In the Gardens with Ibrahim: An Evaluation of Fī riyāḍ al-tafsīr by Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse, a Contemporary, Traditional Tafsīr

Abstract

The Senegalese Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse (d. 1975) was the founder of the most popular branch of the Ṭarīqa Tijāniyya, the most popular Ṣūfī order in Sub-Saharan Africa. In this paper, I propose to give a brief overview of his recently-published Fī riyāḍ al-Tafsīr, a contemporary work of tafsīr transcribed from Shaykh Ibrahim's annual Ramaḍān tafsīr sessions. The tafsīr is unique for many reasons, not least of which is the fact that it is a transcription of an oral tafsīr performance, raising interesting questions about the relationship of oral performance to textuality and intertextuality, and the relationship between spiritual practice and Qur'anic hermeneutics, and challenging certain received notions about Islam in West Africa, and the place of West Africa in the Islamic world. While this work has previously been discussed in an excellent article by Andrea Brigaglia, this paper builds on and complements Brigaglia's work by conducting a close reading of Shaykh Ibrahim's tafsīr of Q. 6:75–79, the story of Abraham and the setting star, moon, and sun, comparing it with related ideas found in other Ṣūfī texts and with other Sufi tafsirs of the same passage.