The Reality of Striking Oneself with Iron and Entering Fire Among the Sufis

Question:
Your Eminence the Shaykh, this is a question I am reading exactly as the writer wrote it. He says: I saw them striking themselves with iron rods, guns, and swords until blood came out between their ribs. I touched it with my hand, and I saw him striking himself and inserting the iron into his belly. They perform extraordinary acts, such as entering fire, among other things. Is what I saw true, or is it deception and sorcery, since something is wrong with him?

Answer:
It is all deception and old wives' tales; it is all deception and old wives' tales. Some of the Sufis, the Rafi'iyyah and others, do this. They show people that they have slaughtered themselves, that they have inserted swords into their bellies, and that they have done this and that. They show people that they have put fire into their bellies. It is all false; it is all deception. It is like what the magicians did with the eyes; they made them seem to move, so it appeared to them from their movement that the eyes were moving. So these people deceive people by humming over their eyes, as the Exalted and Majestic is He said: You, O questioner, must know this with certainty, even if you touch it with your tongue, that it is all deception, all lies, and has no reality. For the nature of a person, if he is stabbed with a sword, is that blood appears from him and it harms him, and it may kill him. And his nature, if he enters fire, is that he burns himself with the fire. This is not a matter of doubt, but it is a matter known by sense and by the consensus of people of reason. No human being can withstand fire, and stabbing with swords and spears is the same. If these people were truthful, they would not have survived; they would have perished. It is all lies and all deception. It is all from the works of the devil and the devils who assist them in this falsehood, whether they are Rafi'iyyah or not. This exists in Sham and in other places among the Sufis. Yes.