A Life in the Service

By Aliyu Abdullahi Tanko, "Nigeria: Sheikh Cisse - the Scholar of Our Time" - All Africa - Washington, USA
Sunday, September 7, 2008

With the death of Shaykh Imam Hassan Cisse, a life in the service of Allah and humanity, rich and fruitful in the history of Tijjaniya brotherhood and Islam ended.

Muslims will always be indebted to Imam for his relentless efforts at promoting Islam and peaceful coexistence with followers of other religions the world over. He gave us a picture with unity and harmony surpassing the boldest dreams of the present Muslim Ummah. He was always prepared to help people in difficulties especially the orphans.

Shaykh Cisse emerged as one of the prominent leaders of Tijaniyya in the world until his death. He is an accomplished Islamic scholar that emerged from a long and vibrant legacy of Islamic learning in West Africa.

The grandson and spiritual heir of Shaykh Ibrahim Nyas, he was designated by Shaykh Ibrahim as Imam of the Jama'at Nasr al-Ilm "Community of Helping Knowledge", the followers of Shaykh Ibrahim who are historically the largest single Muslim movement in the twentieth-century West Africa.

Shaykh Hassan is a consummate scholar and spiritual guide. He received a complete training in the traditional Islamic sciences: the Qur'an and its exegesis (tafsir), Prophetic traditions (hadith) and history (seerah), jurisprudence and its sources (fiqh and usul), literature (adab), poetry, grammar and Sufism (tasawwuf).

After memorizing the Qur'an at a young age in Mauritania, he was educated mostly in Senegal under the personal supervision of his Grandfather Shaykh Ibrahim Nyas, who had gathered in Kaolack, Senegal, along with some of the most renowned scholars from Senegal, Mauritania, Nigeria, and beyond. Shaykh Hassan's own father, Sidi Ali Cisse, and his mother, Sayyada Fatima Zahra Nyas were also great and vast in knowledge of Islam. The name "Cisse" is synonymous with "scholar."

Shaykh Hassan's own scholarly reputation has earned him the respect of Muslim 'ulama around the world. For example, Shaykh Yasin al-Fadani (d. 1990), the Indonesian musnid of the Hijaz, sent him a personal diploma (ijaza) transmitting to some 700 diplomas Shaykh Yasin had collected from prominent scholars throughout the Islamic world. Similarly, the great Hadith scholar of Medina, Shaykh Ahmad Muhammad Abd al-Jawwad, presented him with an ijaza after being instructed to do so in a visionary encounter with the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Shaykh Hassan Cisse himself possesses more than 600 ijazas from Muslim scholars all around the world, the most cherished of which remains that from his grandfather, Shaykh Ibrahim Nyas.

Although Shaykh Hassan was only thirty at the time of his grandfather's passing, Shaykh Ibrahim was said to show him special favor from the time of his birth in 1945. Before his own death, Shaykh Ibrahim called all of his sons together with Shaykh Hassan to transmit to them various ijazas in the Islamic sciences. Before anyone else, Shaykh Ibrahim called in his grandson Hassan, sat with him for a long time, and gave him full ijaza for everything that Shaykh Ibrahim himself possessed. Then he sent Shaykh Hassan to his uncles to distribute to them various ijazas for specific subjects. In Shaykh Ibrahim's last will and testament, he recommended his own children to his closest disciple and lifelong companion, Sidi Ali Cisse, and said that they should "be with him as they are with me now." The will mentions Shaykh Hassan by name as the community's Imam after his father. Shaykh Hassan was the last to see Shaykh Ibrahim alive.

Besides the "traditional" sciences, Shaykh Hassan also attained high merit in later academic education, completing a B.A. in Islamic Studies and Arabic Literature from Ain Shams University (Cairo, Egypt) and an M.A. in English from the University of London. Near completion of his PhD in Islamic Studies at Northwestern University (Chicago, IL), his father passed, and Shaykh Hassan was obliged to return to Senegal to assume the imamate in Kaolack. Shaykh Hassan is fluent in Arabic, English, French, Hausa and his native Wolof language.

Shaykh Hassan Cisse has continued the work of his grandfather, introducing Islam to thousands and unifying diverse cultures under the banner of Islam. The Shaykh has positively affected the lives of many in societies rife with ethnic and religious tensions, such as Nigeria, Mauritania, South Africa and the United States. Shaykh Hassan first visited America in 1976, and has since worked tirelessly to promote good-will and positive exchange between Americans and the international Muslim community, emphasizing the essential spirituality and etiquette (Sufism) of Islam to promote individual betterment and real brotherhood. These efforts have bore fruits through the founding of the African American Islamic Institute www.aaii.info), a UN recognized non-governmental organization (NGO) which promotes education, health care, women's rights, and international exchange and dialogue between America and West Africa.

I first met Imam Hassan Cisse in Sokoto in 1995 during the annual Maulud of Shaykh Ibrahim Nyas with my late father, Alhaji Said Tanko Abdullahi who drove us to the seat of caliphate from Kaduna alongside Shaykh Salauddeen Nyas, Malam Ali and Malam Tanko Kaulaha. We arrived Sokoto in the evening and took Shaykh Salauddeen to Giginya Hotel while we left for another hotel.

The second time I met Imam was during the commissioning of Kano Road Central Mosque Kaduna which was rebuilt by Former Governor of Kaduna State now a Senator , Alhaji Ahmed Muhammed Makarfi which was burnt during the religious crises in kaduna. Imam spoke to the mammoth crowd and then led us in a juma'at prayer. This was in 2006.

The last time I met Imam Hassan Cisse was in 2007. When my then boss, Mukhtar Zubairu Sirajo informed me that Imam was in Kaduna and was lodged by the Kaduna State Government at the Deputy Governor's official residence and that Imam wants to speak to the press on his visit to Nigeria and also pay a courtesy call on some media organizations which I am to facilitate in his absence.

I invited selected press men who had chat with Imam for close to thirty minutes, after which we visited the corporate headquarters of Kaduna State Media Corporation-KSMC and paid a courtesy call on the Management led by its former Managing Director, Zubairu Idris Abdurra'uf.
Days after, a Nigerian in law of the imam and his disciple Alaramma Auwal Malami called me from Kano requesting that the Imam and his team are in Kano and wants to speak with the press. I sent him the number of Late Musa Umar Kazaure of the Daily Trust newspaper so that they could do the interview.

On Wednesday the thirteenth of August,2008 my brother Abdullahi called me around 7pm asking if I heard the death of Imam Hassan Ali Cisse, I said, no. I then made several calls and confirmed that Imam had died.

Those that condoled his family in Kaolak, Senegal revealed to us that until his death he was personally financing the up keep of about 200 orphan families and undertaking other humanitarian aid. Weeks to his death, Imam Hassan donated 200 million CFA for the completion of a mosque in his home town.

I want to use this medium to condole the Muslims of the world on the demise of a renowned and preeminent Islamic scholar and preacher of international repute, Shaykh Imam Hassan Ali Cisse and in particular the Tijjaniyya sect.