The Ramadan Discourses of Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib

Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib 1288/1871 - 23 Dhu al-Qa'da 1391/11 January 1972Shaykh Sidi Muhammad ibn al-Habib, may Allah purify his secret, was, as Abdalhaqq Bewley writes: "from the last generation of scholars whose entire education took place before the intervention of any colonial administration into the Moroccan education system. So he was the direct legatee of a traditional education process that had been continuing unbroken in Fez for more than a millennium and that was completely unaffected by the ethos of scientific materialism which the colonial powers brought in their wake and which now dominates the entire world." He was an exemplar of the deen as the unity of Islam, Iman and Ihsan from the Madinan tradition. Experiencing the imperial French attempt at colonisation, he engaged in jihad, having to learn to ride a horse and use weapons for the purpose. Subsequent to the Muslims' defeat, he worked to sustain the deen by travelling constantly in Morocco and Algeria teaching people in the cities, villages and deserts, which he continued to do after the restoration of rule by King Muhammad V. He went on Hajj three times, the third time passing away in Algeria at more than a hundred years of age, may Allah be merciful to him and pleased with him.