The Shaykh mentions some of the delusions that al-Sha'rani attributed to the Sufis in his misguided book titled *Tabaqat al-Awliya* (The Ranks of the Saints).

The Shaykh : And whoever wishes to see the marvel of marvels in this field, let him refer to the book *Tabaqat al-Awliya* by al-Sha'rani, which has been reprinted time and again; no other book has been printed as many times as it, not even *Sahih al-Bukhari* or *Sahih Muslim*, because it is stuffed with delusions and falsehoods under the heading of *karamah* (a miracle granted to a righteous person). For example, there is a man whose biography is recorded, and every man there has a biography that begins with the phrase "And among them is so-and-so, son of so-and-so (may Allah be pleased with him)." Every person whose biography is recorded there is described with "may Allah be pleased with him." "And among them is so-and-so, son of so-and-so (may Allah be pleased with him), who was such and such." In the case of some of these biographies, it is stated that he used to say, "I left my saying 'Be, and it is' for twenty years out of etiquette with Allah." The man, on the surface of the expression, had reached the rank of lordship, not just the oneness of worship, but lordship, where he says to a thing, "Be, and it is." This attribute was not denied by the Arabs in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance; they believed that the one who says to a thing "Be, and it is" is Allah alone, without partner. But they associated partners with Him when they worshipped others. As for us, in our books to this day, this phrase is listed among the *karamah* of that man: that he used to say, "I left my saying 'Be, and it is' for twenty years out of etiquette with Allah." So you see that when he claimed to say to a thing "Be, and it is," he was lacking in etiquette with Allah. What is the matter with this *wali* (close friend of Allah) who is sometimes polite and sometimes not? If there were nothing in this statement of explicit disbelief, it would be sufficient that it contradicts itself, because the *wali* is polite with Allah in all years. But he, at one time, says to a thing "Be, and it is," and for twenty years he left that out of etiquette with Allah, and before and after that, he was not polite with Allah! This is what is mentioned in the *karamah* of this man. Another man, whom the author of the book himself recounts about himself, said, "I went to visit a man from the *awliya* (close friends of Allah) whom I had known. I stood at the door, and I heard a voice from a balcony, like the recitation of the Qur'an. I listened to it, and I found that he was reciting a Qur'an other than our Qur'an. He concluded it by saying, 'O Allah, make the reward of what I have recited from Your noble speech for my Shaykh so-and-so and my Shaykh so-and-so, and so on.' From this recitation or this phrase, the Shaykh himself became certain that this Qur'an is not the Qur'an that is in the hands of the Muslims. This, my brothers, is printed and reprinted in Egypt, where the Noble Al-Azhar is located, repeatedly and over and over. And what can I tell you? This is a very wide field. If this had become a thing of the past, I would not have been able to tell you anything about it. We say, his matter is ended, praise be to Allah. But, my brothers, whoever among you knows, knows, and whoever does not, we know that these calamities are still flowing in the veins of the masses of Muslims today, among the common people and among the Shaykhs."