I stayed in Tripoli, the Lybian Capital, long enough to
obtain an entry visa from the Egyptian Embassy to enter the
land of Kinana i.e. Egypt. I met a few friends who helped me
in this matter, so may Allah reward them for their effort. The
road to Cairo is a long one, it took us three days and nights,
during which I shared a taxi with four other Egyptians working in Libya who were on their way home. Throughout the
journey I chatted too them and read the Qur'an for them, so
they liked me and asked me to be their guest in Egypt. I chose
one of them, Ahmed. I felt very fond of him for he was a
pious man and he gave me the highest level of hospitality. I
stayed in Cairo twenty days during which I visited the singer
Farid al-Atrash in his flat overlooking the Nile. I liked him
for what I had read about his modesty in the Egyptian press,
but I only managed to meet him for twenty minutes because
he was on his way to fly to Lebanon.
I visited Shaykh Abdul Basit Muhammad Abdul Samad,
the famous reciter of the Qur'an, whose voice I liked very
much. I stayed with him for three days, and during that time
I discussed with his friends and relatives many issues and they
liked me for my enthusiasm, frankness and knowledge. If
they talked about art, I sang; and if they spoke about asceticism and sufism, I told them that I followed the Tijani order
as well as the Medani; and if they spoke about the West I told
them about Paris, London, Belgium, Holland, Italy and
Spain which I visited during the summer holidays; and if they
spoke about the pilgrimage, I told them that I had made the
pilgrimage to Mecca and that I was on my way to perform the
Umrah. I told them about places which were not known to
people who had been on pilgrimage seven times such as the
caves of Hira and Thawr and the Altar of Ismail. If they
spoke about sciences and technology I gave them all the
figures and the scientific names; and if they spoke about politics, I told them my views saying, "May Allah bless the soul
of al-Nasir Salah al-Din al- Ayyubi who deprived himself
from smiling, and when some of his closest friends criticized
him by saying: The great Prophet (s.a.w.) was often seen
smiling, he answered: How do you want me to smile when
the al-Aqsa Mosque is occupied by the enemies of
Allah...Nay...by the name of Allah I will never smile until I
liberate it or die."
Some of al-Azhar's Shaykhs used to come to these meetings and liked what I recited from the Qur'anic verses and the
sayings of the Great Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.), besides
they were impressed by my strong arguments and asked me
from which university I had graduated. I used to answer them
proudly that I graduated from al-Zaituna University which
was established before al-Azhar, and added, that the
Fatimids - who established al-Azhar - started from the town
of al-Mahdiah in Tunis.
I met many learned people in al-Azhar, and some of them
presented me with a few books.
One day while I was at the office of an official responsible
for the al-Azhar affairs, a member of the Egyptian Revolutionary Command Council came to attend a mass meeting for
the Muslim and Coptic Communities in one of the biggest
Railway Companies in Cairo. The mass meeting was held in
protest against Sabotage activities in the aftermath of the
June war. The member of the Command Council insisted on
my accompanying him to the meeting, so I accepted the invitation, and sat on the VIP rostrum between father Shnoodah
and the Azhari Shaykh. I was also asked to address the
meeting, which I did with ease due to my experience in giving lectures in Mosques and Cultural Committees in Tunis.
The main point which I have mentioned in this
chapter is that I started feeling big and somehow over
confident, and I thought I had actually become learned. Why
should I not feel so when there were a number of Ulama from
al-Azhar who attested for me, some of them even told me
that my place was there, i.e. at al-Azhar. What really made
me proud of myself was the fact that I was allowed to see
some of the Great Prophet's (s.a.w.) relics. An official from
Sidi al-Husayn Mosque in Cairo took me to a room which
could only be opened by himself. After we entered he locked
it behind us, then he opened a chest and got the Great
Prophet's (s.a.w.) shirt and showed it to me. I kissed the
shirt, then he showed me other relics which belonged to the
Prophet(s.a.w.), and when I came out of the room I cried and
was touched by that personal gesture, especially when the
official did not request any money from me, in fact he refused
to take it when I offered it to him. In the end, and only after
my insistence, he took a small amount and then he congratulated me for being one of those who have been honoured by
the grace of the Great Prophet (s.a.w.).
Perhaps that visit left a deep impression on me, and I
thought for a few nights about what the Wahabis say regarding the Great Prophet(s.a.w.), and how he died and passed
away like any other dead person.
I did not like that idea and became convinced of its falsity,
for if the Martyr who gets killed fighting in the name of Allah
is not dead but alive (by his God), then how about the master
of the first and last. My feelings became clearer and stronger
due to my early encounters with the teachings of the Sufis
who give their Shaykhs and Saints full power to see to their
affairs. They believe that only Allah could give them this
power because they obeyed Him and accepted willingly what
He offered them. Did He not state in the sacred saying: "My
servant ... Obey me, then you will be like me, you order the
thing to be, and it will be."
The struggle within myself started to have its effect on
me. By then I had come to the end of my stay in Egypt, but
not before visiting, in the last few days, a number of mosques
and I prayed in all of them. I visited the mosques of Malik,
Abu Hanifah, al-Shafii, Ahmed ibn Hanbal, al-Sayyidah
Zaynab and Sidi al-Husayn; I also visited the Zawiah of al-
Tijani Sufi order, and I have many stories about the visits,
some of them are long, but I prefer to be brief.