Mouride Shaykh Aḥmadu Bàmba Mbàkke The Mouride brotherhood ( الطريقة المريدية , Aṭ-Ṭarīqat al-Murīdiyya or simply مريدية , Murīdiyya in Arabic ) is a large Islamic Sufi order ( ṭarīqa ) most prominent in Senegal and The Gambia , with headquarters in the holy city of Touba , Senegal ( Tuubaa in Wolof , طوبى , Ṭūbā in Arabic ) . Mourides sometimes call their order the Way of Imitation of the Prophet . The followers are called mourides ( murid in Wolof ) , from the Arabic word murīd ( literally `` one who desires '' ) , a term used generally in Sufism to designate a disciple of a spiritual guide ( murshid ) . The Mourides have large mercantile communities in Paris , France and New York City , USA . Their beliefs and practices constitute Mouridism . The Mouride brotherhood was founded in 1883 by Shaykh Aḥmadu Bàmba Mbàkke ( 1850-1927 ) ( Aḥmad ibn Muhammad ibn Habīb Allāh , also called Khadīmu r-Rasūl or `` Servant of the Prophet '' in Arabic and Sëriñ Tuubaa or `` Holy Man of Touba '' in Wolof ) . He was born in the village of Mbacké ( Mbàkke Bawol in Wolof ) in the Kingdom of Baol , the son of a marabout from the Xaadir ( Qadiriyya ) brotherhood ( the oldest in Senegal ) . Amadou Bamba was a Muslim mystic and ascetic marabout who wrote tracts on meditation , rituals , wor k , and Qur'anic study . He is perhaps best known for his emphasis on work , and his disciples are known for their industriousness . Although he did not support the French conquest , he did not wage outright war on them as several prominent Tijaan marabouts had done . He taught , instead , what he called the jihād al-'akbar or `` greater struggle , `` which fought not through weapons but through learning and fear of God . Bamba 's followers call him a `` renewer '' ( mujaddid in Arabic ) of Islam , citing a hadith that implies that God will send renewers of the faith every 100 years ( the members of all the Senegalese brotherhoods claim that their founders were such renewers ) . Bamba 's fame spread through his followers , and people joined him to receive the salvation that he promised . Salvation , he said , comes through submission to the marabout and hard work , a departure from conventional Islamic teaching . The French colonial rulers worried about Bamba 's growing power and potential to wage war against them . He had converted various kings and their followers and probably could have raised an army if he had wanted . The French sentenced him to exile in Gabon ( 1895-1902 ) and later in Mauritania ( 1903-1907 ) . However , these exiles fired wild legends about Bamba 's miraculous survival of torture , deprivation , and attempted executions , and thousands more flocked to his organization . On the ship to Gabon , forbidden from praying , Bamba is said to have broke his leg-irons , leapt overboard into the ocean and prayed on a prayer rug that appeared on the surface of the water , so devout was he . Or , when the French put him in a furnace , he simply sat down in it and drank tea with Muhammad . In a den of hungry lions , the lions slept beside him , etc . Grand Mosque of Touba By 1910 , the French realized that Bamba was not waging war against them , and was in fact quite cooperative . His doctrine of hard work served French interests . His movement grew , and in 1926 he began work for the great mosque at Touba where he is buried . After his death , he has been succeeded by his descendants as hereditary leaders of the brotherhood with absolute authority over the followers . One famous disciple of Bamba , Ibrahima Fall , started a sub-group of the Muridiyya called the Baye Fall ( Baay Faal in Wolof ) , many of whom substitute hard labor and dedication to their leaders for the usual Muslim pieties like prayer and fasting . They dress in colorful ragged cloths , wear their hair in dreadlocks , carry clubs , and act as security guards in the annual Grand Magal pilgrimages to Touba . Baye Fall are unusual in that some of them freely drink alcohol and smoke cannabis , things forbidden by orthodox Islam . They are very noticeable , and somewhat pushy , features of Senegalese society . A prominent member of the Baya Fall is the Musician Cheikh Lo Many mainstream Muslims consider the Mourides ' extreme adulation of Amadou Bamba , and his lineage of successors , to be blasphemous , since the latter gets more attention than the Prophet Muhammad , and Touba is ranked over Mecca . Amadou Bamba has only one surviving photograph , in which he wears a flowing white robe and his face is mostly covered by a scarf . This picture is venerated and reproduced in paintings on walls , buses , taxis , etc. all over Senegal . The Mouride brotherhood has attempted , with considerable success over the years , to dominate politics in Senegal . In Paris and New York , its followers are mostly small street merchants . Profit is deemed holy . They send large sums of money back to the brotherhood leaders in Touba . Recent Prominent Mouride include Abdoulaye Wade who is the current president of Senegal . Mr. Wade is a devout Mouride ( while his defeated opponent Abdou Diouf belongs to the Tijaniyya movement ) , Mr Wade surprised many , especially outside his country , when the day after his election , he travelled to Touba , to seek the blessing of the Grand Marabout , Serigne Saliou Mbacke . See also Touba , Senegal Amadou Bamba Murid Marabout External links Article on Shaykh Ahmadou Bamba as Peacemaker Official Home Page of the Muridiyya Khidmatul Khadim School A modest tribute from Tidjani Négadi ( Oran University , Algeria ) Categories : Religion in Senegal | Religion in the Gambia | Sufi orders | Islamic mysticism In other languages : Deutsch | Français 