1

Muhammad ‘Ali Sanūsī: Life and Movement

Introduction
There are many revival movements which rose at different times in the different corners of
the world mostly these movements rise in thirteenth/nineteenth century. These movements have
serve Islam at different times rather saved Islam at many crucial times. However all the movements
which rise for the safeguard of Islam at various stages had played very important role to carry
forward Islam. There were many ways that these revival movements had took and had worked
upon and even had achieved their goals also. The main contribution of almost all the revival
movements can be said that was to save Islam from the amalgamations and to keep it pure as it.
This is one of the reason that we can find in the history of Islam that whenever there was any type
of threat to Islam ‘Ulama had come forward and took majors to save it. Among the revivalist
movements especially in the Arab world is Sanūsī Movement which like others Movements had
played very important role for the safe guard of Islam especially in the field of spirituality and
political dimension of Islam. This movement is regarded as the reaction to the both spiritual
disintegration and the political threat to the very existence of Islam. 1
Life of Sayed Muhammad bin ‘Ali al-Sanūsī (Grand Sanūsī).
The Founder of the Sanūsī movement was Sayed Muhammad bin ‘Ali al-Sanūsī (also
known as Grand Sanūsī) was born in 1202/17872. In the village of al Wasita, near Mustagham, in
Algeria. During this time there was a great disturbance in the region in mostly Politically, Socially
and economically also. These instabilities were because of the rulers of Ottoman Empire and there
misrule on the country. In these condition this great personality of having high thinking and reason
power grow up and he starts to ponder upon the present situation of the country and thus he was
much concerned about the people of his country and he started to think rationally and tried to done
lot for his People in Algeria. Along with him the other sheiks of the country also came forward to
think about the situation and these Sheiks not only tried to think about the welfare of the people
living in their own country but to the unity of the whole Muslim territories all over the world.
The Grand Sanūsī received his education from a number of Sheiks in the Algeria at his
native village. His teachers include Abu Tālib al-Mazuni, abu-Mahl, ibn al-Qanduz al-
Mustaghānemi and many more. Under thee Sheiks he studied Qur’an, Ḥadīth and Muslim
jurisprudence in general.3 For further education he went to fez but soon after he found the
conditions were not good to continue and he then moved to Egypt and here he was benefited by

1
M. M. Sharif, A History of Muslim Philosophy, Vol. II , Adam Publishers and Distributors Delhi-6 India p. no 1458
2
Ibid p. no 1458
3
Ibid p. no. 1459
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many sheiks and then he moved to Hijāz, where he studied under the Sheikh Sulaimān al-‘Ajami
and Ahmad bin ‘Abd Allāh bin Idrīs.
It is interesting to know that after he was benefited from these sheikhs at different times at
different countries he had a great influence of these sheiks on his life as rightly quoted from the
different sources by M. M Sharif in his book 1.
The influence of their Sufi teachings, and particularly those of the Tijānīyyah order in
Morocco, and later on he became the member of the Sufi orders, Including Shādhiyyah,
Nāsiriyyah and Qādiriyyah. But he does not have whole heatedly in the favor of their
teachings.
However it is much interested that he was always thinking of some great change even in
the spiritual lines because after join these sufi orders he was not influenced at high degree but he
had thought to take good of the all these orders and then to combine it in the new way and make a
crown of it.
Thus Muhammad ‘Ali Sanūsī traveling many places just first to attain Knowledge and after
when he was comfortable to think about the prevailing situation of the Muslims not only in those
places that he visited but he was concerned the conditions of the Muslims of the whole world. He
then tried to preach his ideas in different places mainly his native birth place rather country, Egypt
and Hijāz but unfortunately he had faced great challenges to preach his ideas among the common
masses. In this journey he faced one of the great opposition in Egypt because here ‘Ulamas from
al-Azahar issued fatwas against him and the government of the country did allow him to stay there
for a longer times so finally he had moved to Hijāj. However the main concern of the Muhammad
was to find out the cause of the backwardness of the Muslims and also remedy for it, He was of
this view that the remedy of this is only possible by the restoration of the Pure Islam and the not
only in His country but all over the world. 2 He had visited Hijāj for the main objective of
Pilgrimage (Hajj) and soon after that he also left Hijāj with his teacher who met him there Idrīs al-
Fāsī of Morocco and both left for Yemen but after the death of the Idrīs in 1837 he again came
back to Makkah and Founded His First Lode or Zawīyah. 3 Although this was not the begging of
his mission but definitely it was his first settlement wherein he feel much comfortable to establish
what he wanted to preach. Soon after he shifted this Zawīyah to Jaghbub in 1856 and he was
successful in Constricting the large Zawīyah there. Thus as the fruits of his movements were
ripening he was achieving highs after highs and the one of the great achievement was that when
one the tribes invited him to construct a Zawīya in Kufra in the group of oases covering an area of
20,000 square miles between Cyrenaica and Lake Chad. 4
Thus during his stay here he completely changed these people and they were transformed
morally and spiritually and many more in this region have embraced Islam. He died in 1859.

