Abū al-Maḥāsin Yūsuf b.

Muḥammad al-Fāsī al-Fihrī

(d.1013)
Masters of the Shādhili Path Series

Translated by Sidi Idris Watts

Originally from Andalusia, but born and raised in al-Qaṣr al-Kabīr,

Sīdī Yusūf spent most of his life studying and travelling to and from Fez.

His grandfather Yūsuf, a merchant by trade, used to travel to and

fro to Fez until the people of al-Qaṣr al-Kabīr began to nickname him al-
Fāsī. Their lineage goes back to Fihr, who is Quraysh b. Mālik b. al-Naḍr
b. Kinānah. Their ancestor, Saʿīd b. Zayd, was one of those promised
Paradise by the Prophet .

He was born on a Thursday night on the 19 th Rabīʿ al-Awwal in the

year 938. He read and memorised the book of God in his home city of
al-Qaṣr. He mastered the reading of Nāfʿ there in a mosque called Ṭaraf
al-Qaṭṭānīn under the supervision of ʿAlī al-ʿArabī. Once he had fnished
his studies, his teacher completed a whole recitation of the Qurʾān in
front of him for the blessing. This was because of the good he had seen
in his student after hearing what his spiritual master ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-
Majdūb had to say about him.

Sīdī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān would come and visit al-Qaṣr to see Sīdī
Yūsuf. He would sit in the Qurʾānic School and tell the people there of
what would become of this young man. He told him that one-day he
would leave for Fez. On one visit, he said to them, “I rushed here
before anyone else could get to him.” On another occasion, he came
into the school and stroked the boy’s head, repeating three times,
“May God teach you of the outward and inward knowledge.” One day
whilst sitting with Sīdī Yūsuf’s teacher ʿAlī al-ʿArabī, he said, “This is a
flower that will bloom for sure. If you live till that day, you indeed shall
see.”

Whilst still in al-Qaṣr, Sīdī Yūsuf’s spiritual awakening began.

Whilst sitting in the school, a state took hold of him and his inward
being shone with the light of the Divine Oneness and all but God
vanished before him. At this time, he had only just reached puberty.
Sīdī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Majdūb took him under his wing. He was now
under his teacher’s instruction. He never left his side and was in
complete submission to his direction. His master’s teachings were
harsh. Few were able to bear them. He would test him on numerous
occasions. On the day of Sīdī Yūsuf’s marriage, when he was still
dressed up for the occasion, his teacher took him aside. Then he called
for some frewood. He set the wood alight in the room to keep himself
warm. The whole room was flled with smoke and the people fell sick,
coughing and choking from the fumes. His master looked quickly to his
student and found that he was not affected. He then grabbed him and
took him to his room and left him there alone in the cold. He was
overcome by a cold fever and all he had for protection from the cold
was a horse saddle. He was left like this for the next forty days. When
the forty days were up his master came and told him to get up and go
back to his family.

He did not give up his studies in this period. He began to study

the Art of Qurʾānic Recitation (Tajwīd) and other religious sciences such
as Fiqh and Grammar under the teaching of Sīdī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b.
Muhammad al-Khabbāz al-Qaṣrī1. He taught him the work of Ibn Abī
Zayd in Sacred Law and the thousand-line didactic poem of Ibn Mālik in
grammar and his poem in morphology ‘Lāmiyah al-Afʿāl’. He also
studied the work of Sanūsī in the tenants of faith.

The people would censure and ridicule Sīdī Yūsuf because of his
relations with Sīdī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. He was adamant on sticking by his
teacher, though. “Even if you were to strike me with swords of fre, I
would not turn my back on him.” When the people saw his conviction,
they wrote to Sīdī Yūsuf’s teachers in Fez. His teachers tried to
convince him to leave this man, but to no avail. Sīdī Yūsuf served his
master with all that he had. He would support him fnancially to the
point where he put himself into poverty. One day, he came to his
master with the keys to his house and told him to sell them and use
the money for his needs. However, his master told him to keep hold of
them.

