Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi al-Karkari

He is the sun of knowledge, the meeting of the two seas, the ocean of gnosis, the inmost heart of the spirit, the red sulphur, the inheritor of the secret of the essence, and the guide upon the Path of unveiling. He is the spiritual trainer, Shaykh Abu Abd Allah, Sidi Mohamed Faouzi b. Tayyib al-Karkari – may God sanctify his secret – of noble Prophetic descent, through Idrisi and Hasani lineage.

Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi al-Karkari married the noblewoman of Sharifi lineage, the pious and chaste lalla Najet, may God reward her for her sacrifices for the Path. From this union six children were born, namely: Wihem, Abdullah, Aya, Ala, Wala’, and Hira. These offspring go to show the goodness and sacrifices of our master’s wife towards the followers of the Path. Throughout the years she worked tirelessly to feed the disciples who stay at the zawiya. in return God bestowed her with a penetrating eye and several unveilings which, in most cases, proved to be true. Thus, we have heard Sayyidi Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi al-Karkari say: “God has given me the right to have three more wives, but she has earned my pleasure through her sacrifice, selflessness, and character, and therefore I shall not marry any other woman.” 

Our Shaykh’s sanctity is also visible in his progeny, and each of his children bear a prophetic mark. When this mark is inspected closely, one sees that it consists of a birthmark in the form of a map which covers with an astonishing precision all the lands that were tread by the Prophet ﷺ during his life. The most remarkable feature is not the repetition of the mark in each of his children, but the fact that before the birth of his fourth daughter, Wala’, he told us: “The next one will be born a few days from now, and you will see, she will have the same mark on such and such a spot of her body.” and indeed this is what transpired. This prophetic mark proves the nobility of their lineage.

Aged nineteen, Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi al-Karkari’s spiritual state became so intense that he was isolated from his family and friends, and undertook a trip across Morocco for ten years. He visited several cities, reached distant places on foot, and walked among mountains and valleys. He went to Nador accompanied by Sharif b. al-Siniy, and spent what was left of his money for the ticket to the farthest destination he could afford; the city of Taza, where his boarding school was located. Then he continued his trip to Fes. 

“The first night that we spent outside was on a road leading to the city of Sefrou, and the first city in which we stayed was Fes, close to the gate of Boujloud (bab bujlud), a few meters from the taxi station... We did not know anyone, but after some time I recognized the different quarters of Fes, Mont-Fleuri, Zouagha... I remember a mosque where we spent many nights. After Fes, we travelled on foot all the way to Oujda where we stayed for three months. Then we went to Nador for three days, and finally to al-Hoceima where we spent a week. After al-Hoceima we walked all the way to Oued Laou. We would sleep under trees, and whenever hunger seized us, we ate leaves. Following Oued Laou, we continued our trip towards Tétouan, then Tanger, and we returned to Fes again. From Fes we headed for Marrakech where we only spent two days, and we continued our trip towards Chichaouga, Agadir, Ouarzazate, Tiznit, Tafraout, Houara, until we reached Mahbes, during the first year of the militarization. We went back to Agadir and continued on to Rabat, in the suburb of Temara, where we stayed for quite a while, followed by Kenitra. I am only mentioning the cities, and not the towns and villages, such as Qacem, Marmousha, al-Hajeb, Ifran, Ain Rahma, Mulay Ya‘qub, ‘ayn Shadya... 

A year had passed since our initial departure. The second year, we started the Dour, visiting one moussem after another for forty-four saints buried within Moroccan territories. We slept in shrines and tombs of saints, such as Sidi Mulay ʿAbdullah Amghar, where we stopped for a good while. We visited the moussem of shaykh al-Kamel, the commemoration (moussem) of Sidi ʿAli b. Ḥamdush, Sidi Idris al-Azhar, and Mulay Idris al-Akbar. Sometimes we would make thirty rounds between two tombs. In some cities, we spent a whole year, in others seven months, and in others only a few days. Hence, when a disciple tells us today that he comes from such and such city, we know who he is, because we have learned the characteristics of the inhabitants of that city during our pious roaming (siyaḥa), whether they are stingy or generous, gentle or rough...”

Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi al-Karkari – may God sanctify his secret – sometimes spent days and entire months alone crossing fields and mountains, sleeping wherever nighttime would seize him. “I took the earth as my bed, and the starry sky as my blanket. I travelled across the mountains but I entrusted my luggage with God… I was serving destiny without knowing it. Whenever I would supplicate God, He would respond to my supplication. Whatever I sought I obtained. Wherever I went, God’s creatures turned towards me,” he says.

While the days of hunger went on, our Shaykh would eat from garbage containers. In that state, he would hear trees and rocks speak to him and converse with him. He recalls, “We had isolated ourselves from people, and this made us talk to trees and rocks. We cannot keep count of all the saintly miracles that we experienced during those years of wandering.”  

“We lived with people whom you cannot imagine. We lived with the most degraded and humiliated people that exist, and yet we saw ourselves as more degraded than them because we believed that whatever they did would never equal the evil we had committed. We tried to take our lives, and God says that whoever slays a soul…it is as though he slew all of mankind. This is the reason why when someone comes to us now, no matter what his past is, he leaves us having turned to God in repentance. You may well preach to him (daʿwah) all your life, but you will never affect him. Why? Because you have not experienced these states. You cannot guide or instruct someone if you have not walked the same road. Among those whom you call sinners, evil men, drunkards, and prostitutes we have encountered the most elevated men and women (ʿilliyin), and we witnessed a hidden mercy in them. In some cases, these people become the best. When we became a Shaykh those whom we considered the most elevated proved to be the vilest (sufli), and this only added astonishment to our astonishment.”