Khalifah of the Tariqah Ahmadiyyah Idrissiyyah Rashidiyyah Dandarawiyyah in Singapore
Formation and Early Life
Ustaz Mohamad Hasbi bin Hassan stands among the most distinguished Islamic scholars Singapore has produced — a man whose life embodies the unity of the outward religious sciences and the inward path of tasawwuf, and whose decades of service to the Muslim community of Singapore have made him one of its defining scholarly figures.
He was born into a family wholly dedicated to the faith. All of his family members — his parents and siblings alike — were involved in da’wah activities, making his formation in Islamic knowledge not merely institutional but domestic and deeply personal from his earliest years. He received his early education in an English-medium institution in Singapore, after which he continued his religious studies at Madrasah Al-Junied Al-Islamiah until the end of 1977.
In 1978, he travelled to Egypt to pursue higher studies at Al-Azhar University — the most storied institution of Islamic learning in the world, founded in 970 CE and regarded as the foremost seat of Sunni scholarship. By Allah’s leave, he received his Bachelor’s degree from the Faculty of Theology and Philosophy (Usul al-Din) in 1982. He subsequently attempted to pursue his Master’s at Al-Azhar and Cairo University but was unable to continue at that time, returning to Singapore at the end of 1985.
Career in Service to Singapore’s Muslim Community
On his return, he served at Madrasah Al-Junied Al-Islamiah as an Ustaz and Vice-Principal until 1996, when he was given the opportunity to complete his Master’s at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, which he received in Theology and Philosophy in 2004. In April 2006, he was asked to lead Madrasah Al-Junied Al-Islamiah as its Principal, a role he held until February 2008.
His association with PERGAS — the Singapore Islamic Scholars and Religious Teachers Association — began as early as 1986, through which he served in successive capacities as Honorary Executive, Vice-President, and President, becoming one of the most senior and respected voices in that body’s history. He has served on the MUIS Fatwa Committee since 1993.
In recognition of his lifetime of service, he was awarded the Public Service Star (2010), the Meritorious Service Medal (2018), the MUIS50 Distinguished Award (2018), and the MUIS Jasa Cemerlang Award (2019).
The Tariqah Ahmadiyyah Idrissiyyah and Its Founder
The dimension of Ustaz Hasbi’s life that places him in a lineage reaching across continents and centuries is his position as Khalifah Representative of the Tariqah Ahmadiyyah Idrissiyyah Rashidiyyah Dandarawiyyah in Singapore.
The Tariqah Ahmadiyyah Idrissiyyah was founded by Sayyid Ahmad ibn Idris al-Fasi, born in 1760 near Fez, Morocco, a direct descendant of Sayyidina Hasan ibn Ali, grandson of the Prophet, peace be upon him. He studied for some thirty years at the Qarawiyyin mosque in Fez. His principal Sufi master within the Shadhiliyyah tradition was Abd al-Wahhab al-Tazi (d. 1792), who taught him the Khadiriyya way and hadith over four years. His spiritual chain traced back through the great Shadhili master Sidi al-Abbas al-Dabbagh al-Fasi, and through him in a continuous chain to the Messenger of God, peace be upon him.
In 1799, Ibn Idris arrived in Mecca, where he exercised his greatest influence, attracting students from all corners of the Islamic world. He moved in 1828 to Sabya in Asir and passed away there in 1837. His principal students went on to found the most consequential Sufi brotherhoods of the nineteenth century: Muhammad ibn Ali al-Sanusi, founder of the Sanusiyyah of the Sahara; Muhammad Uthman al-Mirghani, founder of the Khatmiyyah of Sudan and Eritrea; and Ibrahim al-Rashid, from whom stemmed the Rashidiyyah and Dandarawiyyah.
The Chain of Succession to Southeast Asia
Shaykh Sayyid Muhammad al-Dandarawi (1813–1909)
Shaykh Sayyid Muhammad bin Ahmad al-Dandarawi, born in Dandara in Upper Egypt, was among the students of Shaykh Sayyid Ibrahim al-Rashid — himself one of the great khalifas of Ibn Idris. He received not only the ijazah of the Tariqah Ahmadiyyah but inherited his master’s character, knowledge, and spiritual secrets. He was highly determined to spread the tariqah to India, Africa, and Southeast Asia. He passed away in al-Madinah al-Munawwarah on 29 Muharram 1327H (1909).
Shaykh Muhammad Said al-Linggi (c. 1875–1926)
It was through Shaykh al-Dandarawi that the order reached the Nusantara. Tuan Shaykh Muhammad Said al-Linggi — full name Haji Muhammad Said bin Haji Jamaluddin bin Haji Idris — was born in Mecca to a family of Negeri Sembilan origin and raised in Patani from the age of seven. He sailed to Mecca at approximately seventeen years of age, in 1892, where he studied under more than fifty teachers. These included Shaikh Shamsuddin al-Anbani (the Shaykh al-Azhar of that era), Shaykh Ahmad al-Rifa’i al-Maliki, and Sayyid Ja’far al-Barzanji, Mufti of the Shafi’i School in Medina. His own father, Haji Jamaluddin, had already been entrusted to teach at Masjid al-Haram, so this was a family deeply embedded in the scholarly life of the Holy Cities.
