The first night at the Sufi lodge (zawiya) was peaceful but very short. Just two or two and a half hours before the dawn prayer (ṣubḥ), a call to wake up and perform the night prayer (qiyām al-layl) resounded throughout the lodge, a five-story building. The children, who had stayed up very late, had only just gone to sleep. All the female disciples (faqīrāt, singular faqīra) woke up and went down to the mosque. After the night prayer, each took her place—some engaged in seeking forgiveness (istighfār), while others invoked the supreme name of Allah—until the dawn prayer. They prayed alongside the men via a loudspeaker, performed the litany (wird) with them, and then sat silently, waiting for sunrise (shurūq). Afterward, they returned to their rooms to rest.

Around 10 a.m., they gathered in the small room next to the kitchen on the fourth floor, which served as both a living and dining area. Lalla Najat and the children not at school joined them for breakfast. Bread, olive oil, jam, cheese, black olives, and especially tea were served. Cleaning followed, with all present disciples contributing to ensure everything was spotless and orderly. A few disciples assisted the hostess in preparing lunch. After the midday prayer (ẓuhr) and group lunch, each disciple attended to her own tasks—working on the computer, reading books by Sidi Shaykh, or studying the Qur’an. Others rested or took a nap. Disciples gathered again in the mosque for the afternoon prayer (ʿaṣr) to follow Sidi Shaykh’s lesson (dars). The lesson took around two hours. This was followed by the sunset prayer (maghrib), the evening litany (wird), and the night prayer (ʿishāʾ). Afterward, they returned to the small room to chat and play with the children before having dinner. 

The stranger began to get to know and appreciate Sidi Shaykh’s family and the few female disciples present—four or five of them. Two were ex-French military officers who had converted to Islam; another was a Moroccan doctor, and one was Tunisian. The children were adorable, and she started to bond with them, especially little Sidi Abdul Rahman, who was still a baby. The new visitor grew fond of Sidi Shaykh’s wife, Lalla Najat, an exceptional woman in every way—kind, warm, brave, intelligent, and very lively. Lalla Najat personally oversaw all the details of the women’s areas on the third, fourth, and fifth floors, in addition to educating her children.

The days passed in this way until the first Friday at the lodge, which was a day of celebration of God. After sunrise, the female disciples rested briefly, took their showers, quickly tidied up, and gathered in the mosque to recite the Qur’anic litany (wird) with Sidi Shaykh. One of the male disciples gave the Friday sermon and led the prayer. At the afternoon prayer, several female disciples from the region joined the lodge and attended the Friday gathering (majmaʿ), which consisted of invocations and the recitation of Sidi Shaykh’s poems until sunset. After the evening litany and the night prayer, the spiritual music (samāʾ) and dance (ḥaḍra) began, with chanting and dancing, held in the mosque on the fourth floor and broadcast via loudspeaker. After the ḥaḍra, Sidi Shaykh and a disciple gave a special lesson.

As the days went by, the stranger became a member of this large family and grew attached to both the adults and children, especially Sidi Abdul Rahman. She met Sidi Shaykh in person two or three times in his office, and those were the most beautiful moments of her stay. She rarely saw her children and husband, who were with the men, but she felt fulfilled and awestruck by this rhythm of life, where the invocations of God and prayers took precedence over all other activities.

Her stay was scheduled to last from April 8 to April 18, with Ramadan beginning on April 14. On the third day of Ramadan, April 16, early in the morning, her husband called her downstairs to discuss an urgent matter. He told her that Sidi Shaykh had invited them to spend the entire month of Ramadan at the lodge, along with Eid and one or two weeks of the following month (Shawwāl). “We cannot decline Sidi Shaykh’s invitation,” he said, then fell silent. He told her that Sidi Shaykh, seeing his concern and unease, reassured him, saying that everything would go well in Tunis and that God Almighty would personally take care of his affairs, even better than if he were present. Her husband had spoken to their two children present at the lodge, and they both advised him to accept. Feeling the pressure on her husband’s shoulders, the mother suggested that they return to Tunis to manage their affairs and come back to the lodge before Eid. He remained hesitant but said nothing more, and the matter was left at that.

Late that night, a Tunisian female disciple who was supposed to take the bus to Casablanca at dawn and return to Tunis the next day came to wake her. She had received an email from her travel agency informing her that her flight had been canceled and that Morocco had suspended flights to Tunisia until May 21. The visitor immediately called her children and husband to confirm the news, but none of them were aware of it. It wasn’t until the next morning that the news broke: Morocco had closed its airspace due to a second wave of COVID-19.

When she went down to see her husband and children, Sidi Marouen, her second son, remarked: “If we calculate the period of Ramadan plus one week of Shawwāl, it brings us to May 21.” Since Ramadan ran from April 14 to May 14, adding seven days of Shawwāl indeed brought the date to May 21. They were left speechless. The husband had already accepted last night of his own free will to stay at the lodge for another six to eight weeks. Later, he went to see Sidi Shaykh in his office to recount what had happened. Sidi Shaykh acknowledged that no one had told him, in the physical sense, about the closure of the borders, and added, “I simply wanted you to be my guest and make the decision yourself to stay with us at the lodge, rather than being forced to by the lockdown.”

This was a powerful lesson for the visitor. She had already learned through her interactions with the female disciples and life at the lodge that ethics must be embodied on the path to Allah, and that Knowledge, ethics, and self-realization are one and the same. Through this event, however, she began to glimpse the essence of wilāya and the nature of companionship (ṣuḥba) that connects the Wali to those in his care. She realized that the true Wali’s capacity transcends human planning, as he embodies divine wisdom that orchestrates events in unseen ways. Reflecting on the words of al-Khidr—understood now in their most literal sense, without an interpretive framework—“If you follow me, then do not ask me about anything until I enact for you a remembrance from it” (uḥditha laka minhu dhikra) (Qur’an 18:70), she perceived that the Shaykh causes events to descend into the physical world through his transcendent secret (sirr). This serves, among many other things, to teach the people of Allah how to return to their origin by annihilating the self and intellect in the higher self and intellect of the Shaykh, which is one and the same as the Supreme Intellect of the Prophet, peace be upon him.

The visitor learned that the Wali, through the hand of divine power (yadd al-qudra), guides the hearts of disciples through events, leading them to embody the virtues of trust and surrender in the struggles they encounter. Through his gentle yet decisive spiritual presence, the Wali cultivates an environment where true faith flourishes, teaching that submission to his guidance is, in reality, submission to God’s will. The visitor understood that companionship is not merely about physical proximity but about transformative following and trust, aligning the seeker’s will with divine wisdom, and finding the ways to the Truth even in the midst of unforeseen circumstances.