but to state the reality and bring the facts to light, we must say that they have called people to worship their shaykhs and spiritual poles, and have turned people away from the correct understanding of Islam. One of them may say, “They have brought many idolaters into Islam.”

The answer is that they have indeed brought them out of undisguised idolatry, only to usher them into disguised idolatry, which they have named Islam to make it acceptable and palatable.

As for Islam properly understood, they themselves are far removed from it, let alone capable of bringing others into its very heart. How could they, when “one cannot give what one does not possess”?

Undoubtedly, this confusion results from callers to Islam neglecting their duty and failing to carry out the work of Islamic preaching as they should. They therefore bear responsibility for all of this: despite their understanding and ability, they left the field to others, until the Sufi shaykhs and those who followed them without acting rightly had it all to themselves.

You have the field to yourself: lay your eggs and sing,
And peck at whatever you please.

Lest someone say—even inwardly—“We regard everything you have said about these people’s characteristics and practices as mere allegations. Do you have any evidence for your claims?”—let us listen together to two verses by some of their spiritual poles. The first is by Ibn al-Fārid, who claims that he has become united with Allah, so that when he prays, he prays only to himself: his prostration is to himself, his bowing is to himself, and so on. He says:

To her belong my prayers, which I perform at the station;
And in them I bear witness that it was to me she prayed.

This verse comes from his famous Tā’iyya, his ode rhyming in t, whose recitation sends the Sufi shaykhs into raptures. Thus, you see that he claims to have become both a lord and a servant