The Sufi Path of Light

By Mohamed Faouzi Al Karkari

"Our Lord is Light; our holy Prophet is Light; our unswerving Islamic faith is Light; our Holy Qurʾān is Light; and our prayer is Light. Why then do you wish to live in darkness? Why do you aloofly imagine, with your delimited and narrow mind, that the Light is merely an abstract concept that cannot be seen?" inquires Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi al-Ka

• Language: English
• Publisher: Les 7 Lectures
• Release date: Mar 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9782930978840

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The Sufi Path of Light

By the Sufi Master and Knower of God

Mohamed Faouzi al-Karkari

May God sanctify his secret

Translated by Khalid Williams & Yousef Casewit

I seek refuge in the Light of the Path and the Breath of the All-Merciful from every darkness and devil

In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful

In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful

In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful

In the Name of God

In the Name of God

In the Name of God

Allāh Allāh Allāh

There is no power nor strength but in God, the Sublime, the Magnificent

Blessings and greetings of peace be upon the noblest Messenger, our master Muḥammad, and upon His family, companions, and those who follow them virtuously until the Day of Requital

Introduction

Praise be to God, Who manifests through the magnificence of the Essence, and discloses Himself through the Light of the attributes. He is the First in His beginninglessness and the Last in His endlessness. He has made Light the means of witnessing Him, and the Path the way of knowing Him. I bear witness with certainty that there is no god but God, and I bear witness that Muḥammad is His servant and Messenger, the delight of the holy spirits, the quarry of the innate disposition of human souls. May peace and blessings be upon him and upon his family, companions, and all who follow his guidance. Let us begin.

Light: Light is that which is hidden by the intensity of its own manifestation. It brings things forth into manifestation from the concealment of nonexistence to the outpouring of existence, as our master the Messenger of God  said, God Almighty created mankind in darkness, then took some of His Light and cast it upon them. Some of them it touched, and some of them it missed, each according to His will; and He knew those it would touch from those it would miss. Whomever the light touched would be guided, and whomever it missed would go astray. ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr said after relating this, This is why I say that the pen has dried.¹

Knowledge of Lights is a knowledge rooted in the experiential taste of the saints. The noble folk who bathe in the glow of the divine Presence have spoken about it, and composed volumes of poetry to sing of their love and passion for it. The time has come for me to throw in my lot with them, and to pull back the veil from the subtle effusions of a pearl named al-Maḥajja al-Bayḍāʾ, the Radiant Path,² so that you may drink of an exquisite wine sealed with the subtleties of yearning, and feel the holy breezes of nearness blow over you, and so that your spirit may roam through the meadows and gardens of ecstasy and divine proximity, exulting in the Light of the Beloved.

In all of this, I oscillate between concealing and divulging, and I incline more towards concealing it, because the science of our spiritual Tribe is first and foremost a matter of heart-to-heart transmission:

I conceal the jewels of my knowledge,

Lest the ignorant should see them and be tempted.

Thus I follow in the way of the Father of Ḥasan,

Who passed it on to Ḥasan and Ḥusayn.³

Therefore I shall reveal to you the pure meaning of Light in the imaginal world, and the forms it assumes in the disclosure-site of the eye. This will allow you to take the first step upon the Path. I shall ignite the lamp of experiential taste and presence in your heart, that your saintly aspiration might flow forth with desire to walk the Sufi way. You must know that the Radiant Path is a lived reality by way of unveiling, not merely a phrase that you read in the noble ḥadīth and pass by with respectful indifference while invoking a blessing upon the Best of Mankind . Your heart will then become illuminated by the Lights of the Path, and you will learn how its night is as bright as its day, and how to stray from it is to pursue self-destruction.

I will take you back to the realms of Yea, we bear witness in order to help you understand what this means. For when the spirits were compounded in the bodies, and the atoms in the accidental qualities the scales became unbalanced, hearts hardened, souls changed, and tastes were crushed between the hammer of the sensory realm and the anvil of pure meaning.

Our Lord is Light; our Prophet  is Light; our unswerving Islam is Light; our Holy Qurʾān is Light; and our prayer is Light. Why then do you wish to live in darkness? Why do you aloofly imagine, with your delimited and narrow mind, that the Light is merely an abstract concept that cannot be seen?

