Who is the Shaykh?
An heir to the chain, a researcher of his time.
Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi Al Karkari is the spiritual guide of the Karkariya Tariqa, heir to an unbroken chain of transmission. For more than a decade he also held responsibilities within Morocco's Ministry of Religious Affairs.
Today he combines spiritual guidance, writing and international research on Sufism — from Nador to Chicago, from Paris to Geneva.
“The divine Light is not a metaphor, but a reality that can be seen.”
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- disciples worldwide, on all five continents
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- books: 10 titles in Arabic, translated into 5 languages
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- Arabic, French, Italian, Spanish, English and Dutch
Biography
A path, a transmission
Origins and education
Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi Al Karkari was born in 1974 (1394 AH) in Tamsaman, in the Moroccan Rif, in the zawiya of his grandfather, Shaykh Moulay Tahar al-Karkari, himself an heir of Shaykh Ahmad al-Alawi. Born into a noble sharifian family, a descendant of the Idrisid line going back to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), he grew up among the disciples. He attended primary school in Al Hoceima, then secondary school in Taza, which he interrupted to undertake a long inner journey.
The wandering
In 1994, at the age of twenty, he left his family and region to take to the roads of Morocco. From Oujda to Al Mahbes in the Moroccan desert, from Tangier to Guelmim, he travelled the country for ten years, until 2004.
On his return to Nador, an inner fire, a need for repentance and a deep quest for the divine led him to his Shaykh.
Meeting his master, and the succession
In 2004 he visited his uncle, Shaykh Sidi Mawlay al-Hassan Al Karkari, heir of Shaykh Moulay Tahar, and asked to be admitted to the path. He entered a spiritual retreat (khalwa) in November 2004, then remained with him for about two years, in study, devotion and invocation.
When his Shaykh passed away in 2007 (1428 AH), he had declared before some thirty witnesses that Mohamed Faouzi Al Karkari was his heir. He then renewed the teaching of the path and made its foundations accessible to those who commit to it. He is today the spiritual Guide of the Karkariya Sufi Order, heir to a chain of transmission recognised throughout the world.
A path that radiates
Carried by a message of unity, brotherhood and love of God through love of His creation, the order grew very quickly. It now counts nearly two million disciples worldwide, on all five continents.
Since January 2023 he has been Principal Investigator for the United States and internationally, within a collaboration between researchers of the University of Chicago Divinity School, Yale University and the American University of Sharjah. Led at the invitation of Professor Yousef Casewit (University of Chicago), this project sheds light on the teachings and contributions of great but lesser-known Sufi figures, among them Sidi Abdurrahman al-Majdoub, ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Jīlī, Ibn al-Fāriḍ, Abū l-Ḥasan al-Shādhilī and ʿĀʾisha al-Manūbiyya.
He is also founder and president of the Al Karkari Institute for Sufi Studies, an American non-profit organisation dedicated to academic research on Sufism. The Institute builds bridges between academic research and lived spiritual experience: translation of Sufi literature, partnerships with leading universities on collaborative translation projects, and the writing of books. A visiting researcher at the University of Chicago in 2023, he led master's and doctoral level workshops there on ecstatic Sufi literature.
The author
The Shaykh is the author of a body of work in Arabic made up of ten books devoted to the Sufi path. Each has been translated into five languages — French, English, Spanish, Italian and Dutch — which today forms a library of fifty-five titles, at the disposal of scholars and seekers of God alike.
This body of work is now studied in the academic world: The Foundations of the Karkariya Order was thus translated into English by Y. Casewit, K. Williams and J. Zaghdoudi (2021).
Lectures and workshops
He speaks regularly in Europe, the United States and Brazil. Among his recent talks:
- 23 May 2026 — Spiritual gathering in Geneva (Switzerland)
- 18 May 2026 — Round table in Paris
- 17 May 2026 — Lecture in Brussels
- 16 May 2026 — Lecture in Eindhoven (Netherlands)
- 11 May 2026 — Round table in Schleswig (Germany)
- October 2025 — “History and contemporary relevance of Sufism”, University of Santa Catarina, Blumenau (Brazil)
- September 2025 — Rotary Peace Symposium, Paris: round table on secularism and interfaith dialogue
- April 2025 — International Peace Conference “A Voice for Peace”, Paris
- February 2025 — “AI and Peace: what future do we want?”, Sorbonne, Paris
- February 2025 — Two workshops at Stanford University on the digital order and the divine order, then a workshop at UC Berkeley: “Illumination and Light in the wisdom of Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh al-Iskandarī”
- July 2024 — “The spiritual dimensions of Islamic calligraphy”, The Reed Society, Washington DC
- May 2023 — “Living Sufism and artificial intelligence”, Divinity School of the University of Chicago
Honours
- October 2025 — Paul Harris Fellow (Rotary International), in recognition of an exceptional commitment to peace, intercultural dialogue and service to the community
- 2020 — Certificate of Honor for Humanitarian Impact in Africa, First African Summit, United Nations