Muhammad al-Tijani

for other uses, see Al-Tijani

Dr. Muhammad al-Tijani al-Samawi, who was brought up as a Sufi Muslim, dabbled in orthodox Sunnism before finally adopting the Twelver Shi'a school of thought after an extended visit to Iraq. He became noted for his many propagandistic tracts defending the beliefs of Shiites and attacking the doctrines of Sunni Islam.

Biography

Muhammad al-Tijani al-Samawi was a Tunisian student who was raised in a family that followed the rites of the Sufi Tijaniyyah order, based on the teachings of Sidi Ahmed al-Tidjani. Upon making Hajj, al-Samawi was influenced by orthodox Saudi teachings, against saint veneration and tomb visitation, which were central to the North African Sufi tradition. A few years later, al-Samawi was in Egypt on an Islamic tour of the Middle East and ran into an Iraqi student, Mun'im, who invited him to Iraq to learn about the doctrines of the twelver Shi'a. Al-Samawi spent several weeks with Mun'im and visited Baghdad, and Najaf, and met with several leading Shi'a scholars, including Grand Ayatollah Abul-Qassim Khoei (al-Khu'i), Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and Allameh Tabatabaei, who spent hours teaching him about Shiism from their perspective. They provided him many books. He went home and while studying, he decided "to never depending on any reference unless it is considered authentic by the two parties, and to discarding those references that are solely referred to by only one of the parties." . Eventualy, he considered himself converted to the Shi'i school of thought.

Legacy

He authored four books who became very popular in many countries, and even baned in some. The books caused a large number of Sunnis to adopt the twelver Shi'a school.

Sunni view

Sunni criticism of Al-Samawi, some examples of which are linked below, centers on his being uneducated, and not an example of a Sunni scholar who became a Shi'i, but rather a relatively uneducated man who was in name a Sunni, who learned about Shiism and adopted it.

Shi'a view

Dr Tijani became something of a celebrity among Shi'a.

Works

• And then i was Guided - (Arabic Thumma Ihtadaytu)
• Ask those who know
• To be with the truthful
• The Shi'ah are (the real) Ahl al-Sunnah

See also

• List of Islamic scholars

External links

• Striving for Right Guidance — A Speech Delivered by Dr. Muhammad al-Tijani al-Samawi

Ansar.org links:

• The four books of Al-Tijani ( Presentation & Criticism )
• Exposing Al-Tijani’s Lies in His Book:“Then I was Guided”
• Answering Al-Tijani's Libels against Abu Hurayrah
• Answering Al-Tijani in his claim that the four Sunni Imams learned knowledge from Imam Jaffar Al-Saddiq
• Answering Al-Tijani's allegations against Mu'awiyah bin Abi Sufyan
• Al-Tijani's Allegations against the Mother of Beleivers Aisha ( may Allah be pleased at her )
• Answering Al-Tijani's Libels against Uthman Ibn Affan

Answering-ansar.org links:

• A refutation of Ansar's allegation that 'Abu Hanifa was NOT a student of Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq (as)
• Answering Ansar.org's defence of Mu'awyia bin Hind
• The rebellion of Hadhrath Ayesha against Hadhrath 'Ali (as)
• Answering-Ansar's refutation of Ansar's article on Uthman.