Book
AN EXCERPT FROM
Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi al-Karkari's "The Sufi Path of Light" explores the central concept of divine Light in Sufism. Drawing from Islamic scriptures and Sufi wisdom, he examines the various manifestations of this Light, emphasizing the heart as
the center of spiritual illumination.
Al-Karkari guides readers to recognize divine Light as omnipresent,
positioning it as the essence of spiritual awakening and the
ultimate goal of Sufism.
By Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi al-Karkari
Translated from the Arabic
by Dr. Yousef Casewit and Khalid Williams
Originally published by Les 7 Lectures
A distinct Qurʾānic expression with which the Almighty addresses His noble Prophet ﷺ over thirty times in the Qurʾān is, Has thou not seen? This teaches his Community that direct witnessing (mushāhada) is a foundational Qurʾānic principle for gnosis and unveiling, and a path for reaching the truth of certainty.
God says: Hast thou not seen that unto God prostrates whosoever is in the heavens and whosoever is on the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, the mountains, the trees, and the beasts, and many among mankind? But for many the punishment has come due. Whomsoever God disgraces, none can ennoble. Truly God does whatsoever He will. (Q Ḥajj 22:18)
Hast thou not seen how God sets forth a parable? A good word is as a good tree: its roots firm and its branches in the sky. (Q Ibrāhīm 14:24)
Hast thou not seen thy Lord, how He spreads out the shade—and had He willed, He could have made it still—and then We make the sun an indicator of it. (Q Furqān 25:45)
Hast thou not seen that God makes the night pass into the day and makes the day pass into the night, and that He made the sun and the moon subservient, each running for a term appointed, and that God is Aware of whatsoever you do? (Q Luqmān 31:29)
Hast thou not seen that God sends down water from the sky, wherewith We bring forth fruits of diverse colors? And in the mountains are streaks of white and red, of diverse hues, and others pitch-black. (Q Fāṭir 35:27)
Have you not seen how God created the seven heavens one upon another? (Q Nūḥ 71:15)
Hast thou not seen how thy Lord dealt with the masters of the elephant? (Q Fīl 105:1)
In every verse containing the words Hast thou not seen, there is a teaching for the Messenger ﷺ that pertains to wit- nessing the disclosure-sites of God in the levels of being, whether it be the secrets of the oceans, earths, mountains, and plants, the glorifications of all created things, or the conditions of the communities of old.
For the seeker, Hast thou not seen is the station of the sep- aration of union (farq al-jamʿ), which is a voyage (siyāḥa) through the forms of the spiritual realm to obtain knowledge, then to return with it to the station of union. This return from separation to union is manifested in God’s words, Read in the Name of thy Lord Who created (Q ʿAlaq 96:1), for any knowledge that does not take you back to the presence of divine Oneness is a step by step journey to deception, not a spiritual opening.
Direct knowledge of God, then, is not authenticated through a veridical dream alone. The true dream is certainly part of gnosis, for it is the first stage of unveiling; authentic narrations state that revelation for the Messenger of God ﷺ began with true dreams that he saw as plainly as the dawn. The true dream is one forty-sixth of prophethood, for these dreams visited him ﷺ for six months, while the total period of the revelation spanned twenty-three years.
Sainthood, for its part, is the shadow of prophethood, for the Prophet receives revelation of law, while the saint receives rev- elation of inspiration. God says of the mother of Moses, So We revealed to the mother of Moses, “Nurse him. But if you fear for him, then cast him into the river, and fear not, nor grieve. Surely We shall bring him back to you and make him one of the messengers (Q Qaṣaṣ 28:7).”
The Prophet ﷺ reportedly used to say, “In the communities before you, there were people who were spoken to (muḥaddathūn); if there were one such in my Community, it would be ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ, 2398).”
Unveiling and sainthood, then, are not matters of sensorial- ity, sleep, and feelings; they are matters of explicit unveiling unaccompanied by even an atom’s weight of doubt, enduring constantly without interruption. It was from this station that the great masters spoke when they made such utterances as Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Mursī, may God sanctify his secret: “If the Messen- ger of God ﷺ were to be absent from me for even the blink of an eye, I would no longer number myself among the Muslims.”
The one who is asleep is dead. How can he wake another when he himself needs someone to wake him? The one who lacks something cannot give it. This is in no way meant to detract from the status of the true dream, but only to explain things to anyone who wishes to enter the Presence of the All-Knowing King.
Direct witnessing in the waking world is built upon certain foundations and principles which must be adhered to; for to slip in this matter is to fall into great peril. God establish them in the verse, God is the Light of the heavens and the earth: they are the Niche, the Lamp, the Glass, and the Resplendent Planet. Every disclosure must be brought back to these princi- ples; for as the saying goes, “virtue lies in returning to one’s roots.” All of these levels or roots must be kindled from the Blessed Tree, which is the perfected Shaykh who constitutes an isthmus between worlds, and beholds the higher realms while proclaiming the oneness of worlds and dimensions.
Anyone who travels the path without a guide will stumble, even if he believes himself to have arrived. The climb is steep, and the maladies of the soul are subtle and difficult to see. Therefore the guide is the genuine disciple’s mirror, displaying to him all his hidden blemishes and cracks, showing him the truth of his soul, wresting from him all the instruments of his self-adoration, pretension, and hypocrisy. This mirror lifts the veil of human nature from him, and takes him on a voyage through the cosmos of his existence.
Direct witnessing in the waking world is thus an indispen- sable pillar of the journey to God. There can be no gnosis without direct witnessing. The station of spiritual excellence in reality is nothing other than realization of direct witnessing; that is, to worship God as if you see Him (ka-annaka tarāh); to worship Him through the Kāf of imaginal similitude.
