Shaykh Tijani Cisse
Shaykh Ahmad Tijani b. Sayyidi Ali Cissé (or Cheikh Tidiane Cissé) holds the Imamate of the Grand Mosque in Medina-Baye, Senegal. As Imam of the spiritual heart for the followers of Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse, Shaykh Tijani Cissé represents some one-hundred million Muslims of the Tijaniyya Sufi order around the world. Shaykh Tijani Cissé (b. 1955) is the second son of Shaykh Ibrahim’s most beloved student, Shaykh Ali Cissé, and his first daughter, Fatima Zahra Niasse. He was the last to be personally instructed by Shaykh Ibrahim in the classical texts, focusing mostly on Arabic literature and poetry. He would later receive the highest of licenses from his father, Shaykh ‘Ali Cissé, who told him: “Whatever Shaykh Ibrahim gave me, I am giving you.”
Shaykh Tijani Cissé later excelled in his formal studies in Egypt; the result, he says, of the rigor of the informal instruction given him in Senegal. He graduated first in his class in the Azhar preparatory school, receiving his diploma in Arabic language in 1974. He received his Baccalaureate in 1977 in Arabic Language, graduating fourth in his class. By 1981, he had distinguished himself at the University of Azhar with a degree in the faculty of Usul al-Din (theology), department of Hadith (Prophetic Traditions).
After returning to Senegal, he edited and published several important works, including Shaykh Ibrahim’s Kashif al-Ilbas and a collection of Shaykh Ibrahim’s writings named Sa’adat al-Anam. He also aided the publication of a comprehensive collection of Shaykh Ibrahim’s supplications, Kanz al-Masun. One Azhar scholar reportedly told him that his work identifying hadith citations in the 2001 publication of Kashif al-Ilbas would have been enough to complete a doctorate at Azhar University. In the introduction to Shaykh Tijani’s reprinting of the Kashif, Shaykh Hassan Cissé wrote of his younger brother: “I thank my dear brother, the master, the Shaykh Tijani ‘Ali Cissé, who spent of his efforts for the success of this pious work and much appreciated endeavor…”
Shaykh Tijani Cissé was the closest confidant and traveling companion of his brother, Shaykh Hassan Cissé. Many of the illustrious representatives at his inauguration recalled how whoever was speaking with Shaykh Hassan Cissé when Shaykh Tijani came into the room – even if it was a government minister – he would have to go out in order to leave the two of them alone if they had something to discuss. Many of the miraculous occurrences during Shaykh Hassan’s travels were shared by his brother, Shaykh Tijani. For example, when a great scholar in Medina (Saudi Arabia) gave Shaykh Hassan an ijaza to teach select hadith by command of the Prophet in a visionary encounter, Shaykh Tijani received from him the same ijaza. The extent of his intimacy with Shaykh Hassan is proven by Shaykh Hassan’s calling his younger brother to his bedside to be the last person with him before he passed.
Shaykh Tijani Cissé’s installation as Imam was unanimously agreed upon by the leading representatives of the legacy of Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse. The occasion of his installation as Imam also marked Shaykh Tijani’s assumption of the presidency of the African American Islamic Institute, the UN-recognized humanitarian organization founded by Shaykh Hassan for the sake of health care, education and cross-cultural communication. Shaykh Ibrahim’s will designated
leadership of Medina-Baye’s Grand Mosque to his closest disciple Shaykh ‘Ali Cissé, to be passed next to his eldest son Shaykh Hassan, and after “to whomever Allah wills.” The unanimous validation of Shaykh Tijani Cissé as the community’s new Imam proved him to be he “whom Allah wills” according to the will of Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse. May Allah prolong his life, and allow his himma, his lofty aspiration, to lift the hearts of those in need.