Studying in Mauritania - Looking for people to share experiences

[hussainahmed]

salams

i want to go to study next year some time insha allah. i have completed the dars e nizami, however i want to learn few books on the various islamic sciences. i would appreciate if somebody could give me an email of sombody who has studied or knows somone who has studied in mauritania as i do not know where the various shoyookh are located and which shoyookh are good to study with.

jzk allah khair

[Abu Salma]

salams

i want to go to study next year some time insha allah. i have completed the dars e nizami, however i want to learn few books on the various islamic sciences. i would appreciate if somebody could give me an email of sombody who has studied or knows somone who has studied in mauritania as i do not know where the various shoyookh are located and which shoyookh are good to study with.

jzk allah khair

See post #8 - I've posted links to two blogs which are run by students who are in Mauretania right now. At least one of them has a contact email displayed on the blog.

[Al-Faruqi]

I read somewhere on the Internet, that people wanting to study in Mauritania should/could get in touch with the Zaytuna Institute. Apparently they will be able to give you contacts who will guide you through the country in order to find the right place or whatever.

[hussainahmed]

See post #8 - I've posted links to two blogs which are run by students who are in Mauretania right now. At least one of them has a contact email displayed on the blog.

jazakallah khair brother

[Abu Salma]

jazakallah khair brother

Wa iyyak!

[motheroftwo]

I myself loved it

Mauritania is excellent if you want to excel in:

Maliki Fiqh
ArabicLanguage they are masters of Arabic
Quran
and of course they study all the other islamic sciences

However there spe******ation is Arabic and Quran

as said by other members the country is famous for its spe******ation in Quran and Language.

However this does not take away from it.

Each place is good for something.

lets look at the Middle East and the Sub-continant where the focus is Hadith and Fiqh two sciences of the islam.
In Africa especially Mauritania, Sudan,Eritria,Ethiopia,Somalia,Djibouti etc or these afro-arab countries they spe******e in the Arabic langauge and the sciences of the Quran.

It is a blessing from allah that we have experts of the islamic sciences in different countries, the fact that Arabic is weak in the sub-continant and the middle east as compared to Mauritania and such countries does not take away from it.



However for those who are speaking negatively about Mauritania.

[SeekerOfGuidance]

There are some valuable information buried deep in this section, written by Mufti Husain, regarding Mauritania and other places to seek knowledge from. I've dug out this one:

I would advise you going through the different threads in this Education forum, there are some real gems amongst them.

My advise would be to first complete the course in a Darul Ulum.
The amount of benefit you could get in that space of time, cannot be achieved elsewhere, from my experience.
After graduating, then you can decide which fields you wish to brush up on, the fields you wish to further you studies in, then accordingly you find a place to study.
The world is vast, with scholars in every part of it.

Going to an Arab country at the beginning of your studies, would be wasting too much valuable time. Due to you not knowing Arabic at all, you will struggle to grasp the basics and in all probability would not learn near to what you would be able to in a good Madrasah.

I have travelled extensively, have studied in the Arab world and have studied with students from a number of Western Countries; students who all tried to do what you are thinking of; starting their studies in the Arab world, in an "Islamic environment" where people supposedly speak "Arabic".

I can safely say that most of those collegues of mine, went back home - to the US, UK, Europe, Canada, Australia etc- after spending 3-8 years, tens of thousands of dollars; they went back home having learned less than a second or third year student in Madrasah knows!

Most of them went to the "near-mythical" land of Syria, expecting to find everybody speaking pure Arabic, happy to teach foreigners, greeting them with welcoming arms etc.
They expected to be fluent in Arabic in a few months, much better than those molvis back home who can barely stutter a sentence in Arabic.

Then they found out that:
-the estate agent was charging them triple the normal fee, plus he put up the rent after a month,
-the mukhabarat (Intelligence service) was keeping tabs on them,
-the 6 month visa they had, was only valid for 15 days, after which they had to renew it (renew translates as "big bribe"),
- those big Shuyukh they dreamt of studying under are harder to get to than the President
-their Arabic lessons, are in the local dialect, which isn't of much benefit
- they cannot even understand the teacher who manages to speak in Fushha (classical Arabic) as they haven't studied Arabic prior to this
- The personal tutor who they pay an exorbitant sum to teach them Arabic in the English medium, has a command over English comparable to that of a kindergarden child, in addition to having no Arabic teaching abilities
- The taxi drivers rob them daily
- The shop keepers all have special prices, part of their ikram for foreign students. These prices are only double the normal rate
-the Syrian girls aren't as good-looking as they heard, but good-looking enough to cause a number of these students to fall into haram or end up getting married there

So before they know it, 2 years have passed and they know zilch.
They cannot read or write a sentence properly in Arabic, know nothing in most fields and only have to their credit a decent vocab, in Arabic slang.

