The spiritual heart within the physical heart

In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate.
May prayer and peace be upon the noblest of the Messengers, upon his family and upon all his companions.

The spiritual heart in the physical heart.

The Prophet ﷺ says in a hadith narrated by Ibn ‘Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him): “O Allah, put Light in my heart, Light on my tongue, Light in my hearing, Light in my sight, Light in my soul, Light before me, Light above me, Light beneath me. O Allah, make this Light grow for me!” It is an invocation that he ﷺ was in the habit of pronouncing during the last third of the night, when he ﷺ went to the mosque.

Our Shaykh, Sidi Mohamed Faouzi Al-Karkari (may Allah sanctify his secret), put his finger on the part where the Prophet ﷺ asks Allah – Exalted be He – to put Light in his heart.

If one looks at an image of the human heart, one could divide it into four chambers (two ventricles and two atria) as well as a centre, and thus two large chambers and two small ones, on the left and on the right respectively. Its main function being to ensure the good circulation of the blood in all the limbs of the body, it makes the blood go out and come in like a pump. It is the same when the centre of the heart receives, through the hand of the Shaykh, the divine Light. This centre, in place of blood, will make the divine Light circulate in all the limbs in order to irrigate the spiritual body.

It is in reality the Alif transmitted by the Shaykh to the aspirant. Not that the Alif is multiple: it is truly unique and is with the Shaykh, who declines it in order to transmit it to his disciple. This living Alif will gain importance for the disciple as he grows in Love and in the propriety he shows towards his LIVING Shaykh. It is in this sense that the Prophet ﷺ says in a hadith: “The believer is the mirror of his brother.” If everyone knows that the Shaykh is the qibla of the aspirant, the reverse is just as valid, namely that the aspirant is the qibla of the Shaykh.

The following image illustrates very well the reality of the physical and spiritual heart:

The Shaykh is in search of the aspirant who will be his perfect mirror, in whom the Alif will be fully realised, and who will follow the Shaykh’s death, if he finds the disciple in a state of complete humility. He will be extinguished in him and will die within the 40 seconds that follow, because the Alif is unique and two cannot remain.

If the aim of the aspirant is to keep his commitment towards Allah and the one he chose to represent Him, the aim of the Shaykh is to find and transmit the trust to the aspirant destined to realise this Alif. Otherwise the Earth, the Sun, the whole of Creation would be extinguished. That is why we mentioned that the aspirant is the Qibla of the Shaykh. Indeed, he is still looking for it (unlike the disciple, who finds it in his Shaykh) or rather he builds it. The master will thus bring this disciple to light, and we support this with the word of the Shaykh of our Shuyukh, Sidi Ahmad Al-Alawi (may Allah sanctify his secret): “The greatness of the Shaykh is found in his aspirant.” That is to say, the spiritual aspiration (the himma) of the Shaykh is with this aspirant. This constitutes the joy and the aim of the Shaykh (to find the aspirant who will realise the Alif), marking at the same time his departure.

Many fuqara will receive the Secrets on different readings (that through the Ha of al-Huwiyya, that through the Lam of al-Qabd, and so on), but for the Alif only one remains. Let the aspirant know that the more his Love for his Shaykh increases, the more the divine Light in his heart will increase. And conversely, when the Shaykh’s Love for his disciple increases, the latter will have the grace to receive more secrets, and this comes directly from Allah – Exalted be He. Indeed, they loved each other through Allah, as the well-known hadith indicates: “Among the servants of Allah there are servants who are not Prophets, but whom the Prophets and the martyrs will envy.” It was asked: “Who are they, that we may love them?” He said: “They are people (qawm) who loved one another through the Light of Allah without ties of kinship or lineage. Their faces are Light. They stand on pulpits of Light. They are not afraid when people are afraid and they do not grieve when people grieve.” Then he recited: “Indeed, the awliya of Allah will have no fear, nor will they grieve.” [Narrated by an-Nasa’i in al-Kubra, Abu Ya‘la in his Musnad and Ibn Hibban in his Sahih].