With the blessings of our master and guide, Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi al-Karkari, may God sanctify his secret, the Prophet ﷺ commanded in a ḥadīth: “Your imāms are your intercessors with God, or he said, your delegation to God. If you want your prayers to flourish (i.e., grow), then put forward your best.” (al-Ṭabarānī)

Just as prayer is a pillar of the religion, the imām is also a pillar of the religion. If the imām is righteous, all the actions of the follower are righteous. So, who could be qualified with this title, imām, and how do we recognize him?

God Almighty says: “Then they found a servant of Ours whom We had given mercy from Us and had taught him from Us a [certain] knowledge.” (Qur'ān 18:65)

The imām is the origin of origins (aṣl al-uṣūl) and the foundation of religion (asās al-dīn), which even a prophet, messenger, and confidant of God (kalīm Allāh), and one of the most determined (ulū al-ʿazm), i.e., Mūsā (ʿalayhi al-salām), needed. He is a single, unique servant whom God has given mercy (raḥma) from Himself and knowledge (ʿilm). This mercy is the light of God Almighty, with which He bestows divine grace on the believer and brings them out of the darkness of their soul into the light of His walī. God Almighty says: “Allah is the walī of those who believe. He brings them out of darknesses into the light.” (Qur'ān 2:257)

When you witness this light, it reveals to you the reality of its possessor, or the one who holds a share of it in your time, having inherited it from his grandfather, Abū al-Qāsim ﷺ. There is nothing greater than witnessing the light of God as proof of the righteousness of the imām. You will find that this light increases with your good following of this walī and decreases if there is any aversion to him in your heart. The more you follow the guidance of the imām or shaykh, whose proof is the divine light, the clearer and more apparent this light becomes. However, if any doubt enters your heart regarding this imām, you will find that the light is withdrawn from you. The light of God is singular, and this one light must lead solely to the walī.

Just as God has entrusted the dispensing of this light to a specific walī, if this walī chooses not to bestow it upon you, by God, you would never witness it, no matter who you are. And if he wished to take it from you, God would respond to him immediately, just as He did when He first opened your insight. He can take it from whomever he wills, by God's permission, fulfilling the ḥadīth of the walī: “If He calls me, I answer Him.” (al-Bukhārī)

Even if you claim to have witnessed this light, only that specific walī, imām, or living shaykh (al-shaykh al-ḥayy) can reveal its true meaning to you. Otherwise, you have merely witnessed the light, but the divine message it carries remains unclear. It is through the walī, the source of this light, that you come to understand its significance and the knowledge it imparts. He alone has been entrusted by the Truth (al-Ḥaqq) with the distribution of this light, and there is no one else on earth capable of bestowing the light of God, as verse 2:257 clearly states. If you have truly witnessed this light, it will undoubtedly guide you to the one who possesses and dispenses it in your time.

For those who claim that this light exists elsewhere, outside the possession of the walī, let them present their evidence, for the burden of proof rests upon the one who makes such a claim. Go ahead, seek it out, and bring us news of it, just as we did when we sought and shared our findings with our master, Sidi Shaykh, may God sanctify his secret. The most perplexing thing to me, however, is that since the emergence of the path, all the fuqarāʾ (disciples) have declared witnessing this blessing, and throughout these years, no one else has spoken about such experiences of the light. Even those who claim this station, you find them denying this truth that God has favored us with.

Why is this so? It is so that every Muslim may recognize who the imām and guiding walī is, the one they should choose as their guide in this world and their intercessor in the Hereafter.