The great Sufi Order Shadhiliyya can be compared to a big tree as it grows from a plant to a fully matured tree, which throws out branches. Shadhiliyya order has more than seventy branches across the globe.
The first branch of Shadhiliyya emerged in Egypt is Wafiyya, founded by Shams al Din Muhammad ibn Ahmad Wafa (d 1359), after that numerous other Shadhili branches emerged in different parts of the world. Hanafiyya, Jazuliyya, Zarruqiyya, Darqawiyya, Fasiyyah, Alawiyya, Yeshrutiyya are the popular branches of Shadhiliyya. Indeed, Darqawiyya, Fasiyya, alawiyya and Yeshrutiyya have a direct hand in the regeneration of Islam in North Aftica and rest of the Islamic world.
Fasiyathu Shadhili Sufi order was established by a Morocan orgin and Meccan born Sheikh Muhammed bin Muhammed al Fassi. This order is practiced in all over the world especially in India, Srilanka, Pakistan, Mauritius, Indonesia, Turkey, Philippines, Palestine, Malaysia, Tunisia, Moroco, Oman, Syria, Iraq and U.S.A.
The genealogy of imam fassi which touches Imam Shadhili is.
Sheikh Muhammed bin Muhammed Masood bin Abdurehman Al makki al Fassi, commonly known as Qutubl ujood Imam al Fassi and the founder of Fassiyathu Shadhiliya was born in Fez in 1760 in Morocco. From his childhood he had a craze to enrich his knowledge so he travelled to Mekha, the city of knowledge, for memorizing holy Quran with its Tajweed. In the meantime his father stayed in Egypt, he gained profound knowledge in various Islamic sciences from notable personalities. Colleagues of al Fassi were surprised of his inclination towards knowledge and his memorizing power. Sheikh Fassi was very fond of geting close to Almighty, he spent all his nights in prayers and all days in fasting. Sheikh Fassi used to recite Quran daily and Dalail Khayrat 21 times a day. From his childhood days he had a habit of visiting great Sufi saints both alive and dead and he was blessed by them. In 25th age Sheikh Fassi entered Shadhiliyya Sufi order. Sheikh Hazrat Muhammed bim Hamza Lafir al Madani, Sheikh of Al Fassi, taught, guided Ism al Azam and directed him to hold it strictily in day and night, in solitude and in multitude, moreover Fassi spent his 18 years serving him. Sheikh Fassi got permission to invite people to Allah and ijaza in his 40th age. He travelled various countries and made this tariqa reach people. Kazi Seyyid al Abbal abu Swadabin Murra al Fasi al Makki, the sea of knowledge taught him Khalil’s Mukhthasar, together with its commentaries by al Khirsh and Abdal Baqi al Zurqani. Sheikh al Fassi studied Quranic exegesis, Hadith and terminology and graduated from Seyid Abdal Salam al Bari. In addition with that he studied al Qushairi’s risala and other Sufi texts from the unique Scholar Seyyid al Thiham bin Hammadi.
Sheikh Al Fassi’s saintly miracles cannot be enumerated completely. One of those took place at the beginning of his affair, when he stripped himself of means to devote himself exclusively to Allah and his messanger Prophet Muhammed. He discarded this world behind him and shunned his contemporaties, roaming about rapturous love of Allah. Sheikh Fassi would gather firewood for his brothers and serve them as per their liking, journeying much with them amid the breaking of common norms. One day, for instance four thieves came upon Fassi with the intention of plundering his possessions. Allah blinded their sights to him, as he pointed at them with his hand. They began to say, where did he disappear? He was here with us just now. This was occurred while he was in their midst, hearing and seeing them.
Seyid Ahmad al Hadrawi describes in Tabaqat Shadhili al Qubra, he said: “I was with the Sheikh Al Fassi during one of his spiritual trips. Once I came into Sheikh’s presence, and I saw the lights of divine manifestation shining upon him. The beam of acceptance and spiritual arrival glowed before him. He ordered me “Come here Ahmed, write down what I say and what you hear from me. I was led by Almighty and his messenger to say ‘This foot of mine is resting on the shoulder of every living friend of Almighty’. When I uttered it, while in the midst of the assembly of Almighty Allah’s friends, Exalted is He, a sufi saint in attendance wanted to say the same thing about himself, whereupon I said to him, By Almighty’s Might and immense Magnificance, if you utter it I shall remove you from the circle and the assembly, and I shall deprive you of sainthood”. He then kept quiet and uttered nothing. Al Fassi roamed about in search of illumination for some twenty nine years and authored several famous books on different sciences. It becomes delighted by lordly sciences when perusing Fassi’s books like Al Kanz al Mutalsam, Al Futhuhath Al Rabbaniya Wa al Ijazat al Madaniyya and Maratib al Din wa Nihayat al Arifeen. From his childhood, he engrossed with reading and visiting familiar with none but the choicest people, divinely guarded and supported, memorized the holy Quran at primary school, and he was loved by whoever saw him, his approach to recitation of the holy Quran was to avoid heaviness and affectation. Fassi had the same approach to the recitation according to the seven cononical modes, until he memorized all of them. After completing Quranic studies he studied in Fez at the Misbahiya School, for a good period of time, followed by his encounter with the great and noble gnostic guide, Seyyid Abul Hasan Ali bin Abdurehman al Imrani al Jamal.