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Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi Al-Karkari
I seek refuge in Allah from Satan the accursed. In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. With the blessings and assistance of our master, Shaykh Mohamedd Faouzi Al-Karkari, may Allah sanctify his noble secret.
“Realizing extinction or annihilation in the Divine Presence doesn’t come quickly, especially at the beginning of suluk. Every heart has its distractions, so one is always in the greater jihad (al-jihad al-akbar) which is the jihad of his nafs. That’s why Ahl-Allah and Sufis stipulated that a Shaykh is essential in suluk to reveal to the disciple what diseases are hidden in his heart and the way to heal from them and to maintain a strong relationship with Allah ﷻ. This Shaykh, you take him as your Imam. In prayers for example, the imam carries on you all of your mistakes and inattentions. It’s the same for The Shaykh in your suluk. That's why The Prophet ﷺ said :
اختارو ائمتكم شفعائكم يوم القيامة ‏ Choose your imams as they are your intercessors on the Day of Resurrection
So you need to search for this Shaykh who will get you to the Divine Presence and will save you from the whims of your nafs and from the insouciance and slips of your heart. To reach this state, the heart needs training and taming because the heart represents a house and it can be a house for Allah ﷻ as He said :
‎ما وسعني ارضي ولا سمائي ولكن وسعني قلب عبدي المؤمن Neither My Earth nor My Heavens could contain Me, whilst the heart of My believing servant does contain Me. Allah ﷻ said My believing servant (عبدي المؤمن) not al-muslim. So we need to look for this station of al-iman which represents the middle of the three stations: Al-islam, Al-iman, Al-ihsan. Station of al-islam is realized by acts like prayer, fasting, zakat, etc. Then comes station of Al-iman which is based on the heart’s acts (al-aamal al-qalbyia). The Prophet ﷺ described al-iman as having more than 70 branches and in another version of the hadith, he described it as having more than 60 branches. Both versions of the hadith are correct, the number of branches differs from one believing servant to another. When we say branch, it’s like academic branches that you know. We say someone chose to study the branch of physics another chose the branch of mathematics. It's the same for al-iman; it's a unique science with multiple branches.
On the apparent side, a believing servant believes in the six articles of Faith but he doesn’t realize their meaning nor their reality. He needs a teacher to guide him through the different branches of al-iman. This path or this tunnel which is the niche of faith (mishkat al-iman) contains more than sixty or more than seventy stations to pass through, each one has its obstacles that decrease the level of Faith and its good deeds that increase it. So you need an expert (khabir) to pass.
‎بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم الرحمن فسأل به خبيرا The Most Merciful. Ask about Him a well-informed.
It’s not about words and talking, it’s an experimental situation that one should pass through with the Sunnah. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ wasn’t contented with what He found from the earlier generations (Al-awaleen) but He came back to Allah ﷻ, appealed Him, and made of Ghar-i-Hira his khalwa (spiritual retreat) to meditate and examine his Inner and his Relationship with Himself and with his Lord. When the order of Allah ﷻ came to Him, it wasn’t about words but about science, we are a nation (umma) of science. The first word that came from Allah ﷻ was Iqra’ (read). So those branches of Faith we should read them except that this reading is with heart unlike branches of Islam that are read with tongue.
The prophet ﷺ gave us the key to enter on the heart’s language and the heart’s science. He said :
قلوب الناس تصدأ و جلاؤها ذكر الله ‏Hearts become rusty and get polished by Dhikr of Allah
If studying every branch of iman needs a particular dhikr, then we will need more than sixty or more than seventy types of dhikr to purify the heart from branches of a-shaytan and return it to the branches of iman.
So if this dhikr reaches the heart, is it a dhikr with tongue only? With tongue and vision? With all senses? Because we need to know the way to enter the heart. If it’s with tongue only, it will be very simple. We take seventy types of dhikr, we practice them and persevere on them all day long and that’s it. Surely it doesn’t work that way. The heart (Al-qalb) of the body is its inner (al-jawf) not the organ. The heart as an organ is the door to enter to the inner of the body, to the world of faith and of malakut.
To reach his inner, one mustn’t get distracted. By distracted we don’t mean to fall into sins, these distractions should be avoided in the previous station, the station of islam. In the station of iman, we work on sincerity (al-ikhlass) and perfection of acts (‘ibada) with a prerequisite that those acts are for Allah (Lillah) not to brag about the number of prayers and dhikr. Ahl-Allah were very careful about this. Some of them, before leaving their houses, they smear their beards with food to hide their fasting. Others do qiyam-ul-layl all night long but sleep just before the prayer of subh so no one knows about their qiyam. Those are heart’s acts. They represent a gate between the servant and his Lord that no one shares with him.
The distracted (al-multafit) didn’t realize the reality of sincerity (al-ikhlass). This is why only good deeds (al-amal as-salah) are ascended to Allah ﷻ. And if a good deed) is ascended to Allah, the righteous person (Al-abd as-salah) is ascended with it. This good deed should be forgotten, if you still think about what you did (sadaqah, etc..) be sure that your act has been refused. This is distraction, you can be a distracted person (multafit) even in the heart of the mosque in the middle of prayer. You need a qibla that keeps you directed to Allah ﷻ. As long as you think that you’re praying and doing dhikr that means that you have nothing. Allah ﷻ is rich, He doesn’t need your dhikr. Allah ﷻ is not poor to give him your good deed. On the contrary, the good deed is from Allah ﷻ and He attributed it to you. Look at the generosity, you who claim to be generous. There is nothing harder than heart’s acts. The Prophet ﷺ said :
إن القلوب الناس بين إصبعين من اصابع الرحمن يقلبها كيف يشاء ‏Verily, the hearts of all human beings are between two of the fingers of the Most Merciful as one heart; He turns it wherever He wills.
This is why all of your prayers with senses (jawarah) are to ask Allah ﷻ to keep your heart certain and confident on good deeds and tawhid, not on praying and doing plenty of acts because the multiplicity of acts may generate vanity (‘ujub) if they are done without branches of iman. Ibliss, the enemy of muslims and enemy of Allah ﷻ was also praying, he prostrated to Allah ﷻ in every inch of the earth to the point where he was called azazil with an “il” at the end of his name like all other angels. He was raised with angels and got from their science until he was considered one of them. Allah ﷻ called him “the peacock of angels (Tawûsî al-malāʾikah). He prayed perfectly but his heart was all rust. He got his part from the science of names (‘ilm al-asma’) just like all angels did. The difference is that angels were sincere in their science but ibliss lost his sincerity. What he doesn’t lost is all the illnesses of the heart that no one can count except Allah ﷻ Who narrowed them down to three: Malicious envy (hassad), pride (kibr) and vanity (‘ujub). So never say that you don’t have one of those characters. This is what ibliss thought at first, until when Adam alayhi as-salām was chosen as the representative (Caliph) of Allah ﷻ on earth, then ibliss reality was revealed.”

Hey guys. New here. So I have a bus with a CAT 3116 married to an Allison MT643. Im doing an oil change it desperately needed, and it looks like this system has two oil filters. I replaced the large one, and now I'm on the second although I feel I should make sure that this isn't a transmission oil filter. I've never heard of a spin-on transmission fluid filter, but is that what this is?

Maple Grove Minnesota, about an inch long.

Blue shift