Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Mbacké: Khadimou Rassoul, the Servant of the Prophet (c. 1853–1927)

This biography draws on two works by people who lived beside the Cheikh: Minan al-Bāqī al-Qadīm (“The Gifts of the Eternal”), written by his son Serigne Mouhammadoul Bachir Mbacké, and Irwā’ al-Nadīm (“The Refreshment of the Companion”), written by his disciple and secretary Cheikh Muhammad al-Amîn Diop of Dagana.

His name and his lineage

His full name was Ahmad, son of Muhammad, son of Habîbullâh, but the world knows him as Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Mbacké. His disciples call him Serigne Touba and Khadimou Rassoul, “the Servant of the Messenger.”

His family came from the Fouta, and his ancestors later settled in the Djolof. His great-great-grandfather, Muhammad al-Khayr, known as Maharam Mbacké, founded the village of Mbacké in the Baol, on land granted to him by the Damel (king) Amary Ngoné Ndella. The Damel gave it in gratitude after Maharam obtained the release of imprisoned religious scholars.

His father, Muhammad son of Habîbullâh, known as Momar Anta Sali, was a respected scholar, judge and imam, admired by princes and people alike for his learning and his fairness.

His mother, Mariama Bousso, known as Mame Diarra or Diaratoullâh (“the neighbor of God”), came from the Bousso family. Both of his parents’ lineages are traced back to the family of the Prophet (peace be upon him). According to his son, his mother nourished him with the principles of faith from the time he was nursing.

Why “Bamba”? His father had studied under a great scholar, Muhammad Sall of the village of Bamba. Following the custom of the time, the father gave his son the name of his teacher’s village, in honor of that friendship.

Birth and childhood (c. 1853)

Ahmadou Bamba was born around 1270 of the Hegira (about 1853) in Mbacké-Baol, in his father’s house. Some accounts give 1851.

As a small child, he was sent to the Djolof to his mother’s uncle, the great Quran scholar Tafsir Mbacké Ndoumbé, who began teaching him the Holy Quran. When this teacher died, he continued with his maternal uncle, Muhammad Bousso, and then completed the Quran at his father’s side.

His son writes that as a child he was already unlike others his age: he avoided idle company, stayed long in places of worship, and knew neither games nor distractions.

Years of learning

When the reformer Maba Diakhou Bâ ordered the Muslims of the region to move to the Saloum, the family went with them. There, the young Ahmadou studied theology under Samba Toucouleur Kâ. He later rejoined his father at Patar, near the court of the Damel Lat-Dior, whom his father served as adviser and judge.

He continued to deepen his knowledge:

• with Khali Madiakhaté Kala, the Damel’s judge and a famous poet, he perfected his Arabic. In time, the student surpassed his teacher in poetry;
• with the Mauritanian scholar Muhammad al-Yaddâli, he studied rhetoric;
• he collected and studied a vast library on Islamic law, the life of the Prophet and Sufism.

Recognizing his excellence, his father entrusted him with most of the teaching in his school. His first writings date from this period, including Mulayyin al-Sudûr (1877), a verse adaptation of a work by al-Ghazâlî, and Al-Jawhar al-Nafîs, a verse version of al-Akhdarî’s treatise on worship.

A heart turned only toward God

From his youth, he refused to seek favor from kings. When Samba Laobé, the last Damel of Cayor, came to ask him to become his personal guide, he declined, saying he could not leave the students who had come to learn their religion. Out of politeness, he accepted a fine horse from the king, then had it sold and used the money to pay the debts of three poor Muslims who had come with the king.

His father passed away in 1883 at Mbacké-Cayor and was buried at Dekkelé. At the funeral, a respected scholar publicly offered to present the young man to the Damel so that he could take his father’s place at court. He answered:

“I am not in the habit of frequenting kings. I have no desire for their wealth, and I seek honor only with the Lord of all.”

He expressed the same conviction in a poem:

“Lean toward the doors of sultans,” they told me,
“and you will receive gifts that will last you forever.”
“God is enough for me,” I answered, “and I am content with Him;
nothing satisfies me but religion and knowledge.”

