..

A False Dawn?
For a time many Muslims were overawed by the bir of on
English Muslim community. Then, they sensed that somethmg had
gone wrong. AbduiWahab EI-Afendi looks at the
_
glories,
trials and tribulations of the community's founder, She1kh Abd
ai-Qadir oi-Sufi.
THE story is set in futuristic, Or
wellian high-tech society, where men
have become automatons, fed inform
ation electronically and kept tranquil
by drugs. The only "unorthodox'' per
son is Kasul. the keeper of Archives
at the university. whose access to
"real'' books gave him an inight into
things unknown to others. One day
Kasul just disappears. The narrator is
then asked to take his place. Through
the discovery of the diaries of Kasul
and other clues, the new librarian
retraces Kasul' jourey in search of
the mysterious Book of Strangers. The
journey takes him to the nomadic
backwaters untouched by the new
civilization, and through hashish and
sufi shaylrs he discovers Islam. He
returns back to his work a changed
man. only to discover that the present
gven to him by the mysterious hum
ble keeper of the sufi Zawiya (retreat)
so
was the coveted Book of Strangers.
written in Kasul's handwriting. Kasul
was Abdalla the keeper, then r And
what he had sought was within himself
all along!
The story is more fascinating for
being an autobiography. The author,
lan Dallas. a British writer and actor,
ha followed almost the exact path of
the hero of his novel, The Book of
Strangers in real life. and for the same
reasons he ascribes to him. Dallas was
plagued with the same disillusionment
that beset the rising generation of the
sixties, who lot hope in the western
culture, and were frantically looking
for faith wherever they could. Dalla
could have been Kasul, who describes
the intellectuals of his time - whom he
watched 'scamper like so many mice
inside the cages of their thoughts," -
as ignorant because "their 'knowledge'
cannot teach them how to live in the
world. The educators "are themse
lves utterly ignorant. They teach, hut
they know nothing. They think, but
thev do not retect. Life remains an
eniima and a struggle for them and
death an arbitrary end.''
Dallas's story with Islam begins in
the mid-sixties when he bought a Per
sian miniature, and discovered an in
scription of the name of the renowned
sufi shaykh Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani on
its back. On the eve of Ramadhan in
1967 Dallas embraced Ilam at the
Qarawiyyin mosque in Marakesh.
and chose for himself the name Abd
al-Qadir. He was apparently initiated
by a sufi shavkh, becaue his Islam.
instead of bc{ng the end of the road
became the beginning of a quest for
a shavk of instruction. Next summer
his <ues! led him to Shayk
Muhammad ibn-al Habib ai-Darqawi
in Mekne, Morocco. Shaykh al-Habib
appointed Abd al-Qadir a a
Muqaddam (sectwn head) of the
Daraqawiyya Sufi Tariqa (a branch of
Shadhiliyya), and later named him
Abd al-Qadir as-Sufi. The shaykh ord
ered Abd ai-Qadir to g6 and call
people to Islam. In 1970 Abd al-Qadir
returned to Morocco with four more
converts. Before that Abd al-Qadir
Inquir, Januar 1988
8

J `
0
Ab ai-Qadlr ai-Sufi counts his bads as his community of Muslims dream of
England's first Muslim village.
had travelled with a companion (who
also figures in the Book of Strangers)
in the summer of 1968. The man
embraced Islam in Fez.
In 1970 Abd al-Qadir travelled to
America in order to spread the word
there. Soon a community of British
and American Muslims formed around
Abd al-Qadir as-Su6. They squatted
in a derelict row of houses in Bristol
Gardens, Maida Vale, west London,
and formed a small colony there. The
whole street was taken over by the
unusual spectacle of tens of people in
green turbans and Moroccan )e0ahas
(rubes). The life thev lived was
romantic and answered

the needs of
the disilusioned youth fleeing the
West's materialistic culture. As the
famous 'companion.
