Sheikh Muhammad Rashid Bilal and His Life

Written by:- Afendi Muteki

Sheikh Muhammad Rashid Sheikh Bilal (1907?- October 31, 1988) was one of the famous Islamic Scholars of the Cacar Highlands of Hararge province whom many people of Harerghe recall as one of the most authorized source of the ancient history of Islam in Ethiopia and the Oromo of people.  He is also remembered as a saver of indigenous knowledge, traditional healer, teacher of many Ulama (Islamic scholars), a poet and author of many books. While his real name had been Sheikh Muhammed Rashid Sheikh Bilal, he appears on his written documents as Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad (shortening his own and his father's name who had been Mohammed Bilal, and adding then his grandfather’s name).

 Early life

Sheikh Muhammad Rashid was a son of Sheikh Bilal Kabir Muhammad, a prominent Sheikh from the Qallu clan of the Ittu Oromo. He was born in 1906 at a rural village called Balbaleetti-Chirratti, 15 km south of Galamso town. His mother, known as Fatima Abdullahi Hammado, had died immediately after she gave birth to Sheikh Muhammad Rashid so that his father married another wife and had a daughter called Khalisa Sheikh Bilal who would become the Sheikh's only sister.
After the birth of Khalisa, Sheikh Bilal had changed his seat to a distant village called Corree in today’s Guba Qoricha district of West Harerghe Zone where he became one of the scholars who became a pivotal in Islamization of the Ittu Oromo in Guba Qoricha He then settled at that very place and took his assignments as a chief Islamic scholar with many disciples, and also assumed the title of Qadi of the area. It was there that the infant Muhammad Rashid had started learning the Qur’an and other Islamic subjects. But his father couldn’t live many years, died within few years and buried at that village of Corree. So the duty of fostering the two orphans of Sheikh Bilal (Muhammad Rashid and Khalisa) lied on their uncles who brought them to their birthplace (Balbaleettii).
 

Sheikh Muhammad Rashid during his Hajj pilgrimage, cf 1970,

  His Education

After coming to Belbeliti, Muhammad Rashid continued his educational career. There, his chief teacher was his uncle called Kabir Ahmadee (Muhammad Rashid and the rest of his nephews call this uncle of theirs by a nickname “Iddiidii”). This Kabir (kabir meaning a learned scholar in the traditions of the Somali, Oromo and Harari peoples) was highly known in the area of al-Ilmu Lisan (“linguistics), “Al-Jabr” (Algebra) and “Taarikh” (history). Muhammad Rashid was also educated under his other uncle called Kabir Khalid who was known for his knowledge of “Fiqh”. But these scholars couldn’t quench the young Muhammad Rashid’s thirst for knowledge.
So he had departed from his village and traveled in many areas of the Carcar highlands where he attended the companies of many Islamic scholars such as Sheikh Abubeker Sheikh Ali Jami, Sheikh Umare Sheikh Ali Jami, Haji Bashir Haji Umar Sawtani, Haji Mahmud Ahmad and others.
When he completed his learning under the Ulama of Chercher, the young Muhammad Rashid elongated his journey of education beyond the borders of his province. His eldest son Muttaqii Sheikh Muhammad Rashid narrated to the writer of this article (Afendi Muteki) that Sheikh Muhammad Rashid’s journey of education took him as far as Jimma and the Gurage province in the west and the walled city of Harar in the east.  But when he reached the former Gara Mul’ata Awraja of the Harerghe province, he met the ideal teachers whom he was looking for and passed the rest of his studentship life there. In those years, Muhammad Rashid stayed as a disciple of his most favorite scholars called “Sheikh Adam Gafra” and most notably the famous “Sheikh Sa’id Husein Faqii”.  And it was this Sheikh Sa’id Hussein Faqi who educated the young Muhammad Rashid deeply and gave him “ijaza” (declarations of full authority) to be a teacher and “Faqih” (Higher Islamic Jude that can give “fatwa” or Islamic decree) with full of rights and authority.
Sheikh Muhammad Rashid had been a friend of many distinguished Ulama while he was learning under different sheikhs. Some of his scholarly mates were

• Hajji Umar Ibrahim Arboyye :- Popularly known as “Abbo Haji”. He founded a well known scholarship center at “Dereku”, 15 km south of Gelemso. Haji Umar was also a friend of Sheikh Muhammad Rashid during his pilgrimage to Makah and Medina.
• Sheikh Muhammad Jamal Sheikh Umar Aliyye: The eldest son of Sheikh Umar Aliyye of Gelemso. He was also another man with whom Sheikh Muhammad Rashid went for the Hajji journey.
• Sheikh Shato Sheikh Mi’o of Gubba Qoricha: Well known scholar of Qur’an and the grandson of Sheikh Ali Jami. Sheikh Shato was not only a friend of Sheikh Muhammad Rashid but also married the latter’s widowed step mother (the mother of Khalisa, Sheikh Muhammad Rashid’s only sister) and had two daughters.
• Sheikh Abdulhalim Kabir Umara:- Cousin of Sheikh Muhammad Rashid who married Khalisa, the sheikh’s sister. He was a famous scholar who tutored many disciples such as Sheikh Mukhtar Aliyye, the current Imam of Gelemso’s grand mosque.
• Sheikh Mohammed Abduli : A well known scholar around Deder. His center is located on the bank of the Ramis River.
• Sheikh Bakri Sapalo: A famous historian, traditionist, poet and Orthographic who created a new writing system for Afaan Oromoo (The Oromo Language).  