The self-disclosure of Lights is the beginning of witnessing, and witnessing is the beginning of verifying the truth of the proclamation of divine Oneness. You know Islam with your bodily idol, yet your spirit does not recognize it, for you are absent from witnessing the Lights of the Real and the Lights of the Real’s Messenger .

You say, I bear witness, yet your insight is blotted out, your heart blind, and your inner heart rusted over. Your testimony is mere speech, not witnessing.

Come with me, then, upon a voyage into the depths of pure meaning. Let us travel from one verse to another, until you come to know that the road has been one from the Messenger of God  until today—the road named the Radiant Path, whose night is as bright as its day, from which none stray but those bound for ruin.

I write these words in the early hours of the year 2014 after the birth of Christ, may blessings and peace be upon him and upon our Prophet. I hope that the Almighty will make it a year of joy and delight, as well as divine assistance as we bring it into the open, by the glory of the Light of the Radiant Path.

Chapter I.

The Centrality of Light in the Qurʾān and Hadith

Verses of Light in the Qurʾān

Our Lord says in His glorious Book—after I seek refuge in God from Satan the accursed, in the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful:

— Their parable is that of one who kindled a fire, and when it lit up what was around him, God took away their Light, and left them in darkness, unseeing.⁴

— God is the Protector of those who believe. He brings them out of the darkness into the Light. As for those who disbelieve, their protectors are the idols, bringing them out of the Light into the darkness. They are the inhabitants of the Fire, abiding therein.⁵

— O mankind! Verily there has come unto you a proof from your Lord. And We have sent down unto you a clear Light.⁶

— O People of the Book! Our Messenger has come unto you, making clear to you much of what you once hid of the Book, and pardoning much. There has come unto you, from God, a Light and a clear Book, whereby God guides whosoever seeks His Contentment unto the ways of peace, and brings them out of darkness into Light, by His Leave, and guides them unto a straight path.⁷

— Truly We sent down the Torah, wherein is a guidance and a Light, by which the prophets who submitted [unto God] judged those who are Jews, as did the sages and the rabbis, in accordance with such of God’s Book as they were bidden to preserve and to which they were witnesses. So fear not mankind, but fear Me! And sell not My signs for a paltry price. Whosoever judges not by that which God has sent down—it is they who are disbelievers.⁸

— And in their footsteps, We sent Jesus son of Mary, confirming the Torah that had come before him, and We gave him the Gospel, wherein is a guidance and a Light, confirming the Torah that had come before him, as a guidance and an exhortation to the reverent.⁹

— Praise be to God, Who created the heavens and the earth, and made darkness and Light. Yet those who do not believe ascribe equals to their Lord!¹⁰

— They did not measure God with His true measure when they said, God has not sent down aught to any human being. Say, Who sent down the Book that Moses brought as a Light and a guidance for mankind, which you make into parchments that you display, while hiding much? And you were taught that which you knew not, neither you nor your fathers. Say, Allāh, then leave them to play at their vain discourse.¹¹

— Is he who was dead, and to whom We give life, making for him a Light by which to walk among mankind, like unto one who is in darkness from which he does not emerge? Thus for the disbelievers, what they used to do was made to seem fair unto them.¹²

— Those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered Prophet, whom they find inscribed in the Torah and the Gospel that is with them, who enjoins upon them what is right, and forbids them what is wrong, and makes good things lawful for them, and forbids them bad things, and relieves them of their burden and the shackles that were upon them. Thus those who believe in him, honor him, help him, and follow the Light that has been sent down with him; it is they who shall prosper."¹³

— They desire to extinguish the Light of God with their mouths. But God refuses to do aught but complete His Light, though the disbelievers be averse.¹⁴

— He it is Who made the sun a radiance, and the moon a Light, and determined for it stations, that you might know the number of years and the reckoning [of time]. God did not create these, save in truth. He expounds the signs for a people who know.¹⁵

