« la Siyâha de ma Communauté c’est le Jihâd »

According to Abu Umâma (radiAllâhu ‘anhu), a man said, “O Messenger of Allah, allow me to perform the peregrination. He replied, “The peregrination (Siyâha) of my Community is Jihad in the path of Allâh.” [1]

He (sallAllâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) was given the whole Word (jawâmi’ al-kalim), so that each of his words has seventy meanings, among the veils between the Truth and the creation. Each of his words (sallAllâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) contains the Science of the first and the last… and how could it not be so, he who “does not speak anything in passion: it is a revelation made to him”.

The word “Jihad”, whose meaning is unfortunately too often limited to that of war, has led many young people in the Muslim community to attach themselves to hatred (al-boughd) in Allâh, as well as to clearing themselves of those who do not agree with their opinions (al-barâ’), considering this to be the basis of religion, and even the height of faith. But since the True One created the universe based on Love and the principle of attraction of the elements between them, which is one of the concrete manifestations of this Love… the ability to taste the ultimate deep senses (dhawq) leading to the perception of the foundations (nawâmis) according to which this universe is built and to the comprehension of the different degrees of the Divine Name, allows us to realize that hatred is in reality a degree among the degrees of Love, just as the fact of clearing oneself of a part of one’s co-religionists. Love is the rule, while hate is only the exception. For this reason, even before creation, Mercy was decreed to be superior to Wrath. According to Abu Hurairah, the Prophet (sallAllahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said, “When Allâh decreed (the coming into existence) of creation, He inscribed with Him, ‘My Mercy has the upper hand’ or ‘prevails over My Wrath,’ and this inscription is with Him, above the Throne.” [2]

Jihad is actually of several types. Some of them are obligations incumbent only on a part of the Muslims (kifâya), while others are obligations that every Muslim has to perform personally, like the Jihâd against nafs which constitutes the highest degree of Jihâd, called “al-Jihâd al-Akbar”.

As for the meaning of this Hadîth, according to the degree of excellence (Ihsân), it is that the true Siyâha is none other than the Jihâd of the path of Allâh, i.e. the path leading to the realization of the different degrees of the Supreme Name. It is the spiritual path leading from hâ al-hawiya, to lâm al-qabd, then to lâm al-ma’rifa, then to al-‘amâ and finally to Alif at-Tawhîd.

It is a Siyaha that is both exoteric and esoteric, physical and spiritual, through which the disciple travels in the worlds of his nafs, swimming in the deep realities of the universe of his Shaykh. He thus becomes like the Earth, which on the one hand rotates on itself, and on the other hand sails in its orbit around the Sun, which is none other than its origin, the Secret of what it contains in its heart… the center of the Earth being none other than a miniature sun.

And the Sun, in its state of immobility, sails towards its own location. As for the Earth, its movement is the expression of its quest for this state of immobility (soukoûn, represented by a circle). The Sun has established itself on the Throne of Love through the absolute dimension of its consummation in the Pre-eternal Beloved, while the Earth requires the consummation in Love of the center of its rotation. The closer it gets to the latter, the more it realizes its state of annihilation, and the closer its time comes.

The state of inaction (soukoûn) is the characteristic of the Shaykh, and by virtue of the annihilation of all his aspiration in the One he asks for, no other persists of him than Him… and as it was said: if it were not for the intermediary, the intermediary would have gone. As for movement, it is the responsibility of the disciple in search of annihilation (fana) in the intermediary.

Thus, inaction (soukoûn) corresponds to the spiritual degree of the Shaykh, while movement (haraka) is the expression of the aspirant. The one who reaches this degree of inaction towards the Truth, he has certainly reached His Knowledge. As for the one who remains in movement, by his movement he has only reduced Him to a place which he could go around.

[1] Al-Mustadrak ‘ala s-Sahîhayn, Hadîth n°2333.

[2] Sahîh al-Boukhâriy, Kitâb at-Tawhîd, Hadîth n°7021

Source: Les fondements de la Tariqa Karkariya, Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi Al Karkari, published by Les 7 Lectures.