Tierno Bokar

Tierno Bokar (Fula: Cerno Bokar), full name Tierno Bokar Saalif Tall (1875–1939), was a Malian mystic, Sufi sage, and a Muslim spiritual teacher of the early twentieth century famous for his message of religious tolerance and universal love.

Tierno Bokar was born in Segou, Mali, in 1875 and moved to the village of Bandiagara in 1893. There he opened a zaouia and became a follower of Cherif Hammallah in Nioro du Sahel.

A disagreement over the proper number of repetitions for a Sufi prayer (Hamallayya prescribed 11 times as opposed to 12) rose dramatically in scale. Intense infighting among rival clans and religious factions in French Soudan, as well as involvement of the French colonial authority eventually led to massacres and the exile of Hamallah. In Bandiagara, Bokar was ostracized by his clan and family and forbidden to teach or pray publicly. Tierno Bokar’s school was destroyed and he and his two wives and children were placed under house arrest.

Throughout the increasingly violent fighting, Bokar preached a message of religious tolerance and universal love.

has nothing to do with the war that so many of Adam’s sons wage in the name of a God they claim to love deeply…

A forehead shining like a mirror
A mirror stamped
With the dark point of prostration.

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Wikipedia