He—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—was also asked:

“Who are these ‘Qalandariyya’ who shave their beards, and to which groups do they belong? What do you say about their belief that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, fed their shaykh Qalandar grapes and spoke to him in a non-Arabic tongue?”

He replied:

These ‘Qalandariyya’ who shave their beards are people of misguidance and ignorance. Most of them disbelieve in Allah and His Messenger: they do not regard prayer and fasting as obligatory, do not consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, and do not follow the religion of truth. Indeed, many of them are greater disbelievers than the Jews and Christians. They belong neither to the Muslim community nor to the protected non-Muslim communities. Some among them may be Muslims, but are misguided innovators or wicked sinners.

Whoever claims that ‘Qalandar’ existed in the time of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, has lied and fabricated a tale. Rather, it has been said that this group originated as Persian ascetics who, after fulfilling their religious obligations and avoiding forbidden acts, pursued whatever brought comfort to their hearts. This is how Shaykh Abū Hafs al-Suhrawardī described them in his ‘Awārif. Later, however, they abandoned their obligations and committed forbidden acts. They were like the