Shaykh al-Islām—may Allah sanctify his soul—was asked about people affiliated with shaykhs who lead them to repent of highway robbery, murder, and theft, and require them to pray. Yet they pray in the customary manner of the desert dwellers. Must the prescribed requirements of prayer be upheld, or not? Moreover, their distinguishing practices are Rafidism, uncovering their heads, twisting their hair, and carrying snakes.

Love for their shaykhs has so overwhelmed their hearts that whenever one of them stumbles or is troubled by something, he calls upon his shaykh for help. They prostrate themselves to their shaykhs, sometimes in their absence and sometimes in their presence. Sometimes their prostration happens to face the qiblah, and sometimes another direction—wherever their shaykh happens to be. They claim that this is for Allah.

Some of them take other people’s children as disciples, with or without their parents’ consent. A son may be helping his parents earn a lawful livelihood, yet one of these men takes him away, teaches him to beg, and makes vows to the dead.

Some of them establish bonds of brotherhood with women. When forbidden to do so, one of them says, “If only I could have your mother, your sister, and their two sisters!” When told, “Do not look at a woman unrelated to you,” he replies, “I will look twenty times!” And they swear oaths