Book
AN EXCERPT FROM
THE
FOUNDATIONS
OF THE
KARKARIYA
ORDER
The Foundations outlines the spiritual principles and practices of the Karkariya Sufi Order and their basis in the Quranand the Sunnah. It covers key concepts such as the Pact (al-ʿahd), the Sacred Dance (al-ḥaḍra), and the invocation of the Singular Name (al-ism al-mufrad), guiding disciples on their path to divine knowledge and spiritual growth.
By Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi al-Karkari
Translated from the Arabic
by Dr. Yousef Casewit, Khalid Williams,
and Jamil Zaghdoudi
Originally published by Les 7 Lectures
In the Arabic language
In the Terminology of the Karkariya Order
Siyāḥa is a non-spatial journey in space, and a timeless journey in time. (Translator’s note: Literally, “to roam in space without a location, and to fare in time without a duration.”)
It is done on the principle of disengagement from other-than-God (tajrīd) and ascension through the levels of divine self-sufficiency (ṣamadiyya), all the while contemplating the signs of divine power. Its purpose is to achieve the negation of other-than-God and everything that hinders the disciple from Him, and to break through the subtle veils and attain a taste of divine attraction (jadhba). This is based on the circular vibrations of passionate love, inside the realm of possibility, so that the idol of the ego may be broken.
In the Holy Qurʾān
The word siyāḥa is mentioned three times in the Holy Qurʾān in different morphological forms, including God’s words:
God says: The penitent, and the worshippers, and the cel- ebrants of praise, and the wanderers (sāʾiḥūn), and those who bow, and those who prostrate, and those who enjoin right, and those who forbid wrong, and those who maintain the limits set by God; and give glad tidings unto the believers. (Q Tawba 9:112).
God says: So wander freely (sīḥū) throughout the land for four months, and know that you cannot thwart God, and that God shall disgrace the disbelievers. (Q Tawba 9:2).
In the Noble Hadith
Abū Umāma رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ narrated that a certain man said, “Messenger of God, permit me to go wandering.” He answered, “The wandering of my community is jihad in God’s cause.”(Ḥākim,Mustadrak#2333).
Ibn Masʿūd related that God’s Messenger ﷺ said, “God has angels who wander across the land conveying greetings of peace from my community.”(Ibn Ḥibbān, Ṣaḥīḥ #922).
Abū Hurayra reported that God’s Messenger said, “God has angels who wander about the earth in addition to the ones who record the deeds of mankind. When they find people invoking God, they call out to one another, ‘Hasten to what you seek!’ Then they come and spread their wings over them up to the first heaven. God Almighty says, ‘What were My servants doing when you left them?’ They reply, ‘When we left them they were praising You, exalting You, and glorifying You.’ He says, ‘And have they ever seen Me?’ They reply, ‘No.’ He says, ‘How would it be if they had seen Me?’ They reply, ‘Had they seen You, they would glorify You, exalt You, and praise You even more fervently.’ God then says, ‘For what do they ask?’ They reply, ‘Paradise.’ He says, ‘And have they ever seen it?’ They reply, ‘No.’ He says, ‘How would it be if they had seen it?’ They reply, ‘Had they seen it, they would desire it even more.’ He says to them, ‘From what do they seek refuge?’ They reply, ‘From Hell.’ He says, ‘And have they ever seen it?’ They reply, ‘No.’ He says, ‘How would it be if they had seen it?’ They reply, ‘Had they seen it, they would be even more eager to flee from it and avoid it.’ Then He says, ‘I call you to witness that I have forgiven them.’ They say, ‘There was a man among them who was not one of them, but had only come to them for some need of his.’ God says, ‘No one who keeps the company of such people will be disappointed.’” (Tirmidhī,Jāmiʿ#3554.).
Wandering with the Body and with the Spirit
Dear disciple, you should know that since all of existence is one within the circles of possibility, the locus of spatial confinement (taḥayyuz) is also one within the human world (ʿālam al-nāsūt), or what is called the world of corporeal bodies (al-ashbāḥ al-jismāniyya) or the physical world (al-mulk), which is the world of the six sensory directions.
He who is imprisoned by his sensory perceptions and lim- ited to his own body, is part of the physical world. As for he whose heart is opened to the world of Lights, and whose eye (ʿayn) is not clouded by the obscuring dot of ghayn (غ), so that the moon of gnosis and the suns of subtleties are visible to him, and he sees the cosmos as pure Light—such a person is in the spiritual world.
Now all of these worlds share the same locus, and there is no sequential ordering or spatial elevation. On the contrary, their hierarchal degrees is suprasensory, because the locus is one, but it is seen from differing viewpoints. For example, consider three people trading in a market. The first one only sees people, fruits and vegetables; the second sees God’s Light wherever he turns; and the third is totally extinguished in the Lights. Anyone who looks at these men will see them in the same place at the same time, yet there is a world of difference between them.
