Al-Khatmiyah: Sufi method controlling Sudan

Doaa Imam

With the first hours of the emergence of the name of Abdelfattah Burhan; ​​as the leader of the Sudanese transitional period, which followed the end of the rule of former President Omar al-Bashir, some circulated the biography of Burhan, asserting that he does not belong to a certain political trend, but he belongs to a religious family, that follows el-Khatmiyah, one of the most prominent Sufi methods in Sudan.

Former Sudanese President al-Bashir has maintained strong ties with Sufism. In more than one occasion, he has pointed out that his mother is a Sufi, a follower of the Fatimid method.

Perhaps the disclosure of the relationship of the mother of Bashir to Sufism, and his praise for the roles of el-Khatmiyah and its mentor Mohammed Osman al-Mirghani, who is the assistant to the President, was a reason that the leaders of the Sufi method announced their support to al-Bashir in December 2018.

The former president said during his meeting with them that el-Khatmiya method is supporting the homeland not the government, and stressed that despite the difficulties, the price and the scarcity of some goods, it is humiliating in exchange for the security and stability of the country.

Mahjoub Abdul Qadir, the representative of the successors of the Al-Khatami method, announced the support of Al-Bashir for achieving security and stability in the country.

The Central Secretariat of the Al-Khatimiya Youth Organization immediately dismissed the statements in support of Bashir. They confirmed their support for the peaceful protests against the regime. They expressed outrage at this step, considering that those who met the president represent themselves and can not speak in the name of the method.

Al-Hassan al-Mirghani met with the president as part of his job. He is the first assistant to the president: “Therefore, the central body stands with the peaceful demonstrations guaranteed by the constitution, and condemns the killing of innocents and dealing with the masses with violence. We stand in a single trench with the people and their demands through peaceful means.”

In an attempt to justify the leader’s support for al-Bashir, the movement’s youth said: “We confirm that Maulana was never supportive of any party that does not respect the sanctity of the homeland and the citizen.”

How did the Sufi method start?

The Fatimid sect of Khatmiyya dates back to Muhammad Othman al-Mirghani, a descendant of a family of supervisors who is said to have emigrated from Hejaz in earlier times to Turkestan and then to India and finally returned to the country where he settled in Hijaz. He was born in Makkah in 1793. He studied at the hands of a number of Mecca scholars, including his uncle Muhammad Yassin, and obtained early a degree in Arabic and Islamic jurisprudence. He studied jurisprudence, Hadith, interpretation, language, and thousand of books in the arts.

He was sent to Sudan to preach about Islam. He sailed from Mecca to Suakin in Sudan, but he found the way to the inside through the mountains very tough and not secured. He then rode the Red Sea to the Egyptian coastal town of Qusayr. He entered Aswan calling for the Sufi method, but his preaching was not accepted.

He encountered great success in the country of Nubia in the south, and then he walked to the Sudanese regions, and found people who accept his preaching.