,
of the Book of
Strangers, Abdul-Haq Brewly told me
''None of us embraced Islam because
it was 'reasonable' or 'true' or because
it was the ?est religion. We were only
dnven to 1t by our sincere quest for
truth and the uneasiness we felt in our
culture. That is why sufi Islam specif
cally appealed to us. Then God rewar
ded our sincere search by guiding us
to the truth."
l1quir, Ja1uor 1988
As a matter of fact, Abd al-Qadir
used to accept in this circle a group of
'seeker from all walks of life, with
out making accepting Islam a condi
tion for joining in activities. Only
later would he tell them that there can
be no way forward without Islam.
The life was also stormy and
rigorous. Abd al-Qadir travelled con
stantly, and made Da'awa all over
Europe and America, and even
beyond. He later branched to South
Africa, Nigeria, Malaysia, Indonesia,
the Arab World etc. Many of his
followers were expected to follow him
around or go on errands on their own
at a short notice. This was very dis
ruptive of normal life. But no one
seemed to mind, since most followers
were single people, or couples who
were ail part of the group. Discipline
was also strict, with requirements of
full obedience to the Shaykh without
questions, even in matters relating to
personal life, such as marriage and
divorce. There was also a requirement
of shunning all aspects of modem
culture and civilisation. No wester
dress was allowed. And for several
months in the mid-seventies, they
electricity.
However, no one I met, even from
those who have split away from the
movement, seem to regret that epi
ode. Everyone looks back at it afect
ionately as a romantic period, where
life went smoothly with the help of
wood fires and oil lamps, in the heart
of London! Even now, when I visited
some to the remaining followers, I
was treated to a simple meal in the
warmth of a "rear' coal and wood fire
in an atmosphere that radiated ease
and friendliness. We were surrounded
though, - I must admit - with the
latest in desk top publibshing compu
ter technology.
By 1971, Abd al-Qadir's followers
numbered 16. In that year, he took
four of them to Hajj, where they were
planning to meet Shaykh al-Habih.
The Shaykh, however, died in Algeria
on his way to Ha jj. And from then
on, a new phase started in Abd al
Qadir's career, when he was began to
supply all guidance himself. He main
tained contact with personalities and
groups all over the Muslim world.
Chief among them was a forer
Pakistani colonel who was one of the
founders of the Islamic Cultural Cen
tre, Colonel Ata ul-Rahim. Another
was Umar Abdalla, Ambassador of
5I
Whosoever
knows that Allah
is the same a
the Path ... Then
he is traveling
on it.
Abd al-Qadir
presents the
doom of Western
Civilisation. He
traces the origin
to the Jacobins.
The present
society, he writes
is a openly
religious society
whose worship is
idolatory.
52
the Comorro Islands. There was also
Shaykh Abdalla A Mahmud of
Sharja and the former Shaykh of Al
Azhar, Abdui-Halim Mahmoud. All
were sufs, although he maintained
some contacts with others.
In 195, Abd al-Qadir made his
frst serious attempt at providing guid
ance. His book, The Way of
Muhamad, came in that year from
Diwan Press, the publishing arm of
the movement. The book was said to
have been the product of two weeks
of seclusion in Califoria the previous
year. It is a complex work, which is
essentially an attempt to present suf
ism to an average wester audience. It
is thus a double attempt to prove that
sufsm is true Islam, and Islam is true
faith. As he says at one point: "the
Islam of the Messenger (and) the Suf
ism of the Sufs ... are identical in all
terms of reference."