The birth of the Mouride path (1884)

After his father’s death, he devoted himself entirely to God. He had studied the great Sufi paths of his time, the Qadiriyya, the Shadhiliyya and the Tijaniyya, but he sought above all to draw directly from the two sources, the Quran and the Sunna, through love of the Prophet (peace be upon him).

His secretary reports that he received an order from the Prophet: “Give your disciples a spiritual education, and no longer only an education from books.” In 1884, he began to train his disciples not only through lessons but through the education of the soul. This meant remembrance of God (dhikr), purity, discipline, sincere intention and, above all, work.

He made work in the fields one of the first duties of his disciples, after the obligations of religion. His son explains that this was meant to defeat laziness, pride and vanity. By working together without distinction, the disciples also learned that people are equal, and that the only true superiority lies in virtue and piety.

Among the first great disciples he placed at the head of the others were Cheikh Ibrahima Fall, Cheikh Ibrahima Sarr, Cheikh Anta Mbacké, Cheikh Adama Guèye and Cheikh Hassan Ndiaye. In this period he also wrote his great work of Sufism, Masâlik al-Jinân (“The Paths to Paradise”), a poem of 1,553 verses, and Mawâhib al-Quddûs.

Mbacké-Baol, Darou Salam and Touba (1884–1895)

In 1884, he moved from Mbacké-Cayor to Mbacké-Baol. Crowds soon filled the road to his house, and the path “became as busy as the road to the market.” Jealousy grew among some of his relatives.

In November 1886, he withdrew to the east and founded Darou Salam, “the House of Peace.” About a year later, around 1887–1888, he founded Touba, 5 kilometers to the northeast, in a waterless and uninhabited land.

He explained why these two places were so dear to him:

“I did not come here to follow the footsteps of an ancestor, nor to find good land for farming, nor to find pasture. I came only to worship God, the One, with His permission and His approval.”

His sons Cheikh Mouhamadou Moustapha (1888) and Serigne Fallou (1889) were born during these years. From Touba, he also traveled between his other residences, such as Daroul Minan, Darou Rahmane and Darou Quddûs.

The move to the Djolof (1895)

As Touba grew, the disciples devoted to study and those devoted to work began to mix, and newcomers joined them. This troubled the Cheikh. He also felt a burning desire to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca. In April 1895, he left Touba with his disciples and settled at Mbacké-Bari in the Djolof, the land of his ancestors.

Around him, jealous people and informers had been spreading false accusations to the French colonial authorities, who were then new to the country. They turned the love of the crowds and the generosity of the Cheikh into suspicion.

Arrest and trial (1895)

On Saturday, August 18, 1895, the Cheikh left his residence in the Djolof and met the colonial officer sent to arrest him at Djéwol. His companions reported that, when there was no water for his ablutions, a stranger appeared carrying a full waterskin, filled their vessel, and disappeared.

Before the officer, the Cheikh turned away from him toward God and recited “In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful” fifty times. He wrote:

“At Djéwol, God made Satan despair of me,
when I called upon Him, saying: ‘O my Protector!'”

He passed through Coki, where he began a famous poem naming the Companions who fought at the Battle of Badr, then was taken to Saint-Louis. When local chiefs offered to plead for him, he answered: “Leave me to my Lord, who is more merciful to me and knows better what is good for me.”

Before the colonial council, he asked only one thing: “Bring the one who accused me, and the truth will be known at once.” His son reports that one member of the council said, “This is a man of God, indifferent to the things of this world. Release him!” But the president of the council, Merlin, decided on a long exile.

He was taken to Dakar, where he spent the hardest night of his trials in a dark, hot cell. He spent it reciting the Quran:

“At Dakar, God kept from me all harm from a cunning man.”

Exile in Gabon (1895–1902)

On September 21, 1895, the ship left Dakar for Gabon. He learned the name of his place of exile only at the stop in Conakry, from a visitor who came aboard to ask for his prayers. At the stop in Dahomey, he was inspired to throw his only bottle of musk into the sea. When the ship reached the harbor, a crowd of Muslims came to greet him, and many of them gave him bottles of musk. The ship’s captain and doctor treated him with respect and said he was innocent.

