Before expounding in details Imam Yassine’s revivalist project, it is befitting to give a brief account of his personality. Who is then Imam Yassine? What are the factors that have contributed to the formation of his project and the foundation of an Islamist movement to put his project into practice?

On the Spiritual Level

Imam Abdessalam Yassine descends genealogically from the Idrissi Ait Bihi family. The descendents of the Prophet (God bless him and grant him peace) are generally known for their attachment to moral values and particularly to the sunna [the model practice] of their august ancestor Muhammad (God bless him and grant him peace). Such attachment enjoins them to give their children a purely Islamic education. They traditionally make them learn the Holy Qur’ān by heart at an early age. That was the case of the founder and guide of the Justice and Spirituality Movement.

If we know that the Qur’ān is the Word of God, it is then easy to understand all the spiritual impact it may have on the individual who has learned it by heart and rehearses it regularly. Such impact becomes even stronger if such individual strives diligently to assimilate its teachings, perform its precepts, and be imbued with its moral and spiritual values. Innumerable are the verses and hadiths [sayings of the Prophet] that praise the merits of the Holy Qur’ān. We will cite the following by way of illustration:

·         "O mankind! There has come unto you an exhortation from your Lord, a balm for that which is in the breasts, a guide and a mercy for the believers.” (Yunus: Jonah, v.57)

·         "And We reveal of the Qur’ān that which is a healing and a mercy for the believers though it increases the evil-doers in nothing save ruin." (Al Israe : Night Journey, v.82)

As for the hadiths:

·         ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan (God be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet (God bless him and grant him peace) said: "The best of you are those who learn the Qur’ān and teach it." Hadith narrated by Al-Bukhāri.

·         At-Tirmidhī narrated on the authority of Ibn ‘Abbas that God’s Messenger (God bless him and grant him peace) said: “Whoever has nothing of the Qur’ān in his breast (that is, who learns nothing thereof) is like a desolate house.”

A man who learns the Holy Qur’ān at an early age and rehearses it quite often cannot therefore remain insensitive to its principles, its teachings and the luminous effects that emanate from its source-effects that illuminate the hearts and enlighten the minds.

On the other hand, Imam Yassine had his elementary studies at Ibn Yūssuf Institute, a traditional school founded by the eminent Muslim scholar and activist al-Mukhtār as-Sūssi (God have mercy upon him). Such schools were known for dispensing Islamic education and a mode of teaching based on the Qur’ānic and Islamic studies in order to face the “modernist” trend represented by the colonialist French schools. He also studied at Mulay Yussef Institute where he had the privilege of mixing with the eminent Moroccan scholars of that period. That undoubtedly gave rise to a very strong penchant inside him, so to speak, for Islamic studies.

Notwithstanding all such favorable circumstances, Imam Yassine had a spiritual crisis when he was around forty years of age. He felt he “did not really know God or Islam yet”, to use his own words. Following a combination of circumstances, wherein interferes indubitably the Will of God, he joined the Butshishi Order in 1965. He kept going to the Sufi Order during six years. The practices in the Order were based namely on sessions of dhikr [remembrance of God] and some sessions for reciting the Holy Qur’ān. There he drew from the sources of a pure faith under the care of his spiritual master al-Hāj al-‘Abbās al-Qādiri (God have mercy upon him) whose assistance and favors he incessantly praises. There he tasted the sweetness of faith in the sessions of God’s remembrance that revive and illuminate the hearts.

The Sufi experience was a decisive turning point in the life of the Guide, in general, and in the elaboration of his revivalist project for the Islamic society, in particular. He then decided to undertake the heavy and hard task of reviving the Prophet’s sunna in its entirety and according to the means at hand.

On the Political Level

Notwithstanding all the benefits he had acquired within the Sufi Order, namely the marvellous experience with God, he quitted the Order sometime after the death of his spiritual master, al-Hāj al-‘Abbās (God have mercy upon him).

It must be said in the first place that Imam Yassine had noticed that some behaviors and practices, at variance with the Prophet’s sunna, began to manifest in the Order. Moreover, he understood that what was performed in the Order did not represent the entirety of Islam. In his view the spiritual side was so essential that it had not to be confined in closed circles. Spirituality must therefore be extended to the whole society. As people outside knew nothing of it, they needed those Sufis to come out of their closed circles to call them to repent, to invite them to God. Concurrently with the major jihad [against the ego], Imam Yassine thought that the elite of change must also lead the minor jihad [for social justice and equality], both necessary and vital for the umma’s revival.

