Salihiyya

This article is about the Sufi order. For other uses, see Salihiyya (disambiguation).

Diagram showing Urwayniya as well as other Sufi orders.

Salihiyya (Somali: Saalixiya; Urwayniya, Arabic: الصالحية) is a Tariqa (order) of Sufi Islam prevalent in Somalia and the adjacent Somali region of Ethiopia. It was founded in the Sudan by Sayyid Muhammad Salih (1854-1919). The order is characterized by fundementalism.

History

The order ultimately traces its origins back to the Sufi scholar of Moroccan origin Ahmad ibn Idris al-Fasi (1760-1837). His followers and students spread al-Fasi's teachings across the globe. His nephew, Sayyid Muhammad Salih, was one of them; he spread the Idrisiyya to the Sudan and Somalia, establishing his own eponymous path, the Salihiyya.^[1] A former slave, Muhammad Gulid (d. 1918), was instrumental in popularizing the Salihiyya in the Jowhar region of Somalia, while Isma'il ibn Ishaq al-Urwayni spread it in the Middle Juba region. ^[2]

The Salihiyya path which rejects seeking intercession from Saints in one's invocation of God, which it labels as Shirk^[3] and is staunchly opposed to the Qadiriyya order (which is the largest and longest-established in Somalia), taking issue with the Qadiri doctrine of Tawassul (intercession), while the Qadiriyya upheld the traditional Sufi belief in the power of intercession held by Saints.^[3] The Salihiyya was also militantly anti-colonial.^[4] Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, a Salihiyya shaykh and poet, spread the Salihiyya (particularly in Ogaden) and led an armed anticolonial resistance movement in the Horn of Africa under the auspices of the order.^[5]

See also

• List of Sufis
• Idrisiyya
• Islamic fundementalism
• Ahmad ibn Idris al-Fasi

Bibliography

• Scott Steven Reese: Urban Woes and Pious Remedies: Sufism in Nineteenth-Century Benaadir (Somalia). Africa Today, Vol. 46, No. 3–4, 1999, pp. 169–192.

References

1. B.W. Andrzejewski; I.M. Lewis (1994). "New Arabic Documents from Somalia". Sudanic Africa. 5. Brill: 39–56. JSTOR 25653242.
2. J. Spencer Trimingham (1998). The Sufi Orders in Islam. Oxford University Press. p. 121. ISBN 9780198028239.
3. I. M. Lewis (1998). Saints and Somalis: Popular Islam in a Clan-based Society. The Red Sea Press. p. 37-38. ISBN 9781569021033.
4. Nehemia Levtzion; Randall Pouwels (2000). The History of Islam in Africa. Ohio University Press. p. 235. ISBN 9780821444610.
5. B. G. Martin (2003). Muslim Brotherhoods in Nineteenth-Century Africa. Cambridge University Press. p. 179. ISBN 9780521534512.