Hassan Cissé

Shaykh Hassan passed from this world on August 14, 2008. His funeral in Medina-Baye, Kaolack, was attended by over two million people and his departure was mourned by many more around the world. He has been succeeded by his brother and companion, Shaykh Tijani Cisse.

Shaykh Hassan’s own scholarly reputation earned him the respect of Muslim ‘ulama around the world. For example, Shaykh Yasin al-Fadani (d. 1990), the Indonesian musnid of the Hijaz, sent him a personal diploma (ijaza) transmitting the some 700 diplomas Shaykh Yasin had collected from prominent scholars throughout the Islamic world. Similarly, the great Hadith scholar of Medina, Shaykh Ahmad Muhammad Abd al-Jawwad, presented him with an ijaza after being instructed to do so in a visionary encounter with the Prophet Muhammad. Shaykh Hassan Cisse himself possessed more than 600 ijazas from Muslim scholar all around the world, the most cherished of which remains that from his grandfather, Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse.

Shaykh Hassan Cisse continued the work of his grandfather, introducing Islam to thousands and unifying diverse cultures under the banner of Islam. The Shaykh positively affected the lives of many in societies rife with ethnic and religious tensions, such as Nigeria, Mauritania, South Africa and the United States. Shaykh Hassan first came to America in 1976, and since worked tirelessly to promote good-will and positive exchange between Americans and the international Muslim community, emphasizing the essential spirituality and etiquette (Sufism) of Islam to promote individual betterment and real brotherhood. These efforts bore fruit through the founding of the African American Islamic Institute (www.aaii.info), a UN recognized non-governmental organization (NGO) which promotes education, health care, women’s rights, and international exchange and dialogue between America and West Africa.

Shaykh Hassan Cisse (1945-2008) was the preeminent spokesmen of the Tariqa Tijaniyya in recent times. He was an accomplished Islamic scholar, emerging from a long and vibrant legacy of Islamic learning in West Africa. The grandson and spiritual heir of Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse, he was designated by Shaykh Ibrahim as Imam of the Jama’at Nasr al-Ilm (“Community of Helping Knowledge”), the followers of Shaykh Ibrahim who are historically the largest single Muslim movement in twentieth-century West Africa.

Although Shaykh Hassan was only thirty at the time of his grandfather’s passing, Shaykh Ibrahim was said to show him special favor from the time of his birth in 1945. In Shaykh Ibrahim’s last will and testament, he recommended his own children to his closest disciple and lifelong companion, Sidi Ali Cisse, and said that they should “be with him as they are with me now.” The will mentions Shaykh Hassan by name as the community’s Imam after his father. Shaykh Hassan was the last to see Shaykh Ibrahim alive.