The book quotes extensively from
the well-known Andalusian-pantheist
Ibn Al-Arabi and ends with this
quote: "Whoever knows that Allah is
the same as the Path, knows the mat
ter for what it is. Then he is travelling
on it since there is no known except
him. He is you." He later abandoned
lbn al-Arabi, however. In between he
adumbrates most of the views that will
dominate his thinking in the coming
years. Chief among these is the view
that the life of the early Islamic com
munity in Madina represents the peak
of human achievement. That there is
no state in Islam. "State-Islam,'' he
writes is, "strictly speaking the Chris
tian heresy of the church in the sense
of a priesthood of believers. It is
sustained by an elite of scholars and
priests - now called ulema and
Imams." True sufsm rejects this, be
cause for sufs this whole world of
appearances is an illusion. For ufs
the senses are not an opening on
reality, but a veil. But it is on these
illusions that the "State Fantasy'' is
built, "on the foundation of the solid
fonns of 'money' and 'capital' and
'military power'. There is thus no such
thing as an Islamic state. The two
terms "are mutually irreconciable.''
He goes on:
"If it is Islam, it is not a state, rather
it is a community functioning organic
ally according to the Book." In Islam
there is no police or prisons or banks.
"Every man is a policeman, the bank
of Zakat is emptied annually, every
man is a soldier ..
,
We should look back at Islamic
history dispassionately, Abd al-Qadir
says, and try to understand it. In this
the Shi'i and Suni traditions should
cross-fertilise each other He has
strong views about this history him
self, though. He criticizes the collec
tion of the Qur'an under Caliph Uth
man1 because it reflects: "the very
anxiety situation that real Islam has
come to dispel. The matter was not in
the hands of Uthman and others. It
was in the hands of Reality itself."
This collection was the "frst step in
the betrayal of the wisdom process"
leading to the codification of Hadith,
which left us with "all the documents"
but "we cannot find the men."
In the book Abd al-Qadir oscillates
between the antiquated sufi cosmology
of Neo-Platonic origins, and modem
Western philosophical positions in a
very skillfull manner, which is not free
from contradictions though. Most
significant, he reiterates the sufi cos
mology of the hierachy of 30 perfect
men who are the apex of existence.
Heading these is the Qutb "the pivot
of existence, the stillness at the heart
of the vast cosmic activity".
The signifcance of these views of
Abd al-Qadir stems from their practi
cal implication. For the man is keen
on making this practice conform to his
theory. The attempts were not always
successful, but they are very illuminat
ing regarding the worth of these theo
ries. But before discussing this aspect,
we have to look at his views on mod
ern civilisation and modern Muslim
life.
In an article published in 1976, Abd
al-Qadir predicts the doom of western
civilisation and presents a strong crit
ique of it. He traces the origin of
modern western culture to the Jaco
bins, and sees its essence as
'
'
structuralism", the 'anti-biological"
tendency towards 'mathematising,
rigidifying, structuralising man as a
social-biologic reality." This basic ten
dency and the social theories it prod
uced. led to '"the Interpol, systems
theory, corporation capitalism and
Preidium-communism." The aim is to
control and enslave man. Scientific
methodology is ideology in disguise,
while technology and development are
the instruments of domination used to
lure Muslims into a world dominated
by this new ideology. Traditional
ulema failed to stand up to this en
croachment. while most Muslims
today have "become the dupes and
spokesmaen of the Christian culture."
Only sufism could and did stand up to
this deluge. Instead of trying to join
this dying civilisation Muslims should
take Islam to ''the unstructured
South,'' and build there an "empire
not held by tyranny but by the ilium-
llquir, Jaluar 198
inating teachings of the Arabian Pro
phet.'' Islam is not a social theory.
''There is nothing more ridiculous
than the beardless be-suited mod
enlists endlessly talking about this
wonderful reasonable Islam they have
discovered that does not offend West
ern technocrats or Bishops, and
wondering why so few are convince
enough to follow them."
In the following year he develops
this dual critique of western and Mu
lim ocieties further. Te pesent
society, he writes. is "an openly re
ligiou society whose worship is idol
tary. The idol of today is the labour
process, and the sacrament of the
idolators is the consumer product. The
priests are the University deans and
doctors. The learning priesthood
hares the same basic epistemology
and methodology from Peking to
Paris."' It is impossible to reform this
system. You can no more have Islamic
science than you can have Islamic
banking or I<lamic football. There is
no such thing. It is impossible to be
educated in any of the higher sciences
without abandoning either Islam or
these sc1ences methodology. The
alternative is not primitivism or anar
chy, but a science based on Qur'an
and sunna. To do this it must be
based on Tawhid, discovering the
unity of a dynamic universe, from
which both object and event are ban
ished. The universe must also be con
fronted as an image of oneself, not as
a separate thing.
