Ma Waqa li-Bad al-Muslimin min al-Riyada al-Sufiya wa al-Ghulu fiha - Dimn Athar al-Muallimi
- Author died
- 1386 AH
- Editions
- Dar Alam al-Fawa'id lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzi'
Ma Waqaʿ li-Baʿḍ al-Muslimīn min al-Riyāḍah al-Ṣūfiyyah wa-al-Ghulūw Fīhā (What Occurred to Some Muslims Regarding Sufi Spiritual Exercises and Extremism in Them) is a theological treatise by the Yemeni scholar Abd al-Rahman al-Muallimi al-Yamani (d. 1386 AH / 1966 CE) refuting the claims of acquiring supernatural feats through Sufi ascetic training and addressing psychic phenomena, magic, and miracles .
Subject and Arguments
The treatise was written as a polemical critique of an unnamed Sufi writer and his book, whose identities could not be determined by the editor . In it, al-Muʿallimī engages with claims regarding the acquisition of extraordinary phenomena (khawāriq al-ʿādāt) and examines confirmed human psychic faculties, including the evil eye (al-ʿayn), mesmerism/hypnotism (al-tanwīm al-maghnāṭīsī), and healing through legitimate Islamic incantations (ruqyah) .
Al-Muʿallimī draws distinctions between different types of extraordinary occurrences, clarifying where magic (siḥr) and prestidigitation (shaʿbadhah) are conflated with saintly miracles (karāmāt) and prophetic miracles (muʿjizāt) . He denounces the claim that prohibited psychic powers are akin to saintly miracles—clarifying that, although forbidden, they still occur only by divine will—and refutes those who claim that the miracles of the prophets stem from acquired psychic faculties . He also responds to skeptics who doubt the reality of magic and karāmāt, those who permit Sufi worship practices, and those who practice magic under the pretext of harming disbelievers .
In his analysis of ascetic disciplines (riyāḍāt), al-Muʿallimī critiques excessive practices such as extreme hunger, prolonged sleep deprivation, and abstaining from animal meat, citing the disapproval of the Companions and early predecessors (Salaf) of such contrived stringency . He traces the historical development and gradual deviations of these exercises, observing parallels between Sufi and Hindu devotions and explaining how the influx of foreign sciences—from the Greeks, Hindus, and others—in the 3rd century AH coincided with the rise of esoteric ideas (Batiniyya) and Sufi notions . He further discusses demonic deception of the senses and intellects (siḥr al-abṣār wa-al-admighah), noting that most accounts of supernatural unveilings (mukāshafāt) attributed to the Followers (Tabi'un) were inventions of popular storytellers (quṣṣāṣ) .
Text and Publication
The title Mā Waqaʿ li-Baʿḍ al-Muslimīn min al-Riyāḍah al-Ṣūfiyyah wa-al-Ghulūw Fīhā was written on the cover page of the surviving manuscript, though it is uncertain whether it was given by al-Muʿallimī himself or by a cataloger . The text suffers from an omission of undetermined length at its beginning . It spans 46 pages and was published as the seventh treatise within a compilation of ten theological treatises in the sixth volume of Āthār al-Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yaḥyā al-Muʿallimī al-Yamānī .
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