A Sufi order normally authenticates itself by a silsila, a chain of teachers running back from the living shaykh through named masters to the Prophet. Al-Tijani had several such chains. He had been initiated in the Qadiriyya and in the Nasiriyya among others, and he had studied in Egypt and the Hijaz. What he announced at Abu Samghun in 1782 set all of it aside. He said that the Prophet had appeared to him while he was awake and in his ordinary senses, had made him a shaykh directly, and had instructed him to give up every other affiliation.
Two consequences follow and both shaped the order. First, a Tijani may belong to no other tariqa, which is unusual, since multiple affiliations were normal; the exclusivity produced a tight, disciplined membership and a good deal of hostility from other orders. Second, al-Tijani is held by his followers to be the seal of the saints, the point at which the line of sainthood closes as prophecy closed with Muhammad, which places him above the founders of the older orders and is the claim his critics attack.
Jawahir al-Maani, compiled by his companion Ali Harazim Barrada, is the principal record of his teaching and of these claims. The devotional core is simple by comparison: a daily litany, a weekly gathering, and a heavy emphasis on the prayer on the Prophet.