— Say, Who is the Lord of the heavens and the earth? Say, God. Say, Then have you taken, apart from Him, protectors who have no power over what benefit or harm may come to themselves? Say, Are the blind and the seer equal, or are darkness and Light equal? Or have they ascribed unto God partners who have created the like of His creation, such that that creation seems alike to them? Say, God is the Creator of all things, and He is the One, the Paramount.¹⁶

— Alif. Lām. Rā. [This is] a Book that We have sent down unto thee, that thou mightest bring forth mankind out of darkness into Light, by the leave of their Lord, unto the path of the Mighty, the Praised.¹⁷

— We indeed sent Moses with Our signs, Bring thy people out of darkness into Light, and remind them of the Days of God. Truly in that are signs for all who are patient, thankful.¹⁸

— God is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The likeness of His Light is as a niche, wherein is a lamp. The lamp is in a glass. The glass is as a shining planet kindled from a blessed olive tree, neither of the East nor of the West. Its oil would well-nigh shine forth, even if no fire had touched it. Light upon Light. God guides unto His Light whomsoever He will, and God sets forth parables for mankind, and God is Knower of all things.¹⁹

— Or like the darkness of a fathomless sea, covered by waves with waves above them and clouds above them—darknesses, one above the other. When one puts out one’s hand, one can hardly see it. He for whom God has not appointed any Light has no Light.²⁰

— He it is Who blesses you, as do His angels, that He may bring you out of darkness into Light. And He is Merciful unto the believers.²¹

— Not equal are the blind and the seeing, nor the darkness and the Light, nor the shade and the scorching heat. Not equal are the living and the dead. Truly God causes whomsoever He will to hear, but thou canst not cause those in graves to hear.²²

— What of one whose breast God has expanded for submission, such that he follows a Light from his Lord? Woe unto those whose hearts are hardened to the remembrance of God! They are in manifest error.²³

— The earth will shine with the Light of its Lord, the Book will be set down, and the prophets and the witnesses will be brought forth. Judgment will be made between them in truth, and they shall not be wronged.²⁴

— Thus have We revealed unto thee a Spirit from Our Command. Thou knewest not what scripture was, nor faith. But We made it a Light whereby We guide whomsoever We will among Our servants. Truly thou dost guide unto a straight path.²⁵

— He it is Who sends down clear signs upon His servant to bring you out of darkness into Light, and truly God is Kind and Merciful unto you.²⁶

— On the Day when you see the believing men and the believing women with their Light spreading before them and on their right, Glad tidings unto you this Day: Gardens with rivers running below, therein to abide. That is the great triumph. On the Day when the hypocrites, men and women, will say to those who believe, Wait for us that we may borrow from your Light, it will be said, Turn back and seek a Light! Thereupon a wall with a gate will be set down between them, the inner side of which contains mercy, and on the outer side of which lies punishment.²⁷

— And those who believe in God and His messengers—it is they who are truthful and are witnesses before their Lord. They have their reward and their Light. And those who disbelieve and deny Our signs, they are the inhabitants of Hellfire.²⁸

— O you who believe! Reverence God and believe in His Messenger; He will give you a twofold portion of His Mercy, make a Light for you by which you may walk, and forgive you—and God is Forgiving, Merciful.²⁹

— They desire to extinguish the Light of God with their mouths, but God completes His Light, though the disbelievers be averse.³⁰

— So believe in God and His Messenger and the Light We have sent down. God is Aware of whatsoever you do.³¹

— …A Messenger reciting unto you the clear signs of God to bring those who believe and perform righteous deeds out of darkness into Light. And whosoever believes in God and works righteousness, He causes him to enter Gardens with rivers running below, to abide therein forever. God has indeed prepared for him a beautiful provision.³²

— O you who believe! Repent unto God with sincere repentance. It may be that your Lord will absolve you of your evil deeds and cause you to enter Gardens with rivers running below—the Day when God will not disgrace the Prophet and those who believe with him, with their Light spreading before them and on their right, while they say, Our Lord, complete our Light for us and forgive us. Truly Thou art Powerful over all things.³³

