Lineage and Traditional Scholarly Curriculum

Ancestry

Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ḥasanī al-Fīlālī is a descendant of the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ through the line of al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī, and is therefore Ḥasanī and ʿAlawī. His lineage traces back to ʿAlī al-Sharīf, who is buried in Rīṣānī, in the Tafilalt region of southeastern Morocco. Through this lineage, he belongs to the Prophetic family (Ahl al-Bayt).

His ancestry also connects him to the pious Mawlāy Aḥmad Afilāl, who lived in the mountainous region of Guercif in northeastern Morocco and whose name remains associated with the local tradition of piety and scholarship.

Traditional Scholarly Curriculum and Riḥla in Pursuit of Knowledge

From his early years of scholarly formation, Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ḥasanī al-Fīlālī devoted his academic vacations to travelling throughout Morocco in pursuit of knowledge and to reading directly with established scholars and masters of the traditional Islamic sciences. Following the classical practice of riḥla fī ṭalab al-ʿilm, his journeys took him through Sūs, Fez, northern Morocco, Casablanca, and El Jadida, and subsequently to the Levant, Mecca, and other centres of Islamic learning.

His curriculum was acquired principally through direct reading (qirāʾa) before scholars, recitation, samāʿ, attendance at scholarly sessions (majālis), examination by teachers, and the acquisition of ijāzāt and spiritual litanies (awrād). His studies encompassed the Qurʾān and its readings, ḥadīth, Mālikī, Shāfiʿī and Ḥanafī jurisprudence, uṣūl al-fiqh, Arabic grammar and morphology, rhetoric, logic and theology, tafsīr, astronomy, prosody, Arabic literature, and the spiritual sciences.

Sūs

The Southern Moroccan Scholarly Tradition

His first major stage of traditional scholarly travel was Sūs, where he visited its renowned schools and sought out scholars belonging to the scholarly network of al-Ḥājj Ḥabīb al-Bashwārī and his disciples.

Shaykh Idou al-Tāmirī: Al-Rasmūkiyya and a portion of its commentary; his commentary on the Khazrajiyya; and the section on ritual purity from Khalīl's Mukhtaṣar, together with al-Dardīr's commentary. He was examined by him and received an ijāza.
Shaykh Saʿīd al-Kānūnī: The section on prayer from al-Dardīr's commentary on Khalīl's Mukhtaṣar; Ibn Hishām's Qawāʿid al-Iʿrāb; Lāmiyyat al-Afʿāl; a portion of the Ḥāshiyat al-Taṣrīḥ on Ibn Mālik's Alfiyya; commentaries on the Muʿallaqa of Imruʾ al-Qays and that of Ṭarafa; a portion of Ibn Mālik's Tashīl; and part of al-Damanhūrī's commentary on al-Jawhar al-Maknūn.
Shaykh al-Yarbuʿī: A substantial portion of Abū al-Ḥasan's commentary on the Risāla of Ibn Abī Zayd al-Qayrawānī. He was examined by him and received authorization to teach the work.
Sīdī ʿAbd Allāh Aghūrī and Sīdī al-Ghālī al-Dādisī: Further scholars of the circle of al-Ḥājj Ḥabīb al-Bashwārī, from whom he also benefited.
ʿAlī al-Laʿkīdī: Astronomy: a portion of al-Muqniʿ. A student of Sīdī al-Falakī al-Būjrafāwī.
Sīdī al-Tāzrwaltī: A jurist of the school of Ādūz: the Nāṣirī wird, and a portion of al-Zurqānī's commentary on Mālik's Muwaṭṭaʾ.
Sīdī al-Qurashī: In Zagora: an ijāza for the Nāṣirī wird and for some of his works on medicine.

Fez

The Qarawiyyīn Tradition

He subsequently travelled to Fez, where he sought out the remaining senior scholars of the Qarawiyyīn tradition who were still living at the time.

Sīdī Muḥammad al-Tāwīl: Portions of Jamʿ al-Jawāmiʿ and Minhāj al-Bayḍāwī through a close and analytical reading (qirāʾa baḥth wa-taḥqīq). Despite his illness, al-Tāwīl showed him exceptional generosity and regularly set aside time for him. He was apparently among the last students to read with him.
Sīdī Muḥammad Ḥammād al-Ṣiqillī: A general ijāza and specific authorization to teach a number of works, including Talkhīṣ al-Miftāḥ and Ibn Rushd's Bidāyat al-Mujtahid.
ʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-ʿAmrāwī: He recited to him portions of Ibn Mālik's Alfiyya and al-Jawhar al-Maknūn at his home.
Sīdī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Kattānī: Portions of his scholarly sessions on al-Bukhārī's Ṣaḥīḥ and Ibn Kathīr's Tafsīr; recitation of Ibn al-ʿIrāqī's Alfiyya and the Burda; al-Nawawī's Forty Hadith and al-Bukhārī's Kitāb Birr al-Wālidayn; and al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ's al-Shifāʾ through his relative, Sīdī Ḥamza al-Kattānī. He received ijāza from him on several occasions.
Sīdī Idrīs al-Fāsī al-Fihrī: Portions of his sessions on al-Bukhārī's Ṣaḥīḥ.
Sīdī ʿAbd al-Mujīb al-Muqriʾ, Sīdī Aḥmad al-Ḥassānī and Sīdī Bū Ḥarāth al-Ṭanjī: Portions of the Qurʾān according to the Warsh reading, with students of the accomplished reciter Makkī Bin Kīrān.
Sīdī al-ʿAyyāshī: Portions of the Burda, and audition of portions of al-Jazūlī's Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt. One of the long-lived scholars of his generation.