The siyāḥa of the body is the journey around the circumference of the circle of all-possibility, accompanied by meditation upon the beauty of creation in order to touch the Qāf of the heart (qalb), so that the disciple can penetrate it and access its core.
The purpose of this physical siyāḥa is to behold the signs of God’s mighty power, as well as to prevent the heart from leaning on the pillars and pleasures of the lower self, as mentioned in the following verse: Say, “If your fathers, your children, your brothers, your spouses, your tribe, the wealth you have acquired, commerce whose stagnation you fear, and dwell- ings you find pleasing are more beloved to you than God, and His Messenger, and striving in His way, then wait till God comes with His Command.” And God guides not iniquitous people. (Q Tawba 9:24).
Let us focus on His words, and dwellings you find pleasing. The word masākin (dwellings) is from sukūn, “stillness.” Now for common people, stillness is poor conduct because they are bereft of the Light of witnessing, which is the celestial mount of spiritual wandering. This is why movement is obligatory for them in order to draw nearer to their Lord, in the spirit of the Holy Saying, “Whoever comes to Me walking, I will go to him running.” Therefore, they must walk and wander through the physical world in order to turn the wheel that will draw the water of passionate love into the innermost depths of their hearts.
Ibn ʿAjība says in al-Bahr al-madīd:
Emigration (hijra) from the lands of heedlessness is obliga- tory, as is separating from those kinsfolk and friends who do not help the servant on his Path to God. The disciple must emi- grate from the land where he does not find his heart, and where there is no one to help him with his relation with his Lord, no matter where it may be. I have never seen someone become a saint after remaining in his own homeland, with very few exceptions.
The Prophet ﷺ emigrated from his homeland to Medina, and it was then that the religion was granted success. This has remained the way of the saints ever since, and it is rare to find a saint who succeeds without leaving his home. The disciple must also avoid those who distract him, whether they be par- ents, children, spouses, or relatives. The same applies to all matters of property and business that distract the heart from God.
This applies, of course, only after he fulfills the rights of his children as mandated by the Sacred Law.
The intelligent disciple is the one who finds the middle way between the revealed Law (sharīʿa) and the esoteric Reality (ḥaqīqa), without neglecting those who depend on him, whether his spouse or otherwise. He should invoke God all the while, and remain with them in body but depart from them in heart. If he is unable to do so but still wishes to find the remedy for his heart, then he should leave the decision up to his wife, and appoint someone to take care of his family while he strengthens his heart and advances with his Lord. (See Ibn ʿAjība’s commentary on Q Tawba 9:23-24 in al-Baḥr al-madīd).
As for he who has no part in the spiritual siyāḥa, he should redouble his efforts in the bodily siyāḥa until he masters the different degrees of wayfaring such as hunger, patience, asceticism, turning the other cheek, bearing abuse, and reliance on God. Without this, siyāḥa is nothing more than a movement from one created realm to another. It is written in the Ḥikam, “Travel not from creature to creature, for otherwise you will be like a donkey at the mill: roundabout he turns, always ending up back where he started. Rather, travel from creation to the Creator. The ultimate end is unto thy Lord. (Q Najm 53:42).
Consider the Prophet’s ﷺ words, ‘Whosoever emigrates for God and His Prophet, his emigration is indeed for God and His Prophet. And whosoever emigrates for worldly benefit, or for a woman he would marry, his emigration is for no more than that.’ Understand his ﷺ words, and contemplate this, if you are a person of understanding.”
Ibn ʿAjība says in his commentary on the Ḥikam: (See Ibn ʿAjība’s commentary on the 42nd aphorism of al-Iskandarī in Īqāẓ al-himam.).
He who travels from one created realm to another is the one who travels from other-than-God in search of other-than-God. He is like an ascetic who renounces the world and devotes himself to God only for the sake of bodily repose, and in the hope that the world will come to him, because he knows that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever cuts himself from everything for God, God will provide for him from whence he does not expect.” And in another hadith, “Whoever directs all his intention towards the hereafter, God will ease his affair, put wealth in his heart, and make the herebelow grovel at his feet.”
Or he is like one who renounces the world because he wants other people’s esteem, honor, and recognition, or to be granted miracles, or to win the maidens and palaces of Paradise. In reality, such a person only travels from one creation to another, like a donkey at the mill, walking day and night but always ending up back where he started. The one whose aspiration is focused on selfish interests is like this donkey. He plods on, never leaving his location but imagining that he has traveled long distances in pursuit of his aims, getting nowhere despite all his toil.
Shaykh Abū al-Ḥasan رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ said, “Stay by one door, without hoping that other doors may be opened for you, though they will be. Submit yourself to only one Master, without hoping that others may become subservient to you, though they will. God says: Naught is there, but that its treasuries lie with Us.” (Q Ḥijr 15:21).
