Madaniya Tariqa is connected to the prophetic tradition through a net of transmissions of fourteen centuries, going through Junaid (from Bagdad school), Ibn Masarra and the school of Almeira (Spain), Abu Madyan (Spain/Morocco), Ibn Mashish and Abu al-Hasan al-Shâdhili (who received this name in Tunisia, where he found the Shadhiliyya tariqa). By means of the disciples of al-Shadhili (al-Mursî, ibn Atâ’ Allah al-Iskandarî), this lineage (silsila) was spread in the north of Africa. In the beginning of the XIXe century, the Shadhiliyya tradition was given new strength by the sheik al-Darqawî (in Morocco) and by his disciples, among them Muhammad al-Buzaydî – who was the connection with Ahmed ibn ‘Ajiba (Morocco) and Ahmed al-‘Alawi (in Algeria).
In 1909, the tradition Shadhiliya-Darqawiya was established in Tunisia by Sidi Mohammad al-Madani (1888-1959), who had received a deep education in the university-mosque of Zaytouna (Tunis) and who was a disciple of M. al-Sâdiq al-Sahrawî, the Moqaddam of Zafir Madani (d. 1905) in Tunisia. Sheikh Zafir was the son of sheikh Hasan Hamza al-Madani, one of the important disciples of Darqawi. Sidi M. al-Madani also spent 3 years (1909-1911) with sidi Ahmad al-Alawi in Algeria (Mostaganem), receiving an intense training. When he returned to Tunisia he dedicated himself to the ones who continued his tariqa for approximately 50 years, in Ksibet el-Mediouni (Monastir). He left 15 works (books and commentaries) about religious sciences, Islamic spirituality and the authentic Sufism.
Since 1959, the Madanyia tariqa keep with the direction of his successor, Sidi Mohammed al-Mounawwar al-Madani (né 1937-), who devoted his life to spread the true Sufism trough all direction. Because of his valorous teachings, his consistent knowledge of the sharia, haqiqa and of the fundaments of sufism (tasawwuf) and his great love for the Prophet (peace be upon him), the tariqa keep shining in the north of Africa, in France and is spreading to other regions.
So, the sufism of Madanyia tariqa (with its base in Tunisia) is connected to the Alawiya tradition (al-Alawi), Madanyia (al-Sahrawi, Zafir Madani), and also to the renewal of Darqawi and the tradition in Sufism that has its bases on the teachings and practices of al-Shadhili and his disciples, that returns trough ibn Mashish to Sufism in Spain by means of Abu Madyan and Ibn ‘Arabi up to Ibn Masarra who was a disciple of Abu Yaqub Ishâq al-Nahrayuri (disciple of Junaid), constituted the first sufi nucleous in Spain. So, the Shadhiliya has its origin in the classic sufism and in the silsila that came directly from the spiritual successors of the Prophet (peace be upon him). And it is the Shadhiliya-Darqawiya Sufism and the teachings of al-Sahrawi and al-‘Alawi that gives us the fundamental basis for the Madaniya tariqa.
Today’s invocation shows — with no doubt — the need to blend into the heart of the Prophet (salla Allah ‘alayhi wa sallam) to relive the sweet moments he has experienced in beseeching his Lord. We implore what he had himself prayed. That’s the door close of Knowledge and Uniqueness.
Aisha — the Prophet’s wife —, may Allah be pleased with her, relates that the Prophet (salla Allah ‘alayhi wa sallam) told her this invocation:
“My God!
I beg all the good, either it is imminent [in this world] or far [in the other one];
Whether I know or I do not!
My God!
Preserve me against all evil, either it is imminent [in this world] or far [in the other one];
Whether I know or I do not!
My God!
I beg the good things that your servant and Messenger [Muhammad] has asked.
May You protect me against all the evil which Your servant and Messenger had requested to be protected from.
My God!
I beg Your Heaven and all what leads to it, either a word or act. Save me from Hell and from all what it may lead to it, either a word or act.
I beg You to bless all fate You decided to me.”
This invocation has been validated by Ibn Maja. Hibbaan and Ibn al-Hakim had regarded it as authentic.
In classical arabic the term “wird” means the arrival at water to quench one’s thirst. It means also the watering place and the quantity of water quenching the passersby.By semantic extension,this term means the portion of the coran (or other invocations) that one’s may intend from the duty of lecture. Becoming technical,this term designates, also the whole sourates, of litanies and ritual pactices that the plodder intends the duty to fulfill regularly. This practice refers essentially to the coran that urges the faithful to invoke Allāh (subhānahu wa-ta‘ālā) continuously and generously. It refers equally to the sayings of (Sayyidunā Muhammad)who urges his companions to repeat a certain”dikr” hundred times.We may content ourselves with this “hadith” reported by al-Buhārī:
« whoever says : « lā ilāha illā Allāh wahdahu lācharīka lahu, lahu -l-mulku wa-lahu al-hamdu wa-huwa ‘alā kulli chay’in qadīr » [ there’s no god but allah ! he’s whithout a like and whithout an associate ! for him sovereignty! for him the praise ! he has control on everything !] repeating it one hundred times a day gets the equivalent reward of liberating ten slaves.
In addition, a hundred well behaved actions he will be attributed and hundred injurious ones will disappear, and he will be protected from satan during the whole day till evening, nobody will be better only if one makes more.
In every period, the pious have set some wird-s in order to help disciples progress on the way of knowing allah (subhānahu wa-ta‘ālā) among those we would mention Sīrīn,Sa‘d Ibn Ali al-Zanjānī, al-Imām al-Nawawī etc…
As for Sayyidī Muhammad al-Madanī (rahimahu Allāh),he mends his disciples the recitation of sourate “al-Wāqi‘a” a prayer for Sayyidunā Muhammad (Sallā Allāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam) as well as for Kursī, al-ihlās, al-falaq and al-nās. Adding a hundred times to these coranic exracts :
of “istigfār”, a hundred times lā ilāha illā Allāh wahdahu lā charīka lahu, lahu -l-mulku wa-lahu al-hamdu wa-huwa ‘alā kulli chay’in qadīr, a hundred times the prayer for Sayyidunā Muhammad (Sallā Allāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam), a hundred times yā latīf,a hundred times yā wahhāb, and hundred times lā ilāha illā Allāh al-maliku al-Haqqu al-Mubīn.
These invocations are nothing but a stream where we would dive to quench our thirst, purify our hearts and reinforce our will in order to be aware of our status of ‘ubūdiyya.
May you not be absent from Him who sees you by the barrier of yourself, and may that barrier not prevent Him from seeing you!
May you not change when Allah translates you from your present state, and may your state remain essentially constant when Allah translates you form your normal self!
May you not be far removed from the true perception of Allah’s revelation to you and may Allah’s revelation to you not be far removed by the absence of revelation to you!
May you continue in timelessness to apprehend timelessness when you too are in your eternal state. May the Eternal always be your support for that of you which persists eternally!
Thus, then, you are in your pristine state, in the state before you had existence, in union with Allah but separate, and in that unity supported by Allah with no witness to see you.
May you not lose your spiritual individuality when you are absent from your temporal individuality as a result of the unknown when you are absent! In this state “where?” has no special significance since the concept of whereness is meaningless for the omnipresent. If we say Allah destroys whereness the destruction is itself destroyed in the eternity implicit in Allah, who brings all things to an end.
The union of that which has been separated and the separation of that which was in union with Him, are both ideas of Separation implicit in perfect union with Allah. Thus it is that union takes place through itself and for itself. It is union with Allah which Allah has made.