They know decide that Syria isn't the place for them,toooooo much fitna, lets move to the land where "Real Arabic" is spoken and where Islam is taught in the Traditional manner.

So most of their acquisitions of the last 2 years have to be sold off at bargain prices, as freight costs are too high to take them with or ship them home; and they are no on their way to................
Mauritania.

What happens there, is a re-run of the Syrian adventure, set in a Desert theme this time!

After 6 months there, once the mujahadah really gets to them, they suddenly realise that someone (normally an aunts great-grandmother or something) back home is really sick and we are needed back home.
And so closed the Chapter of Seeking Knowledge!

I apologise for this rant, it is just that my heart is sore from seeing all these young potential scholars end up in the gutter; giving up on studies after these failed adventures and returning home disillusioned with Din and drifting further away than they ever were.

Will try to post later in this thread, enough ranting for now.

[SeekerOfGuidance]

Some useful information on the scholars in Mauritania:

Firstly, regarding the top Ulama of Mauritania, it should be understood that our respected Ustad, Shaikh Murabit al-Haj is famous in Mauritania for his Zuhd and piety. When in comes to ilm, while he is a master in Lughah and is one of the few senior Mauritanian Ulama to have paid major attention to hadith, he isn't famous in the country for his ilm neither is he taken to be from amongst the ilmi giants in the country.

The famous ilmi giants are:

1. Shaikh Bhuddah al-Busairi- He was very sick when I las met him and might hae already left this word. He is one of the most senoir Ulama and the most respected. Unfortunately, he is also the one who introduced the warped wahabi Aqeedah on Sifat to Mauritania. But he isn't like the normal hardcore salafis, rather he is very mu'tadil. He is also really loved by the brothers of tableegh, as his support for it was one of the reason why the work of tableegh spread so well in that country. He is a master in all fields.

2. Shaikh Muhammad Salim ibn Adud- Most likely the most knowledgable of Mauritanian Ulama and probably the most famous. His aqeedah has been the subject of many debates, so the safest would be to stay far from that. He is a master of all fields as well, standing out in fiqh and lughah. (Well every mauritanian alim stands out in lughah). When we visited him, we spoke to his son Muhammad for a while. A colleague of mine from the U.K said to Muhammad that we heard that his father had memorized the entire Qamus of Firozabadi (the most authentic Arabic dictionary). Muhammad replied that that is not so, his father has memorized hundreds of other books but not the qamoss. Yes, his grandmother- yes this isn't a typo- had memorized half the qamus!!!

3. Shaikh Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Khadeem- He is the alim who I was really impressed with and would recommend studying under. He is one of the few mauritanian scholars who have dozens of published words. I have many of them. The sharh of Matharatul Qulub translated by Hamza Yusuf is by him. He is without any doubt a master in EVERY field having written top books in Fiqh, Uisul Fiqh, Usul Hadith, Tasawwuf etc. He is also a senior Sufi Shaikh of the Tijani silsilah, being very strict on sunnah and wary of bid'at. The wahabis don't like him as he is has written many rudood against them. His madrasah- mahzharah- is called at-tahseer andd is probably one of te easiest to study in as it is located close to a town with the major amenities. Nice enviroment in hsi madrasah as opposed to that in most of the others.

4. Shaikh Bah- Also one of the top scholars, yet not so senior as the others. Has one of the biggest madrasahs and probably the only one with free meals. Big in Lughah.

5. Shaikh Yadali ibn al-Haj Ahmed- My beloved Ustad, probably the last hafidhul hadith in the world. Allah knows best how many ahadeeth he has memorized, but his senior students say kutubus sittah and muattah!!! He gives dars of hadith from memory- I attended these for a few months- as well as dars of tafsir, fiqh etc from memory. He was the naaib mufti of the country previously, but steped down from that post. He gives dars every night between maghrib and Esha in the capital. Still young compared to the others - probably in early fifties- and is famous for te mastery of ahadith and narrators. When discussing a hadit e mentions a narrrator then his student - the narrator from him- and then mentions the numer of ahadith the student has narrated from this ustad. He does this for every rawi and then if thr ahadith are few, he mentions exactly in which book they appear.

