Humility is one of his qualities. We witnessed his great humility in such a way that we ourselves, being Murid, were seized by it the first time we saw him. Indeed, he was taking the shoes of the Fouqaras to put them away. This image has remained engraved in my memory ever since. And this was the opposite of the attitude of the other Sheikhs of Zawya to whom I had pledged allegiance. Our Sheikh would be found serving his guests by himself. He fulfills his own needs. How many times have I sat with him in front of a dining table and the water ran out. He would get up on his own to fetch it without ordering me to. Yet if he had, I would have found it sweeter to my heart than honey. Likewise, he cannot be distinguished among his disciples by his clothes or by his food. You will find him wearing the Murakah and eating what he finds. One of the Fouqaras told me that he went out one day with our Sheikh. The Sheikh picked up a piece of bread on the road that was thrown there. Once they got into the car, the Fouqaras saw him eating this piece of bread, without being disgusted. From this we knew that he considered every benefit of Allah, even the smallest. Another sign of his humility is that we see him treating people equally. He speaks to the child as he speaks to the grown-up. He grows up the one who has less knowledge and wisdom than him. All this is what the True One has given him from the treasures of His knowledge and the abundance of His Mercy. Thus, the servant, every time he increases in Knowledge of Allah, increases in humility. Among his qualities are also generosity and kindness. They are manifested in their deepest image and their noblest degree, i.e. in the fact of giving Light to his disciples, of leading them in the presence of the “Sir”. And only the one who gives his “Sir” is a Sheikh. And only the one who gives the Light is a Sheikh. This is the true generosity, for he who gives you the Light will certainly have given you that which remains forever. And he who gave you something of the world will have given you something that disappears. Of his generosity too, I testify, as a Fakir, that I was with him during the visit of a Zawya. When he saw their situation and their extreme poverty, he cried his eyes out. He took out of his pocket all his wealth and gave it to them. This was despite the fact that he was on a long journey, in a place far from his blessed Zawya. He came out of there without a penny in his pocket. Among his qualities is the fact that he is found asking about the status of every Fakir, about his life and work and helping the poor among them. Yet he has no possessions in this life.

Among his qualities is mercy for creatures. He suffers their pain and is concerned about their situation. He does not despise any creature. He loves every creature whoever it is, and whoever it is, man or jinn, animal or inanimate. He does not fear the blame of any blamers regarding Allah, no matter what evil he faces, in this way of calling Allah. He says, “We throw light on the people and they throw fire on us. He will also be found to be patient for Allah, enduring evil in His way, exalted be He. One of the signs of his patience and magnanimity was when he came out of the mosque one day. He was met by an unfortunate man who spat in his noble face. Our Sheikh did not even think of taking revenge or returning the insult. On the contrary, he wiped his face and went on his way. He did not inform any of the people who loved him of the name of this unfortunate man, so that they would not take revenge for him instead. Among these events, a man was pouring out many insanities on our Sheikh. He would go to people to tarnish the image of the Sheikh in their eyes. He did this for a long time until Allah put the love of the Sheikh in his heart. He came to him and asked him to enter his Tariqa. The Sheikh welcomed him without animosity. On the contrary, he welcomed him with a smiling face. When he wanted to tell him what he had done to him in the way of insult and opprobrium, the Sheikh said to him, “I have forgotten all that, don’t tell me about it. The man told me: “When I was starting the dhikr and bad thoughts were coming to me [you will never have the Fath, you were a great enemy of the Shaykh. You used to say this and that about him] I would rush to the Shaykh. I told him what was happening to me. The Sheikh said to me, “If these thoughts come to you, tell them, ‘The Sheikh knows all this and he has forgiven me. So those bad thoughts went away. This is only a small part of his compassion for creatures. It comes from his having trodden all the Divine realms with his foot, from where he saw that everything comes from Allah, from the beginning to the end. I accompanied him for a long time. He made me know the perfection of his character and dazzled me with the beauty of his behavior, so that I, as a Fakir, stopped attending the Zawya for a while. I was, indeed, afraid to be in his presence. He went out for me to see him in the street, although I did not expect to meet him at that time. And among the qualities with which he is embellished, that of fidelity and probity. He has achieved in these qualities the most that one can hope for. That is why Allah has chosen his heart as the receptacle of his holy secret. In truth, I say that I have never seen in my life a person who gathers so many qualities in their perfection in the way that Sidi Sheikh gathers them, may Allah increase his nobility.