Ruling on the beliefs and actions of the Sufi Nazim al-Haqqani (“Shaykh Nazim”)
Question

I would like to ask about this man who leads the Naqshabandi Sufi tariqah, Nazim al-Haqqani. What advice can you give us on interacting with him and others like him?
Praise be to Allah.This man, who is called Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani an-Naqshabandi is one of the leading figures of the Naqshabandi Sufis. He used to live in Cyprus, and he had followers in Europe, America, East Asia and elsewhere. He died in 1435 AH.
He wrote a number of books about the Naqshabandi tariqah.
By researching his case, we find that he fell into many problematic matters, including the following:
His promotion of blatant shirk. In one of his lessons, he said: “We should not address the Lord of Glory directly, but we can address the qutub (a high-ranking wali or ‘saint’) who is in control.” Then he said: “The aqtab (plural of qutub) are men of Allah; they look at al-Lawh al-Mahfuz and control the affairs of the world, especially our master the qutub who is in control.”
See this at 5.00 in the video via the following link.
This is associating others with Allah in His Lordship (shirk ar-rububiyyah) and associating others with Him in worship. Believing that there is someone in control alongside Allah, may He be exalted, is associating someone else with Him in His Lordship, and believing that it is not permissible to call upon Allah, may He be exalted, directly, and that one must call upon Him through the aqtab is associating others with Allah in His divinity (shirk al-uluhiyyah).
This type of shirk is widespread among the Sufis.
Muhammad az-Zamzami al-Maghrebi (may Allah have mercy on him) – who was a Sufi, then Allah guided him to Tawheed and the Sunnah – said, speaking of the innovations of the Sufis: One of them is their claim that the awliya’ (“saints”) are in control of running the affairs of the universe, so they give to some and withhold from others, they honour some and humiliate others, and they appoint people to positions of authority and dismiss others therefrom. Because of this corrupted belief, the Sufis turn to those who they believe are awliya’ and ask them to meet their needs, and they say: These are our intercessors with Allah; we ask of them and they intercede for us with Allah! And when they visit their graves, they recite a line of verse:
“You are the door and Allah is most generous; whoever comes to you, his wishes will be met and he will be given generously.”
This belief is the same as the polytheists’ belief regarding their idols which they worshipped. They said: We only worship them so that they will intercede for us with Allah to meet our needs. Allah tells us about them in the Holy Quran (interpretation of the meaning):
{ And they worship other than Allah that which neither harms them nor benefits them, and they say, "These are our intercessors with Allah " Say, "Do you inform Allah of something He does not know in the heavens or on the earth?" Exalted is He and high above what they associate with Him} [Yoonus 10:18].
Allah states here that they are lying when they say that. Because of this innovation, the graves of the dead have become places of visitation to which ignorant people go when calamity strikes, and they go to some of them to ask for children, or to seek healing from sickness. Thus the graves have become like idols which are worshipped besides Allah.
End quote from az-Zawiyah wa ma fiha min al-A‘mal wa’l-Bida‘ al-Munkarah (p.50).
One of this man’s actions that are contrary to Islam is that – in addition to saying that Allah cannot be asked directly, rather He must be asked through the aqtab – in a recorded meeting with the Pope of the Catholic Church, Benedict XVI, Nazim al-Haqqani asked the pope to pray for him! This is indicative of how far these misguided people have drifted away from the religion of Islam and sound human nature. For he forbids addressing Allah directly, then he asks the leader of the misguided Christians to pray for him!
See the meeting via the following link:
This also indicates that he is very ignorant of the belief in loyalty to the believers and disavowal of the disbelievers (al-wala’ wa’l-bara’), as he is very gentle with the Christian pope and one of his students kisses the pope’s hand in front of him, but he is stern with those whom he calls Wahhabis and Salafis, whom he reviles in crude terms. This confirms what some researchers have stated, that Sufism, by lending support to the disbelieving tyrants, was one of the causes of the Muslim ummah’s decline.
You can see him reviling the Wahhabis via this link.
Another of his misguided notions that is that he says that he is one of those whom the Most Gracious has ransomed from the Fire of Hell, and that the angel who is on his right records his good deeds, whereas the angel who is on his left does not record anything!
Another example of his misguidance is what happens in his gatherings of dancing. May Allah have mercy on Imam Ibn al-Qayyim, who said in verse:
“When the Quran is recited, they sit still, not out of fear of Allah but like one whose mind is wandering.
When the singing starts, they are like donkeys braying; by Allah, their dancing is not for the sake of Allah.
Drum and flute and the melodious voice of a singer; when have you ever seen any kind of worship with music and entertainment?”
Similar to that is what happens in his gatherings of mixing between men and women, and the attendance of women who are uncovered and wearing make-up, and they kiss his hand. There are video clips which confirm that, but we do not want to share links here.
This is with regard to the man himself.
As for the ruling concerning him:
It may be said that he has undoubtedly fallen into some serious and grievous innovations, some of which could lead to him being deemed a disbeliever, and others of which are less serious than that. He and his group are among the most misguided of people, and you must warn people against him and against his group, pointing out their misguidance with wisdom. This is part of being sincere towards Allah and His Messenger. Otherwise, ruling that he himself is to be deemed a disbeliever depends on whether the conditions of doing that are met and the impediments to doing so are absent, as is the principle set out by Ahl as-Sunnah wa’l- Jama‘ah with regard to deeming someone to be a disbeliever. For more details regarding that, please see the answer to question no. 85102 .
And Allah knows best.