Before 960, he travelled to Fez with his father to further his

studies. There, he met and studied with Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Wahhāb az-
Zaqqāq and ‘Abd al-Rahman b. Ibrahim al-Dukkālī, who delivered the
Friday Sermon in the Qarawiyyīn. He did not stay long, though. By the
year 960, he was back in al-Qaṣr. Again in 963, he travelled to Fez. He
continued his studies and took from the remaining teachers there such
as Kharrūf al-Tūnūsi2, Ibn Jalāl al-Talimsānī, who delivered the sermons in
the Qarawiyyīn and Andalus, and ʿAbū al-ʿAbbās al-Manjūr to mention

1
Sīdī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muhammad al-Khabbāz al-Qaṣrī (d. 964) was a great scholar
of the Qurʾānic variants. He wrote works on the science such as ‘at-Tafṣīl fī aṭ-Ṭuruq al-
ʿAshar’ (Expounding upon the Ten Variant Readings of Qurʾān’)
2
Muḥammad Kharrūf al-Tūnūsi (d.1066) He had studied in both Tunisia and Egypt and
at one point was imprisoned but the Sultan of Fez paid for his release.
but a few.

He returned back to al-Qaṣr with a wealth of knowledge. He held

lessons in various sciences, and the people rushed to attend. The
people of al-Qaṣr benefted immensely from his teachings. Now that he
had taken his portion of outward knowledge he was ready to give full
dedication to the spiritual teachings of his Master in the path again. He
was to serve him up until his death. He gave his all to him and his
teacher tested him severely in order to complete his training to the
best standard. He provided for him fnancially until he had little left for
himself. One day his teacher asked him to bring him a large amount of
wealth. Sīdī Yūsuf set off to his house and he did not have the amount
required, so he became adamant that he would sell his house. With this
intent, he headed back to his home and as he was preparing to sell it a
source of income came to him that was enough to acquire the full
amount and from then the doors of provision opened up for him though
the blessing of his teacher. People would come to him demanding that
he teach them in the discipline of the spiritual sciences and he would
refuse, sending them to his teacher instead. He was by his side for
more than twenty years. His teacher was extremely proud to have him
as a student. He would boast to the people about him and elaborate
praise upon him saying, “With me is the son of Fez. With him, we take
on the Muslim West,” or “With him, we take on the Muslim East and
West.” On numerous occasions, upon seeing him, he would cry, “Oh
Lamp of this Community!” and proclaim, “He is the master of both
sciences: outward and inward! Without a doubt he is at the station of
Ghazālī .”

Whilst his teacher was on his death bed, he gathered his

students and told them that he had not left them orphans but that
such and such a man would take the mantle of the order. He began
describing the qualities of this man until no-one in the room was in
doubt as to who it was, and then he pointed to Sīdī Yūsuf, who was at
his head and he placed his hand on his head saying, “This is the man!”

He would also take beneft from various spiritual masters of his

time merely for the blessing especially masters connected to the Jazūlī
Order. From one particular teacher, Sīdī Abū an-Najā Sālim al-ʿAmmārī3,
he took a litany that he would recite after every prayer.

After the death of his master, Sīdī Yūsuf took his teachings from
Sīdī ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Ḥusayn al-Amghārī (d. 977) buried in Tamsaluht
near Marrakesh.

3
Sīdī Abū an-Najā Sālim al-ʿAmmārī (d.) He took from Abū Zayd ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān b.
Rīsūn who is buried in Tāṣrūt of Mount ʿAlam and took from ʿAbd Allāh al-Ghazwānī.
 After he passed away he had a vision of the Prophet (may Allah
bless him and grant him peace) and a number of masters stood
testimony that he had qualifed as a master of the spiritual path.
Thereon his name became known. His light spread through the hearts
of the people and both scholar and layman took him as teacher. The
frst to do so were the students of his frst Master Sīdī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān
al-Majdūb. For eleven years he remained in al-Qaṣr.

