This paper examines the figure of Māʾ al-ʿAynayn al-Qalqamī (d. 1910) and the family network of the Fāḍiliyya Sufi order in Western Sahara and Mauritania, highlighting the intersections of religious authority, Sufism, and political engagement under the pressures of European colonial expansion and the emergence of modern states. Born into the Ahl Ṭālib al-Mukhtār lineage in the Ḥawḍ region (present-day Mauritania), Māʾ al-ʿAynayn embodied a model of leadership that combined spiritual authority with social and political mobilization. Educated in the Islamic sciences in Fez, his independent career as a spiritual master began after his pilgrimage to Mecca, during which he consolidated ties within trans-Saharan intellectual and religious networks. He subsequently established zawāyā, schools, and libraries along Saharan trade routes, most notably founding the religious and economic center of Smara in the Sāqiyat al-Ḥamrāʾ region. Contrary to conventional interpretations of Sufi quietism, Māʾ al-ʿAynayn actively engaged in political resistance, coordinating with the ʿAlawite sultans of Morocco and uniting Sahrawi tribes against French and Spanish colonial incursions, proclaiming a defensive jihād to safeguard Islamic sovereignty. His family and the broader Fāḍiliyya network were likewise central actors: his father, Muḥammad Fāḍil (d. 1869), laid the foundations of the order, while his descendants, including Aḥmad al-Hibā, continued militant and political initiatives after his death. This paper demonstrates how Saharan Sufi orders mediated authority and legitimacy, forging hybrid forms of religious and political engagement in the Maghreb between the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, thereby challenging the rigid dichotomy between "quietist" and "activist" Islam.