What is the ruling on introducing the hand drum into acts of worship, as the Sufis do, and their striking themselves with skewers to make people think it is a miracle granted to a righteous person?

The questioner : I do not know, but in a question from some of the brothers, it was mentioned that regarding some of the Sufi lodges, they beat the hand drum and use skewers. Yes, what is the ruling in this matter?

The Shaykh : The ruling on beating the hand drum is known from our previous discussion, but now we add something: beating the hand drum is all among the entertainments and is forbidden, but more severe than this prohibition is introducing this forbidden act into worship, in the remembrance of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). So this is forbidden and not permissible, because committing a sin is a sin, but more severe than this sin is drawing near to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) with it. So these Sufis or path-followers who dance in the remembrance and beat the hand drum, or even the drum, the saying of some scholars applies to them: "When people know in our religion that singing is a recommended practice to follow, and that a person should eat like a donkey and dance in the gathering until he falls down, and they say, 'We were intoxicated by the love of the Divine, and nothing intoxicated the people but the cups,' just as the beasts are made to dance by their wind and fullness, oh for the intellects and oh for the prohibition, except that you are the ones who deny the religious innovations, our mosques are humiliated by the listening to music and honored by the sale of such things."
And that a person should eat like a donkey and dance in the gathering until he falls down
And they said, "We were intoxicated by the love of the Divine, and nothing intoxicated the people but the cups"
Just as the beasts are made to dance by their wind and fullness
Oh for the intellects and oh for the prohibition, except that you are the ones who deny the religious innovations
Our mosques are humiliated by the listening to music and honored by the sale of such things
And as another said:
"O generation that innovated, the worst of generations, you have brought a matter that is impossible
Did the Divine say to you in the Qur'an, 'Eat like the beasts and dance for Me'?"
Far be it from Him. So beating the hand drum or the drum in the remembrance is more strictly forbidden than beating the hand drum in entertainment, because the saying of our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) in His Book applies to them: And He (Blessed and Exalted is He) said regarding the polytheists, what is the verse? You see the youth now how they whistle; this is an inheritance that the disbelievers inherited from one another. And the polytheists in the age of ignorance used to draw near to Allah in the Sacred House of Allah by whistling and clapping This is what some Muslims do today, whose condemnation by the jurists of the Muslims and their denial of them is the strongest denial. Some of them even issued a fatwa that the place where these people perform their dance and eating must be plowed because it has been polluted by the commission of a sin against Allah (Mighty and Majestic). That remembrance which they claim is remembrance is actually entertainment. As for beating with skewers, this is the greatest of misfortunes, that there are hundreds, thousands of Muslims who also imagine that this self-harm is a prophetic miracle, a miracle granted to a righteous person, for these people who claim to be on something of the religion, but they are not on anything, because the religion is following what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was upon. And the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and his noble Companions did not remember Allah in this manner that you have known something of from those poems I recited to you. So here two prohibitions have gathered with these people: beating the hand drum in the remembrance, and these people beating themselves with skewers. This is self-harm accompanied by misleading the Muslims and making them think that this is a miracle granted to a righteous person, while the truth is that it is not a miracle granted to a righteous person, but rather an insult. Then it is an exercise that the most wicked of the wicked can do, the disbeliever can do it, the disbeliever who does not believe in Allah and His Messenger. Why? Because it is an exercise, a sport. And you have all perhaps heard of some of the strange things of the Hindus and polytheists, where one of them is buried in the presence of witnesses, and even doctors who came specifically, how this person is buried in the earth and then comes out alive. From where does he breathe? Does this mean that this polytheist, because he lived under the soil for days, not hours, and then came out alive, is one of the close friends of Allah? Far be it from Allah. These are exercises and sports, and sports bring about wondrous things. You see, for example, many and very many accidents: a rope stretched over the sea. If we walked on a narrow bridge, we would fall, but he walks on the rope. What is this? Is it a miracle granted to a righteous person? It has no relation to a miracle granted to a righteous person at all. This is training, and the righteous and the wicked, the believer and the disbeliever, share in it. The scholars of the Muslims, past and present, have experiences with these people, who know nothing of their religion except these exercises they have become accustomed to, and then they mislead people with them, while the scholars say:
"If you see a person who can fly, and can walk on the water of the sea,
And he has not stood upon the limits of the law, then he is being led astray and is an innovator."