The Grand Senussi does not tolerate fanaticism…

The Grand Senussi does not tolerate fanaticism and forbids the use of stimulants as well as voluntary poverty.

Lodge members are to eat and dress within the limits of Islamic law and, instead of depending on charity, are required to earn their living through work.

No aids to contemplation, such as the processions, gyrations, and mutilations employed by Sufi dervishes, are permitted.

He accepts neither the wholly intuitive ways described by Sufi mystics nor the rationality of the orthodox ulema; rather, he attempts to achieve a middle path.

The Bedouin tribes had shown no interest in the ecstatic practices of the Sufis that are gaining adherents in the towns, but they are attracted in great numbers to the Senussis.

The relative austerity of the Senussi message is particularly suited to the character of the Cyrenaican Bedouins, whose way of life has not changed much in the centuries since the Arabs had first accepted the Prophet Mohammad's teachings.

In 1856, the Grand Senussi settles farther from direct Ottoman surveillance at ...