Volume Nine
Sidi Muhammad ibn al-Habib by Michael Sugich
Pre-orders of the 9-Volume Boxset ship at the end of June
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Sidi Muhammad ibn al-Habib (1871-1972) was one of the most influential figures in the North African spiritual tradition in the twentieth century. He was an inspired guide to generations of seekers, throughout North Africa and beyond, from 1911 up until his death in 1972. His Diwan, or collection of invocations and odes, is an encapsulation of the spiritual path and is recited all over the world, from North Africa to North America, from Europe to the Far East, and is quoted and recorded on social media. His biography is authored by Michael Sugich, who has been affiliated with Ibn al-Habib’s spiritual lineage for half a century, most recently through the shaykh’s late successor, Moulay Hachem al-Belghiti (1940-2021). The text is illustrated with unique portraits of the great Moroccan shaykh taken by Peter Sanders in the last year of his life, including one stunning photograph that has never been published.
“In the Moroccan city of Meknes, along Boulevard el-Haboul, which curves along the edge of the old medina, a nondescript entryway gives out on to a long, inclined, weather-beaten, whitewashed passageway open to the sky. The passage leads up to a double door opening on to a stark, cavernous room covered in hasira mats and striped carpets. There was nothing ever physically or architecturally remarkable about the plain rendered brick structure or the utilitarian interior decor. Yet, in 1971, crossing the threshold of this empty space was to walk into a parallel universe, an intensely radiant world concealed by the daily rigors of worship, learning and service, and revealed in circles of remembrance carried out within its walls. The light that saturated this unprepossessing edifice emanated from a single centenarian saint and his illuminated followers. This was the zawiya of the teaching shaykh, Sidi Muhammad ibn al-Habib.
“In 1971, this venerable scholar-saint presided over his zawiya as he had since 1936 when it was first established as a place for learning and the practices leading to purification of the heart and the knowledge of God (ma‘rifat Allah). He was sixty-five years old when he opened his zawiya, the age when most men retire. He had now reached his centenary. This would be his final year on earth.
“The Habibiyya Zawiya served as the home of the shaykh and a center for instruction and discipline of aspirants (fuqara) on the spiritual path of Islam following the tradition of Imam Abu’l Hasan al-Shadhili, in accordance with the teachings of his spiritual descendent Moulay al-‘Arabi al-Darqawi and his successors. Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib brought the full force of nineteenth-century Sufism in all its rigor and purity into the twentieth century, and then over a period of sixty years guided generations of sincere seekers to the knowledge of God.”
From Sidi Muhammad ibn al-Habib: The Teaching Shaykh
Michael Sugich