In an article published Simu
ltaneously, he presents the concept of
Inquir, Januar 1988
Revelopment as an antidote to dev
elopment. The concept of progress,
the basis of modern thinking is built
on a false premise : that the creation
is incomplete, and that we have to
scramble madly in our short life-span
so as to put it right. The correct way
to views things is the opposite. The
Muslim "does'ent have to alter him
self in this progressive, ambitious det
ermined way. His obligation is to re
vert to the original form on which it
was created". The way to this was
shown by the Prophet and his com
munity in Medina. ''This picture of
the frst community is what the Mus
lims revert to when they increase in
wisdom. It is what they leave as they
mutate and evolve in an illusory
attempt to develop themselves." The
way back starts by constancy in re
membrance of God and the invocation
of His name, following the Prophet
who had a word for Allah in every
occasmn.
By the time Abd al-Qadir was writ
ing this, his community was growing,
and his fame was spreading throug
hout the Muslim world. His zeal for
Islam impressed all those who contac
ted him. In the summer of 1976, the
group started to hold mid-day prayers
in Hyde Park on weekends in their
distinctive dress, with the aim of cal
ling people's attention to Islam. Later
that same year, Abd al-Qadar ordered
his followers to move to Norfolk. in
the English countrside, about a hun
dred miles Norh-East of London.
This was consistent with his search for
a 'pure' unpolluted environment. And
the aim was to set up a "Muslim
village'. in the hear of the country-
side. However, adequate funding was
not forthcoming. With the money re
ceived, mainly from the ruler of
Sharjah, they bought Wood Daling
Hall, an old mansion just outside Nor
wich, which they renovated and made
their home and headquarters. Tey
called it the Darqaw Institute and
published a joural called Islam from
there.
But by then. tensions were beginn
ing to show within the fast-growing
community. As the group expanded
and included men with, families and
children, the needs gew, and the un
planned life of wandering dervishes no
longer was adequate. There was also
some burgeoning dissatisfaction with
Abd al-Qadir's domineering style.
Abd al.adir is a man of strong char
acter. One of his close associates told
me that he was the kind of man who
will dominate wherever he went.
Asked if he consulted people when
making decisions, the man said that
ultimately he made all the decisions.
but he usually consulted those whom
he trusted to have expertise on the
matter at hand. This led to problems
sometimes. Several of his followers
were abroad for example, when he
decided that people should move to
Norfolk. They arrived back to find
their homes and families in another
place. Later Abd ai-Qadir decided
that most people should leave Wood
Daling Hall and fend for themselves
as best as they could. People say that
they had no notice at all and found
themselves homeless overight.
This was one of the instances where
the contradictions i the theory and
practice were most pronounced. A
53
it
community which was supposed to be
founded on solidarity and absence of
anxiety over worldly matters found
itself in turmoil and intense anxietv
about where tomorrow's meal is going
to come from. In the tradition of all
great Suf Shaykhs, Abd al-Qadir saw
it as his right to order his followers
about. But unlike other Shaykhs he
was in no poition to cater for them.
"hen he ordered people to leave
their businesses and go away on some
errand or other, he was in no position
to compensate them. A group of his
close followers, with help of donations
from all over the Muslim world, saw
to it that Abd al-Qadir (who wanted
to be like the ideal suf Shaykh he
describes in one of his books as a
vortex of energy who does not care
about slander or praise and through
whom worldly goods flow constantly
to other people) lived and travelled
very comfortably. But they could not
do that for everybody else. This led to
bitter criticism, especially when a cos
tly conference on Maliki fiqh was or
ganised in Norwich in 1982, while
most people in the community lived
on the verg
e of t>ation.
