About the Text
This is the famous ad-Daaliyya of Shehu Uthman ibn Fuduye` which he completed in the year 1188 A.H. He indicated this by the use of the letters qaaf = 100, sheen = 1000, faa = 80 and haa = 8, which correspnds with the year 1772 C.E. when the Shehu was twenty years old.
The number of its verses are sixty three like the number of the years of our master Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, taking blessings from him by means of that. The majority of the scholars say that this poem was the first of his Arabic poems, but it is also said that it was the second of his Arabic poems. This poem clearly clarifies that the spiritual journey of the Shehu was constructed upon adherence to the Living Muhammadan Sunna outwardly, behaving in accordance with the Muhammadan character traits inwardly, persistence in sending blessings upon the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace with the tongue and the heart, and a yearning and ardent desire to encounter the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace in dream visions and in the waking state.
It is then that the affair of Shehu Uthman ibn Fuduye` began in inviting mankind to the religion. He thus journeyed throughout the lands seeking knowledge and teaching it to the people, and stood to revive the Sunna and destroy heretical innovation and mobilizing the servants of Allah to repentance from disbelief, disobedience and spiritual heedlessness.”
Rodialahu anihu