Praise be to Allah, the Light of the heavens and the earth, He, the Benefactor and may prayers and blessings be upon our beloved, Sayiduna Muhammad ﷺ, the standard bearer of praise on the Day of Judgment and may salvation be upon his family and companions.

The Tariqa Karkariya, the Way of Spiritual Education, aims to bring the servant to the station of Ihsan so that he can then realize himself in worship and vision: “That you worship Allah as if you saw Him” [Sahih al-Bukhari], in the path (suluk) and divine knowledge (ma’rifa) until his whole life is only for Allah (lilah), the Lord of the Universes… and that is why following the Qur’an and Sunnah at all times is a sine qua non for the pathfinder. For we firmly believe that behind every law of Sha’ria is a spiritual secret and a Light that enables the servant to return to his Lord and also to forget all other than Him.

However, this is only possible by following a Shaykh educator who will prescribe the appropriate remedy for each pathfinder… in accordance with the word of Allah ﷻ: “The Merciful, so ask someone knowledgeable about Him (expert = khabîr)” [Surah al Fourqân, verse 59]. Thus, the worshipper will enter into the worship of Allah ﷻ through the spirit and not through the nafs; his nafs will be purified and he will be adorned with the noble characters, his desire for the divine will increase and he will get closer to the Creator.

The Tariqa Karkariya is a path in which the Muhammedan Light flows and this is the proof of the authenticity of its chain of transmission linking the pious predecessors (salaf) to the people of our time. The chain of transmission of this path goes back to the Beloved, sayiduna Muhammad ﷺ passing through Imam Abu Hassan ash-Shadhili (may Allâh be pleased with him) among others. The chain of transmission is a specificity of this blessed community… Indeed, Imam Abd Allah ibn al-Mubarak said, “The chain of transmission (Isnad) is part of the religion and if there was no Isnad, everyone would say what he wants”.

And among the signs of the validity of a chain of transmission in the path to Allah is that in it is the Muhammedan Light. A person who follows this type of chain of transmission obtains the constant help of the Lord and the vision of His Light… while the chain without Light allows one to draw blessings without the spiritual education.

In addition to this, the specificity of the Karkariya Tariqa also lies in following the Sunnah through words (aqwal), deeds (af’al) and states (ahwal), as well as in obtaining spiritual openness (fath) quickly. Indeed, in this path, the aspirant obtains spiritual openness quickly and this only by the Grace of Allah. The beginning of this blessed path is disappearance in the Light of the Beloved in order to know the meaning of Tawhid al-Jam’ and its end is none other than the knowledge of the Supreme Name of Allah (Ism Allah al-A’dham).

The path is between rapture (jadhb) and path (suluk), between extinction (fana) and sustenance (baqa) so that the aspirant is in a state of extinction and sustenance (baqa) at the same time. The elevation in this path is endless because it is the elevation in the different degrees of Ism al-Jami’. This path unites several schools and each aspirant finds in it a source in which he can quench his thirst because it is the path of direct vision. Shaykh Sidi Mohamed Fawzi al-Karkari (may Allâh sanctify his secret) says about this subject: “Our Tariqa is the Tariqa of the vision in the state of awakening, the one who does not see, I am not his Shaykh and he is not my disciple”.

However, the greatest purpose of this path is to make people reach Allah and realize His Knowledge through direct vision, as well as to promote love and peace among people. This path is therefore a call to reconcile the creature to the Creator. Its purpose is also to free the aspirant from the chains of passion and ego (nafs)… but all this is possible only if the aspirant applies to himself the fundamental rule of this Tariqa which is: “Lower your person and raise that of others”. The one who lowers his own being, the one who sees his neighbor as perfect, his misdeeds will decrease, his benefits will increase and his Light will intensify.