Shaykh Hammūd al-Tuwayjirī [d. 1413 AH] said:

Some of the scholars have mentioned that a man from among the students of knowledge in Madīnah went out with the jamāʿah al-tablīgh to Hanākiyah. The leader of this group was one of the heads of the jamāʿah al-tablīgh.

During the night, this student saw one of the [tablīghiyyīn] from India jumping whilst exclaiming ‘هُوَ هُوَ هُوَ [him, him, him]’¹. So he [the student of knowledge] tried to stop him which caused [the tablīghī] to leave what he was doing and remain silent.

In the morning, the student of knowledge told the leader of the group what this Indian tablīgī had done, thinking that he would object to this action. Instead, this group leader objected to the student of knowledge reprimanding this tablīgī. He said, with deep anger [to the student of knowledge], ‘You have become a Wahhābī! By Allāh, if I had the power, I would burn the books of Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn al-Qayyim, and Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb. I would not leave a single copy of those books for anyone on the face of the earth!’

So the student of knowledge separated himself from them upon hearing such ugly speech from their leader. He also recognised the enmity they hold for the leaders of knowledge and guidance from the people of tawḥīd and defenders of the Sunnah. He realised their relentless fight against their books that comprise tawḥīd, calling to it, and sincerely directing all forms of worship to Allāh alone, and forbidding shirk, innovation, nonsensical acts, and every kind of misguidance and objectionable act and warning against these things and from those who engage in them.

In this story there is the most critical of cautions to anyone with an intellect from joining the ranks of the jamāʿah al-tablīgh. [It should caution] from ever being tricked by them and all they claim from false visions, miracles, and [clairvoyant] dreams. For these are the actionable clauses they base their entire group around, and these are the hunting tools they use to ensnare the feebleminded, kidnapping them from the circle of the sunnah and its sciences to the circle of ṣūfiyyah, and all types of innovation, acts of misguidance and ignorance. They have already managed to trick students from some schools and institutions causing them to go out with them on their excursions, leaving their pursuit of the [true] knowledge of the sharīʿah. They have been instrumental in their preferring ignorance and false desires over knowledge and guidance. If they only knew what they were abandoning! What a tremendous loss!

Endnotes:

[1] A common sūfī practice of performing what they term dhikr. They claim to shorten the shahādah in this way to increase the amount of dhikr, and according to them if Allāh should take their life while they are saying the full shahādah, it would be as if they testified that there is no God. So they shorten it to prevent this.

Source: Al-Qawl al-Balīgh: 44-45
Translated by: Riyāḍ al-Kanadī