op. cit., p. no. 1459

1

op. cit., p no. 1460

2
3
Maryam Jameelah, Islam In theory and Practice, Taj printers 69-Najafgarh Road, Industries Area New Delhi-110015, 2004, p.no 128
4
Ibid p.no 129
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Teachings of Sanūsī Movement

So far as the teachings of the Sanūsī movement are concerned it is quite evident that
Muhammad ‘Ali Sanūsī had travelled to many countries and he was grieved with the conditions
of the Muslims all over the world and this might not have given him a peace of rest because he
had received knowledge from various prominent Scholars and he was enthusiastic from his early
stage of Life that Muslims need reform so he had make his mind to do this duty for the safe guard
of Islam.
In 1856 this movement had achieved such a position that its founder grand Sanūsī moved
this order from spiritual order along with the political order also rather movement and its teachings
were extended to all over the world.
In its nature this movements is strictly called Sufi order and calling for the Puritanism and
a return to the true tenets of Islam and rites of Islam. Al Sanūsī had mainly laid emphasis on the
purification of the soul and the unification with God. The process of this accomplishing of the
“Solvation” is described by the Grand Sanūsī himself in the three of his nine books:
1. Al- Salsabī al-Ma‘īn fi al-Tarā’iq al-Arba‘īn (The Sweet Spring of the Forty orders),
wherein he describes Seven Stages through which the soul has to pass in order to
become purified and the united with God.
2. Kitāb al Mā’ol al-‘Ashr, al-Musamma Bughyat al-Maqāsid fi Khulāsat al-Marāsid
(The book of ten Problems, called the purposes of desires and the summary of
intentions) in which he discuss ten of the problems which the Muslims encountered in
their daily prayers.
3. Iqād al-Wasnān fil al-‘Amal bi al-Ḥadīth w-al-Qur’ān ( awaking the slumbered
through observance of the Ḥadīth and the Qur’an), In which in an effort to extol the
virtues of the following of the Prophet’s Sayings and the practice, He deals with the
various ways and the means followed by the Muslims ‘Ulama’ for understanding the
Ḥadīth.1.
The basic feature of the Sanūsī movement is that it took attempts to reconcile and combine
the two methods to Islamic religious thought: that of the “Ulama’ who adhere to Sharī‘ah and that
of the Sufis. In this he tried to follow al-Ghazali. But the grand Sanūsī was trying to follow the
path of the’ ‘Ulama’ admired and was greatly influenced by the Ibn Taimīyyah, though he differed
with him in his attitude of Sufism and tolerated the Sufi practices.

After the Grand Sunūsī

In 1859 Grand Sunūsī died and he was succeed by his son who was sixteen at that time
namely al-Mahdī. He had joined his father less than a year his father died. It was the time when
threats of the Europeans was very high that they may colonize the country and the people were
expecting that al-Mahdī will restore the justice and righteousness.

