Is Prayer Merely Remembering Allah in the Heart? A False Guide and Prostration at a Grave

Question

The gist of the question is this: in our village lives a certain spiritual guide who says: “What is prayer? A man toils day and night and remembers Allah in his heart — is that not prayer?” Once he made me prostrate at a grave. I swear, tears flowed from my eyes, and inwardly I kept fearing Allah; I am immeasurably ashamed of my mistake. This man is no scholar and no learned person: formerly he lived like a film hero, and now he has become a spiritual guide.

Answer

The spiritual guide whose circumstances you have described is not a guide to right guidance but a guide to misguidance: he diverts people from the path of guidance and leads them astray. His business is not to lead upon the road to Paradise but upon the road to Hell.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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