Shaykh Muhammad Said received the ijazah of the Tariqah Ahmadiyyah in April 1901 from Shaykh Muhammad al-Dandarawi, who appointed him as khalifah representative for the entire Malay world. He travelled throughout the Malay Peninsula, Singapore, Riau-Indonesia, Siam, Cambodia, Bangkok, and Vietnam. In Negeri Sembilan, he established the first pondok in the state, at Ampangan near Seremban. He passed away in 1926, attended at his funeral by approximately 5,000 people including the Yang DiPertuan Besar Negeri Sembilan.
Shaykh Soleh al-Ja’fari (1910–1979) and the Ja’fariyya Branch
Running in parallel through the chain of transmission is the line through Shaykh Soleh al-Ja’fari — a figure of exceptional stature at Al-Azhar. Born on 24 June 1910 in Dongola, Sudan, of noble lineage tracing back through Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq to the Prophet’s family, he moved to Cairo at twenty to study at Al-Azhar, where he would spend nearly fifty years — first as a student, then as Imam and teacher. His teachers at Al-Azhar included Shaykh Muhammad Ibrahim al-Samaluti (Grand Mufti), Shaykh Habibullah al-Shanqiti (hadith master), and the scholar-gnostic Shaykh Yusuf al-Dijwi. An eloquent funeral elegy he composed for Shaykh al-Dijwi so impressed the Shaykh al-Azhar, Mustafa Abd al-Raziq, that the young Soleh was appointed as an instructor at the Azhar Mosque — a position he would hold for life.
He pledged allegiance to the Tariqah Ahmadiyyah Idrissiyyah at the hands of Sayyid Muhammad al-Sharif — grandson of the founder — receiving his ijazah at age nineteen, and his lineage traced through Sayyid Abd al-Ali to Ahmad ibn Idris. He eventually founded the sub-branch known as the Tariqah al-Ja’fariyyah al-Ahmadiyyah al-Muhammadiyyah, which spread throughout Egypt, Sudan, Libya, and Malaysia. After his passing in 1979, his son Shaykh Abdul Ghani bin Soleh al-Ja’fari succeeded him, officially registering the tariqah under the Egyptian Council of Sufi Orders, and expanding it to over seventy centres throughout Egypt with additional centres in Sudan, Libya, and Malaysia.
The Ahmad bin Muhammad Sa’id and Murtaza Line
The most direct chain runs through the family of Shaykh Muhammad Said al-Linggi himself. His son Tuan Haji Ahmad bin Mohd Said (1912–1964) became the first Mufti of Negeri Sembilan, selected in 1950 by consensus of the state’s ulama. He had studied Islamic sciences in Mecca for approximately seven years (1927–1934), receiving his formation in both the Shariah and the Tariqah Ahmadiyyah. He established Al-Madrasah Al-Saidiyyah (named after his father) and led the tariqah until his death in 1964.
His younger brother Shaykh Abdul Rashid bin Muhammad Said al-Linggi (born 1918 in Ampangan, Seremban) studied under his uncle Shaykh Abdullah, then under his elder brother Shaykh Ahmad, before spending time in Kota Bahru, Kelantan, and subsequently pursuing advanced knowledge in Mecca under several renowned scholars. He then spent seven years in Damascus studying under Shaykh Abdul Kadir al-Shamut, covering fiqh across all four madhabs. Following his brother’s death, he was appointed to lead the Ahmadiyyah Order in Singapore.
Sahibus Samahah Shaykh Murtaza bin Ahmad (1937–2017) — son of Tuan Haji Ahmad bin Mohd Said and grandson of Shaykh Muhammad Said al-Linggi — was born on 5 May 1937 in Rasah, Negeri Sembilan. His early education included periods in Singapore under his paternal uncle Shaykh Abdul Rashid, before he proceeded to Al-Azhar University in Cairo, completing his degree between 1967 and 1974. He served as the Mufti of Negeri Sembilan from 10 August 1987 until April 2009, and on 5 January 1997 was appointed as the Shaykh of the Tariqah al-Ahmadiyyah al-Idrisiyyah for Southeast Asia — a position he held alongside his Mufti role until his passing.
The Appointment of Ustaz Hasbi as Khalifah
On 14 August 2004 — 27 Jumada al-Akhirah 1425H — at a gathering in Negeri Sembilan following the National Sufi Munaqasah organised by the Mufti’s Department of Negeri Sembilan, Tuan Shaykh Ahmad bin Idris — known as Ibn Idris, a great-grandson of the founder of the tariqah, domiciled in Sudan — formally appointed Ustaz Mohamad Hasbi bin Hassan as his Khalifah Representative in Singapore. The ceremony took place in the Shaykh’s own private quarters. The formal ijazah issued on that occasion traces the complete spiritual chain from the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, through Sidi al-Abbas al-Dabbagh, Sidi Abd al-Wahhab al-Tazi, Sayyid Ahmad ibn Idris, and down through four generations of the Ibn Idris family to the issuing Shaykh.
[Among those to whom Ustaz Hasbi has since granted ijazah is Shaykh Dr Hisham.]
