His full name was Shaykh Muhammadu b. Abah b. Muhammadi b. Abdallah b. al-Nahwi al-Zaynabi, of the Idaw Ali. He was born in Dhu al-Hijja 1327 AH (1909) in Legg, in the R'Kiz department of Trarza. Some academic sources give 1907-08.
Education
He memorised the Qur'an and read the classical texts with his father, then with Ahmu wuld Dehah, al-Amin wuld Sidi and Muhammad Abdallah b. Feffa. He completed his studies at the Tendgha mahadra of Ahl Ahmedou Vall.
Meeting Ibrahim Niasse
In 1345 AH he travelled to Senegal with his elder brother Abd al-Wahhab al-Nahwi and met Niasse, which is why he is called "the first of the Arabs to reach the Master of the Fayda". He took the wird in May 1930, aged 21. He then spent about two years with Niasse in the village of Kosi near Kaolack, working his shaykh's fields in the rainy season, and received the fath on 25 August 1932. He was the second Mauritanian to do so.
Spreading the Fayda
From Kosi he wrote to his kin in Trarza that the Fayda had appeared through Ibrahim Niasse. Back home, he persuaded Manna Abba wuld Tulba (al-Shaykhani), a descendant of Muhammad al-Hafiz al-Alawi, who had brought the Tijaniyya to Mauritania, to travel to Kaolack in 1934 or 1935. That journey turned the Idaw Ali towards the Fayda. Seesemann lists the founder among the Idaw Ali leaders who declared for Niasse in the 1930s, and by about 1950 most of the Idaw Ali of Trarza followed Fayda shaykhs.
Later life
He stayed at Niasse's side for 45 years, until Niasse died on 26 July 1975, and made 23 pilgrimages, the first in 1955 with his shaykh. He built several zawiyas, among them al-Ribat, also known as Ribat al-Fath or Bab al-Fath, whose mosque was formally founded on 14 July 2001. He also built the Nour Mosque in Sebkha, Nouakchott, in 1987, where the Mawlid was celebrated in 1989.
He died on the night of Sunday 27 Muharram 1424 (30 March 2003) and is buried in his mausoleum beside the great mosque of al-Ribat.
Archive
The appendix to his 2016 biography holds twelve letters from Ibrahim Niasse, one letter from the founder to Niasse, the "Letter of the Ribat", the "Letter of the Testament of Succession" and excerpts of his supplications.