After the death of his teacher, a certain group of scholars began

to spread false accusations about the credibility of his Master and
suggested that he did not live according to the boundaries of the
Divine Law. They accused Sīdī Yūsuf of misguiding the common people
and they took their complaint to the Sultan of the time. Sīdī Yūsuf was
called to Fez to defend himself. His students in al-Qaṣr accompanied
him to Fez. When he and his entourage of students arrived in Fez he
was welcomed by the noble scholar and friend Abū Sarḥān Masʿūd al-
Ḥumayrī known as al-Qaṣṣārah. He insisted that he host him and all his
companions. Sīdī Yūsuf told his students not to fear anyone causing
them harm as long as this man was by their side. After three days the
accusers came together with the Mufti of Fez Ibn Jalāl al-Talimsānī in his
quarters of the Qarawiyyīn to discuss the issue. They had no
discrepancies with Sīdī Yūsuf personally and that they did not question
his knowledge and standing but said that his teacher was a man of
questionable character due to certain acts that were ascribed to him.
Ibn Jalāl al-Talimsānī replied, “Is this all you have to say? If you had
been inspired to the truth you would never have come to this. It is
enough for you to follow a man you know to be of sound knowledge
and impeccable character. This is ignorance upon ignorance! Sīdī al-
Ḥalwī of Talimsān4 was known to have performed acts far more extreme
4
Abū ʿAbd Allāh ash-Shūdhī al-Ishbīlī known as al- Ḥalwī from Talimsān. Qisṭallānī called
him the al-Ḥallāj of Morocco. He used to sell cakes (ḥalwah) in the streets hence the
nickname. Abū Hannān said about him: “I came as a visitor to Talimsān and I saw this
shaykh in the market place with a table laden with cakes. Children would pass by and
he would hand them the cakes. I had the intuition that this was a man of the Folk. I
followed him and the children would chase him whilst he was dancing and at times he
would sing lines of poetry about love of God. I had no doubt now that he was from
amongst the righteous. Then he took the money he had made from the cakes and
bought a cut of bread for an orphan. This was at the end of the month of Rama ḍān, so
when the morning of ʿĪd came, I went to buy some butter and honey and said to my
aunt, ‘Prepare some food for a righteous man who will come and have breakfast with
me.’ As she did so I went off to look for him after the ʿĪd Prayer but I did not fnd him.
At that moment I said to myself, ‘O God, by the rank of this man, bring me together
with him at this moment!” All of a sudden I found him to my right. He hugged me and
said, ‘Has you aunt prepared the food?’ I affirmed that she had. Then he said, “Come
and eat this meal that I have now and then we will set off for your aunts.” I went with
him to the Gate of the City called Bāb ash-Sharīʿah and he pulled out a place covered
over by a cloth. Underneath was a plate of the same meal my aunt was preparing yet
than those you have questioned, yet the people accept and
acknowledge his status as a man of God. They never acted as you did.
Leave and take this opportunity to save yourselves. Don’t go back to
anything of this like again. You expose yourselves to the promise God
has made for those who bring harm to one of those He loves.” The
scholars present admitted their mistake and departed.

He fought against the Portuguese at the Battle of Tāmdah 986. In

the battle, one of the flanks of the army was broken and the Muslims
were shaken and the Spanish charged them. Many fled but Sīdī Yūsuf
and his companions held frm until the Muslims were granted victory.
When the spoils of war were being distributed he took none of it.

One day he left his house and found his workers outside the
zāwiyah adjacent to his house. They were building the zāwiyah at the
time and he found them moving some of the sand that they would mix
with the plaster with steeds unknown to him. He asked whose steeds
these were and they told him they belonged to a government official
they knew. He addressed them harshly saying, “Don’t ever do this
again. Leave this sand for something it can be used for later, but don’t
use anything of a doubtful source for the house God all-Mighty even if
it is minimal. God does not accept anything but that which is good.”
They left the sand until they used it for some other purpose.

