Al-Badawi: A Sufi magnate or Shiite politician
The story began more than 818 years ago in Fes, northeast of Morocco,
when Ahmad al-Badawi was born in 1200 to a family that had left Mecca in 692
after the Umayyad Dynasty (662-750) persecuted followers of Ali, the Fourth
Caliph.
His family had lived in Morocco for 500 years before he was born. The
family then traveled to Mecca, where they lived until his father died. The
family moved to Iraq. Al-Badawi left for Egypt at the age of 40 in 1239.
Al-Badawi, a Sufi magnate and founder of Al-Tareeqa Al-Badawiya, or the
Badawi Order, is one of the four Sufi magnates. Some historians accuse Al-Badawi
of embracing Shiite faith and a political discourse, taking Sufism as a cover.
The heritage of Al-Tareeqa Al-Badawiya affirms he was a hermit who used
to wear wool since he was a child in Morocco. In Iraq, he visited the shrines
of two Sufi magnates Ahmed Al-Rifaie and Abdul Qadir al-Gilani. He moved to
Egypt after he saw a dream that set the village where he would live in north of
Cairo.
Al-Badawi had miracles. He used to veil his face, and when a man insisted
to see his face dropped dead due the light that used to radiate from
Al-Badawi's face.
Al-Badawi used to free Egyptians prisoners of war during the Crusades.
Despite doubts raised by sheikhs about the miracles of Al-Badawi, a number of
Al-Azhar ulama accredited them. One of these ulama was Abdel Halim Mahmoud,
late Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar between 1973 and 1978.
The history of Al-Badawi was
controversial. His followers considered him wali, or Muslim saint. However,
others thought of him as a man of a Shiite scheme to bring back the Shiite rule
to Egypt. The rule of the Shiite Fatimid Dynasty ended in 1169. They claim he
was not mentioned in any historical writings as a Sufi wali in the 13th
century.
However, Al-Badawi was mentioned in historical writings of the 15th
and 16th centuries as a popular man of good deeds. His antagonists
say all miracles narrated about him were taken orally from the public and were
never really seen in real life.
Ahmed Sobhy Mansour, an Egyptian scholar who founded Quranic sect, which
rejects hadeeth or sayings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), claimed in his book
"Al-Badawi: Truth and Myth" that Al-Badawi did not come to Egypt as
Sufist. Mansour argued that Al-Badawi was never a Sufist like Ibn Arabi or Ibn Sabeen.
Rebutting these claims, Ibrahim Nour Eldin dismissed in his book
"Research in Islamic Sufism and History" any political role played by
Al-Badawi, who died in 1276 in Tanta.
Al-Badawi established his Sufi order in Tanta and sent his followers to
Mecca, the Levant and Upper Egypt to preach his Sufi teachings.
A number of Sufi orders emerged from Al-Tareeqa Al-Badawiya like
Al-Ahmadiya Al-Marazeqa, Al-Shennawiya, Al-Farghaliya, Al-Imbabiya,
Al-Hamoudiya, Al-Shaabiya, Al-Zahidiya, Al-Sotohiya, Al-Jawhariya,
Al-Tesqianiya, Al-Kanasiya, Al-Jaafariya and Al-Jaririya.
