The Ruling on the Sufis and the Meaning of Their Name

Question:
This is a questioner from outside this country who says that his father mentioned that the Sufis have not left Islam, but rather they are Muslims without a doubt, and their Sufism is for Allah and in Allah. His question is: What is the meaning of the Sufis, and what is their ruling?

Answer:
The Sufis, in their origin, are those who strive in worship; striving in worship is their origin.
But it increased after that and reached atheism; it reached atheism, it reached shirk (associating partners with Allah), because the origin of bid'ah (religious innovation) contains no good; the origin of bid'ah contains no good. So when the origin of Sufism was an innovation, it produced these things. Are the Sufis all the same? We did not say that all Sufis are disbelievers, no. But we say that the origin of Sufism is an innovation, and innovation develops, because Satan—because innovation is from Satan—calls to it, so he develops them little by little. This is what happened to the Sufis. Their predecessors were worshippers, like Bishr al-Hafi and al-Fudayl ibn 'Iyad; these were famous worshippers. Even though their striving in worship and asceticism is not agreed upon, the default is that a person should be upon the Sunnah, moderate upon the Sunnah. So, despite their fear and their worship, they were saved from these things. But those who came after them, because bid'ah develops—Allah (Exalted and Majestic is He) says: Satan leads the children of Adam little by little. What did he do to the people of Noah? He came to them, and when he saw them weeping for the righteous and the scholars who had died,
he said to them: Make images of them so that you will be encouraged to worship when you see their images. Hang them up so that you will be encouraged to worship. So, make them and hang them up. But in this generation there were scholars whom Satan could not lead to shirk, because there were scholars among them. But they did something that is not prescribed, which is hanging up images. Satan has an objective; what is his objective for this generation? His objective is the generation that will come, the founders of bid'ah. So when the scholars died and this generation died, he came to the later ones and said: Your fathers did not set up these images except to worship them, and by them they would bring the rain. So they worshipped them besides Allah. The first shirk that occurred on earth was this. Yes.