Regarding This Commentary
This is a review and examination of the Shukr’l-Waahib al-Mufeeda’l-Mawaahib (Showing Gratitude to the Benefactor for the Divine Overflowing Given to Those He Favors) by one of Black Africa’s leading mystics, Shaykh Abd’l-Qaadir ibn Mustafa (d. 1864 C.E.) In this work I attempt to explain the etymology of the exoteric and esoteric terms utilized by Shaykh Dan Tafa in his poem Shukr’l-Waahib.
My commentary is based upon what I recieved from several of the shuyuukh with whom I read this text, Shaykh Muhammad Bello ibn Abdullahi, Shaykh Abu Bakr Basambu, Shaykh Umar Ahmad Zaruuk and Shaykh Bello Abd’r-Raaziq. From the time that I first recieved this poem in May of 1986 from one of the author’s descendents, Shaykh Bello ibn Abd’r-Raaziq ibn Uthman ibn Abd’l-Qaadir ibn Mustafa, it was my intention of writing about it. It was not until arriving in China safely that I was able to begin this work.
This was prompted by a study of three fundamental works by Wang Tai Yu, the foremost Muslim mystic and scholar of China, which I found in the library of Tsingwa University in Beijing, China. There was a clear parrallel between the mystical ideas of Imam Wang Tai Yu and Shaykh Dan Tafa which I found amazing especially in the light of the new Sino-African accord emerging at the time. It was on my repatriation to Africa that I was able to complete this study within the social environment from which it was originally produced.
Shaykh Muhammad Shareef bin Farid
Zawiyya Shehu Uthman ibn Fuduye`
Yirimadio, Bamako, the Republic of Mali