Teachers

The biography of any Islamic scholar is at once inclusive and reflective of the biographies of their teachers. The transfer of Islamic knowledge from teacher to student is meant to engender an experiential tawḥīd (Divine unicity) that reforms and transforms the student’s character and etiquette (akhlāq). In other words, the teacher is the means to illuminate the student’s heart (qalb) – its faculties of perception, emotion and will – and, consequently, his conduct with Allāh and His creation.

Spiritual mentorship or ṣuḥba is the ideal Islamic pedagogy. The necessity of this mentorship, unfortunately almost alien to modern Muslim sensibilities, is a truth that has never, until post-colonial times, required debate or defense. It was an axiomatic truth that each Muslim knew intuitively. The evidence was nothing less than the miraculous transformation of untold numbers of Companions under the guiding hand and heart of our Master صلى الله عليه وسلم Muḥammad

The spiritual inheritance of the Scholar-Saint is a lineage of shared ṣuḥba, link-by-link, to the illuminating reality of the Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم In this spirit, it is only befitting that the biography of Shaykh Mokhtār Maghrāoui begins with his spiritual father and mentor, Shaykh Muḥammad Emin Er (may Allāh bless and sanctify his soul).