About the Text
This excellent poetic song composed by Shaykh Ahmadu Bamba ibn Muhammad al-Bakaai’ is an excellent work on the remembrance of death, and the loss of spiritual masters.
In it Shaykh Bamba, famous as the Khadim (servant) of the Messenger of Allah, May Allah bless him and grant him peace, explains the fundamental principles of the spiritual path, its foundations, and the essential equipment needed for a disciple who desires to take the arduous inner journey of self-transformation.
The founder of the world renown Muridiyya brotherhood, with its center in Touba, Senegal, uses this work to give a precise picture of how a genuine spiritual guide must be. For those who lack a spiritual guide, the Huqqa’l-Bukaai’ paints a poetic ‘cv’ or ‘resume’ for how one really looks. Because, it is rare, and almost impossible to find people alive who meet the standards Shaykh Ahmadu Bamba depicts, it is obvious why he composed this poem.
I translated it and embedded pictures of the most important spiritual guides who passed on to the Next world and who had a personal impact upon me as a spiritual disciple. I habitually recite this work of Shaykh Ahmadu Bamba because of the many secrets, but because it reminds me of the many spiritual teachers we have lost. It is said that remembrance of the righteous causes baraka and mercy to descend. It is in this light that I present this poem to our readers.
Shaykh Muhammad Shareef