Muhammad al-Habīb Hamū al-Būzīdī

(1824-1327(1909))

Masters of the Shādhili Path Series

Translated by Sidi Idris Watts

His lineage goes back to the family of the Prophet (may Allah
bless him and grant him peace) through Moulay Isa b. Moulay Idris II b.
Moulay Idrīs I b. Moulay Abdullah al-Kāmil b. Moulay Hasan al-Muthanna
b. Moulay Hasan b. Imam ‘Ali. He was born in Dabdaba; Mostaghānem
in 1824.

He was educated by his father who was a prominent scholar of

the region. When he was still a boy, he moved on to study in a zāwiyah
affiliated to the Sanusi order in the village of Bu Qarītat just outside the
town. He studied with the local scholar there known as ash-Sharif b.
Takouk who was a disciple of a Qādiri sheikh named Sīdi Bil-Qadouz.
This sheikh suffered a lot near the end of his life due to the treatment
of local Turkish authorities who oppressed him. Things became so
difficult for him near the end of his life that he advised his student Sidi
ash-Sharif b. Takouk to go back to his family and teach the people. It
was in this zāwiyah that the sheikh completed his studies of Qurān, Fiqh
and Grammar. The Sheikh at times would miss his family, so he would
often return to visit them in Mostaghānem. On one of these trips back
to the town, he was arrested whilst in the company of his father in the
market on the premises that he was an informer for the Algerian
resistance movement against the French, which was led by Amīr ‘Abd
al-Qādir. He was arrested and held for a number of days where he was
exposed to torture. The Sheikh was only twenty years of age at the
time. One of his relatives on his mother’s side managed to get him
released but he was advised to leave the town immediately or he
would be killed. He fled the town as soon as he could, in fear of his life.
Now he was all alone with no-one familiar around him.

His journey led him to Tilimsān and there he went to visit the
grave of Abū Madyan to find some solace. Night arrived and he decided
to stay there until the morning. After reciting a part of the Qurān, he
fell into a slumber and dreamt that he saw one of his ancestors, Abu
Sa’īd b. ‘Ali, accompanied by Abu Madyan. Al-Būzīdī greeted them both
and then was ordered by Abu Madyan to head for Morocco. Al-Būzīdī
replied that Morocco was filled by serpents and poisonous beasts and
that he was unable to live there. Abu Madyan passed his blessed hand
over his body and said: “Go and have no fear! You are protected from
anything that could possibly harm you.’ He awoke in a state of shock
and headed directly for Morocco.

When he set off he contacted two friends, Muhammad al-Hibrī

and ‘Abd al-Qādir b. ‘Adda Bu ‘Abd ‘Allī, who were also students
studying Quran at the time. They decided to travel with him and went
around mosques on their journey, correcting the plaques of students
studying the Qurān. On their way, they passed by a mountain called
the spring of ‘Zūrā’. At that time there was a man of God called
Muhammad Qaddūr al-Wukīlī residing in the mountain. There he would
teach children the book of God. Once they met the man, they asked
him if they could reside with him and study the Quran with him. He
gave them permission and sensed that they would be men of great
stature in the future. There they studied the variants of the Qurān for
some time. After a time, he granted them permission to recite the
general litanies of his order, and finally he gave them the litany of the
Divine name ‘Allāh’.