After a short stay in Libreville, he was sent to the island of Mayombé, where he stayed for about five years. He said that during this time he “became like the sun,” and he composed there a great many writings, all devoted to God, His Messenger and Islam. On the shore, he addressed the ocean:

“Bear witness, O sea of Mayombé, that I am the servant of the Forgiving
and the servant of the Chosen One;
bear witness that I will never flatter anyone who worships other than God.”

He was then moved to another place in Gabon, where he lived in harder conditions. There, the modest mosque he had marked out for his prayers was destroyed by a colonial agent, a trial he later described as a wound that God healed and turned into honor.

Throughout the exile, he refused to bend. When he was advised to write a letter to a new governor to ask for clemency, he began it, then erased it, and wrote instead a poem of devotion to God.

Return, and second exile in Mauritania (1902–1907)

The colonial authorities finally ordered his return. He landed in Dakar on Saturday, November 8, 1902. After fifteen days in Saint-Louis, he went to Louga, and then to Sanoussa, where crowds rushed to greet him. He then settled at Daroul Mannan.

The authorities, still suspicious, summoned him again. On June 15, 1903, he left Daroul Mannan and was sent to Mauritania, under the watch of the great Mauritanian scholar Cheikh Sidiya. He refused to see this as a punishment and called it a reward from God. He spent the month of Ramadan at Sarsara, where scholars and notables came to study with him. The Mauritanians loved him deeply, wrote poems in his praise, and continued to visit him after his return.

Thiéyène in the Djolof (1907–1912)

In 1907, he returned to Senegal and was placed under surveillance at Thiéyène (Cieenne) in the Djolof, where he named his residence Darou Rahmane. In 1909, he built another residence nearby, Daroul Quddûs. His prestige kept growing, and visitors came from everywhere. His son Serigne Abdoulahi was born there.

Diourbel: the final years (1912–1927)

In January 1912, he left Thiéyène for Diourbel, where he would spend the rest of his life under house arrest. He built his house on a nearby hill and named it Al-Moubaraka, “the Blessed.”

The mosque of Diourbel: the Cheikh traced its outline himself. Construction began on April 9, 1918. He laid the first brick with his own hands while reciting the prayer of Abraham and Ishmael when they built the Kaaba: “Our Lord, accept this from us.” The mosque was completed in about nine years. This fulfilled the promise received during his exile that he would have a great mosque in Diourbel in his lifetime.

The Quran at the heart of daily life: he had the Quran recited four times a day at the door of his house, and seven times on Thursday nights. His scribes copied it without end, and hundreds of copies were produced every month. His secretary recalls that the Cheikh once asked them to write out a complete copy of the Quran in three days, and they finished it on the 29th of Ramadan at noon.

The crowds: so many people came that he could no longer go out in public. He received visitors through windows opened in the walls of his house, two by two, from morning to noon and from the afternoon prayer to sunset. Often he wrote lessons of theology and Sufism in the sand for them. Food and drink were served to all, and his generosity knew no limit.

Touba’s great mosque: from Diourbel, in 1926, he began gathering the funds for the Great Mosque of Touba. He ordered that it be built only with the community’s own means.

Return to God (1927)

Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba returned to God in Diourbel on the night of Wednesday, 20 Muharram 1346 AH (July 1927), at about 75 years old. That same night, his body was carried in secret to Touba, as he had wished, accompanied by five people led by his son Serigne Bachir. Twenty-eight people gathered for the funeral prayer, which was led by Cheikh Mbacké Bousso, and the burial was completed before dawn. In Diourbel, his eldest son and first Khalife, Cheikh Mouhamadou Moustapha Mbacké, announced the news to the community and calmed the grieving crowds.

He rests in Touba, in the heart of the Great Mosque built by his sons and disciples, the city he founded “only to worship God.”

His legacy

Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba left behind thousands of verses of poetry (the khassaïdes) in praise of God and the Prophet, a spiritual path followed today by millions of people around the world, and a teaching that unites faith, knowledge and work. His son summed up his life in one sentence that the Cheikh himself wrote:

“God showed me Muhammad, and Muhammad led me to the Lord.”