Introduction

My primary references to Ahmadu Saar (Wàkk), the father of Baay Ñas’s wife ᶜĀᵓishatu (“Maa Astu”) Saar are from Haraka’s Roundtable documents. This information is based on those documents, and his information is based on interviews with three of Ndóofaan’s elders.

His father and Màbba Jaxu Ba

These elders told Haraka Caam that Ahmadu Saar was born in Ñooro in the house of Màbba Jaxu Ba around 1857. His father was Masukku Saar and his mother was ᶜĀᵓishah Jóob. She was the homonym of Baay Ñas’s mother, Maa Astu Jànqa. When Masukku Saar heard about the war Màbba Jaxu was fighting for God, he left his home near the city of Batiis [?] and came to Ñooro.

Màbba thought he was an infidel¹ who had come to spy on them, and they wanted to expel him from their midst. But he recited (qaraᵓa) for them this verse: “Oh ye who have believed, if believers [f] (mūmināt) and emigrants (hājirāt), test them; God knows best their belief. And if you find them to be believers, do not return them to the unbelievers.” When Màbba and his people heard this they knew that he was a Muslim brother. He them accompanied Màbba to Somb to fight the unbelievers. Màbba and Masukku Saar and others were martyred and buried there.

Went he left Ñooro, he had left his wife there. He dictated his will as he was dying, saying his son should be called Wàkk and that he should learn the Qurᵓān. The meaning of Wàkk is “allure” (jadhb), because Màbba Jaxu allured the unbelievers to enter Islam and shave their heads as an oath. His name is ᵓAḥmad, as Allaaji Abdulaay Ibrayima said, and people left his name and called him by his deed.

Adult years, marriage, and children

When Shaykh Wàkk Saar grew up, he went to the city of Kawoon and asked about his brothers, and they told him that his origin is in Ndóofaan Taniwaar, and he moved from Ñooro to Ndóofaan Tanwaar, 10 kilometers from Kawlax. [I don’t know this village—there are several Ndóofaans in the area, the principal of which is Ndóofaan Lagem.] He lived there and married Yaasin Jeŋ. She had children in this village, including Shaykh al-Ḥājj ᵓAḥmad Saar, his oldest son; Shaykh Baabakar (Mbay) Saar; Sayyidah Fāṭimah Saar; and Sayyidah ᵓĀminah Saar.

He had come to know Shaykh al-Ḥājj ᶜAbd Allāh Ñas [the elder] in Ñooro, and the Shaykh gave him the Ṭarīqah Tijāniyyah (the wird). After moving to Ndóofaan and hearing that Shaykh al-Ḥājj ᶜAbd Allāh had established a neighborhood at Lewna Ñaseen, he went to Shaykh al-Ḥājj ᶜAbd Allāh to visit him (ziyārah), and Shaykh al-Ḥājj ᶜAbd Allāh asked him to live with him in the same neighborhood and gave him a house, which is the same house he lived in with his family after he moved from Ndóofaan. His Wife ᶜĀᵓishah Jóob bore him children, including ᶜĀᵓishah [Astu] Saar, mother of Shaykh al-Ḥājj ᶜAbd Allāh ᵓIbrāhīm, and Khadījah Saar. Those two are the ones born in Kawlax. (She was also the mother of Muhammadu Lamin Ñas, Sëriñ Maahi Ñas, and Sëriñ Maamuun Ñas.)

ᶜĀᵓishah Saar raised Awaa Tafsiir Muusaa Kase Caam, mother of Seydinaa Baabakar Caam, the journalist of Medina, “which is why this roundtable is his roundtable.”

His qualities

Haraka describes Wàkk Saar as a servant of the Qurᵓān and a “very great farmer” with vast fields, and the site of the Friday mosque of the city of Kawlax was one of his fields.

Allaaji Abdulaay Ñas gave him the Tijāniyy Ṭarīqah, and Shaykh ᵓIbrāhīm Ñas renewed it for him and educated him (rabbā: also, gave him tarbiyyah) and taught him interpretation of the Qurᵓān in 1932.

An interesting anecdote

One early disciple of Baay Ñas who asked to remain anonymous informed me that Baay Ñas’s oldest son was a son of Maam Astu Saar (Wàkk Saar’s daughter) and was named Àmmat Saar after him. This son died at an early age and is generally forgotten.

Notes

1. Testing notes

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