van de Kaap and
established a madrasah. This heralded the first ever texts written
in Afrikaans (Dutch-based language spoken in South Africa), using
the Arabic alphabet. After the British arrived in South Africa in
1795, Tuan Guru managed to persuade the British Governor, General
Craig, to allow him to build a mosque in Cape Town. The permission
was only given after he had defied authorities by leading several
incident-free Jumu`ah (Friday) Prayers in a disused
quarry.
The advent of religious freedom in 1804 and the
emancipation of all slaves in the 1830s, saw a plethora of mosques
being established in the Cape. When Tuan Guru died in 1807, at the
age of 95, he had laid firm foundations for Islam.
In his many writings, Dr. Achmat Davids has
observed that the 19th century was characterized by much dispute,
mainly concerning doctrine and leadership. He maintained, however,
that these disputes were necessary for Islam in the Cape, as they
acted as "regulators of the communal value system." Davids also
pushed the idea that these conflicts engendered the liberal and
progressive traditions that exist in the Cape today.
Dr. Achmat
Davids has observed that the 19th century was characterized
by much dispute, mainly concerning doctrine and leadership. |
|
Sheikh Abu Bakr Effendi, the founder of the
Hanafi[3] school of
jurisprudence in South Africa, was one person who not
only landed in this conflict, but who also openly — if not
controversially — embraced it. Born in Kurdistan, he came from an
aristocratic Quraishi family from Makkah. Sent to the Cape as a qadi
(judge) at the urging of the British via the Ottoman government, he
landed in Cape Town in 1862. Unfortunately, the colonial authorities
had neglected to investigate into which school of legal thought was
predominant in Cape Town.
Unlike the imams in the Cape who were fixated
by the Shafi`i[4] school of
jurisprudence, Sheikh Abu Bakr was a strict follower of the
Hanafi school. He set up a madrasah in Cape Town, and Tuan Guru's
grandsons were among his first students. Sheikh Abu Bakr gained
notoriety in 1869 when he ruled that rock lobster and snoek (a
barracuda-type fish caught by local fishermen) were haram
according to Hanafi rulings.
Sheikh Abu Bakr, who passed away in 1880 at the
age of 45, nevertheless did make several major contributions to
South African Islam. His first contribution was his educational role
and the publication of the bilingual Afrikaans-Arabic Bayan
ad-Din (The Exposition of the Religion), in 1877.
Printed by the Turkish Ministry of Education in Istanbul, it is one
of South Africa's most historically interesting publications. His
second contribution was the introduction of the fez (a type of hat)
for men and the reinstitution of the hijab for women.
Eight years after the death of Sheikh Abu Bakr,
another luminary in the Cape was destined to emerge in the
community. This figure was the 16-year-old Muhammad Salih Hendricks
who had studied in Makkah under the wings of Sayyid `Abdul-`Aziz
Maliki, a prominent Makkan personality.
After
decades of selfless service to the community, Sheikh
Muhammad Salih passed away in 1945, but not before having
trained a whole new generation of imams and educators. |
|
It was now 50 years after the emancipation of
slaves, and Muhammad Salih came from a family of emancipated slaves,
political exiles, and European converts. On a visit to the country
town of Swellendam, Imam Hajji Hijji, Muhammad Salih's father,
informed Sayyid `Abdul-`Aziz that his son was going to study
medicine in London. Telling the imam that the young boy should
instead become a doctor of the soul, Sayyid `Abdul-`Aziz undertook
the responsibility to be his guardian in the holy city.
After studying in Makkah for 15 years, Sheikh
Muhammad Salih left the holy city and stopped over in Zanzibar for a
year to work as a qadi, before finally arriving in Cape Town. He did
not arrive to a warm welcome. Dr. Yusuf da Costa states in his book
that a "hydra of jealousy" surrounded Cape Town's first locally born
qadi.
Despite many niggling problems, Sheikh Muhammad
Salih succeeded in building the Azzawiyyah mosque in 1921. Situated
on the lower reaches of Cape Town overlooking the harbor, it soon
became a focus of Islamic learning.
According to Hajji Ganief Allie,[5]
one of the last surviving followers of Sheikh Muhammad Salih, the
dedicated religious scholar had kept up a program of education that
has never been equaled by any other religious teacher in Cape Town.
After Fajr Prayer, he would conduct classes for imams. After 10 a.m.
he would give lessons to descendants of the Prophet (peace and
blessing be upon him), many of whom had fled to South Africa to
avoid persecution. After `Asr Prayer there were more classes,
and between Maghrib and `Isha’ Prayers, evening lessons were
held. On Thursdays, he would give public lectures, and on Sundays,
he would lecture on Imam Al-Ghazali's Ihya `Ulum ad-Deen.
After decades of selfless service to the
community, Sheikh Muhammad Salih passed away in 1945, but not before
having trained a whole new generation of imams and educators. He
added much to the spiritual foundations already laid by Tuan Guru,
Sheikh Abu Bakr Effendi, and others who had sacrificed so much for
Islam at the foot of Africa.
Sources:
Davids, Achmat and Yusuf de Costa.
Pages from Cape Muslim History. Pietermaritzburg: Shuter and
Shooter, 1994
** Shafiq Morton
is a senior South African journalist and a presenter at the Voice of
the Cape radio station.
[1] A school of
early Muslim philosophy that was named after its founder, the
theologian Abul-Hassan Al-Ash`ari (d. 945).
[2] Al-Sanusi Abu
`Abdullah Muhammad ibn Yusuf is an Ash`arite theologian who was born
in Tlemcen, Algeria, and studied in Algiers. He wrote several books,
such as `Aqidat Ahl at-Tawhid and `Umdat Ahl at-Tawfiq.
[3] A school of
Islamic jurisprudence that was established by Nu`man Abu Hanifah (d.
767).
[4] A school of
Islamic jurisprudence that was established by `Abdullah Muhammad ibn
Idris Ash-Shafi`i (d. 820).
[5] Based on
interviews with the author.