Once they had grown strong and able in his teachings, he sent
al-Hibrī to the region of Ahfir; Barkān and Bu ‘Abd ‘Allī to Ghalīzan;
Algeria. He sent another student of his Sidi Muhammad b. Mas‘oud to
the region of al-Ghazawat. The Sheikh was now very old so he kept
Muhammad al-Būzīdī at his side in order to teach his children, who
were still very young. He stayed, serving him and taking care of the
daily affairs of his master, whilst his master taught him more about the
order. One day he told him, ‘Do not move from this place until your
permission comes.’ His teacher would on numerous occasions praise
his student saying, ‘Buzīdī has taken the water carrier with both
hands,’ indicating he was to become the inheritor of the sheikh’s
teachings. Before his teacher passed away, he gave him permission to
stay in the zāwiyah to take care of its affairs. He remained there
teaching the students and distributing the litanies to new aspirants
until some of his master’s relatives threw him out. He went on to Banī
Sa‘īd and his students from the zāwiyah followed him there. There he
resumed his teachings, but his master’s children, who had been
convinced by some people who wished ill for Buzīdī that he had fooled
them into allowing him to run the zāwiyah, sought him out in order to
kill him. He caught wind of their intention and realised his master’s
permission for him to leave had come. He headed for Melīllia but he
would only travel by night in order that the people chasing him would
not get scent of his trail. He arrived in Nador and stayed in a place
called Wardāna. He arrived at the time of the Isha prayer and asked if
the people would put him up. They asked who he was and he told them
that he taught children Qurān as a profession. He led them in prayer,
and then they apologised that they could not put him up due to
hostilities from neighbouring tribes. They also warned him of a devious
jinni that had occupied the mosque. In the night, the jinni visited Sīdī
Buzīdī. It had a fearsome form; it breathed fire and smoke from its
mouth and nose. Sīdī Buzīdī began to recite Sura al-Ikhlas. He kept
repeating it whilst pointing his index finger at the jinni wherever it
turned. The jinni eventually burned up through the light of this Sura,
and it turned to ash. Sīdī Buzīdī slept and woke just before Fajr to
perform some prayers. Then he read his Fajr prayer and recited his
litany. When the people came to see what had happened through the
night, they were astonished to find Sīdī Buzīdī safe and sound. He
pointed to the ashes of the jinni and told them to bury them.

In the morning, he asked their permission to leave, but they

insisted that he stay to teach their children. The head of the region,
Muhammad b. Yahya al-Wardani, was so impressed with Sīdī Buzīdī that
he offered him his daughter’s hand in marriage. He stayed for a while
until his reputation had spread though the North of Morocco. The
disciples from Karkar came to invite him back but he refused; he was
now determined to return to his homeland. On his way home, he
passed through Melīlia and came stayed in the mosque of Moulay Idrīs
for two days. Then he took a ship to Mostaghānem.

Once he arrived in Mostaghānem, he did not initially invite people

to the path. He was content to teach the children and keep himself
unknown. He eventually established a zāwiyah and began calling
people to God. He would walk the streets with his walking stick in hand
and his rosary around his neck. He managed to produce a number of
fine students but after some disputes he was forced to shut his zāwiyah
and began visiting his students in their work places. There he met his
protégé Ahmad al-‘Alawī.

Character of Sīdī Buzīdī

One day, Sīdī Buzīdī was invited by the local French authorities
for a meeting. When he went to see the man he gifted him with two
cloaks. On leaving the building, he found a man walking the streets
with no clothes on. He quickly covered the man with one of his cloaks.
Soon he came across another man similar to the first, and he gave him
the second cloak. Later on, an official from the local authorities came
to the zāwiyah to see what he had done with the gifts. When he found
him wearing his normal clothes, he asked his students what had
happened to the two robes, and they told what he had done with them.

On another occasion, his students knocked on his door and on

opening for them, they were shocked to see him wearing his wife’s
gown. When asked why he was dressed so, he told them he was
washing the only garb he had. His students fell silent out of
embarrassment that they were wearing fine clothes and their teacher
had only one set of clothing to his wardrobe. They rushed off to buy
him clothes, but he would only take one of the pieces they gave him
and gave the rest in charity.

