بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
و الصلاة و السلام على أشرف المرسلين
و على اله و اصحابه أجمعين

What is a Waliy? What is the proof of the authenticity of his sanad?

In a first step it would be better to define precisely What is a waliy … Allah ﷻ says: “Allah is the waliy of those who have faith: He makes them come out of darkness into the light.” [Surat al-Baqara, verse 257].

And in another verse, Allah speaks of a group of His servants whom He calls awliya (plural of waliy): “Verily Allah’s Awliya will be safe from fear, Shall not be afflicted”
[Surah Yunus, verse 62].

Through these two verses, therefore, it appears that the divine Name “al-Waliy” is a Name shared between Allah and His servant. The fact that a servant becomes a waliy does not mean that he becomes al-Waliy (Allah), but rather that he has the characteristic of His Name “al-Waliy”. Just as one does not say of a generous person that he is al-Karim, who is a Name among the Names of Allah, but rather that he is karim, in the sense that he takes part of Characteristics that are fully fulfilled only in Allah alone, under His Name al-Karim. It remains to be determined, then, how Allah manifests Himself in His creation under His Name al-Waliy, for if the thing seems obvious from a linguistic point of view concerning Names such as al-Rahim, al -Karim, al-Ghafur, al-Mu’izz … it can be a little less related to His Name al-Waliy.

The answer, as we read very clearly in the aforementioned verse, is: “Allah is the waliy of those who have faith: He brings them out of darkness into the light.”. Therefore, just as someone of hakim is by definition someone known for his wisdom, the waliy is, based on the aforementioned verse, someone who brings people out of darkness into the Light. Allâh ﷻ said, “Say: “Are they equal, the blind and the one who sees (basîr)? Or are they equal, darkness and light?””
[Surat ar-Ra’d, verse 16].

Darkness is indeed known, just as the Light is, and the fact that the example of the blind and of the one who is endowed with a spiritual vision (basîr) is cited before the evocation of darkness and The Enlightenment refers to the fact that the latter, both of them, are perceptible by the eyes. To support this, we may quote the Imam ibn Qayyim el-Jawziy in his work “ar-Roûh”: “When The heart is submerged by the Light, then it overflows at the four corners and runs from the heart to the eyes and is then unveiled at the sight of the eyes, in proportion to the intensity of this Light.”

Sayidanâ Ahmad ibn ‘Ajiba, in his book Iqadh ul-himam: “When love and service grow, the light of your eye of the heart becomes stronger than that of sight, and Light of sight disappears in the Light of the eye of the heart to see only the subtle meanings and the timeless lights perceived by the eye of the heart”. Therefore, the Waliy is someone who draws people out of darkness into the Light, that is to say, someone through whom Allah illuminates with His Light the heart of Him whom He desires to be, Between His servants. And “Whom Allah deprives of light has no light.”
[Sura an-Nour, verse 40].

This Light is projected into the heart of the murid Karkariy at the time of the bay’ah with Sayidinâ Muhammad Fawzi al-Karkariy (radiAllahu anhu), as testified by the numerous testimonies. The mourid of the tariqa Karkariya have thus personally tasted the vision of this Light and thus possess undeniable proof, with the Quranic verse in support, that their Sheykh (radiAllahu ‘anhu) is a Waliy bringing people out of darkness to The Light.What is now to know if the sanad of a Sheykh is genuine, we must rely on the people of reference in its field. A person with a sanad in the science of Hadith, for example, will have to bring back a written proof from the hand of the Sheykh with whom he has acquired this science, this Sheykh himself having written authorizations from the Shouyoûkh to whom he has collected Science, which themselves have an authorization from their own Shouyoûkh, and so on until the Prophet. This applies to the sciences contained in books … as to the science of Tassawwuf, which is the essence and the mother of all the sciences, whether religious or secular… this science is the science of hearts, ink of hearts, is not that of books. “Say: “If the sea were an ink to write the words of my Lord, surely the sea would be exhausted before the words of my Lord were exhausted, even if We would bring him his equivalent as reinforcement””.
[Surah al-Kahf, verse 105].

Now the words of Allah, which we are speaking of, are not made up of letters which are inscribed on a support with the help of known ink … for His Word is not made up of a letter, It is not of words. His Word is not something written on paper, for Allah ﷻ says: “No! I swear by the positions of the stars (in the firmament). And it’s really a solemn oath, if you knew. And it is certainly a noble Quran, in a well-kept Book that only the purified ones touch.”[Surat al-Waqi’a, verses 75-79].
Now a non-Muslim may very well fall on a copy of the Qur’an one day, take it in his hands and leaf through it … Therefore, this verse speaks to us of something quite different.

The science of Tassawwuf is in fact the science which enables the human being to purify himself until he reaches that “Well-kept Book that only the purified ones touch”, for which reason no book can contain it. The science of Tassawwuf Is not a science that is inscribed on paper with the aid of a pen and black ink but rather the science that the Sheykh performed grave in the heart of the murid with the help of the Alif of pure Tawhid . As for his ink, it is “al-qabdatu n-noûrniya”, the Muhammadian Light: a Light from which flowed the whole of creation, as evidenced by Hadîth qudsî: “When I wanted to create creation, I took a handful of My Light and said, “Be Muhammad! “And I then created everything from His Light”.

Who holds in his heart even an atom of this Light, the universes are bent in him, and with them all the known and unknown sciences. To the extent of the efforts and sincerity of the mourid in the Way of Allah, the Sheykh reveals little by little these known and unknown sciences contained in the universes and which he, at the bay’ah, placed in the Heart of his disciple. These sciences are sciences which study without paper or pencil, without mouth or ear, simply with the eyes: those of the head and that of the heart, through the mouchahada. So to go back to the article, which is how to determine whether a Sheykh of Tassawwuf has an authentic sanad directly related to the Messenger of Allah, it is sufficient to know whether or not it exempts Disciples of this azaliy ink (uncreated, outside the infinite), that Light of which Sayidunâ Muhammad ﷺ was created, that Light from which all the sciences spring. For it is by this Light that the path will accomplish the reading of Ism al-Moufrad Allah, which is, it must be said, the only thing dealt with in the Tassawwuf, and in which one finds all things. Let us understand, then, that it is by this Light, and only by it, that the secrets of divine knowledge are revealed. This Light, which, when an ounce is projected into the believer’s heart, is projected into him; And when it escapes him, it is all that escapes him. And this is the meaning of the words of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: “I have left you on a clear path by night and by day, and misleads only one who is doomed to perdition.”
[Ahmad, ibn Mâjah].

The first thing that the mourid must undertake in his search for divine knowledge will be to seek a Sheykh with an authentic sanad which directly links him to the Messenger of Allah, whose proof is neither a written diploma nor Special ties, or the recognition of a large number of people, among them maybe influential people… but simply the vision by the murid of this Light. Then and only then will the murid be certain that he has put his soul into the hands of a Sheikh with an idhn (permission to lead a mourid to Allah) from Allah and His Prophet. Then, and only then will the verse be realized for him: “Those who swear allegiance to you will only swear to Allah: the hand of Allah is above their hands. Anyone who violates the oath only violates it to his own detriment; And whoever fulfills his pledge to Allah, He will soon bring him a great reward.”
[Surat al-Fath, verse 10].