The problem was further complica
ted by claims made by Abd ai-Qadir
following the death of Shaykh ai
Habib. For several years he persisted
in calling himself Muqaddam Abd al
Qadir as-Sufi. His books were pub
lished under the name of Abd al
Qadir as-Sufi. To some he added the
title ad-Darqawi. Towards the mid
seventies he embarked again on the
search for a new shaykh. At the end
of 1976, Abd al-Qadir said, 'we found
none to whom we could entrust our
noble fuqara (followers)" He had ear
lier visited an aging Shaykh in
.
Morocco who told him that he was to
he the next Shaykh. Apparently awed
by this daunting proposition, Abd al
Qadir refrained from declaring himself
a Shaykh. In late 1976 he travelled to
Libya to sec Shayk Muhammed al
Fayturi from the Alawiyya Tariqa.
The Sheikh then ordered him to go
into seclusion for two and a half days
and then (the incident is disputed)
declared him Shaykh of both
Alawiyya and Darqawiyya Tariqas.
which were supposed to be unifed
under him. He also claimed headship
of Naqshabandiyya Tariqa in the West
on the authority of some Turkish
Shaykh. One publication issued by hi
follwers in 1981 even calls him
"Outb", the highest ever rank in Sufi
cosmology.
Simultaneous with this, Abd al
Qadir's thought was entering a new
phase, symoblised by his book Jihad,
a Ground Plan, published in 1978. In
it he attempts to redefine Islamic his
tory, calling for the replacement of
the official history of great rulers and
"culture'' and science with that of
fringe societies such as the Fulani
(Nigeria) or Marabitun (Moravides) in
Morocco. He assaib "ignorant
scholars'' who are still apologising and
enven amending in order to be accep
ted by "Kafrun society"; the outdated
Islamic modermists, led by the
'masonic" Afghani and Abdu, who
tried to ''bring Islam in the seventieth
century" ; the Muslim Brotherhood
which tries to kill Islam by proclaim
ing the idea of an Islamic state, and
wanted to have Islamic cience, ignor
ant of the fact that science is itself a
belief system; a religion and the
bullying ulema who wanted to stand
as moral judges over people instead of
confrming them and speaking to
them. He also denounced paid Imams,
Rabita (Muslim World League) which
he ees as a Muslim Vatican, and
OIC, a "masomic body".
He proposed a programme calling
for public nr:yers. arming of all Mus
lims, r.Jection of paid Imams. open
activism, anti-nationalism and the re
establishment of Zakat. All this
should culminate in Ribat, the suf
retreat-cum-military-garrison from
which the Murabitun (singular Mur
abit) emerged. He also attempts to
analyse the ''Kafir" world order, fin
ding its core as "the banking system"
the weakest and at the same time the
"most powerul element in Kafr
pharaonic control systems." Buttresed
by the army, police, prisons, bur
eaucracy, welfare ("the most profound
moral corruption") and the distraction
of sports.
A Muslim order, by contrast, will
be decentralised with no such systems
of rigid controL although slavery will
be permitted in it. It has no capital
bae, but a constant flow of money
through a treasurv that should be em
ptied continuouslY. An opportunity to
set up such a model has been presen
ted by the bankruptcy of the current
industrial civilisation, and the dawning
of a new electronic-communication or
iented society, which offers "an op
portunity to Construct on a sane basis
a smoother and simpler form of life."
This can be done through the recovery
of the 'dynamic and pure Islam' 'by
recovering the inner self as a purpose
ful existence coupled with the social
project of brotherhood among mus
lims."
Jihad signalled a shift m Abd al
Qadir's thinking. And it was incident
ally the last work he pubhshed with
out putting the title Shaykh to his
name. But even as be became Shaykh
Abd al-Qadir as-Suf he has subtly
shifted towards a more activist stance.