Northern Morocco

The Ṣiddīqī Scholarly Tradition

His riḥla then took him to northern Morocco, where he sought out scholars of the Ṣiddīqī scholarly tradition.

Sīdī ʿAbd Allāh al-Tilīdī: A general ijāza, and the transmission of a number of musalsalāt.
Sīdī Muṣṭafā al-Buqālī: Matn Ibn ʿĀshir, Bulūgh al-Marām, Miftāḥ al-Wuṣūl, Ibn Mālik's Alfiyya, and a number of musalsalāt; a substantial portion of the Matn of Jamʿ al-Jawāmiʿ. He received an ijāza from him as well as the Darqāwī wird.
Shaykh Muḥammad Lanjrī: Al-Suyūṭī's Tadrīb al-Rāwī, and a portion of al-Zurqānī's commentary on the Muwaṭṭaʾ.

Casablanca and El Jadida

He subsequently travelled to Casablanca, where he continued his traditional studies.

Sīdī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-ʿAlīwī: Īṣāl al-Sālik, and a number of legal questions from the Risāla.
Sīdī ʿAlī ʿAṭafāy: He completed the study of al-Durar al-Lawāmiʿ with him and read portions of the Qurʾān.
Mubārak Karkūrī al-Shiyāẓmī: Portions of the Qurʾān and a section of the commentary on al-Durar al-Lawāmiʿ.
Al-Ḥajjūjī: In El Jadida, shortly before his death: he sought his ijāza, heard from him a number of musalsalāt and several fawāʾid from al-Bukhārī's Ṣaḥīḥ, and received a general ijāza.

The Levant and the Ḥijāz

His scholarly travels subsequently extended to the Levant, where he studied with students of the Qurʾānic reciter Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Kabbāra, reading the Qurʾān according to the Ḥafṣ transmission with qaṣr al-munfaṣil. He also studied with students of leading Ḥanafī and Shāfiʿī jurists, including Shaykh Muḥammad Ṭanāṭira and a number of students of Muḥammad Yāsīn al-Fādānī, and attended sessions devoted to Mālik's Muwaṭṭaʾ, al-Dārimī's Musnad, and the Six Canonical Collections of ḥadīth.

Fiqh: Mukhtaṣar Minhāj al-Nawawī in the Shāfiʿī school and al-Wiqāya in the Ḥanafī school.
Uṣūl al-fiqh: Al-Juwaynī's al-Waraqāt, al-Shīrāzī's al-Lumaʿ, and al-ʿAlāʾī's al-Qawāʿid.
Grammar and morphology: Ibn Mālik's Alfiyya, Qaṭr al-Nadā, Taṣrīf al-ʿIzzī, and Shadhā al-ʿArf.
Balāgha: Al-Damanhūrī's commentary on al-Jawhar al-Maknūn.
ʿArūḍ and literature: Al-Qināʾī's work on Arabic prosody, and selections from the Muʿallaqāt.
ʿAqīda and kalām: Al-ʿAqīda al-Ṭaḥāwiyya, al-ʿAqīda al-Nasafiyya with a portion of al-Taftāzānī's commentary, al-Fiqh al-Akbar, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī's Risāla, and al-Bayhaqī's Kitāb al-Iʿtiqād.
Qurʾānic sciences and tajwīd: Tuḥfat al-Aṭfāl, the commentary on al-Jazarī's al-Muqaddima, selections from al-Shāṭibiyya, and al-Suyūṭī's al-Itqān.
Tafsīr: A substantial portion of al-Nasafī's Tafsīr, as well as portions of the tafsīrs of al-Qurṭubī and Abū Ḥayyān.
Shaykh Usāma al-Minsī: In Mecca: his sessions on al-Bukhārī's Ṣaḥīḥ. He received a general ijāza from him as well as authorization for the Naqshbandī wird.

Mauritanian and West African Scholarly Traditions

His riḥla also brought him into contact with scholars of the Mauritanian scholarly tradition.

Shaykh Walad Mitālī: A portion of the Naẓm al-Kafāf.
Shaykh Aḥīd al-Yaʿqūbī: Of the Fāḍiliyya tradition. He granted him the Qādirī wird.
Shaykh Muḥammad Maʾmūn b. al-Shaykh al-ʿAbdātī: Of the Fāḍiliyya tradition as well.
Scholars of Kerala: He also received ijāzāt from a number of scholars of Kerala.

This account represents only a selection of the scholars with whom Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ḥasanī al-Fīlālī studied and the texts he read. His traditional curriculum was formed through successive journeys in pursuit of knowledge, direct engagement with the scholars of diverse regional traditions, systematic reading of the foundational mutūn and their commentaries, transmission of ḥadīth and musalsalāt, Qurʾānic recitation, and the acquisition of ijāzāt and awrād from numerous teachers.