The Ruling on Praying Behind the Imams of the Sufis
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
He says: Your Eminence the Shaykh! We are students of knowledge from Chad who travel to Chad to hold educational courses in several areas of the country. The question is: during that time, some of the mosque imams are Sufis. Do we pray behind them and then repeat the prayer, or do we not pray with them? And we know that if we do not pray behind them in some areas, we may be prevented from holding the educational courses there. May Allah reward you with the best reward for us and for the Muslim community.
Answer:
The Sufis are of two types. The Sufis who are excessive worship the awliya (close friends of Allah) and attribute their sins to them instead of to Allah; these people are prayed behind. The second type has some bid'ah (religious innovations) and some sins; these people are prayed behind. One prays behind them, advises them, and guides them to good through gentle means, with gentleness and wisdom, and with kind words, so that a person benefits from their guidance and so that people benefit from him. He is gentle with them, teaches them, guides them, and teaches people so that people benefit from him. As for the one known for kufr (disbelief) by calling upon the awliya and seeking aid from the dead, one does not pray behind him. This person is a disbeliever. We ask Allah for safety.
He says: Your Eminence the Shaykh! We are students of knowledge from Chad who travel to Chad to hold educational courses in several areas of the country. The question is: during that time, some of the mosque imams are Sufis. Do we pray behind them and then repeat the prayer, or do we not pray with them? And we know that if we do not pray behind them in some areas, we may be prevented from holding the educational courses there. May Allah reward you with the best reward for us and for the Muslim community.
Answer:
The Sufis are of two types. The Sufis who are excessive worship the awliya (close friends of Allah) and attribute their sins to them instead of to Allah; these people are prayed behind. The second type has some bid'ah (religious innovations) and some sins; these people are prayed behind. One prays behind them, advises them, and guides them to good through gentle means, with gentleness and wisdom, and with kind words, so that a person benefits from their guidance and so that people benefit from him. He is gentle with them, teaches them, guides them, and teaches people so that people benefit from him. As for the one known for kufr (disbelief) by calling upon the awliya and seeking aid from the dead, one does not pray behind him. This person is a disbeliever. We ask Allah for safety.
Source
فضل العلم وآدابه — islamhouse.com (24:31)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.