conscience and inner thought, for one of the shaykh’s attributes is knowing what lies within people’s hearts. Whoever departs from this rule exposes himself to the shaykh’s wrath, and anyone who incurs it is ruined.

2- Diminishing people’s regard for scholars of Islamic law and students of the Quran and Sunnah, claiming that they themselves possess spiritual reality, whereas the scholars possess religious law; or that they possess inward knowledge, whereas the scholars possess outward knowledge. The religious sciences, they claim, are useless husks unless they contain the kernel possessed by the Sufis: what they call inward knowledge or divinely bestowed knowledge. As you can see, this is open warfare against the knowledge of the Quran and Sunnah brought by the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. It is opposition to Allah and His Messenger, whether unwittingly or, at times, knowingly.

3- They strive with the utmost determination to attain what they call absolute freedom: complete release from all religious obligations. This is the religion of the oneness of existence. They count certain heretics, such as Ibn ‘Arabī and Ibn al-Fārid, among their spiritual poles, and seek to attain the same heresy and departure from the Quran and Sunnah that those men attained. They bestow the following titles upon these heretics:

Those Who Have Attained, Those Who Know Allah, the Spiritual Poles, and finally, the Supreme Succour.

What an enormous fabrication! It is as though ghawth (succour) has no plural in their terminology—and there is no quibbling over terminology.

Now, given the situation I have described, is it permissible to regard Sufi shaykhs as callers to Islam, as some are pleased to do, or as representatives of Muslims before non-Muslims, as some of those deceived by them describe them? Regarding them in this way and allowing them to represent Islam has disfigured its beauty in the eyes of non-Muslims and destroyed its tolerant spirit, for they have portrayed Islam as idolatrous and exploitative rituals. They have thereby enabled Islam’s enemies to attack it most grievously. For all these reasons, I do not permit myself, or anyone who heeds my advice, to say that they are callers to Islam.