Chain of transmission
Muhammad Wafa
1302 – 1363 · Alexandria and Cairo · founder of the Wafaiyya
A Shadhili master of Egypt, Muhammad Wafa is the founder of the Wafaiyya, an order that radiated from Cairo for centuries and whose path his family led until the early twentieth century.
Origins
He was born in Alexandria in 1302. His family came originally from Tunis and Sfax, and his genealogy goes back to Idris I (d. 791), founder of the Idrisid dynasty, and thus to al-Hassan ibn ʿAli.
Training
He was initiated into the Shadhili way by Dawud ibn Makhla (d. 1332), a disciple of Ibn ʿAta' Allah al-Iskandari. He is thus directly linked to the school of Alexandria.
The nickname “Wafa”
According to tradition, his name comes from a famous episode: the level of the Nile having dangerously dropped, the people of Cairo, fearing famine, asked him to invoke God. His fame then spread and he was called “Wafa”.
His zawiya
He lived in Akhmim, in Upper Egypt, then settled in Cairo, where he founded his zawiya.
Descendants
He died in 1363. His younger son ʿAli, who became famous for his poetry and his treatises on mystical philosophy, succeeded him. Twenty-one other members of his family then led the order, until 1907, the year of the death of the last of them, Ahmad Abu al-Futuhat.
Tomb
He was buried in his mosque in Cairo, the Wafaiyya mosque, where many members of the family rest.