All these people claim knowledge of spiritual reality, saying: “Spiritual reality is one thing, and the revealed Law is another.” They share two characteristics: they possess powers and spiritual unveilings beyond those of ordinary people, and they refuse to weigh these against the Quran and Sunnah or submit them to the Messenger’s judgment.

They are like kings who govern their kingdoms without following the commands of Allah and His Messenger. Yet none of these kings says, “Allah commanded me to do this,” or “I am an ally of Allah,” or “I receive spiritual support from Allah independently of the Messenger,” or “The messengers were not sent to people like me.” Kings merely pursue their own ends without making them a religion. These people, however, turn their own ends—which involve some of the gravest injustice and corruption, indeed even unbelief—into a religion practised by those whom they regard as Allah’s allies.

This is because these things come to them through a kind of asceticism and worship. Yet it is not the asceticism and worship with which Allah sent His Messenger. Rather, it resembles the condition of the People of the Book and the polytheists, such as the devotees of India, the Christians, and others like them. Thus their resemblance to the devotees among the polytheists and the People of the Book becomes apparent. Indeed, someone who had seen the devotees of India and then saw the ecstatic devotees of the house of al-Rifā'ī found their presence in Muslim lands objectionable. He said: “These are exactly like the pagan devotees of India.”

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