For regular Muslims, offering Namaz (prayers) five times a day, and observing fasts during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, part of the core beliefs of their religion, and any practicing Muslim who fails to observe these two most important of the “five pillars” of Islam, is not considered a Muslim,
However, Islam, like other world religions, consists of dozens of sects, one of which is unique in this regard, as they do not believe in the obligatory ritual prayers (Namaz), nor do they observe ritual fasts during the month of Ramadan. This ‘Muslim’ sect is called the Baye Fall community– an offshoot of Sufi Islam, found in Senegal.
Interestingly, while the Baye Fall community does not believe in ritual prayers or fasting, they still consider themselves as Muslims, and believe that the best form of worship to Allah is by one’s deeds and hard-work.
Who are the Baye Fall Muslims?
The origins of the Baye Fall community are rooted in the teachings of Ahmadu Bamba Mbacke– a Senegalese religious leader and Sufi saint who lived between 1853-1927 in then-French Senegal, and founded the Muridiyya movement (the Mouride Brotherhood).
Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba, besides leading a pacifist struggle against the French colonial empire, also produced poems and tracts on meditation, rituals, work, and Quranic study, and one of his disciples, Sheikh Ibrahima Fall (1855–1930), molded the Mouride Brotherhood into the influential Baye Fall movement, and laid down the sect’s basic tenets which are religiously followed by its members till this day.
The Baye Fall Muslims consider themselves as followers of Sheikh Ibrahima Fall, and according to their beliefs, physical labor, service, good deeds, and devotion to one’s Sufi master (Shaykh), are equal to traditional obligatory Islamic practices like Namaz or fasting.
Sheikh Ibrahima Fall, one of Sheikh Bamba’s prominent disciples, considered work as a form of adoration of Allah, and introduced the concept of how a disciple should interact with his Shaykh, based on the examples of the Sahabas (the companions of Prophet Muhammad), and cited concepts presented in the Surah Al-Hujurat of the Quran to back his beliefs.
Sheikh Fall’s movement would gradually give rise to the Baye Fall community, many of believe in substituting namaz and other obligatory Islamic practices with hard labor and dedication.
Baye Fall lifestyle
Apart from the distinctive religious practices, the Baye Fall community are known for their unique traditional attire. The Fall are draped in colorful ragged clothes, wear their hair in dreadlocks, called the ndiange (“strong hair”), which they decorate usually with homemade beads, wire or string.
The Baye Fall women are usually covered in draping coverings including their heads and occasionally are known to wear decorative handmade jewelry made from household or natural items.
The Fall men also carry clubs, and act as security guards in the annual Grand Magal pilgrimages to Touba, and are also known to be talented musicians, owing to their Sufi roots, who consider music as a means of reaching closer to God.
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