He was then compelled to leave his companions of the Order who refused to subscribe to his proposals.

It is also important to remind that Imam Yassine was the son of a poor farmer. A man like him who did not live in abundance could only have grown in need and seen grow with him his compassion for the wretched and the oppressed, as well as his conviction of the duty to defend them against tyranny and feudalism.

Lastly, let us not forget that his profession played a major part in such exceptional progress. As an educationalist, he quickly became one of the most illustrious experts of the country in the field of teaching and education. That enabled him to climb in the ladder of the highest educational and administrative positions, the last of which was his position as Principal of the Center for Training Teachers’ Inspectors in Rabat. He also represented Morocco in many international seminars on education. This is what he says about himself in his open letter, "Islam or the Flood", addressed to the late King Hassan II in 1974:

"At the advent of independence, I had a provincial responsibility in the field of teaching; I mixed with the old officials as a young and witnessed administrative corruption as of the beginning of independence and throughout the following decades. I also may speak of the ‘Ulemas [traditional scholars] because I have known them, mixed and collaborated with them; my 27 years of experience as a teacher, administrator and expert enable me to a large extent to speak of Morocco, of its youth, of its men, and of its administration."

Thus if Imam Yassine talks of spirituality, it is in his capacity as a connoisseur used to its practices. If he judges the administration-and the Moroccan political system in general-it is also as an informed expert. We may say all that without any fear of exaggerating. He well and truly had the merit of doing what only few men could venture to do: declaring in the face of the despot that he was a despot.

Indeed, and as the tradition of the Scholars of Islam requires it, he began his political action by carrying out the duty of giving advice to the king of the country. He then wrote in 1974 to Hassan II, the then-King of Morocco , a letter of more than a hundred pages titled "Islam or the Flood." In the missive, he exhorted the king to fear God in his management of the affairs of the Moroccan people and to make up for the wrongs committed against a large number of Moroccan citizens. He urged him to follow the just and exemplary model of ‘Umar Ibn ‘Abdelaziz, the Umayyad Caliph. He will reiterate the same act with King Mohamed VI, when the latter ascended the throne in 1999, in "Memorandum To Whom It May Concern."

The Guide

According to Imam Yassine’s revivalist [1] project, inspired from the Prophet’s Method, man should be perceived in his entirety, in the duality according to which he was created. He is body and soul. He is not only a body that comes from nothingness, lives for a period of time on earth, and then leaves it lastly to come back to nothingness wherefrom he came. Is it logical that such marvellous creature, along with this immense and complex universe, come from nothingness and then come back to nothingness? No, of course. Man should be perceived and treated as a creature of God, an accountable being sent on earth to worship his Maker and come back to Him at the end of a fleeting sojourn in this world. That is the conception of the passage of man on earth in the Qur’ān and the sunna.

Man is thus in this world to conduct a twofold jihad: one against his ego in his experience with God, hence the term “Spirituality” (al-Ihsān); the second against all forms of despotism and for justice and equality, hence the second part of the motto “Justice” (al-‘Adl). If he successfully overcomes the challenge, he will be admitted to the eternal Paradise of His Lord in the company of the elite of God-the Prophets, the Sincere, the Martyrs and the Righteous. How best is such company!

In order to overcome such challenge, man is instructed in the Qur’ān [2] and the sunna [3] to seek the companionship of-and guidance from-those on whom God has bestowed His favors. Imam Yassine says the following precious words: “I will be the most blessed of men if my current testimony ever finds attentive hearts and minds who have been awakened from heedlessness by my quiet appeal, men and women who have renounced the fake pleasures of this world and rushed to a man who will guide them to God so that they may know Him. I will then be the most delighted of men if I find in my Record of Deeds a multitude of muhsins[4] to whom I was a guiding voice that tells them, ‘From here begins the journey towards God-Glorious is He.’”[5]

Imam Abdessalam Yassine has indeed proven to be a trustworthy spiritual guide of several thousands of disciples to God-Exalted be He. These guided disciples (strongly bonded, well organized, well disciplined, and increasing in number) form what is called the jamā’a, the elite of change-among others-within the umma. Under the guidance of the spiritual guide [sohba], the jamā’a invites people to God and endeavors, in cooperation with the other Islamic movements and all people of goodwill, to reunite the umma in fulfilment of God’s promise that announces the advent of a second Caliphate in line with the Method of the Prophets. The second Caliphate will be a union that will live abreast of the other civilizations and cultures of the world, working in unison to establish peace, security and prosperity for the whole mankind.