When we consider the path of Sayyid Muhammad bin ʿAlawī al-Mālikī that Shaykh Seraj Hendricks was authorised as khalifa in; and which Shaykh Seraj in turn authorised Shaykh Dr Hisham with a full ijaza in, there are three major aspects to recall.
(A note: Shaykh Hisham’s own approach is Qadīri alongside this, relating to his own spiritual lineage and teacher, and thus his ṭarīqa is Qadīri-Shādhulī.)
The first is that this path of Sayyid Muhammad b. ʿAlawī al-Mālikī was undoubtedly Shādhulī in terms of spiritual path, with a Shādhulī-Idrīsī influence par excellence.
The second aspect is that it was indelibly Bā ‘Alawī, which is why so much of what the ṭarīqa is enveloped and protected by is essentially the teachings of Imam al-Ghazālī. The folk of the ṭarīqa love and cherish the sāda (folk) of the Banī ʿAlawī, and the Bā ʿAlawī sāda uphold the teachings of Imam al-Ghazālī passionately and completely. The litanies and teachings of the sāda Bā ʿAlawī ṭarīqa are indispensable to how the ṭarīqa of Shaykh Muhammad Salih was taught in Cape Town.
The third aspect to recall is the surrounding scholastic-ṭarīqa environment of Makka that the Sayyid inherited. The different ṭuruq of the umma flowed into Makka, and some of our shaykhs mastered their methods to the point that they became, essentially, mujtahids (independent interpreters) in the sciences of Sufism.
As Shaykh Aḥmad Hendricks reminds with regards to these great knowers of Allah:
“for them to drop the names of Bā ʿAlawī, Qādirī, Shādhulī, Naqshabandī [or others] is perfectly in order. They are, in effect, saints and knowers of Allah in the highest sense of the word.”
Shaykh Aḥmad also relays that, “when all the spiritual paths then poured into Makka, the need for a name seemed to have disappeared.”
Since all these schools and approaches reached Makka, the mashāyikh of Makka gradually combined the different approaches to Sufism. It was why the litanies (wird pl. awrād) and the remembrance text(s) (dhikr pl. adhkār) of the various paths were, and are, handed down to the students of the lofty ʿulamāʾ of Sufism in Makka. Shaykh Aḥmad Hendricks further narrates:
“All the litanies of those various paths are handed down to the students of scholars in Makka. The litanies of the Bā ʿAlawīs, Qādirīs, Rifāʿīs, Shādhulīs, Naqshbandīs, Khalwatīs, etc., are recorded in the licenses they gave the student. This is easily verifiable if you look at the license books from as far back as you can go in Makka. Even the ‘Salafī’ Sufism of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyya (d. 751/1350) was also absorbed in Makka.”
Sayyid Muhammad bin ʿAlawī al-Mālikī carried on with that huge combined spiritual inheritance. Or, as Shaykh Ahmad Hendricks referred to it: ‘this melting pot of ṭuruq’; and the Sayyid referred to this as, ‘Ṭarīqa ʿUlamāʾ Makka (the Way of the Sages of Makka)’.
As Sayyid Muhammad mentioned in a ḥāl (spiritual state) in private:
“I am Idrisi, Shādhulī, ‘Alawī; until the Messenger of God permits me by other than that.”
And that’s the way it is.
We often concentrate on the essence of the Way, particularly the lines emanating from the Shādhulīs and the line of the sāda of the folk of the Bā ʿAlawī. Nevertheless, there are other lines that are inherited. Shaykh Hisham in particular draws on the Qadiri line in addition to the Shadhuliyya and Bani Alawi, as a result of his relationship with his Qadiri shaykh, and his recognition of Shaykh Abdal Qadir’s centrality to both Shaykh Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhuli and al-Faqih al-Muqaddam of the Bani ‘Alawi.
Sayyid ʿAbbās al-Mālikī mentioned his Suhrawardī chain of transmission (silsila), as Sayyid Muhammad b. ʿAlawī al-Mālikī also referred to his Khalwatī silsila. Shaykh Muhammad Ṣāliḥ Hendricks also taught, with diagrams, the 7 laṭa’if sulūk of the Naqshbandiyya. It is known that Shaykh Muhammad Ṣāliḥ Hendricks also received an ijāza in the ṭarīqa of Sayyid Aḥmad Rifāʿī from Shaykh Abū al-Huda Muhammad b. Ḥasan Wadi al-Sayyadi, who was one of the advisors to Sultan ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd of the Ottomans. Shaykh Abū al-Huda was perhaps the closest of the four religious counsellors to Sultan ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd, the last sultan of the Ottomans, and he was also, for a time, representative of the Prophetic families (naqīb al-Ashrāf) of Aleppo.
Shaykh Ahmad Hendricks mentions also Shaykh Fāliḥ al-Ẓāhirī, who died in 1328 Hijri in Madinah, one of the iconic shuyūkh of Madina. The Zāwīya shaykhs transmit all his works through Sayyid ʿAlawī al-Mālikī, via his teachers, ʿUmar Ḥamdān, ʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-Kattānī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Saqqāf, ʿAbd al-Ḥafīẓ al-Fāsī and the shaykh’s son Sayyid ʿAlī Fāliḥ al-Ẓahirī, all of them to Sayyid Fāliḥ al-Ẓahirī, also known as Abū al-Yasr. Shaykh Fāliḥ spent some seven years with Imam Muhammad b. ʿAli al-Sanūsī, read all six books of hadith with him, and transmits from him. Sayyid ʿAlawī also met and read some books with Imam Muhammad b. ʿAli al-Sanūsī’s grandson, Sharīf ʿAḥmad b. Muhammad b.