Later on in his life his heart felt the urge to move back to Fez;
however he knew the people of al-Qaṣr would not accept this so he
decided frst of all to send his family ahead of him as if they were
merely going there to visit. He himself set out for Fez in 988. Once he
had reached Fez, and the people of al-Qaṣr found out, they mourned
his leaving and it was not until he came back to reassure them and
ease their pain that they accepted his move.

He established his zāwiyah in 1104 IE by the side of his house in

the Makhfyyah District near Raṣīf. The frst prayer they prayed there
was Ẓuhr. He placed a library of books there by the left hand side of the

it was like no other quality I had seen before. We ate it and then headed for my
aunts. She brought us the food but it was not comparable to the plate we had just
had at all. We ate a little and then once we had fnished he asked me what I am
studying. I told him that I was a student of Qurʾān. ‘Would you like to become stronger
in your studies?’ he asked. I told him that I did indeed. “Meet me tomorrow in the
mosque underneath the gate called Bāb al-Qarmādīn and we will read whatever you
want.’ I went to see him the next day and found him sitting down on the floor so I sat
in front of him and he told me to recite. I read ‘Bismillah’ and he went on to talk of its
virtue for days after. Then I read a Prophetic Tradition to him and some topics related
to etiquettes and manners. I managed to beneft from him for the nest two years. He
was constantly fasting. He was originally a judge in Seville but then he fled and
sought asylum in Talimsān guising himself as a madman.
prayer niche. He established the teaching of the science of Prophetic
Traditions, ar-Risālah of Ibn Abī Zayd, al-Mukhtaṣar of Khalīl between
Maghrib and ʿIshāʾ. The teaching of the science of Prophetic Traditions
was held on Thursday and Friday nights and the other books of Fiqh
would be taught on the other days. His zāwiyah was the most precise
prayer niche towards the direction of prayer. 5

He had many litanies that he would read in the day and he would
never leave one of them unless he was struck by illness. He did not like
to hear any of the fuqarā take the litanies or any of the supererogatory
prayers lightly.

He was a man of much worship. He used to pray in the night

reciting the Book of God. Once the true dawn rose he would pray his
two cycles of prayer in his home and then recite some of his litanies for
a short period and then leave for the mosque. From amongst the
litanies he read would be:

5
There are many prayer niches in Fez that are off the direction towards the Kaʿbah.
The direction for Morocco is south-east. In Fiqh, the direction must be within 90
degrees of the Kaʿbah. at-Tajūrī said that whoever says that the direction can be
anywhere between east and south is wrong. Therefore whatever goes past more than
forty fve degrees southerly or easterly is outside the direction of the prayer without
debate. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Qaṣṣār before taking on the responsibility of giving the
Friday Sermon in the Qarawiyyīn used to pray in Buʿnāniyyah Madrasah, saying, “The
prayer niche there is more exact than both the Qarawiyyīn and Andalus Mosques,
There is consensus that one must face the direction of prayer as for the issue
regarding the permissibility of praying Friday Prayer in more than one mosque there
is difference of opinion and the people have taken the position that it is valid to do so
as more reliable and this is the practice.” Andalus is more precise than the
Qarawiyyīn. Andalus is about 35 degrees off southerly whilst the Qarawiyyīn if 39
degrees off southerly. Most people prefer to pray in Andalus today because it was the
frst mosque to hold the Friday Prayer. Sīdī Yusūf used to prayer in Andalus and he
would refrain from talking ill of the direction of the prayer niche but he would turn to
the side in his prayer slightly to face the correct direction. He would say, “It is off the
correct direction due to a matter that was out of the people’s hands,” and stop at
that.

