Sufi 'Shaykh' claims to know faith of others

27-1-2014 | IslamWeb

Question:

Once in our local area a sheikh (Allamah) has came, every people of our local area took bayah upon his hand, he embraced with most of the peoples and kept his hand upon the heart of the peoples to testify the heart feeling whether their heart ( Qalb) actually remembering allah or not. He selected 10 (their heart or Qalb mostly remebers allah) out of 23, i.e-- He tested 23 peoples by keeping his hand on the heart and he selected only 10 people out of 23. Is it possible to understand the heart feeling by keeping the hand to testify as mentioned above according to islamic shariah, pls clarify me....

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His Slave and Messenger.

What that man did is nothing but a false belief which is incorrect in Islam and it is not permissible to believe in him in that regard. No one knows what is inside the hearts except Allaah, the Knower of the Unseen. Allaah says (what means): {Did they not know that Allaah knows their secrets and their private conversations and that Allaah is the Knower of the unseen?} [Quran 9:78] Allaah also says (what means): {Say, “None in the heavens and earth knows the unseen except Allaah, and they do not perceive when they will be resurrected.”} [Quran 27:65]

In addition, we have to warn that such a Bay'ah (pledge) taken by the Sufi Shaykhs and others like them, such as their followers, has no basis in Islam. Shaykh Ibn Baaz said: “I do not know of any basis for the Bay'ah that the Sufis take from each other, and this may cause problems, as the person who gives his Bay'ah may believe that he is obliged to obey the one who has taken his Bay'ah in everything … and I do not know in the Sharee'ah of any Bay'ah other than the pledge to obey the rulers and follow the Quran and the Sunnah.”

For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 83352.

Allaah Knows best.