Shaykh Abū al-Ḥasan رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ said, “Stay by one door, without hoping that other doors may be opened for you, though they will be. Submit yourself to only one Master, without hoping that others may become subservient to you, though they will. God says: Naught is there, but that its treasuries lie with Us.” (Q Ḥijr 15:21).
Dear disciple, you must raise your aspiration to the supreme Sovereign. You must traverse the vision of created things and seek to behold the Ruling King; you must travel from evidence and proof to firsthand eye-witnessing. This is the furthest goal and the ultimate end: The ultimate end is unto thy Lord. (Q Najm 53:42).
To travel to your Lord, you require three things. The first is to focus your aspiration upon Him and no other, so when He looks in your heart, he finds no other beloved there but Him. The second is to fulfill your duties and abandon self-interest. The third is always to seek refuge with Him, ask His help, rely on Him, and surrender to whatever fate He decrees for you.
Shaykh Abū al-Ḥasan رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ said, “When four things are found in someone, the creatures need him while he does not need them: Love for God, enrichment in God, sincerity, and cer- tainty: sincerity in worship, and certainty in the laws of Lordship. And who is fairer in judgment than God, for a people who are certain?” (Q Māʾida 5:50).
The Junction of the Two Seas
When God wanted to show His Confidant, Sayyidunā Mūsā ﷺ, the truths of His almighty power, He commanded him to travel (siyāḥa) in the direction of the junction of the two seas, which is the isthmus between the two opposites. This story of his wandering on the horizons is explained in the commentaries on the Qurʾān, at least from an exoteric point of view. What we are interested in here is the siyāḥa of the soul through the levels of the heart.
So the Mūsā-heart set out, accompanied by the servant-soul, carrying the fish of caprice, with the intention of meeting the Khiḍr-spirit. Thus, the heart’s accompaniment of the soul is purely for the sake of wayfaring, for the fields of the soul are where the heart’s journey takes place, and the heart cannot travel any road but the road of the soul, as the Ḥikam says: “If it were not for the fields of the soul, the journey of the wayfarers would not become realized; for there is no distance between you and Him that your journey must traverse, and there is no gap between you and Him that would be bridged by your arrival.” (See the 244th aphorism of al-Iskandarī.).
So there is no distance between you and Him; He is closer to you than your own jugular vein. (Q Qāf 50:16). Your journey is from you to yourself; from your senses to what is beyond them; from your earth to your heaven; from the illusion of your existence to your Creator who formed you.
The journey then is a metaphor for surmounting the obsta- cles of the soul and traversing the levels of the heart to attain knowledge of its different states and self-disclosures. On this journey, the disciple draws strength from the power of caprice and imagination, even if he is not aware of it. This is why God commanded the Confidant ﷺ to take the fish in the basket, and he made its loss, symbolizing the loss of caprice, the sign of his arrival at the junction of the two seas.
The fishes of Yūnus (Jonah, Dhū al-Nūn) and Sayyidunā Mūsā were of the same species. The fish symbolizes one of the pillars of the lower triangle by which God’s Prophet Yūnus b. Matā ﷺ was tested. God tested him with the darkness of night, the ocean, and the belly of the fish.
So when the Mūsā-heart and the servant-soul reached the immolation stone, and the Confidant went to sleep there, the soul sprayed the fish with the water of life, and the station of life was instilled in it, so it dove into the ocean of realities, sketch- ing out the talisman of the meeting with the spirit as it went.
Ibn ʿAjība says: The fish became a guide and an indicator for Sayyidunā Mūsā ﷺ only after its death and after being separated from him. Then it was revived with a special form of life when the water of life was sprinkled upon it. The same applies for the gnostic: it is only after dying to his sensory perceptions, tran- scending the obstacles of his soul, annihilating his mortal human nature, and subsisting through his Lord, that he can become a guide to God and a leader who is emulated. Then his spirit is revived through witnessing his Lord’s magnificence, and he becomes a leader and a guide to Him. Extraordinary things appear at his hands, as happened with the fish when the flow of the water was held back from it so that it became like an arch, which was a divine miracle. The states of Khiḍr also alluded to this, and the fish was like a manifestation of his state in this story. (See Ibn ʿAjība’s commentary on Q Kahf 18:60-82 in Al-Baḥr al-madīd).
So this is the way of the siyāḥa of the soul through the levels of heart to reach the spirit. This is why it has been said that he who knows himself, knows his Lord. The siyāḥa of the soul is a journey to God. He who travels towards God will reach God; as for the one who travels with God, his journey has no end.
This journey, however, is reserved for the one who has found the red sulfur, the Shaykh who has arrived and can lead others to their arrival. This Shaykh is the Blessed Olive Tree, neither of the east nor of the west. (Q Nūr 24:35). As for those who are not destined to find one, they must take up the siyāḥa of the physical world, which is to hold fast to the Sunna, fulfill one’s obligations, and avoid misdeeds and missteps, in the hope that they may be accepted in the register of the true wayfaring men and women.