1
M. M. Sharif ibid p. no. 1468.
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However during the time of al-Mahdī the Sanūsī Movement reached its prime and the most
important was that this movement was demanding from its followers to work hard. In this time
Jugbub was now the main center of religion and education.
It has all the dreaming peace of a small university town on its done are turbaned, grey-
beard sheiks in long, flowing, white jerds over grass green or indigo blue robes. It’s one commence
building with thick windowless walls surrounding a maze of courts, passages, schools, lodgings
for students, the big houses of the Sanūsī family and Mosque. When al-Mahdhī went to Kufra he
freed fifty slaves then the gardens they firmly cultivated for their masters demanding their rights
of positions be respected by his successors by now there is a lonely of these liberated back salves
who live among the palms of the wadī.
Between 1317/1899 (the date of the Anglo-French Declaration concerning disputed
frontiers in the area) and 1320/1902, a number of armed clashes took place between the French
garrisons and the Sanūsī forces in the area, with results alternating between Sanūsī victory and
French ascendancy.
With the death of Sayyid al-Mahdī at Qiru in the summer of 1320/1902, however, the Order
suffered a great blow and its resistance against the French began to crumble. Sayyid Ahmad al-
Sharif, the successor of Sayyid al-Mahdi, apprehensive of French advance and of the designs on
Africa harbored by the other leading European Powers, was careful to avoid any friction with any
of these powers
Being a well-read Shaikh and scholar, he preferred the mosque and religious instruction to
the sword and the field. He, thus, moved the seat of the Order back to Kufra. It was in fact because
of this that the fortunes of the Order began to suffer. The political, religious, and economic progress
achieved by the Order during Sayed al-Mahdi's tenure began now to diminish. In addition, personal
rivalries among members of the Sanūsī family, after Sayyid al-Mahdi's death, helped to further
weaken the solidarity and strength of the Order and to halt the extension of its influence. By the
time the Italian invasion of Libya began in 1329/1911, the Order was already on the decline.
Italy's occupation of Libya lasted until 1362/1943 and formally ended with the conclusion
of the Italian peace treaty in February 1947. On December 22, 1930, a Royal Decree was issued,
whereby the various pacts between the Italians and the Sansui’s were formally revoked and the
lodges were closed. The sequestration of the estates and goods of these lodges was ordered. By
this Decree all movable and immovable property of the lodges was confiscated and transferred to
the patrimony of the “Colony” (i.e., Libya). The Decree even expressly forbade any recourse to
the courts against seizures thus made by the Italian administration. The Saniyah Order itself was
considered by the Italians to be an illegal association. By the outbreak of the Second World War
the Order had been finally crippled both as a spiritual and as a political force. It was not until
August 1939 that the Sanūsī leaders again began to recover their lost position as liberators and
leaders of Libya. And it was not until December 1951, following many internal and external
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developments, that Libya emerged as an independent and sovereign State under the political and,
to a much lesser extent, spiritual leadership of the Sanūsī Order 1

Conclusion.
Thus, this order although faced a lot to success but finally got success in its mission that
al-Sanūsī’s mission was completed. He was influenced by many Sufi orders but did not follow
blindly their practices he realized that what is true and what is not but his main aim of this
movement was not divide Muslim ummah but to unite that is why he sometimes seems that is more
sufi than other hard core revivalists like Muhammad ibn wahhab, as it has been said the Sanūsī
movement differs with the movement of Muhammad ibn Wahhab in this respect that he did not
give any space to Sufism but al-Sanūsī had tolerated even the practices of the sufi orders but they
have not allowed practiced like singing and dances as was being considered that is the means to
get salvation. Thus the movements got success in uniting Muslims not only in the Libya but in the
whole world. Al-Sanūsī did not give any new concept in Islam but revive the old concepts already
existed Dīn. He had laid emphasis on the following of the Qur’an and the Sunnah and had
considered only this the Islamic Sharī’ah. However he had given place to the Qiyās and Ijmah and
Ijtīhad too.

Bibliography
1. Sharif M. M, A history of Muslim Philosophy, , Vol. II , Adam Publishers and Distributors Delhi-6
India
2. Maryam Jameelah, Islam In theory and Practice, Taj printers 69-Najafgarh Road, Industries Area New Delhi-
110015, 2004, p.no 128
3. Saima Raza Italian Colonization and Libyan Resistance to the Al-Sanūsī of Cyrenaica 1911-1922.
University of Sussex, UK.

1
op. cit., p no. 1481