At first he did this by emphasising the
activist aspects of suf teaching and
history. The suf, he wrote, are the
only pople who stoo up to col
onialism and were feared by it. The
examples of Sanusiva, the Mahdi of
Sudan and Abd 1-Qadir al-Jazairi
show this. As did those of Othman
Dan Fodio and the Murabitun earlier.
But even as he wrote this, he had to
recognise that the colonialists played
the Sufi brotherhoods against each
other. The facts are even more sinis
ter than he admits. It is known that
the French in North Africa not only
backed cerain tariqas like the
Tijaniya, but also put some money
lnqu1r, Januar 1988

MMMPP~MMMM~MM :``
into revtving sufism in Algeria in the
1930's, to counter the lslahi (re
formist) ulema movement led by Ben
Badis. This is the ultimate irony for
Ahd ai-Qadir's ontology of real versus
illusory existence. The illusory "solid
form" of money, this fantasy, goes to
feed and support the only "real''
world of the suf. And this "reality' in
turn feeds and supports the "fantasy"
of colonial state domination.
Bit by bit, though, Abd al-Qadir
distanced himself from traditional suf
quietism and bacame more and more
outspoken. The idea he propsoed ear
lier about the Medina community took
more prominence in his thought. Now
he took the model of Medina com
munity to mean the following of the
Maliki school of law. since Malik was
the champion of the Medina. In his
lectures Root Islamic Education, pub
lished in book form in 1982, he puts
great stress on this. It is a fallacy, he
said, to say that all the four or fve
recognised schools of thought are cor
rect. There is only one true Marihab,
which is that of Malik. All else i
either cheap imitation or harmful
aberration. He even parades as saints
Maliki bigots who banished and har
rassed followers of other schools!
In this book he also points to the
life of activist ulema who were not
sufis in the traditional sense and in a
clear break with his sufi past tells his
followers: ''If this in not the science of
tasawaf, what is?" This activism is
the path to be followed: "And anyth
ing that I have said previously to this
... that contradicts this, I withdraw and
I say. 'I did not know! I had no
idea."' This looh like verv un
characteristic humility. until yoU read
the next sentence ""And furthermore, I
do not make excuse for that, because
nobody knew! And nobody told me!"
This marked the official break with
sufim. This was further emphasised
by publishing Root Islamic Education
under a modifed' author's name,
Shaykh al-Murabit, the Shaykh's new
name. Mu1abit we must recall, is the
name chosen by the Sufi-Maliki
warriors of the Maghreb, the Mur
abitun of the 6th and 7th Centuries
A.H. This was Abd al-Qadir's fifth
change of name, which may g to
show the wisdom of the prevalent
practice of imposing names on people.
Before that Abd al-Qadir used the
name Shavkh Abd al-Qadir as-Suf
ad-Daraqai for two books he pub
lished: Letter to an African Muslim, in
1981 and Kufr, an Islamic Critique, in
1982.
The first of these two books. which
was apparently written in the sufi
Inquiry, jonuary 1988
phase tries to explain to Africans
(after preaching to them the virtues of
"true Islamic slavery", which he says
should be revived to solve the refugee
problem) the nature of the inter
national control system that keep
them under domination, and whose
"Trojan horse" is high-tech and dev
elopment. The solution is to revive
and revitalise sufism, and restore the
shari'a according to the Maliki school.
He also reiterates his lack of faith in
the Arabs and their capacity to lead
the umma, and his blanket condemna
tion of all forms of modern Islamic
activism. which he brands "masonic".
Kufr is presented by Abdalqadir as
an antidote to known poison and as
an expose' of the magic of the modem
state and how to escape it. Te cur
rent dominant culture is built on the
false principle of "progress'', which
alleges that the presnt society is the
best ever and will forever improve,
and prescribes development as the
way to partake in it. In truth it is an
evil society threatened by collapse
under the weight of its own bar
barism. This society has as its core
zionism which through banks and mas
onic interlinks controls the world. The
only way to bring down this system is
to abolish money, return to barter and
pull out of the interational monetary
system.
