال الحميدةأو ربعة أخرى مذمومة، ولهذا صلح أربعة أمور محمودة على أختيار هم وفقهم الله إلوغيرها مندرج تحتها، وذلك ان ،سنذكرها

اآلخرة 7ر إليه رغبةختاروا اآلخرة على الدنيا ألن كل واحد منهم هاجأنهم إ االولى: مر الدنيا واآلخرةأستقام لهم أمرهم و أختاروا العلم أنهم إ الثانيو واألهل والجيران، ولو كان ذا جاه ومال؛ وطانا يتعرض له في ذلك من فقد األولم يلتفت إلى م

رادوا أن ا قوى على الهوى و ختاروا الت أنهم إ الثالثو م على الجهل ألن كل واحد منهم يجتهد في طلب العلم والعمل به؛ عل والت انتهى، وا شيئا ولم يروا فيه مصلحة تركوهحب أن ا ختاروا المصلحة على المفسدة و أنهم إ الرابعةو فخالف الشرع تركوه؛ شيئا

وأعلم إنما ذكرناه من هذه الخصال وأطالقها على الجماعة إنما هو بإعتبار الغالب المعهود منهم، وال يمتنع أن يكون .النادر منهم على خالف ذلك

إن دار الشيخ أربع بيوت، فأعلمووضع صورة تلك الدار كما ذكرنا أوال، ن داره في مقامه بدغل رايوأما ذكر ج، وحين قام الشيخ على إخماد البدع والعوائد رد أمنا ميمونة في دار دار أمنا ميمونة وأمنا عائشة وأمنا جواء وأمنا خديجة

أنت أولى بتلك الدار لنبدأ بك في إخماد : "عمته، وقال لها اآلخيرة، ورد اآلخيرة في دارها، وكانت أمنا ميمونة بنت، فإنه رضي اهللا عنه ما بت بليلتين في دار واحدة منهن ليال يطيل ليكون النوبة بثالثة ال ستة، فإنه رضي اهللا "العوائد

ريته ليلة واحدة، فلم يجده م ولده أسأأعطى اكل م: "، ويقولعنه لم يقسم ألم ولده ليلة واحدة حتى صار إلى رحمة ربه، وكان في مرضه الذي توفى فيه رضي اهللا عنه، تقل يحمل فوق سريره من دار إلى دار حتى تعذر الحمل، "مني

.فجمعهن في دار واحدة منهن دار أمنا حواء حتى توفى فيها، وكان روضته في تلك الدار رضي اهللا تعالى عنه أمين

.1هنا انتهى الورقة 7

غل تمتهذه صورة داره في د

In the name of Allah the Beneficent the Merciful and may Allah send blessings upon the Generous Prophet.

All praises are due to Allah to the extent that he should be praised, and blessings and peace be upon our

master Muhammad, His prophet

This is An Aggregate Sketch We will outline in it some of the virtuous traits of Shehu Uthman, what Allah has favored him with,

mentioning some of what Allah has favored his Jama`at with from praiseworthy traits; and we will append

to that a citation of his neighbors in his place in Degel in the four directions of this home. It is essential to

draw a picture of this in order to determine the place of the names of these neighbors in it on the direction of

their places. Allah is the sole Helper and it is with Him we seek assistance.

. Fig. 8: The translator standing just outside the habbare` of the father of the Shehu, Fuduye` Muhammad and the wife of the Shehu, Maymuna.

I say and success is with Allah: Realize that the praiseworthy traits of the Shehu are impossible to

fulfill the responsibility of enumerating them. However, their fundamental traits are ten, which we will

mention. The first among them is his instructing people by means of his zeal and state before instructing

them by words. The second of them is his inviting people to Allah by means of his words. The third of

them is availing people with knowledge. The fourth of them is his excellence in inviting people to Allah.

The fifth of them is his excellent diplomacy and politics. The sixth of them is Allah gathering to us the

people of the metropolis from their scholars, the people of industry, professionals, and the military by means

of his baraka. The seventh of them is Allah gathering to us the communities of Islam by means of his

baraka. The eighth is a vigorous and powerful heart. The ninth is a vigorous and powerful physique, along

with what he experienced from minor illnesses. The tenth is his protection of the weak and the oppressed.

