MAGICIANS, FALSE SHAIKHS, IMPOSTORS IN THE NAME OF MEN OF ‘TARÎQÂ’

The books entitled Hadîqa and Berîqa contain lengthy explanations that magicians, false shaikhs, and impostors in the name of men of ‘tarîqa’ are abject liars. Those two books explain the bitter fact that such people are not men of religion, but they are fiends whose real purpose is to misguide Muslims. Their shows are not religious acts; on the contrary, they are irreligious stratagems. The non-Muslim clowns, acrobats, and jugglers in the European and Japanese fairs and circuses accomplish legerdemains far more skilful and astounding than the ones performed by these false shaikhs. Islam is not a religion of plays, comedies, buffoonery, music, magic, ropewalking, or artful trickery. Islam is a religion from which to learn facts to be believed; acts and deeds to be practised as well as those to be avoided; behavioral habits and manners that are beautiful as well as those which are unsightly; ways and manners of practising its commandments; and how to be obedient Muslims and individuals good and useful to mankind. Shaik-ul-islâm Ahmad ibni Kemâl Efendi ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’^[1] states in his book al-Munîra: What is primarily wâjib for a Muslim is to adapt himself to the Ahkâm-i-islâmiyya, i.e. commandments and prohibitions of Allâhu ta’âlâ and His Messenger ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’. Our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ stated: “If you see a person fly in the air and/or walk on the surface of the sea and/or put fire into his mouth and swallow it, and yet if he does something that Islam disapproves of, you should know that he is a magician, a liar, a heretic, and a person who misguides others from the right way, even if he says that he is a man with karâmât!” Here we end our translation from al-Munîra. This hadîth-i-sherîf draws a clearcut demarcation line between a true man of Tasawwuf who is in the right way and heretics who pass themselves as men of Tarîqa. In the decaying years of the Ottomans ignorant and fâsiq men of Tarîqa informed about in the hadîth-i-sherîf appeared in the country. Thanks be to Allâhu ta’âlâ, He prevented them, thus protecting the blessed names of great people such as ’Abû Bakr as Siddîq and ’Alî bin Abî Tâlib ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anhumâ’ and Sayyid Ahmad Rifâ’î and Sayyid Sherîf Ahmad Bedevî and Abu-l-Hasan bin ’Alî bin ’Abdullah Shâdilî and Sayyid ’Abd-ul-Qâdir Geylânî and Mawlânâ Jelâl-ad-dîn Rûmî and Muhammad Behâ-ad-dîn Bukhârî and Hâdji Bayrâm Walî and Ziyâ-ad-din Khâlid Baghdâdî from being playthings in the hands and tongues of those ignoramuses, who were qâti’i tarîq-i-ilâhî, (i.e. people who barricaded the paths leading to the grace of Allâhu ta’âlâ.)

[1] The ninth Ottoman Shaikh-ul-islâm, who was in office from 932 [1526 A.D.] until 940 [1534], during the reign of Sultân Suleymân Khan the Magnificent and the Lawgiver. He was noted for his giving fatwâ to genies; hence the nickname Muftiy-yus-seqaleyn. He passed away in 940 [1534 A.D.].