But while Shaykh Abd al-Qadir was
busy putting the affairs of the whole
world in order, his own community
was crumbling under his feet The
project was plagued by contradictions
from the start. Te total defiance of
the established order was never real.
For while the Shaykh was calling for
the establishment of a community that
will stand up to the world of
"appearances", and prove its indepen
dence of the illusory phenomena of
money and worldly power, his magaz
ine Islam was carryng an advertise
ment asking for thirty thousand
pounds of this same "fantasy" money
to support his project of an Islamic
village that will be above money. The
ad also announced gratefully the re
ceipt of ten thousand pounds from
Shaykh Sultan bin Muhammed al
Qasimi, the ruler of Sharjah. Fund
raising missions routinely scoured rich
Gulf States, at the same time as the
Shaykh was announcing his despair
from all Arabs and especially the
monarchies which "even kafirs den
ounce as corrupt," and the rulers who
go to the mosque in their bullet-proof
cars.
This is because this whole re
jectionist stance is untenable practic
ally or theoretically except as a para
sitic stance, scavenging on the very
positions it rejects. You despise econ
omic worldliness, but you have to live,
so you depnd on what you despise,
very ignominously. The rejection of
science is built on the same Cartesian
fallacy of total doubt (I doubt X
therefore I doubt everything.) But we
all know that if someone comes to us
and savs that I doubt I have a boy
we wili take him to a mental hospital.
Similarly, the claim that some scient
ific theories are speculative does not
mean that atomic weapons are an
illusion. Shavkh Abd al-Qadir proves
this point piactically when he quotes
extensively the very scientifc and
media "kafir" sources he despises to
prove a point. His article on
"revelopment" quotes evolutionary
science, while his book Jihad hails the
advent of the electronic age, which
would not have been possible without
+_ _; '
:

;
the industrial madness he chastises so
much.
Even more significant, the Shaykh
was never known to shy from flying
concord and leading a jet-setting life,
wth all the cost that this entails in
'fantasy" money, at the same time as
he was counselling Muslims to abolish
money and go back to the beauty of
the Stone Age.
This contradictions finally led to a
crisis in the community. The crisis was
delayed by progessive concessions
that were made to the harsh realities
of life. First Abd al-Qadir relaxed his
ban on electricity and the use of other
modem technological products. Then
it was decided that the Moroccan
dress they wore was too much of a
hindrance in delivering the message to
the local comunity. So the robe was
dropped, but the green turban was
kept. It was draped in tur later.
However. the ban on sending children
to school was only lifted last year.
after sixteen years of untold hardship
to parents and loss of proper educa
tion for children. (The Shaykh be
lieved education to be the main instru
ment of indoctrination and assimila
tion into Kafir society).
Towards the end of the 70's the
whole group was asked to drop sufism
and become Malikis, which they did.
Then sometime later. the Shaykh
asked for an Amir (leader) to be
chosen for the British Muslim com
munity, because he wanted to detach
himself a little bit from the affair of
the group. A Libyan was duly elected
Amir. And here the crisis came to a
head.
Prior to that, the community which
had reached a peak of around two
hundred families, began to witness a
slow drift away by individuals. This
was mainly due to unhappiness wth
the Shaykh's domineering attitude,
which caused much distress to some
individuals. People who differed with
the Shaykh on any point soon found
life within the comunity intolerable.
Other, suferd in their personal live
and distanced themselves from the
traumatic atmosphere.
The choice of the new Amir, how
ever, made the crisis more gener
alised. The Amir found his authority
frustrated by conflicting commands
from the Shaykh, and challenged him.
At frst Abd al-Qadir refused to see a
problem there, but finally agreed to
attend a general meeting. However,
he walked out the minute a hint of
criticism of his leadership was voiced.