Ḥadīths of Light

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd said, "Your Lord is not subject to night or day. The light of the heavens and the earth is from the Light of His Face. The duration of each day for you is twelve hours. Your deeds of yesterday are presented to Him at the beginning of each day; He examines them for three hours, and anything displeasing to Him therein incurs His wrath. The first to learn of His wrath are the Throne-carriers who praise Him, for they feel their burden grow heavy. So the Throne-carriers, attendants, the angels-brought-nigh, and all the other angels glorify Him. Then Gabriel  blows the horn, and everything hears it. They glorify the All-Merciful for three hours until He is filled with mercy. That is six hours. Then the wombs are brought before Him and He examines them for three hours. Thus He says in His Book, He it is Who forms you in the wombs however He will.³⁴ He creates whatsoever He will, bestowing females upon whomsoever He will, and bestowing males upon whomsoever He will, or He couples males and females, and causes whomsoever He will to be barren. barren. Truly He is Knowing, Powerful.³⁵ That is nine hours. Then provisions are brought before Him, and He examines them for three hours. Thus He says in His Book, Truly thy Lord outspreads and measures provision for whomsoever He will.³⁶ Every day He is upon some affair.³⁷ That is your affair, and the affair of your Lord."³⁸

***

Abū Hurayra related that the Messenger of God  said, There are servants of God who are not prophets, yet the prophets and martyrs envy them. Someone said, Tell us who they are, that we might show them love. He replied, "They are those who love one another through the Light of God, not through family ties or lineage. Their faces are Light, upon pulpits of Light. They do not fear when others fear, nor grieve when others grieve." Then he recited, Behold! Truly the friends of God, no fear shall come upon them, nor shall they grieve.³⁹

***

Abū Hurayra related that the Messenger of God  said, "When God created Adam, He patted his back, and from it fell all the people He would create from his progeny until the Day of Resurrection. Between the eyes of each of them, He placed a mark of Light. Then he presented them to Adam, who said, ‘Lord, who are they?’ He replied, ‘They are your progeny.’ He saw a man among them and was impressed by the mark between his eyes. He asked, ‘Lord, who is that?’ He replied, ‘A man from one of the latter communities of your progeny, named David.’ He said, ‘How long will You make him live?’ He replied, ‘Sixty years.’ He said, ‘Lord, give him forty years from my life.’ Then when Adam’s life was over, the Angel of Death went to him. He said, ‘Do I not have forty years left?’ The angels replied, ‘Did you not give them to your son David?’ Thus Adam contended, and his progeny contended; and Adam forgot, and his progeny forgot; and Adam erred, and his progeny erred."

Abū ʿĪsā [Tirmidhī] said, This ḥadīth is sound and authentic.⁴⁰

***

Anas ibn Mālik said, "I went out with the Prophet  from the house to the mosque, where there were some people raising their hands in supplication. He said, ‘Do you see in their hands what I see?’ I asked, ‘What is it?’ He replied, ‘There is Light is their hands.’ I said, ‘Pray to God to show it to me.’ He did, and God showed it to me. Then he hurried in, and we raised our hands."⁴¹

The version in Ṭabarānī’s Kitāb al-Duʿāʾ has, He prayed, and I saw it. Then he said, ‘Anas, quick, let us join them.’ I hurried in with the Prophet of God , and we raised our hands.⁴²

***

Anas  related that two men left the Prophet  one dark night, and a Light was before them until they parted, whereupon the Light divided between them. Maʿmar related on the authority of Thābit that Anas identified the men as Usayd ibn Ḥuḍayr and a man of the Helpers, while Ḥammād’s narration from Thābit states that the men were Usayd ibn Ḥuḍayr and ʿAbbād ibn Bishr.⁴³

***

Abū Zubayr related that he heard someone ask Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh about the passage through Hell at the Resurrection. He said during his answer, The communities will call upon their idols and the things they worshipped, one by one. Then afterwards our Lord will come and say, ‘Whom are you awaiting?’ They will reply, ‘We are awaiting our Lord.’ He will say, ‘I am your Lord.’ They will say, ‘Let us see You first.’ So He will disclose Himself to them, laughing.