Then Allah ta`ala dressed him in three robes of honor. The first was the robe of sainthood. The

second was the robe of knowledge. The third was the robe of governmental sovereignty. The elite among

the awliyya bore witness to the first. The scholars and those subject to them from the followers and the

students bore witness to the second. And the entire world from the kingdoms and their subjects bore witness

to the third.8

Fig. 9: the grave of Fuduye` Muhammad, the father of the Shehu at Degel

8 Gidadu ibn Layma added in his Rawdat’l-Janaan: “Then an Angel stood and gazed upon the lands of the East and said: ‘Answer

the call of the Inviter to Allah!’ He then gazed upon the lands of the West and said: ‘Answer the call of the Inviter to Allah!’ He

gazed upon the lands of the North and said: ‘Answer the call of the Inviter to Allah!’ He then gazed upon the lands of South and

said: ‘Answer the call of the Inviter to Allah!’ The Angel then said: ‘He who denies him will be denied!’ It was then said to the

Shehu`: ‘You have been given the best of the lands of the three ethnic groups: [1] the Fulani; [2] the Blacks; and [3] the

Tuaregs’.”

As for what Allah honored his Jama`at with praiseworthy traits due to him, they are innumerous

also. However, their fundamental traits were these four which we will mention, which subsumed all the

other virtuous traits. It comprises of Allah stopping them at choosing four praiseworthy matters over four

blameworthy ones. By means of these choices their affairs are rectified and the affairs of the religion and the

world were made upright. The first of these is that they choose the Hereafter over worldly affairs because

each of them made the hijra to him, desiring by that the Hereafter, and they did not give any consideration in

that of the loss of their homeland, family or familiar neighbors, even if they were from the people of rank

and wealth. The second of these is that they chose knowledge and learning over ignorance, because each of

them made strenuous effort in seeking knowledge and acting in accordance with it. The third of these is that

they choose fearful awareness of Allah over following their passions, for whenever had a desire for a thing

which conflicted with the shari`a, they abandoned it. The fourth of these is that they choose that which has

in it well-being over that which is corrupting, for when they loved a thing and they did not see in that it

contained well-being, they abandoned it. Realize, that what we mentioned here from these virtuous traits

applies to the Jama`at with regard to the faithful majority among them. This does not, however, preclude

that an odd group from among them will not act contrary to that.

Fig. 10: the grave of Maymuna bint Shaykh Muhammad Haaj ibn Ibrahim ibn Maane’ ibn Muhammad ibn Haaju bint Littiy. The mother of

Maymuna was Kubba, the blood sister of Muhammad Fuduye’.

As for as citing the neighbors of his compound in his place in Degel, and depicting a sketch of

these homes as we mentioned in the beginning, then realize that the compound of the Shehu contained four

homes. They included the house of our mother, Maymuna,9 the house of our mother A`isha,

10 the house of

9 She was Maymuna, the daughter of the learned Muhammad Haaj ibn Ibrahim ibn Maane’ ibn Muhammad ibn Haaju bint Littiy.

The mother of Maymuna was Kubba, the blood sister of Muhammad Fuduye’, so Maymuna was the Shehu’s paternal cousin. She

gave the Shehu eleven children: Ali (Aal) who had no offspring; Muhammad and Umar, both who died young; A’isha who also

died young; Hafsa, the mother of Dhimbu Hassan; Ibrahim; Faatima; Safiyya, the mother of Mudegel Umar, who was named after

his father, Umar al-Kamune’; Muhammad; Nana Asma’u, the wife of the author, Gidadu Uthman ibn Muhammad Layma; and

her twin brother al-Hasan who had no offspring. As Gidadu points out in this text, it was in the house of Maymuna that the Shehu

began his reform movement. She was his first wife and mother to his first offspring Aal; and came from a well to do urban clerical

family, unaccustomed to the kind of personal austerity which the Shehu had accepted. In his Rawdat’l-Janaan, Gidadu explains the

tensions that naturally occurred between the Shehu and Maymuna, as he set out to institute reform in his home. He said: “Once

Maymuna took some money of hers with the aim of going to the market place to buy some shoes and cloth with it. However, the

Shehu prohibited her from going, on grounds of the shari`a. However, Maymuna, refused refused and she along with her servant

girl, named Nasara, who carried her money, went on to the market place. While they were walking on the road, a small powerful

whirlwind caught up with them; causing the girl to drop the money. Both Maymuna and her servant girl became totally startled

and terrified. When the whirlwind had passed, they realized that they had lost the money; so they reluctantly returned to the house.

