In the northeast of Morocco, there is a small, unassuming town called Al Aaroui. It is home to a proud, stalwart Berber people: the Riffians. You could drive the length of this dusty stretch of buildings in about 5 minutes. But you will not find luxe riads, ornately carved mosques, or any cuisine worth writing home about. In fact, there is absolutely no reason to ever visit Al Aaroui — unless one were seeking the light of God.
Just to the south, in the town’s arid outskirts, where the roads are no longer paved and people house their goats and chickens in makeshift enclosures of plywood and plastic, between unfinished buildings and fields of gravel, there is one particular structure that stands above the rest. The arresting eggshell edifice, splashed with colorful mosaics, is a Sufi lodge — a zāwiya — that is constantly abuzz, night and day, humming the praises of God.
Throughout the year, thousands of “seekers” (murīds) from every corner of the globe — Europe, North and South America, Africa, and Asia — flock to this nondescript region. Their intentions are complex. What they all share, however, is an eagerness not so much to visit the zāwiya itself, but one particular man who lives within its walls.
This man, these pilgrims claim, gifted them the literal and direct vision of God’s Light (nūr). His name is Mohamed Faouzi al-Karkari, yet one rarely hears it. Instead, he is affectionately known as “sayyidī al-shaykh” (my master, the spiritual guide) — but given that Moroccans tend to swallow their vowels, it always comes out as “Sidi Shaykh.”
(read the full article at the Zawiya: Field Notes from a Sufi Lodge Substack)