This is ‘the Way of the Sages of Makka (Ṭarīqa ʿUlamāʾ Makka)’. A forerunner of that pooled and amalgamated Makkan spiritual path, even though Sayyid Muhammad was the first one to give it that name, was Shaykh ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd b. Muhammad ʿAlī Quds (d. 1334/1915), author of the illustrious ‘Treasures of Success and Happiness’ (Kanz al-Najāḥ wa-l-Surūr). In giving a taste of what the spiritual way is, Shaykh Ahmad Hendricks notes that it seems that Shaykh ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd was associated with the Makkī ʿAlawīyya. With influences from others, including the Idrīsī-Shādhulī, the Ḥaddādī ʿAlawī, and the Sanūsī Shādhulī, thus emerges the ṭarīqa of the ʿulamāʾ of Makka.” The ‘Makkī ʿAlawīyya,’ as previously mentioned, is the iteration of the ʿAlawīs of the Banī ʿAlawī that found its fruit in Makka. The Idrīsī Shādhulīyya is the rendition of the Shādhulī way by Sīdī ʿAḥmad b. Idrīs (d. 1253/1837); the Ḥaddādī ʿAlawīyya is the ʿAbdullāh b. ʿAlawī al-Ḥaddād (d. 1133/1720) iteration of the ʿAlawīyya, which remained predominant in the Yemen; and the Sanūsī Shādhulīyya was another inheritance of the Shādhulīyya through Sīdī Ahmad b. Idrīs. It bears mentioning that the ṭarīqa of the Bā ʿAlawī sāda, whether the Makkī or the Ḥaddādī, is always going to be Shādhulīan inwardly and Ghazālīan outwardly (Shādhulīyyun bāṭinan wa Ghazālīyyun ẓāhiran). Indeed, the Sanūsīyya and the Idrīsīyya are offshoots of the Shādhulīyya also.
As a slight diversion, it serves to remind what a contemporary exponent of the ṭarīqa of the sāda of the Bā ʿAlawī, al-Ḥabīb ʿUmar b. al-Ḥafīẓ summarized when asked what the meaning of ‘Shādhulīan inwardly and Ghazālīan outwardly’ philosophically meant:
“Most spiritual paths have a foundation that is either Shādhulī or Ghazālīan. Both the Ghazālī and Shādhulī paths are founded upon spiritual striving (mujāhada) but the Ghazālīan method begins by focusing on the external aspect and then works towards the internal whereas the Shādhulī method begins internally. Both methods agree that obligatory actions must be performed, prohibited actions must be avoided and supererogatory actions should be performed in abundance, but the Shādhulī method does not place great emphasis on outward actions. Mujāhada (remonstrance, efforts) according to the Shādhulī method focuses on attaining constant presence of heart with Allah, awareness of His bounty and showing gratitude to Him. The Ghazālīan method emphasises seeking knowledge and acting upon it thereby attaining constant presence and the station of gratitude. It is possible to combine the two methodologies, and this is manifested in the Ba ʿAlawī path. This is achieved by being aware of Allah’s blessings, showing gratitude to Him and seeking to be present with Him from the outset while at the same time seeking knowledge and performing outward actions. Thus, the outward aspect of the Ba ʿAlawī path is to seek knowledge and act upon it and striving outwardly which then has an impact upon the inward. At the same time the inner aspect of the path from the outset is based upon witnessing Allah’s blessings, being present with Him and showing gratitude to Him. Since the Ba ʿAlawī masters combined the principles of both paths, their path was described as being inwardly Shādhulī and outwardly Ghazālīan.”
Thus, predominant within the ṭarīqa will be a true joining of the Shādhulīyya and the path of the Bā ʿAlawī sāda: but nevertheless, particular types of each.
While Sayyid Muhammad b. ʿAlawī al-Mālikī described the ṭarīqa as the ‘way of the ʿulamāʾ of Makka,’ he and the Zāwīya shaykhs were not opposed to using names to describe the ṭarīqa in certain circumstances. Sometimes, for purposes of convenience, we call it the Ṭarīqa al-ʿAlawīyya al-Shādhulīyya: the way of the ʿAlawīyya Shādhulīyya, which emphasises the crucial basis of the ṭarīqa, which is ʿAlawī (of the Bā ʿAlawī sāda) and Shādhulī. At other times, we simply refer to it as Sayyid Muhammad b.ʿAlawī al-Mālikī referred to it: the Ṭarīqa ʿUlamāʾ Makka.
Moreover, it is important to note, for students of Shaykh Dr Hisham: these two paths (the Shādhulī and the Bani ʿAlawī) find a special common ancestor in Sidi Abu Madyan al-Ghawth, and, most prominently of all, Shaykh Abdal Qadir al-Jilani. Sidi Abu Madyan was the shaykh of Sidi Abdal Salam al-Mashish, the shaykh of Shaykh Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhuli; and he was also the shaykh of al-Faqih al-Muqaddam of the Bani ʿAlawī, to whom he sent his envoy to in Tarim, with instructions to invest him with his khirqah, symbolising the transmission of spiritual authority.
Finally, it should be remembered: Shaykh Abdal Qadir al-Jilani was himself the shaykh of Sidi Abu Madyan, and al-Faqih al-Muqaddam consolidated his path around the way of Abu Madyan as well as al-Jilani. As for Shaykh Dr Hisham himself; his line inherits strongly via the Qadiriyya, with his own teacher declaring that Shaykh Hisham’s tariqa is, indeed, Qadiri-Shadhuli.
And that’s the way it is.