These are the giants.

There will be others definitely, especially further inside the country. These are in and around Nuaokshott.

As for the question of brother pahlawaan, They are salafi in aqeedah, not fiqh. In fact even the staunch mauritanian salafis are malikis in fiqh, only opposing the mazhab in a few major masail.

These two, Bhuddah and Saalim, are probably the main reason for so many awwan converting to wahabism.

Oops, I seem to have forgotton the most famous mauritanian alive. Will mention the little I know about him just now.

The most famous is a youngster- still in his thirties it seems- Muhammad Hasan ad-Dido.

With a really sharp mind, memery better than any computer- 100% photographic- and wonderful akhlaaq, he has spreadh wahabism- albiet a moderate one- all over Mauritania.

The youth go crazy for him, especialy as he claims to be the leader of the Ikhwaan and was involved in trying to get rid of the previous corrupt government.

He is the Mauritanian blue-eyed boy, as he is famous all over the world, especially in Saudi.
He goes all over the country, right into every small vilage and stays for a few days, giving lectures and mixing with the people. He is like a member of the family to every Mauritanian.

He is also the nephew of Shaikh Muhammad Salim ibn Adud and stays at his madrasah most of the time.

Also, a relative of Shaikh Had Amin- the most senior Ustad at the Madrasah of Shaikh Murabit al-Haj- and visits the madrasah for a few days, once in a while.

One outstanding quality of Mauritanian Ulama, is that even those who have Salafi inclinations are very moderate and and tolerant of other's view's.
The Salafi Ulma are of two types:

1. The senior ones, who will never quote ibn Baaz, Uthaimeen etc as these Saudi's are inferior to them in ilm. They are salafis in that they take the apparent meaning of the nusoos on sifat without ta'weel or tafweedh. Se the book "Tanbihul khalaf al-Hadhir" Full name is :
تنبيه الخلف الحاضر على أن تفويض السلف لا ينافي الإجراء على الظواهر
by:
العلامة بداه بن البصير الشنقيطي
published by Dar ibn Hazn in Beirut. Most of them aren't qail of jihah, as far as I know.

The second group, are the younger wahabi generation. Some have studied in Saudi or are on the Saudi payroll by making Imamat in their masjids or teaching in their schools. These are like any other wahabi scholar, only they are maliki in most furu' - where no ahadith- not hambali.

Most of the Awwam aren't salafi, however it is spreading very fast, especially amongst the youth. The strong presence of sufism really helps slow down the spread of wahabism.

When I went to study at the Mahzharah of Shaikh Murabit al-Haj, the very first question asked by Had Amin - the head teacher- was : What Mazhab do you follow? When I said Hanafi, he replied, alhamdulillah, then u will never be a wahabi!

In my humble opinion, the main reason for the awwaam and the youth being swept of their feet by salafism, is the lack of attention to hadith by te maliki ulama. Ask them proof from hadith for anything, and they can't give it to you. This really creates doubts in the youth and draws them to Salafism which provides ahadith for eveything.

That is probably why the ahlul hadith movement in India- inspite of being there for so long- have a much smaller following comparitively, as te Hanafi Ulama give a lot of attention to hadith and have proof for every mas'alah.

And Allah Ta'ala knows best

[bugmenot]

I don't know for the location of the shaykh mentioned in the first post, but it is very true that it is a good place for doing hifdhz. There are numbers of stories I heard from friends who knew nothing in this field and returned with a changed attitude...
The 'negative' point was the accommodation which was literally tents in the desert
For fiqh I don't know much but I may agree with the above.

[NeednoName]

I don't know for the location of the shaykh mentioned in the first post, but it is very true that it is a good place for doing hifdhz. There are numbers of stories I heard from friends who knew nothing in this field and returned with a changed attitude...
The 'negative' point was the accommodation which was literally tents in the desert

What could be more adventurous than tenting in deserts? I would take it as a positive point if I ever decide to go.

Assalaam'aaleykum!