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.