Sheikh Muhammad al-Khidr al-Shanqeeti, a mujahid scholar, modernist and one of the flags of the Islamic nation, was a knowledgeable and prolific scholar, who devoted his life to the judiciary, fatwas and authorship.

He was born in Mauritania in 1868, emigrated to Morocco after the control of the French, accompanied Sultan Moulay Abdel Hafid, took over the Maliki fatwa in Medina, participated in the establishment of the modern state of Jordan, served as a minister in its first government, and died in 1935.

Birth and upbringing

Mohamed El Khidr Ben Cheikh Sidi Abdallah Ben Mayabi was born in 1868, in the village of Tekba, north of the Tameshkt province of Hodh El Gharbi, Mauritania.

He lived his childhood in the city of Tikba, which was full of scholars and students of knowledge, and its women are famous for memorizing the Holy Quran and the biography of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.

Al-Shanqeeti belongs to a scientific family rooted in the knowledge tradition, called the "Al-Mayabi" family, from which many scientists emerged, whose knowledge contribution went beyond the Mauritanian field to the Maghreb and the Levant.

He grew up in the house of his father, Sheikh Sidi Abdallah Ben Mayabi, who was a judge and governor of the historic city of Tekba.

His father was one of the most prominent scholars of his time who combined the science of Sharia and the science of Sufism, and he has many followers and students of science, and enjoys a great social status, and his grandfather the jurist Sidi Ahmed was famous for generosity, spending and meeting the needs of people, until he was called "Mayabi" and became a science for his family.

Among 18 scholarly brothers, and 9 sisters, including righteous worshippers and jurist keepers, Sheikh Muhammad al-Khidr grew up loving knowledge and reluctant to recite books.

Study and training

Sheikh Mohammed Al-Khidr began his academic career by memorizing the Holy Quran in the school of his father and brothers, so he memorized it while he was still seven years old, and studied a number of books and texts related to the sciences of the Qur'an, until he took the leave in the Holy Qur'an and the novel and set before he exceeded ten years of age.

In his childhood, he memorized the seven pendants and many pre-Islamic poetry, whose imprint remained present in his poetry, as well as the texts related to the biography of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) and the history and genealogy of the Arabs.

At the hands of his elder brothers, Sheikh Muhammad Fadhil, Sheikh Muhammad Al-Amin and the scholar Sheikh Muhammad Al-Karami, he studied grammar, morphology, learning performances and making poetry.

When his father realized his genius and intelligence, he sent him to various scientific schools, so he studied with Sheikh Sidi Muhammad ibn al-Aqdaf al-Jakni, who also sanctioned him in the Holy Qur'an and its sciences.

Then he studied jurisprudence, fundamentals, hadith sciences and terminology, in the presence of "Ahl al-Talib Ibrahim al-Takatiyin", and read logic, principles and the text of the hadith of the Prophet at the school of "Ahl Ahmad al-Hadi".

Then head to the far north of Mauritania in the province of Inchiri, where the Mahdhara of "Ahl Muhammad Salem", famous for jurisprudence and attention to Sheikh Khalil's summary of the Maliki school of thought, is located.

When al-Khidr landed in this school, he became popular among the people, discovering that he memorized 100 verses of poetry from hearing it once.

During his movement between the scientific schools in Al-Qatr-Al-Shanqeeti, he memorized Khalil's Mukhtasar and his commentaries by heart, as well as memorized Al-Muwatta and wrote the Sahih.

Shortly after his stay in northern Mauritania, students of knowledge went towards him and he was appointed for fatwa and judgment among the people.

Intellectual orientation

Sheikh Muhammad Al-Khidr was influenced by the scientific environment in which he grew up, as his father was a fatwa scholar in the four schools of jurisprudence, and he follows the pure Sufi path of impurities and heresies, and attaches a superior position to knowledge and education, and believes that spiritual education can only be carried out by those who knew the sciences of Sharia and committed to its limits.

On this trend, Sheikh Al-Khidr walked, and was interested in correcting the concepts of Sufism and called for the need to adhere to the Qur'an and Sunnah, and consider them a foundational base for the status of charity.

He believed that the dignity of the saints must have limits, and that the relationship between dignity and guardianship is not necessarily inseparable, as what is entrusted to the dignity of the saints is integrity and commitment to the path of Islamic law, and the white argument that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) drew for his nation.

His Sufi doctrine followed the approach of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) in righteousness and arbitration of Sharia in all fields.

Sheikh Mohamed al-Khidr is one of the most prominent scholars who have adopted and criticized the Tijani order in Mauritania.

Jihad and Migration

After the French colonizer entered Mauritania at the beginning of the 20th century, Sheikh Muhammad al-Khidr was at the head of the scholars who issued fatwas on the necessity of jihad, so he fought many fierce battles with Emir Bakkar Ould Assouid Ahmed.

When the French were able to extend their influence in the country, and saw their weakness and humiliation of the people, he issued a fatwa on the necessity of emigration, so he went out to Morocco in 1908, along with his brothers, the scholars Sheikh Muhammad al-Aqib, Sheikh Muhammad Habib Allah, Sheikh Sidi Mohamed, and many of his students, and they landed in Morocco and were received by Sultan Moulay Abdelhafid.

After a period of residence in Morocco, he went to Saudi Arabia in 1912, and later went to Jordan with Abdullah I and co-founded the Emirate of Transjordan in 1921.

