Shaykh Ahmad al-‘Alawi (1869-1934) was a spiritual master in the Shadhiliyyah-Darqawiyyah Tariqah, one of the great Sufi orders dedicated to meditation and prayer, whose representatives trace their lineage in an unbroken “chain” (silsilah) back to the Prophet Muhammad. Schuon traveled to Mostaghanem, Algeria in early December, 1932 to meet this famous spiritual guide. Schuon’s letters to Black Elk, the famous Lakota holy man, covered many subjects, including a description of his own spiritual quest: “I wished not only to love God, I wished also to know Him, and the Christianity of our time teaches only the love of God, never the knowledge.… And so, with regard to the knowledge of God which I was seeking—because it is a need of my nature, and God wishes to be worshiped by every man according to the nature He gave him—I found this sacred knowledge through a holy man of the Arab people, whose name was Ahmad al-‘Alawi. He was a spiritual Master and had many disciples. There I found what I was searching for: the knowledge of God, and the means to realize God.”
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