Qasida Diawartou of Shaykh Ahmadou Bamba (ENG) 

Recited and recorded by Ahmadou Bamba in Orgiva, March, 2021

In the name of Allah, the most Merciful, the Most Compassionate

I have been turned away from Iblis and all the germs of corruption and by the name of Allah, Benevolent the Merciful, I am attached to follow the Messenger of Allah (may Allah Bless and Salute him) and to work for the higher good.

There is no strength or power except Allah, The Most High, The Mighty.

May I reach Allah’s proximity through the intermediary of His Book (the Qur’an) for my entry into Paradise.

Thanks to the Qur’an, I reside with my Lord, the Incomparable Auxiliary; I acquired perfect mastery of my soul and cast out satan, the reprobate.

From this underworld, I am content to draw only my passage for Paradise; I tamed my passion and completely purified my heart.

In the Hearafter, the Virtuous will be my companions and I will be eternally given the means to honor them.

The Qur’an will certainly remain my Companion until the Three Heavens, as it chased satan, the accursed away from me.

My Shield against the cursed and the ungodly is the fact that I reside with the Creator of the Worlds. Allah, by His Book, Honors me and Protects me from any source of blame.

Thus I would not know, until my entry into Paradise, that Joy provided by the Sublime, the Benefactor.

Neither will I be the object of any kind of remonstrance or threat; and my existence will be, until paradise, only permanent rejoicing.

Allah hides in my favor the Well Guarded Mystery (Sirru-l-Mas’un), by Love and the formula: La ilaha ilLah May Allah be my guide, because He is the Creator and He endows me with all the recipes of good speech.

May the Creator free me from everything that is not His.

That One who has no equal position on the Right Path.

May the Book of my Lord be with me and I be with it so that it allows me to put all my trust in God.

My distance from all that causes evil constitutes my shield against troubles and misdeeds.

May Allah honor me for the recitation (of the Quran) so I that I will gain in my work.

May the multitudes flow towards me.

Notes – ENG

Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba is a great African Muslim Sufi master, bom in 1853 in Senegal (West Africa), during French colonization, just after the official abolition of slavery in the colonies. He was bom into a renowned Muslim clerical family, the Mbacke, well-known for their deep-rooted attachment to learning and teaching religious knowledge. Islam had then nearly a thousand years of history in Senegal. Known to followers as Khādimu ‘al-Rasūl (خادِم الرسول) or “The Servant of the Messenger” and Serigne Touba or “Sheikh of Tuubaa”, Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba was a Sufi saint (Wali) and religious leader and the founder of the large Mouride Brotherhood (the Muridiyya).