History of the Tariqa
Given the excellence of his manners, as well as his mastery of the Path, Sayyidī Mohamed Faouzi received from Mulay al-Hasan the permission (idhn) to transmit various invocations of the Path and to connect the wayfarers to the Path. However, he refused to transmit the litany (wird) while his shaykh was alive. Whenever someone asked him to join the Path, he directed him to Mulay al-Hasan. This was due to his modesty and his love towards his shaykh.
When shaykh Mūlāy al-Hasan passed away, our shaykh inherited the status of the shaykh of the Path despite the fact that this did not look obvious after Mūlāy al-Hasan’s death. Then he reached the highest stations and became a person towards whom all men and jinn seeking guidance were directed, without anyone knowing that he was a shaykh. He says, “I attained to a level of nearness and knowledge after the death of my shaykh that he had not achieved himself during his lifetime.” He continued in this way until the Real honored him with the station of Seal (khatmiya), which is in reality the heritage of the divine names and of Muhammadan Successorship, (al-khalīfa al-Muḥammadi).
“The authorization to become spiritual master was made first by the shaykh, then by the Prophet ﷺ personally, and then by God. We never sought to become a shaykh, this fell upon us without us desiring it. It is a divine bestowal. The permission of this Path is from Ibn Mashish, for among all the Shaykhs of the initiatic chain, the only one to transmit the Light of allegiance as we do was shaykh Mulay Abd al-Salam Ibn Mashish.”
Sidi Mohamed Faouzi – may God sanctify his secret – spent a year alone, unknown by anyone, in complete obscurity (khumul), so much that even his wife knew nothing about his state. She would see him wake up, make the ablutions, sit in the direction of the Kaʿba (qibla), and perform invocation (dhikr) for hours. He was looking for someone to share the secrets of the Essence, for when the secret dwells in the heart the tongue cannot remain at rest.
The first disciples to join our shaykh were those who had followed Mulay al-Hasan – may God be pleased with him – in his lifetime, namely our shaykh’s mother, lalla Yamna, Sidi Abdel-Nasser al-Karkari, and Sidi Muḥammad b. Siniy.
Without a zawiya and a gathering place, Sidi shaykh said, “The first course that we held was a commentary of shaykh Ahmad al-ʿAlawi’s poems, followed by a commentary of Imam Ibn ʿAṭaʾ Allah al-Iskandari’s aphorisms. During almost two years we explained the meanings of the aphorisms to the fuqaraʾ’. We who did not understand any book became expositors of books... We gave such importance to those two books that after completing their commentary, shaykh Ahmad al-ʿAlawi and Imam Ibn ʿAṭaʾ Allāh al-Iskandari – may God be pleased with them – came to thank us in person in the spiritual realm (malakut). Shaykh Ahmad al-ʿAlawi then enabled us to visit his zawiya in Mostaghanem, and he showed us how he slaughtered a ram to inaugurate his zāwiya, which is why we slaughtered a ram too for the inauguration of our zawiya.”
The first twelve disciples who made the khalwa were: Sidi ʿAllal, Sidi Abdel-Nasser, Sidi Ahmed (Sidi shaykh’s brother), Sidi Said Menouach, Sidi Muḥammad b. Siniy Taibi, Sidi Hajj Muhammad Fadhil, Sidi Abdel-Hafiz Ribaṭa, lalla Najat, Hajj Taieb Chérif alias al-Ouadi, Sidi Ahmad Boutaba, Sidi ʿAziz, and Sidi Abdel-Hamid. All of them experienced spiritual openings from which they benefited greatly. The Lights of the divine proximity and the brightness of supreme knowledge appeared to them. Sidi Shaykh says, “Our Path is one of vision in wakefulness, and whoever does not achieve vision I am not their shaykh and he is not my disciple.” Thus, the Path began to take shape little by little until his fame crossed borders and oceans. Our shaykh continued to teach the secrets of the Name Allah in his zawiya which is still located in al-Aroui.