Ḥamdūn ibn al-Ḥājj mentions: The direction of prayer like the mosques in Fez is of a
questionable nature. The prayer niche of the Qarawiyyīn is different to that of
Andalus, yet Andalus is closer to the correct direction in terms of reliable proof as
related by Mayyārah in his super commentary on Ibn ʿĀshir and al-Qarāfī. In fact at-
Tājūrī wrote a treatise clarifying that the majority of prayer niches in Fez were inclined
to the right of the direction of prayer and that the reason for the people before
building them like this was due to their understanding of the saying of the Prophet ,
‘What lies between the east and west is the direction of prayer without restriction’.
However this tradition is specifc to the people who were living in Madīnah and those
after them from the north…As for those people in the east and west their direction is
between the north and south’.” (Ḥāshiyah Ḥamdūn ibn al-Ḥājj ʿAlā Sharḥ Mayyārah,
p309 Dār al-Fikr, Beirut Lebanon 1992)
 ‫يياَ يحيي يياَ قيقييوُّمم ليإليهي إلل أين ي‬
‫ت‬
“O Living, O Self Subsistent, there is no god but You!”

He would read this forty times. It is said that it brings life to one’s
heart by reciting it, expands one’s breast and brings wisdom on the
tongue. Once he had read this, he would head for the mosque and pray
behind the Imām of the mosque who was his son and then read the
litanies after the prayer and then all the congregation would raise their
hands to supplicate and end by bringing their hands to faces as is the
practice of the people.6 Then he would sit in the middle of the zāwiayh,
facing the prayer niche and the people would sit with him and they
would recite the litanies of the order together. Once the sun had nearly
risen he would go to his home and read Qurʾān completing it every
seven days. The frst day he would read three chapters, the second fve
chapters, the third seven chapters, the fourth nine chapters, the ffth
eleven chapters, the sixth thirteen chapters and the seventh he would
complete the remaining chapters. This was the practice of the
Companions as related by Ibn Mājah and Abū Dāwūd. He would recite
from the book despite the fact he had memorized it, desiring the virtue
of not just reciting the words but giving his eyes the reward of looking
upon them too. After fnishing he would return back to the zāwiyah and
greet the people who would have just fnished the litanies. They would
sit and talk for a time and then he would return to his home and pray
the prayer of Ishrāq and Ḍuḥā. He used to renew his ablution for every
prayer and would try his best to be in a constant sate of purity. He had
a set of prayer beads from Jujube wood. He had one hundred beads on
his string which he would keep with him at all times. He loved the
books of exegesis especially Ibn ʿAṭiyyah, al-Wajīz of al-Wāḥidī and Ibn
Juzayy’s Tashīl. He loved to take an hour siesta before Ḍuhr. Then he
would get up, perform his ablutions and head for the mosque. He
would follow the time of the Qarawiyyīn where they would delay the
prayer a little. After praying he would head home and when the time
for ʿAṣr came he would delay it just as was the practice in the
Qarawiyyīn and then sit in the mosque where his son Abū ʿAbbās would
come and read in front of him Saḥīḥ al-Bukhārī or Saḥīḥ Muslim. On
other occasions he might read aṭ-Ṭālib al-Makkī’s Qūt al-Qulūb or Imām
al-Ghazālī’s al-Iḥyāʾ. As for Ramāḍān, he would read Saḥīḥ al-Bukhārī
every day until he completed it at the end of the month. He preferred
to teach only Exegesis, Prophetic Tradition and Sufsm. As for the books
6
A practice that has come down to us from the Prophet  as related in a tradition in
Abū Dāwūd: “If you petition God then petition him with your palms not with the back
of your hands.” And aṭ-Ṭabarī relates that when the Prophet  used to supplicate he
would bring his palms to his face.” There are other numerous traditions relating the
same practice in the books of at-Tirmidhī, al-Bazzār, Ibn Ḥibbān, Ibn Mājah and al-
Ḥākim.
of Sufsm, he would read from as-Sahrawardī’s ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif’, al-
Harawī’s ‘Manāzil as-Sāʾirīn’, as-Sulamī’s ʿUyūb an-Nafs’, Abū an-Najīb
as-Sahrawardī’s Madhāhib aṣ-Ṣūfyyah, and Ibn ʿAbbād’s commentary on
al-Ḥikam of Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Illāh. He would fast every Monday and Thursday as
well as the other virtuous days to fast unless he had a reason not too.