And that was the end of the com
munity as it has been known. Fac
tional disputes broke out and the
56
What cn the Muslims of the developing
World lern from the sage of Norfolk
whole affair disintegrated. When I
visited Norwich last November. onlv
fifteen families remained there. and
not all were still loyal to the Shaykh.
However. one of his close followers
refused to see this as a failure. This
was like a family, he said. You cannot
force children to remain in the home
once they have grown up. Now, thank
God, we have many committed Mus
lims dispersed around the world ser
ving Islam. Shaykh Abd al-Qadir ha
done a great service to the umma.
And in a sene he was right. Only
one or two people from the group arc
known to have left Islam. And in fact
what happened i part of the dialectic
of Islam that has established a pattern
over the centuries - Sufi Shaykh and
others would spread Islam in remote
corers of the world but then the
community they form outgrows them
and goes in search of the complete
Islam.
In a sense Abd al-Qadir himself was
a reflection of this process. He took
his Islam from the sufis of Morocco,
but then went in search of the true
sources or hlam. A fundamentalist if
ever there was one, he wants to wipe
out the whole of Islamic history and
start anew. And in spite of his rejec
tion of western culture, he wanted to
promote an Islam that will attract
western man. Like all imialr projects
since Ibn Abdalwahab, there is one
major problem. You are facing a gar
den planted and irrigated by the water
of pure Islam, but some of its trees
are dying, others are rotten or even
poisonous. If you want to take your
own supply of water, take a virgin
plot of land and plant your own. But
how long is that going to take? And
where will vou eat from wh!le wait
ing? And hOw do you know it is going
to be a better, or even different tree'.'
Te case of Abd al-Qadir shows
how stubborn the heritage is. He
moved from sufsm to Maliki fiqh to
Murabitism. But he never left
Morocco. Morroccan Islam has es
sentially this blend. The only additive
he provided was his western outlook,
which is another heritage.
After the problems in Norwich.
Shaykh Abd al-Qadir made hijra to
Spain. A mall community affliated to
him has been formed there since the
mid-seventies, centred m Granada.
The concept of hijra (emigration) and
ribar (garrison retreat) is his answer to
the modern Islamit movement which
he accused of being a Shi'i-masonic
Jewish conspiracy to subvert Islam.
Afghani was a Shi'i who taught the
masonic Abdu. who taught Rashid
Rida who produced Hassan al-Banna
and the Mulim Brotherhood (inci
dentally, this genealogy is preented
by the ''masonic'' world of western
academe. and his proob of the mas
onic ties of Abdu and Afghani have
been joyously plucked out of the
works of two Jewish writers one of
whom is a zionist) The Muslim broth
erhood is built on Shi'i ijtihad and
Shi'i secerecy, so it must be rejected
(Te Shaykh rejects ijtihad as un
necessary and illegitimate except for
the few.)
The answer to this i'i hijra and ribat.
Do as the Murabitun did retreat and
withdraw, establish a sufi-inpired com
munity. arm yourself, and then
bounce hack on Kafir 'ociety. There is
no such thing as an Islamic revolution,
or Islamic 'ocieties, secret or other
wise. However, he has another pres
cription which 'ieems to contradict
this. Do like the mafia of Sicily, form
a community within the community.
Enforce your own laws yourselves
without waiting for an Islamic state.
The Islamic state is another Shi'i
masonic concept.
Again this project poses the practi
cal problem. Last year, the Spanish
project went sour. The quasi totality
of the community revolted against the
Shaykh and took over the assets of
the community. Shaykh Abd al-Qadir
was forced to leave Granadl with a
handful of his supporters. Did he then
revert to the mafia-style justice? No,
he resorted to the kafr "fantasy"
Spanish state and was only too glad
when it came down in his favour and
decided that the "illusory", 'fantasy
solid forms" of assets and bank
accounts were his and his supporters
to keep. That might tell us something
lnqu1r, Januar 1988