The Foundation of Touba (1887-88)
To flee the incessant crowds attracted by his notoriety and to regain solitude and calm propitious to adoration, the Sheikh left Mbacké his ancestral village and built at few kilometres south-east an isolated house called Darou Salam. Three years later (in 1887-88) he founded a bit farther the village of Touba.
The word “Touba” appeared once in the Qur-ãn (xiii. 29) where it is said:
“For those who believe, and work righteousness is Blessedness (Touba) and a beautiful place of return”
We may likewise come across this word through many Prophetic hadiths among which a famous one reported by Ibn Habãn says:
“Touba is a tree that is in Paradise. The extent of its shade equals to one hundred year of walk and the clothes of Heaven’s inhabitants will originate from its flowers”
The village the Sheikh built under its name was situated in the wilderness, in a inhospitable land lacking in water where no one could live except who that is eager to cut off himself from people.
This explains why the Sheikh declared:”The reason why Touba and Darou Salam are dearer to me than the other places I built is the purity of the intention which led me unto founding them. Indeed I did not settle there in following some ancestor or in seeking for lands propitious to farming or pasturage. I founded them with the sole aim to worship ALLAH the ONE and to gain His Satisfaction, by His Leave. ”
That is notably in Touba (exactly in the mosque of Darou Khoudos) the Sheikh is said to have met physically for the first the Holy Prophet (PBH) and his Companions who appeared to him during one of his retreats; the Sheikh testified then his entire fealty to the Messenger (PBH) and committed his whole to his Service so as to attain Spiritual Degrees no human being before him has attained. That constituted the basic sources of the hardships he had to face during the following years and which were the “price” of such Degrees.
Besides, the attachment the Sheikh was cherishing for Touba has been amply verified by its choice position in his writings. He so said: “The Permission to found Touba has been given to me by the LORD of the Universe HIMSELF.” He also entreated much ALLAH to vouch for the security of his city: “May Thou rank the blessed city of Touba among the places of education, of knowledge and of compliance with orthodoxy”
Indeed the unusual growth of the city, particularly since the 80’s, ranking it as the second town of Senegal, and its various distinctive features (spiritual, urban and so) constitute an evidence that such a place is a priceless gift of the CREATOR to one of His Elected Servant.