One day, he was invited to attend a wedding and it just so

happened that another sheikh had been invited as well. When the
sheikh heard that Sīdī Buzīdī was among the guests he refused to enter
unless they told Sīdī Buzīdī to leave. The host was perplexed as what to
do and rushed to his wife to relate to her his predicament. However,
his wife was very wise and told him she would prepare food for Sīdī
Buzīdī and his family and tell him to go and give it to them. They
prepared the couscous and asked him to pray for the newlyweds.
However on his way home, he decided not to take the food home. A
notion came to him that he should take it to the sister of the host who
was not invited to the wedding because they had fallen out. He went to
their home and knocked on the door. He gave the food to her husband
and told them that her brother was sorry that he had forgotten to
invite them and here was some food as a gesture of apology. He asked
them to go and attend the event at once. Once they had eaten the
food they went to attend the wedding with the plate now filled with
sweets for the happy occasion. The man was so happy to see his sister
and it was only on seeing the plate that the host realized that it was
Sīdī Buzīdī who had been the means to get them to attend the
occasion.

One day, the sheikh was walking in the street when an elderly
Jewish man fell over on the floor in front of him. The Sheikh rushed to
pick him up and comfort him, and placed the man’s hat back on his
head. Some other Jewish men from the town came along at that point
and were so shocked to see Sīdī Buzīdī tending to the man. From that
day on the Jewish community treated him with the utmost respect.

On another occasion another sheikh came to see Sīdī Buzīdī to

tell him that he had seen the Prophet, may God bless him and grant
him peace, in a dream telling him that Sīdī Buzīdī was destined for the
hellfire. Sīdī Buzīdī responded by breaking into a warm smile and he
thanked the man, saying, ‘The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant
him peace) said I was destined for the hellfire! May God bless you! I
thought I was so insignificant that it would not be possible for me to
even be mentioned by the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him
peace). I am grateful that my name was even mentioned on his lips
and that he is concerned about me for I know that he is the intercessor
for all those who transgress and commit sin. God bless you and peace
be upon you!’

Sidi Mustafa b. Karitli was a member of the council of security in

the time of the French occupation. One day, the local French mayor
was coming to visit the area, so Sidi Mustafa b. Karitli got ready to
receive him by dressing up in his finest clothes. He stood in the street
with his entourage in the Arab quarter ready to walk up to the French
quarter when all of a sudden Sīdī Buzīdī came up to him carrying the
innards of a sheep along with its liver and lungs and placed them
straight in Sidi Mustafa b. Karitli’s hands. Blood was dripping from the
meat and flies had gathered all around him but Sīdī Buzīdī was
insistent he walk beside his colleagues with them until he got to the
square between the two districts. There he stopped him and said,
‘Enough now my son, bear good tidings for God has cured you of
arrogance, vanity and any pride of leadership and notoriety you might
have had today. What a great servant of God you are!’

One day, one of his disciples came to visit him and on his way he
was thinking throughout what kinds of delicious foods he would eat at
the house of the sheikh. When he got to the house of the sheikh,
instead of taking him downstairs where the guests would normally sit,
he took him to the top floor. Then he brought him a plate of broad
beans and told him to eat. Once his student began eating, the sheikh
pointed to his stomach and said this is nothing but your foul smelling
intestines so quickly fill it with what’s in front of you and then rise and
invoke your Lord through the day and night in order that God’s mercy
might encompass you and drag you from your slumber and
heedlessness into vigilance of direct divine knowledge whereby you
witness God’s light with your inner-sight. Then once your inner
darkness dissipates, the light of your inner sun will shine and point you
towards guidance. Once you reach this state, you will not wither or
change until you reach your Lord and you have attained His
contentment and pleasure.

One year at the celebrations of the birthday of the Prophet, may

God bless him and grant him peace, his son was killed by a firework
someone had set off. When the sheikh came to look for his son he
found him on the floor in a pool of blood. A man came from the crowd
and told him, ‘Come and I’ll show you who killed your son!’ The Sheikh
immediately spoke back to the man harshly, saying “You fool! I know
who killed my son! He is the one who decrees death of every soul!”
Sidi Buzidi then picked his son up and prepared him in order to pray
over him. He did not file any complaint against the person responsible
for the death of his son.