The Invalidity of What the Sufi Samaniyyah Do

The following message was received by the program from the village of Umm Dam in Sudan. It was sent by one of the brothers, identified as (S. S. S). Our brother says: We request your guidance regarding a shaykh in our country who has many followers who devote themselves to serving and obeying him and traveling to him, believing that he is one of the awliya (close friends of Allah). They take from him the Sufi Samaniyyah method. There is a large dome over his father’s grave, and these followers seek blessing from it. They place in it whatever their hearts offer in the form of vows, and they hold gatherings of dhikr (remembrance of Allah) with the beating of hand drums and drums and poetry. This year, their shaykh ordered them to visit the grave of another shaykh, so they traveled, men and women, in a hundred cars. How do you direct them?
Answer: This is a great evil and a major harm. Traveling to visit graves is an evil. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Therefore, one does not saddle a mount to visit graves, but only to the three mosques for the purpose of drawing near to Allah and obedience.
Then, drawing near to the people of the graves with vows, or sacrifices, or prayers, or supplication and calling for aid, is all shirk (associating partners with Allah) . It is not permissible for a Muslim to call upon the person in the grave, even if he is great like the messengers (peace and blessings be upon them). It is not permissible to call for aid from him, just as it is not permissible to call for aid from idols, or trees, or stars. So it is with the people of the graves; no one has the right to call for aid from them, or make vows to them, or draw near to them with sacrifices or vows. All of this is among the forbidden matters of shirk.
Likewise, their playing with hand drums and drawing near with the hand drums that many of the Sufis do, all of this is bid'ah (religious innovation) and an evil. There is no worship of Allah in drawing near with hand drums, not at graves, not in mosques, and not elsewhere. The hand drum is prescribed (mashru') for women at weddings to make the marriage known, that it is a marriage and not fornication.
Likewise, building over graves is an evil. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade plastering graves, building over them, and sitting on them, as Muslim narrated in the Sahih from Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) who said: And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: .
So it is not permissible to build over graves, whether mosques or otherwise. They must be left open and exposed, with no building over them. It is not permissible to seek blessing from the graves and their occupants, or to rub against them, just as it is not permissible to call upon them, call for aid from them, make vows to them, or slaughter for them. All of this is from the practice of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance.
So it is obligatory for the people of Islam to beware of that, and it is obligatory for the people of knowledge to advise this shaykh, and to inform him that he is in a false action and that it is an evil, and that his urging people and encouraging them to call upon the dead and call for aid from the dead, that this is major shirk. We seek refuge in Allah.
And it is obligatory for the Muslims not to imitate him, not to follow him, and not to be deceived by him. Worship is the right of Allah alone; He is the one who is called upon and hoped for. As He, the Exalted, said: So do not [al-Jinn: 18]. And He, the Exalted, said: [al-Mu'minun: 117]. He called them disbelievers for calling upon other than Allah, from the jinn, the angels, the prophets, the people of the graves, or the stars, or the idols. All of this calling upon them alongside Allah is major shirk.
Thus He, the Exalted and Majestic, says: [Yunus: 106], meaning: the polytheists.
And it is upon everyone who is able to denounce this evil to participate in doing so, and upon the state, if it is Muslim, to prevent that, and to teach the people what Allah has prescribed for them and what He has made obligatory upon them from the matters of religion, until this evil is removed and until this shirk is removed. We ask Allah for guidance for everyone.