Is there in Islam what is called "Islamic Sufism"?

The questioner: His EminenceThe Shaykh : Is there in Islam something called Islamic Sufism?

The Shaykh : We say with complete frankness: there is nothing in Islam called Sufism or Islamic Sufism. This name is foreign, like many things that have entered the Muslims. Some of them enter with doubts that they think are proofs, and some with desires that they run after. Islamic Sufism is like Islamic songs; it has no basis in the Book or the Sunnah. Rather, there are established truths in the Shari'ah that some people exploit to smooth over matters that have no path in Islam. When the Sufis who are fanatical about this name are discussed, they say: "The Sufism we call for is what came in the Sunnah of the desire for asceticism in this world, turning to the Hereafter, and holding fast to Islamic morals, as we mentioned a short word at the beginning of this session regarding the exhortation to good character." They say: "This is Sufism." In that case, if the claim were limited to this detail of Sufism, there would be no disagreement left if the claim were true. And in that case, we demand that the people of Sufism abandon this name, because it has a history and a meaning that exceeds the meaning they claim is fixed in the Shari'ah, which is good conduct. For in Sufism there are matters that are greatly blameworthy, the most dangerous of which is what their great leader, known as "Ibn Arabi," who was buried in Damascus, constantly sings about: the claim of "the unity of existence." The intended meaning of the unity of existence is that there is no Creator and created, but only nature, as the communists and the materialists who do not believe that this universe has a Creator say. Blessed and Exalted is He, far above what these wrongdoers say, with a great exaltation.
Ibn Arabi, by the consensus of everyone who belongs to Sufism, we have not found one of them who disavows him. He is the one who constantly and forever sings about this great misguidance, which is the unity of existence. He says, for example, in some of his books:
"And the dog and the pig are nothing but our God, and God is nothing but a monk in a church"!!
And he says: "Everything you see with your eye is God"!! And he who follows his pattern and his principle says: "When the Majus worshipped the fire, they worshipped nothing but the One, the Subduer"!! This is the imam of the Sufis. We do not find one of these Sufis who interprets Sufism as conduct within the limits of the Shari'ah and holding fast to the Muhammadan morals; we do not find one of them who disavows Ibn Arabi. We have met with many of these Sufis and discussed with them the disbelieving phrases of Ibn Arabi, and I have mentioned to you examples of them just now. We did not find from them any response to us regarding their denial, but rather one of them said to me: "When I read a book like 'Al-Futuhat al-Makkiyyah' by Ibn Arabi, and a phrase is difficult for me—so he says—I put it on the shelf temporarily. And whenever I pass by such difficult phrases, I also put them on the shelf, until I have many phrases from the phrases of Ibn Arabi. Then he says he secludes himself in a retreat. You know the retreats of the Sufis: he sits in a room with no light and adds darkness to darkness, he straightens his legs, puts his head between his knees, and closes his eyes; darknesses, some above others. This is the text of one who is not considered among the cheap Sufis, but is among the great scholars of the Shafi'i school; he is Imam al-Ghazali. At the beginning of the book "Ihya' 'Ulum al-Din," he sets the etiquette of the aspirant if he wants to receive inspiration from the Lord of the Worlds: he sits like this in a dark room, straightens his legs, puts his head between his knees, and closes his eyes, to receive what descends upon him of inspiration!! They do not say: from the revelation; because it is a clear contradiction of the Shari'ah. They call the revelation inspiration by way of sophistry. So this Sufi, who died in Damascus recently, not long ago, said to me: "When some difficulties accumulate for me, I perform a retreat, I separate myself from people, I remember Allah, and I worship Allah." He says: "Allah opens to him and he understands those phrases in the correct way." So we said to him: "Suppose that some of these phrases can have correct meanings extracted from them, but where are you from what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) taught us, such as his saying—as I mentioned to you in some previous sessions—: , he said to that Companion who said to the Prophet: 'What Allah wills and what you will, O Messenger of Allah'; , where is the saying of this Companion: 'What Allah wills and what you will' from the saying of Ibn Arabi: 'Everything you see with your eye is God'?? This is clear disbelief. So if we suppose the impossible that such phrases have correct meanings, it is not permissible to utter them, because they are contrary to the teaching of the Messenger (peace be upon him) to his Ummah."
In short: there are great and very great misguidances in Sufism, the greatest of which is the claim of the unity of existence, and its caller is Ibn Arabi. It is still in the head of the practitioners and the knowers of Allah among the claimants of Sufism, in addition to the foolishness and superstitions that exist in their stories and their travels and their exercises—as they call them. Therefore, if there were anything good and prescribed in Sufism, there is no doubt that Islam preceded it by great stages. And there is nothing outside of Islam that we need, either by explicit statement or by correcting belief, or by rectifying conduct. For he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: .
This is what can be said now.
Please proceed.