Welcome to the Washington-Baltimore Branch of the Maryamiyyah Tariqah. This Branch derives its initiatic lineage through the silsilas of the Shadhiliyyah-Darqawiyyah-Alawiyyah Orders. The Maryamiyyah Tariqah was originally established as a branch of the Alawiyyah Order, by Shaykh ’Isa Nur Al-Din Ahmad Al-Maryami (Frithjof Schuon), in Lausanne, Switzerland. We teach a metaphysical doctrine and spiritual method firmly rooted in our Islamic Sufi heritage in conjunction with an adherence to the fundamental perspectives of the Perennial Philosophy as articulated by Shaykh Abd Al-Wahid Yahya (René Guénon) and other members of the Traditional School.
This portal represents the Maryamiyyah Tariqah operating under the leadership and guidance of Shaykh Al-Bashir and Sidi Hasan, who have been authorized to establish an independent branch of the order. For more information or further inquiry, please contact info@maryamiyyah.org
Introduction
We are a branch of the Tariqah Maryamiyyah: an organization of spiritual seekers and travelers who are working to realize our spiritual possibilities and aspirations by understanding the truth about who we are, and what we should do with the opportunities that our life as human beings present us. We pursue our spiritual vocation through formal and interior practices; chief among these is the invocation of the Divine Name. Our path is the Sufi path—personal, interior, sacred, and esoteric.
Our intellectual perspective is orthodox and universalist, in the ‘Traditionalist’ sense, based on the teachings of Shaykh ‘Abd al-Wahid Yahya (René Guénon), Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Shaykh ’Isa Nur al-Din (Frithjof Schuon), Shaykh Abu Bakr Siraj al-Din (Martin Lings), radi Allahu anhum, (may God be pleased with them), and Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr.
We are orthodox Muslims. We practice the five Pillars of Islam, recite the Qur’an, observe the Sunna as much as feasible in our circumstances, and follow the essential elements and spirit of the Shari’ah (religious laws). In addition to the Shari’ah we employ methods of interior development—the ritual practices handed down to us through an unbroken chain of transmission reaching back to the Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him). Our senior functionaries received spiritual direction and authority directly from their Maryami Shaykh.
We are universalists. We recognize that universal and fundamental principles of metaphysics underlie all orthodox religions. We recognize the transcendent unity of the world’s great religions—including Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and remnants of indigenous religions—and the validity of the revelations that inspired those religions. We accept the uncorrupted forms of all the orthodox religions as true and do not regard any of them, in their essence, as superior. While many adherents of orthodox religious traditions deviate from their principles and ideals, including those within Islam, we judge religions based on their intrinsic content as revealed by God, and not by the imperfections that have affected them and their adherents over time.
We value traditional metaphysics, orthodox cosmology, and ethics. We are nourished intellectually and spiritually by sacred art, the sacred writings of revealed religions, the saints and sages who interpret and illuminate these texts, and those who transmit sacred wisdom and grace to each of us. We work to embody the virtues that lead to spiritual growth and esoteric intellection—especially humility, reverence for the sacred, love for our neighbors and community, and service (and especially to our fuqara’ (members)) grounded in that love.
We venerate the natural world and seek to live in harmony with it. We value simplicity and stillness, balance and beauty—both natural and moral—and strive to maintain a sense of dignified reserve, detachment and proportionate response to everything we encounter in life.
We are a spiritual community. Our leadership functions as a hierarchy based on spiritual advancement and divinely-inspired calls to service, validated by recognition of our senior fuqara’. We honor and respect the rights and capacities of all of our members, regardless of gender, race, class, or previous religious affiliation. Our faqirat (female members) participate in leadership and decision making within our community at all levels. We require our leaders to adhere to the highest moral standards, especially in their relationship with fuqara’ and faqirat, and expect them to model exemplary behavior as spiritual and ethical guides to the fuqara’.
Individual members of the tariqah have diverse opinions on politics, economics, and social issues, but we as a community are not political or social “activists.” We firmly believe that the best thing we can do for social justice and peace is through our prayers, particularly invocatory prayers. Our overriding ritual activity is the dhikr Allah (invoking the Divine Name, “Allah”). Those who receive initiation into our order do so by making a vow to God to begin the practice of the dhikr and maintain and deepen that practice “without ceasing” until they die. We aspire to “die before we die” and be “in the world, but not of the world.”
Our original branch of the Order is connected to the Shadhiliyyah Order. The Shadhiliyyah Order, founded by Shaykh Abu’l Hassan al-Shadhili, traces its initiatic chain through the Fourth Caliph, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). A branch of our order was established by Shaykh Mawlay al-Arabi ad-Darqawi in Morocco and became known as the Darqawiyyah. Later, Shaykh Ahmad Al-‘Alawi, a member of the Darqawiyyah, established the ‘Alawiyyah branch of the order in Algeria. After Shaykh al-‘Alawi’s death, one of his European disciples, Shaykh ’Isa Nur ad-Din (Frithjof Schuon), established a branch of the order in Switzerland (and later in his life, in Bloomington, Indiana). In 1965, Shaykh ’Isa (radi Allahu anhu) was inspired to give himself the additional name “Al-Maryami,” and his branch of the ’Alawiyyah Order became known as the Maryamiyyah, based on his adopted name.
Members of the Maryamiyyah established numerous additional zawiyyahs in various countries around the world. In 2017 the Shaykh of the Washington, DC branch of our order, which retains the name Shadhiliyyah-Maryamiyyah, authorized our two leaders to establish an independent branch of the order.
Our Leadership
The Spiritual Guidance of our Branch is led by Shaykh Al-Bashir and Sidi Hasan, both of whom are American-born. Shaykh Al-Bashir has been a member of the Maryamiyyah Tariqah for 45 years. He joined the Tariqah under Shaykh ‘Isa in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1975. Sidi Hasan has been affiliated with the Washington Branch of the Tariqah since 1998. For more information or personal inquiry, please contact info@maryamiyyah.org
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