Then I was Guided

In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Universe. He created man from clay and shaped him in the best possible
way. He favored him above all other creatures and made His closest angels prostrate themselves before
him. He graced him with the mind that changed his doubt to an absolute belief. He gave him two eyes,
one tongue, two lips and showed him the two ways.
He sent him messengers giving him the good news, warning him, and alerting him, and preventing him
from going astray with the cursed devil. He told him not to worship the Devil, for the Devil is his enemy,
and to worship Allah alone and follow His right path, with understanding and a convincing belief, and not
to imitate the belief of his forefathers and friends and relatives who followed those before them without
any clear reasoning.
Who could say better things than he who called for Allah and did good deeds and said that he was one
of the Muslims, may the Lord's blessings, peace and greetings be upon the Messenger who brought
mercy unto the people, supporter of all the Oppressed and the weak, savior of all mankind from the
darkness of ignorance, he who will guide them to the enlightened path of the faithful and the good.
Our master Muhammad ibn Abdullah, prophet of the Muslims, and chief of the singularly radiant may
these blessings and greetings be upon his good and purified posterity whom Allah has chosen from
among all the truthful. He stated in the Quran that we are compelled to love them, after he had purified
them and made them infallible. He promised that anybody who goes on board their ship will be saved,
and anybody who does not do so will perish.
May these blessings and greetings be upon his honorable companions who supported him, honored him
and sacrificed themselves for him and for the victory of Islam. They knew the truth, so they pledged
allegiance to him with conviction and stayed on the right path without changing it and were thankful. May
Allah reward them for their services to Islam and the Muslims. May these blessings and greetings be
upon their followers and upon those who kept on their path and were guided by their light to the Day of
Judgment.
Please Lord accept my request for You are the All hearing and the Most Knowledgeable. Please my
Lord open my heart for You are the One who guides us to the absolute truth.
Please my Lord help me to express myself, for you grant wisdom to any one You wish from amongst
Your faithful worshippers. Please my Lord grant me more knowledge and join me with righteous people.
I still remember how my father took me for the first time to the local mosque where al-Tarawih prayers

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were performed during the month of Ramadan. I was then ten years old. He introduced me to the men
who could not hide their astonishment.
I knew previously that the tutor had arranged for me to perform al-Ishfa
1
prayers for two or three nights.
It was customary for me to pray behind the man with some local children, and wait for the Imam to arrive
at the second part of the Qur'an, i.e. Surat Meriam. My father made sure that we learnt the Qur'an at the
Qur'anic school as well as at home through private lessons given to us by a blind man, who was related
to us and who could recite the Qur'an by heart. Due to the fact that I learnt to recite the Qur'an at an
early age, the tutor tried to show his good influence on me by teaching me the kneeling points in the
recital. He tested me repeatedly to make sure that I had understood his instructions.
After I passed the test and finished performing the prayers and the recital, as well as I was expected to
do, all the men came and congratulated me and my father, and thanked my tutor for his good efforts and
blessings, and thanked Allah for Islam.
The memories of the days that followed are still with me today. I acquired so much admiration and my
reputation went beyond our alley to the whole town. Those nights of Ramadan have left their religious
marks on me to this day, and every time I go through an episode of confusion, I feel that there is a
strange power which pulls me and puts me back on the path.
Every time I felt the weakness of the soul and the meaningless of life, these memories come to me to
elevate me to a spiritual level and light in my conscience the flame of belief so that I can carry the
responsibility. The responsibility which was given to me by my father, or more appropriately by my tutor,
to lead the group in prayers at an early age made me feel as if I was not doing enough, or at least not up
to the standard which was expected from me.
Therefore I spent my childhood and my adolescence in relative rectitude, but not without some innocent
playing and an eagerness to know and to imitate. Throughout that period I was surrounded by the divine
care which made me distinguishable amongst my brothers for my calmness and composure and for
being on the right path and away from all immoral acts.
I should not forget to mention that my mother, may Allah bless her soul, had a big influence on me. She
opened my eyes as she taught me the short chapters (surahs) of the holy Qur'an, the prayers and the
rules of ritual purity. She took special care of me because I was her first son, and perhaps she found
pleasure in educating me, as she was sharing the household with my father's first wife and her sons.
The name Tijani, which was given to me by my mother, has a special meaning in the al-Samawi family
which had adopted the Tijani Sufi tariqa (order) ever since it was visited by a son of Shaykh Sidi Ahmed
al-Tijani who came from Algeria. Many people of Gafsa - my family's home town - adopted the Tijani
sufi order, especially the wealthy and educated families who helped to spread the order.
Because of my name, I became quite popular in the Samawi House and outside it, especially with those

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who were connected with the Tijani order. Therefore, many of the elders who were present at the above
mentioned night during Ramadan came to congratulate my father and then kissed my head and hand
and said, "These are the blessings of our master Shaykh Ahmad al-Tijani."
It is worth noting that the Tijani Sufi order is widely spread in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Lybia, Sudan
and Egypt, and those who believe in it are, somehow, fanatical about it. They do not visit the graves of
other sages because, according to their belief, they acquired their knowledge from each other, whereas
Shaykh Ahmed al-Tijani acquired his knowledge from the Messenger of Allah Muhammad (s.a.w.)
directly, despite the fact that he came thirteen centuries after the Prophet (s.a.w.).
It has been said that Shaykh Ahmed al-Tijani used to communicate with the great Prophet (s.a.w.) by
talking to him while he was awake and not in his sleep. Also it is believed that the complete prayers
which were devised by the Shaykh are better than finishing the Holy Qur'an forty times.
In order to be brief I shall stop talking about the Tijani Sufi tariqa at this stage of the book, and if God
wills it, I will refer to it elsewhere.
Thus I grew up with this belief, like any other youth in our town. We were all - praise be to Allah - Sunni
Muslims following the teaching of Imam Malik ibn Anas, Imam of Dar al-Hijra. However, we, in North
Africa, are divided in our Sufi orders. For example in Gasfa alone there are al- Tijaniyya, al-Qadiriyya,
al-Rahmaniyya, al-Salamiyya and al-Isawiyya.
For each of the above orders, there are followers and supporters who could recite the order, poems and
Dhikrs (invocation of God) in all special ceremonies such as weddings, circumcisions and vows. Apart
from some negative aspects, these Sufi Tariqas played an important role in preserving the religious rites
and in maintaining the respect for the sages.
1. Al-Ishfa prayers, also called al-Tarawih, becase of the rest taken between every second prayer. Named “al-Ishfa”
I was eighteen years of age when the Tunisian national society of Scouts agreed to send me as one of
six Tunisian representatives to the first conference for Islamic and Arab scouts which took place in
Mecca. I was the youngest member of the mission, and certainly the least educated, for there were with
me two headmasters, a teacher from the capital, a journalist and a fifth whose job I did not know,
although I later realized that he was a relative of the then minister for education.
The journey was rather indirect, our first stop was Athens where we stayed for two days, next was
Amman, the capital of Jordan, in which we spent four days, and then we arrived in Saudi Arabia and