When the Shehu` heard of her return, he went to her compound and asked her: ‘Did you not go to the market place?’ She said:

‘Yes’; and then informed him what had happened. The Shehu` then said: ‘If you find your money, will you repent from leaving

the house without permission?’ She said: ‘I swear by Allah, if I find it, I will never even leave the door of the house, not to speak

of going to the market place!’ The Shehu` then said: ‘Look behind your bed.’ When she looked, there was her money in tack in its

container. The Shehu` then said to her: ‘I am the one who sent a jinn to frighten you.’ She then repented from that moment and

never left the house after that.” This was the beginning of the reform which the Shehu initiated in Degel, starting with his first

wife, Maymuna. 10

She was the learned and saintly A’isha Ghabindu the daughter of Muhammad Sa`d ibn Abdullahi ibn Muhammad ibn Sa`d ibn

Muhammad Laadan ibn Idris ibn Is’haq ibn Maasiraan. She gave the Shehu eight children: the miraculous saint Muhammad,

nicknamed Muhammad S`ad; the illuminated mystic Muhammad Sanbu; the learned statesman Muhammad al-Bukhari; the

erudite sage Khadija, the mother of Shaykh Abd’l-Qaadir ibn Mustafa; A’isha; Mu’illahuyede who died young; Amina and

Juwayra, both who died young. Her grandson, Shaykh Abd’l-Qaadir ibn Mustafa said about her in his Salwat’l-Ikhwaan: “Among

the spiritually elite of the jama`at was my maternal grandmother, the spiritual master, A`isha, the wife of Shehu Uthman and

our mother Hawwa11

and the house of our mother Khadija.12

At the time that the Shehu arose to eradicate

heretical innovations and false customs he put our mother, Maymuna in another home and put another in her

house. Our mother Maymuna was the daughter of his paternal aunt. He said to her: “You are the foremost

who has a right to the house, thus it is with you that we will began in eradicating false customs.” It was his

custom, may Allah be pleased with him to sleep in the home of one of his wives two nights in order not to

prolong the time with anyone of the wives, and that the alternation period would be three days and not six.

He, may Allah be pleased with him did not customarily divide a night for his right-hand possessions until he

passed to the mercy of his Lord. He used to say: “The most that can be given to the right-hand possessions is

going to her a single night, however that cannot be expected of me.”

Fig. 11: a kind of enclosure or khalwa for retreat.

In Sokoto: during the sickness in which he died, may Allah be pleased with him he was transferred

on the backs of people on his bed from house to house, until it became inconvenient to continue carrying

him. Therefore all of his wives gathered into the home of one of the wives, which was the home of our

mother Hawwa until he eventually died. It is her home in which the Rawdat the Shehu lies, may Allah be

pleased with him.

mother of my uncle and spiritual guide, Shaykh Muhammad Sanbu. She possessed an abundant share in righteousness, spiritual

excellence and was preeminently skilled in this affair of tasawwuf. Shaykh Abdullahi Mujin Mahwi narrated that she possessed

exalted spiritual states and high spiritual stations. She attained the highest levels of austerity, virtue, inherent scrupulous piety,

extensive spiritual struggle and perfect discipline. The bottom line is that she was among the righteous servants of Allah and

among the select of the obedient sages of this Umma.” Muhammad Bello said about her in his an-Naseehat ‘l-Wadee`at: “She

used to ask the righteous to supplicate that Allah would provide her with sincere repentance. She used to say: ‘Until now

repentance has not been made sound for me’.” 11

She was Hawwa the daughter of the learned Shaykh as-Shifa ibn Muhammad Sa’eari Bulku`u ibn Muhammad Ghurtu ibn

Muhammad Jubba ibn Muhammad Sanbu ibn Maasiraan. She gave the Shehu six children: Amir’l-Mu’mineen Muhammad Bello;

Amir’l-Mu’mineen Abu Bakr; Fatima the wife of Ali Jeddo; Hanna, the wife of Muhammad Namoda; Maryum and her sister

Sawda, both who died young. Her eldest son, Muhammad Bello wrote about her in his Naseehat’l-Wadi`aat: “She was among the

righteous women of virtue, who was obedient to Allah, worshipful, austere and benevolent in spending in the way of the poor and

dispossessed. She possessed exalted states in the breaking of normative laws, such as being in a constant state of fasting, standing

the nights in prayer, and only consuming from what her hands earned. She was constant in the recitation of the Qur’an, and

persistent in showing filial piety and keeping the ties of kinship. Her father was among the righteous awliya, and her mother was

Hasana the daughter of Mudi ibn Hawwa bint Medina bint Muhammad Baba ibn Umar ibn Is’haq ibn Maasiraan…Hawwa was

among those who were in the presence of the direct instructions of our Shehu. She was among the righteous, obedient women who

recited the Qur’an unceasingly beyond enumeration.” 12

She was Khadija the daughter of the learned Imam Abu Bakr ibn Uthman al-Kaakiye’. She gave the Shehu one child named

A`isha.

This is a depiction of the Shehu’s compound in Degel

SANKORE’

Institute of Islamic-African Studies International