He then related that he had heard the Prophet  say, "He will lead them off, and they will follow Him. He will give each person, whether hypocrite or believer, a Light. Then they will follow Him across the Bridge over Hell, where hooks and thorns will grab whomever God wills. Then the light of the hypocrites will be extinguished, and the believers will be saved. The first to be saved will be a throng whose faces are like full moons, seventy thousand of them, who will not be reckoned. Then those who follow them will be like the brightest stars in the sky; and so on. Then intercession will be allowed, and all those who said, ‘there is no god but God’ and had a hair’s weight of goodness in their hearts will come out of Hell, and be placed in the courtyard of the people of Paradise, who will sprinkle water upon them until they begin to sprout like plants on a riverbank. Then he will ask until the entire world has been given to him, and again ten times over."⁴⁴

***

Muslim’s narration on the authority of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī has, During the time of the Messenger of God , some people asked, ‘Messenger of God, will we see our Lord on the Day of Resurrection?’ The Messenger of God  replied, ‘Yes. Do you struggle to see the sun at noon on a cloudless day? Do you struggle to see the full moon on a cloudless night?’ They replied, ‘No, Messenger of God.’ He said, ‘You will not struggle to see God Almighty on the Day of Judgment any more than you struggle to see those. When that Day comes, a herald will call every community to follow what they worshipped. All those who worshipped idols and statues instead of God will fall into Hell, until there remain only those who worshipped God, whether they were righteous or sinful, and the People of the Book. The Jews will be called forward and asked, Whom did you worship? They will reply, We worshipped ʿUzayr the son of God. They will be told, You lie. God took neither consort nor son. What do you desire? They will reply, We are thirsty, Lord. Give us water!" But they will be directed to return not, and gathered into the Fire as it churns like a mirage, and they will fall into it.

‘Then the Christians will be called forward and asked, Whom did you worship? They will reply, We worshipped Christ the son of God. They will be told, You lie. God took neither consort nor son. What do you desire? They will reply, We are thirsty, Lord. Give us water!" But they will be directed to return not, and gathered into the Fire as it churns like a mirage, and they will fall into it.

‘Finally there will remain only those who worshipped God, whether they were righteous or sinful. The Lord of the Worlds will go to them in the least form in which they could have imagined Him, and say, What are you waiting for? Every community has followed what it worshipped. They will say, Lord, we separated from the people in the world and did not keep their company, despite our dire need for them. He will say, I am your Lord. They will cry, We seek refuge in God from you! We associate no partners with God! This will repeat two or three times, until some of them are close to turning. Then He will say, Is there a sign between you and Him by which you may recognize Him? They will reply, Yes." Then He will reveal a shin, and all of those who ever prostrated to God of their own volition will be permitted to prostrate to Him. As for those who prostrated out of fear of other people or ostentation, God will fix their backs straight as though they had but a single backbone, and when they try to prostrate they will fall flat.

"‘Then they will raise their heads, and He will have transformed into the form in which they saw Him the first time. He will say, I am your Lord. They will reply, You are our Lord. Then the Bridge over Hell will be let down, and intercession will be allowed. They will say, Dear God, grant peace, grant peace!’

Someone said, ‘Messenger of God, what is the Bridge?’ He replied, ‘A slippery surface baited with hooks, spikes, and thorns like those of the Saʿdān plant in Najd. The believers will pass over in the blink of an eye, like lightning, like wind, like birds, and like swift horses. Some will be unscathed, others will get scratched but make it across, and others will tumble in the Fire of Hell. Once the believers are safe from Hell, by the One in Whose hands is my soul, they will call upon God on behalf of their brethren in Hell more passionately than anyone has ever called upon God to redress a right. They will say, Lord, they used to fast with us, and pray, and make pilgrimage! They will be told, Take out all whom you recognize, for the Fire will be prevented from disfiguring them. They will take out a great many, the Fire having reached their ankles, or halfway up their shins, or their knees. Then they will say, Lord, there are none left in it of those whom You told us to take out. He will say, Go back and take out anyone in whose heart you find a dinar’s weight of goodness. They will take out a great many, then say, Lord, we have taken out all those whom You told us to. He will say, Go back and take out anyone in

Reviews for The Sufi Path of Light

[mohammed azher Khan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Light of the Lights, Illuminating jewels of wisdom, MaaShaaAllah Al-Hamdu-Lillah Ash-Shukru-Lillah