Scientific experiment

At an early stage of his life, Sheikh Muhammad al-Khidr drew the attention of the knowledge community around him, so he practiced teaching, fatwa, judiciary, debating scholars, liberating calamities and solving the difficulties of science.

When Emir Bakkar Ould Aswaid Ahmed summoned him to be the judge of his emirate in 1898, his fame increased among the Shinqeeti community, and he was visited by the people of grievances and students of knowledge from all Mauritanian countries.

When he descended on Sultan Moulay Abdelhafid in 1908, he celebrated him and raised his status and housed him in his palace, where he met the scholars of Fez and testified to him with knowledge and gave him the right to lead, as well as weaving relations through debates and correspondence with many Marrakech scholars.

In 1913, he landed in Medina, and was chosen as a mufti of the Maliki school and a teacher at the Prophet's Mosque, so his fame increased among the people.

In 1921, he co-founded the Emirate of Transjordan with King Abdullah I, and served as the Minister of Justice in its first government.

After he became a judge in Jordan and many of his books were printed, his fame increased in knowledge circles, so people became passionate about him and he was invited to lecture in many Islamic countries.

During his educational career, he visited a number of countries in the Islamic world to spread science and debate scholars, he visited Iraq and the Gulf countries, and stayed for a while in Hyderabad and other regions in India.

When he visited Al-Quds Al-Sharif in late November 1934, the scholars flocked to him, celebrated him, gave various scientific lectures, and took some of the hadiths narrated by the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) from him.

He visited the city of Hebron with the Mufti of Palestine at the time, Hajj Muhammad Amin al-Husseini, and large crowds of people came to receive him, and he gave various jurisprudential lessons there.

At the beginning of January 1935, he visited Cairo, home to his brother, the scholar Sheikh Muhammad Habib Allah bin Mayabi, who was a teacher at Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, and was received by the Egyptian Minister of Awqaf and Al-Azhar scholars.

Sheikh Muhammad al-Khidr was interested in his scientific career in the hadith of the Prophet and the rooting of Maliki jurisprudence, and worked to correct beliefs and confront heterodox movements and doctrines.

Model of his hair

On the literary level, Ibn Mayabi was famous for lending poetry and employing it in bringing science closer and guiding society.

It is good poetry in nostalgia for Medina and the ranches of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) as saying:

Khalili, is there anyone who returns, and do I have goods and his circuits a response?

And do I have a look at the climate market with which the heart heals after the grandfather heals it

Literature

Sheikh Muhammad al-Khidr left many works that enriched the Islamic library and helped researchers and students of knowledge from all over the Islamic world.

Among his most important books, which were printed:

  • Kawthar Al-Maani Al-Darari in Kashfat Khafiya Sahih Al-Bukhari (a unique book in 14 volumes, about which many theses and theses have been written in the East and the Maghreb).
  • A message on the necessity of emigration from the occupied countries.
  • The bright meanings of explaining the systems of collecting mosques by Sultan Moulay Abdelhafid.
  • Khalil's brief clarification - with the four schools of thought and the most correct evidence (in which he tried to root the Maliki school of thought with the Qur'an and Sunnah, and link it to other schools of jurisprudence).
  • He handed over spirits and ghosts to Neil the seat of happiness and the farmer (a book on Sufism in which he dealt with the mystical doctrine free of blemishes).
  • Concluding the cassation of what was said about the likelihood of arrest (through which he tried to root the saddle chosen by Imam Malik).
  • The necessity of divorcing the three in a batch, which the world cannot pay (it was written in Iraq, where some Baghdad scholars at the time said that repeated divorce at once is considered one shot).
  • Conditional factors for zakat on bank notes.
  • A message on zakat on offers and modern coins.
  • Suppression of the people of aberration and atheism from challenging the tradition of the imams of ijtihad.
  • The message containing the provisions of the caliphate and the prostitute.
  • The craving of the offender in the response of the slippery slipper.
  • The message of the sword and the Moses in the slander of the slander against the Prophet of God Jesus.
  • The impossibility of the meaning in itself and its equivalent of similar qualities (Nafis Book on Monotheism).

Functions and responsibilities

During his lifetime, Sheikh Mohammed Al-Khidr held many positions, despite his preoccupation with teaching and authorship, and the most important official positions he held:

  • Judge of the northern Mauritanian region 1896.
  • Judge of the Emirate of Edou in the Mauritanian center during the reign of Emir Bakkar Ould Asweid Ahmed in 1899.
  • Teacher, lecturer and mufti at the court of Sultan Moulay Abdelhafid in Fez from 1908 to 1912.
  • Teacher at the Prophet's Mosque and Mufti of the Malikis in Medina in 1913.
  • Minister and judge of judges in the first Jordanian government in 1921.

Awards and honors

He was awarded many decorations and medals by Sultan Moulay Abdelhafid, the Kingdom of Iraq and Jordan.

In recognition of his prominent role in the establishment of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Jordan launched two main streets in the capital, Amman, one bearing his name, and the other bearing the name of his son, Sheikh Mohammed Al-Amin, who served as several ministries in Jordanian governments.

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Jordan's establishment in 2021, King Abdullah II honored him with a first-class badge of honor.

Death

Sheikh Muhammad al-Khidr died on Monday, February 18, 1935, in Medina after a health ailment, and was buried in al-Baqi'.