He had various litanies of his own and alongside them he would

recite with the brethren together in unison the litany of Imām al-Jazūlī’s
Ḥizb al-Falāḥ, Aḥmad Zarrūq, Imām as-Shādhilī’s al-Ḥizb al-Kabīr in the
morning. In the afternoon they would recite the litany of Aḥmad Zarrūq
again and then after sunset they would read the Prayer of Moulay ʿAbd
as-Salām, Imām al-Jazūlī’s Ḥizb al-Falāḥ and:

‫يحنسبْمقيناَ الم يو نإنعيم اليوُّإكيل‬

“God is sufficient for us and the best of guardians.” (seventy times)

On Friday he would sit with the congregation after the sermon

and prayer and each person would recite individually:

‫ك النلبْإلي يو المإملي‬
‫ك يو يرمسوُّلإ ي‬
‫صلل يعليى يسيلإديناَ مميحلمدد يعنبْإديك يو نيبْإيل ي‬
‫أل لمهلم ي‬
“O God send prayers upon our Lord Muḥammad, Your slave, Prophet
and Messenger, the Unlettered Prophet!” (eighty times)

Then the Khaṭīb would raise his hands in prayer and recite the Fātiḥah
and wipe his face with his hands.

He was a great lover of celebrating the birthday of the Prophet .

He would gather the singers of sufc poetry, but would not allow any
form of instrument to be played. They would start at the beginning of
dawn and continue up to the noon. He would feed the people al-
ʿAṣīdah (a dish made from semolina and eaten with honey) at-Tarīd (a
savoury dish made with thin sheets of pastry, meat and covered in
honey) and he would also provide them with rice cooked with
buttermilk laced with country butter and honey on that day also. The
poor would gather in droves and be seen carrying portions back home
with them. He provided food on the day of the Prophet’s  birthday and
seven days after on the 18th also. The idea is that the seventh would
have been when a sacrifce would have been made for the birth of the
Prophet .

Despite him being physically strong he frequently suffered from

fevers which would leave him bed stricken at times. In the last two
years of his life he was constantly ill preventing him from leaving his
home. It was on the 12th of Rabīʿ al-Awwal that he was struck with the
illness which was to be his last. A stranger entered the mosque and
Sīdī Yūsuf cried out, “O Benefcent! God have mercy on me!” (yā laṭīf,
ulṭuf bi nā) He kept repeating it until the man came up to him. The man
gave him greetings and then sat by his side. He said to him, “O kind
sir, I welcome my meeting with God all-Mighty.” Then the man got up
and walked away until he disappeared. For the next six days he was
bed ridden. He enumerated the invocation:

‫ل و أينستْيقغنإفر ال و لي حوُّيل و لي قمقلوُّية إلل إباَ إ‬

‫ل‬ ‫إ‬
‫ين ي‬ ‫م ي ي‬ ‫اليحنممد ي‬
“All praise be to God; I ask His forgiveness and there is no strength or
power save through Him.” (x 500)

People began to visit him. At times he would be awake and at

others he would be unconscious. When he did wake up he would give
us advice. At one time he told us, “My teachers promised me that I
would not remain longer than twenty fve years in Fez and those
twenty fve years have just come to pass.” One of those days, a man
brought some Zamzam water for the Shaykh and told him to drink it
with the intention to be healed. When he was asked what intention he
had made he said that he had asked God to direct him towards Him.”

He died on Sunday the 18 th of Rabīʿ al-Awwal 1013 IE in the frst

third of the night. They moved him to the middle of the house and he
was washed the next day. People could see light between his eyes. He
was prayed over in Andalus Mosque at Ḍuhr Prayer. They buried him
outside of the gate Bāb al-Futūḥ. They had previously bought the land
there and the Shaykh had told them to build a wall around the grave.
He had told his students not to build over his grave at that time
because it was a time of great recession and people were suffering
from poverty. He said, “Have shame before God from spending this
money in building over my grave whilst the Muslims are in need of this
money to but their sustenance and saving their lives. Do not spend this
money on cement but rather spend it on the poor!” It was later on that
his student Sīdī Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh Maʿan spent money on its
construction.