The Path

Sidi Buzidi, Shaykh of the Shadhili-Darqawi-Alawi tariqa in Morocco

Last December, as I was about to jump on my train to Marrakesh from his local train station near Rabat, my friend Khalid said: "And try to write an article on your blog about your meeting with Shaikhna". I replied: "Inshallah", as my train was departing.
As I sat near the window in a second class compartment, I felt glad to be alone. I was realising that almost a year in the depth of the Saharan desert in Mauritania left me quite unsociable. Those few days among the sufis of Morocco was rather challenging for my ego... But after all, wasn't I looking to master this ego??
My time in Mauritania, seeking knowledge, raised to me some questions. Where the truth lies? What is the correct path? What is the fastest and easiest and most righteous way to get nearer to our Creator?
Is it through the study and memorisation of texts of jurisprudence? Or is through the company of a sufi Shaykh? Or is through following our natural intuitions and find a way of its own? After all, didn't Imam Ghazali was travelling his own path without a tariqah? I was confused...
Confusion started essentialy because Allah showed me how deceptive jurisprudence can be. How can it be that someone who has memorised all the texts of the Maliki school of thought and still does not make Iqamah before his prayer? How can someone knows by heart the conditions to make permissible tayammum, yet do it without fulfilling those very conditions?
I noticed my deen was not complete. I needed something more... Could it be tassawuf? Could it be that I was in need of entering a sufi order in order to approach further The Almighty?
I remembered Shaykh Idriss, a British convert who studied 8 years in Fez, explaining me last August a basic point about those two different aspects of our deen, fiqh and tasawwuf. As we were drinking coffee on the terrace of a cafe in the new city of Fez, he told me: "fiqh is tadqiq and tahqiq (exactitude and verification), while tasawwuf is taslim (submission". Our discussion really had an impact on me, and when I got back to Twemret, it was never the same again. Ramadan was few days away; I was alone in the desert, with a big problem to solve in my hands: what should I do?? I was in the midst of a spiritual crises, with no one to seek help from; the vastness of the desert closed up on me to the point I felt I could not breath anymore!
At the time I was reading Ibn Ashor to Shaykh Hadd Amin. Towards the end of Ramadan, I reached the last chapter of this text, a concise counselling and explanation of the purposes and conditions of Tasawwuf. The text in itself is very basic, but the commentary written by Shaykh al-Mayyarah is very detailed and full of wisdom. A striking element of his commentary was when he said that the practice of sufism is a duty upon every Muslim. My decision was made. Although the practice of tasawwuf do not necessarily implies taking a shaykh, I felt it was the right time for me to do so, except that I was stuck in Mauritania for the next two months because of the studies!
Those two months were long. I knew I needed to see Sidi al-Buzidi Bujafri in the North of Morocco.
My meeting with him happened early Decembre 2007. In his zawiya near Melilla, Morocco. I went with my Khalid and the muqaddam of Oujda. We sat down. The Shaykh was not there yet. Food was served to us: lamb tagine! I love it! As I was having fun eating the excellent food, Sidi Buzidi walked in from behind my back. I saw on the face of Nabil, the muqaddam, and Khalid, that the Shaykh was behind my back. He moved his hand, telling us to carry on eating. I was happy to see him, although my ego was telling me: "Abdelmalik, you have been studying under great scholars! Do you think this Shaykh knows this or that?" It would not shut up!
I was introduced to him; he made me feel very welcomed. As he was sitting down, local young and old people were saluting him. Turning towards us, he started speaking, telling us stories of pious people, and some advices. His Arabic was mixed with his local dialect, so I did not understood most of it. I remember when he mentionned a verse of the Quran (this is my translation of its meaning): "O Yahya take the book with strenght!", upon which Sidi Buzidi that it was in a nutchell exactly what the tariqa is all about. He was then told I and a young brother from Oujda wanted to join the order and take him as our spiritual guide. He said he would give us the wird of the order and make the spiritual agreement between us (the Bai'ah) later on in the evening, during the gathering we were going to.
The gathering was such an uplifting experience. Perhaps 60 or more people attended it. The Shaykh gave the attendees some advices, people recited some Quran, the munshids sang some praises to the Prophet SWS. At the order of Sidi Buzidi, people got up in a circle, making a steady movement from back to front, focussing on remembering their Creator.
After the hadra, people sat in groups. I was called to join the group of the Shaykh. Delicious Moroccan couscous was served.
Sidi Buzidi then called me. He explained to me few basic principles of the tariqa, and handed me the wird, or litany. He explained to me how to recite it, morning and evening.
Then Nabil made us understood it was time to go. We got up to salute the Shaykh. As I kissed his forehead, I asked him to invoque the Lord for the guidance of my parents. He made us sit back down and told me the story of a sufi (can't remeber his name) who bought ten kufi hat and put them on the head of jews. The sufi the prayed to God: "O God, I have changed their outwards, but only you can change their inwards." All the Jews became Muslims. We left the gathering.
The funny thing is that on that night, I had a new hat on me, that Nabil had given me. In the car, Nabil was laughing: "O Abdelmalik, I changed your outward, and the Shaykh changed your inward!"