 

 A Popular Sheikh

After achieving his “ijaza” from Sheikh Sa’id Hussein Faqi of Gara Mul’ata in the late 1930s, Sheikh Muhammad Rashid returned to the Chercher highlands to start his career as a teacher. He was thinking “Belbeliti” to be his home then. However, as he received many calls from the people of “Corree”, the seat of his father and where he passed his childhood life, he founded his scholarship center there and began his teachings. Our sources say that Sheikh Muhammad Rashid could bring a big change shortly after he launched his scholarly tutorship. And it was there that he was engaged to his first wife, a Somali woman called “Zeynaba Libaah”, and had a son who could live only for two weeks (The boy’s name was Muhammad Tahir and he died on his 16th day). During the Italian occupation of Ethiopia around 1940, Sheikh Muhammad Rashid moved his scholarship center to a small town of “Kooraa” on Ethio-Djibouti railway line and tutored there for some brief time.
Meanwhile, Sheikh Muhammed Rashid was informed that his own birthplace had lacked an able scholar, and famous Ulama like Sheikh Umar Aliyye summoned him to fill the gap so that he returned to “Belbeleti” and established his long-time education center.
It was in Belbeletti that the Sheikh could teach all sorts of subjects, from the major Islamic disciplines up to the Arabian and Persian antiquities, from the Greeko-Roman philosophies up to the East African and Indian Medicine, from the ethnology and history of the Oromos up to the classical Arabic Language and poetry. Many students whom he taught had witnessed his ability to deliver sermons, his deep knowledge of Islamic subjects and their interpretations, his ability to handle his students, the harmonious community that he established, and above all his humanitarian approaches and his piety.
As time passed, the fame of Sheikh Muhammed Rashid started to cross beyond the “Carcar” highlands and all of the Harerghe and since then, many students would come from Bale, Arsi and Wallo to attend his school. He could get popularity even in the countries of Djibouti, Somalia and Yemen. That was why many citizens of Djibouti and Somalia were visiting the Sheikh frequently.
Among Sheikh Muhammad Rashid’s most distinguished students, we can mention the followings.

• Mufti Salah Ahmed: - who could become one of the early Ethiopian graduates of Al-Azhar University.
• Sheikh Abdurrahman Hussein Mussa (Muudaa) :- Who became the President of The Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in Ethiopia in 1990s
• Sheikh Mohammed Rabi Sheikh Umar Aliyye
• Haji Sa’adu Sheikh Mi’o
• Sheikh Arabo Sheikh Yusufe
• Sheikh Abdinur Khalid
• Etc..

 His Latter Years and Death

When the health condition of the brilliant sheikh started to deteriorate in 1970s, he was forced to stop his teaching career that lasted for about forty years. However, he continued to play his role as a community leader, humanitarian, historian, ethnographer, traditional mediciner, “Faqih” (judge), agriculturalist and poet.
On one Monday, the 28th day of the month of Rabiul Awwal of 1409 years after Hijra (October 31, 1988 G.C or Tikimt 21, 1981 E.C.), the wise sheikh of the public had passed at his own village and engraved at a public cemetery half a mile away from his village. An approximately 5-10 thousand people attended his funeral.  Although the sheikh passed 24 years ago, the influence he left in the whole learning process of the traditional Islamic schools of the “Carcar” highlands can be felt until now.
Sheikh Muhammad Rashid had fathered many daughters and sons among whom “Ahmad Taqi” (Hundee) was the famous one.

******************************************

Afendi Muteki
Harar
May 16, 2013

(Note: This article first appeared on Wikipedia two and half years ago. What is presented here is a shortened form of the original one. You may get the full article from Wikipedia).  

 References

1. Mohammed Hassan: The City of Harar and the Spread of Islam Among the Oromo in Hararghe, A Paper Presented on African Studies Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, November 11–14, 1999
2. Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad (a.k.a. Sheikh Muhammad Rashid Sheikh Bilal): “Al-Markabunn-Najaat ‘Alaa Kheyril Bariyyat”, unpublished Arabic Manuscript
3. ________________: “Ragha’ibu-r-Rawwaaghib”, unpublished Arabic Manuscript
4. Ulrich Braukämper: Islamic History and Culture in Southern Ethiopia. Collected Essays, Göttinger Studien zur Ethnologie 9, 2003 
5. አፈንዲ ሙተቂ: ሀረር ጌይ- የአስገራሚዋ ከተማ የኢትኖግራፊ ወጎች : ሀረር፡ 2004 
6. Interviews with Muttaqqi, Hanifa, Sadiq, Aliyuu and Iskandar, all of whom are Sheikh Muhammad Rashid’s children; Amina Ibrahim, Sheikh Muhammad Rashid’s wife; Sheikh Abdinur Kabir Khalid, a cousin of Sheikh Muhammad Rashid; Sheikh Abduljawad Umare, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein Tirmo, and Muhammad Sani Abdullahi Kalilo nephews of Sheikh Muhammad Rashid. The interviews were done at Galamso and Balbaletti Chirratti on different occasions from 1992-2006, (two of these informants, namely Sheikh Abdinur and Muhammad Sani are diseased by now)

(Note: This article first appeared on Wikipedia two and half years ago. This is shortened form of the original one. You may get the full article from Wikipedia).