What is your opinion of those who call themselves daraaweesh (pl. of darweesh or “dervish”) and stab themselves with knives, daggers, etc? Whilst they do that, before they say “Ya Allaah (O Allaah)”, they say, “Ya Rifaa’i (O Rifaa’i).” What is the shar’i view of this? Is there any evidence (daleel) for what they do? May Allaah reward you with good.
Praise be to Allah.They are liars and cheats. There is no basis for their actions. In
fact they are tricksters who use things to deceive the people so that
the people will think that they are stabbing themselves when that is
not really the case. It is a trick whereby they deceive the eye and
bewitch people. This is like what Allaah said about the sorcerers of
Pharaoh, that they were trying to frighten the people and that they
bewitched their eyes. The point is that it is not permissible to believe
in this kind of people – evildoers and deceivers – who have no basis
for what they do. They are liars and tricksters who deceive people.
When they call upon al-Rifaa’i, or anybody else, this is shirk akbar
(major shirk), as is the
case of one who says “O Rifaa’i” or “O Messenger of Allaah, grant us
victory: or “intercede for us” or “O ‘Ali” or “O Seedi” or “O Husayn”
or “Ya Seedi al-Badawi” and so on. All of that is shirk
akbar and it is all worship of people or things other than
Allaah. All of that is like the actions of those who worship graves,
and those who worshipped al-Laat and al-‘Uzza and their ilk. It is shirk akbar – we seek refuge in Allaah from that. When these
people stab themselves with daggers and knives, it is trickery and deception
which has no basis; by doing this they are liars and evildoers. The
authorities – if there are Muslim rulers in their countries – have to
put a stop to this, and they must punish them and discipline them until
they repent from their evil actions.