The Sunnite Religion Contained the Sufi Religion to face the Shiite Religion

Was published in Arabic in August 06 , 2006]

Translated by Ahmed Fathy

Introduction:

1- The followers of the Sunnite religion insist that the so-called hadiths are, as a whole, part of Islam. They attribute these hadiths falsely to Prophet Muhammad, though these sayings have been fabricated after his death. They claim as well that these sayings are divine revelation to the Prophet! We, the Quranists, refuse such scandalous, shameful falsehoods; Islam is a whole unit in the Quranic text. Anything additional is not needed beside the Quran, because whatever it is, it is human-made thought, not divine guidance. Yet, the Sunnites insist that this human-made thought is divinely revealed to the Prophet. The Quranists refute this claim and insist that the Sunnite creed is a human-made religion revealed by Satan, full of nothing but lies that goes against Islam. Islam is the Quran alone and nothing more. Human-made fabricated creeds have a beginning, but have no end or any boundary at all; Satan and his followers among human beings urge people to lie and be unfaithful to God and His messengers and prophets by attributing to them false sayings and notions. This Satanic revelation is an on-going industry under the banner of the so-called Sunnite, Shiite, and Sufi religions and until recently the Baha'i religion and other creeds that might come after it. However, the Sunnite creed is the oldest human-made fabricated religion among Muslims. Sunna is not part of Islam. The Sunnite creed is still present in utmost power and authority due to its relation with the ruling systems past and present. The Sunnite creed has emerged alongside with ruling powers in the 8^th century A.D. and managed to grow within them until this very moment. That is why the so-called Islamists struggle to ascend to power in all countries. All extremists aspire to power through the Sunnite creed. That is why extremists persecute Baha'is in Egypt; they want to control the religious arena exclusively to control all Muslims.

2- Negating, excluding, and trying to annihilate the other has been the most recurring experiences in the history of the emergence and continuation of the Sunnite religion. This weird religion that is opposed to real Islam (the Quran) has urged its followers to negate, exclude, and destroy any burgeoning creed especially if its followers are weak. This is the Sunnite policy in dealing with Baha'ism in Egypt. In history, if the Sunnite creed could not wipe out any other religion opposed to it, it follows another policy: containment and control. That is why the Sunnite creed is still on-going to this very moment everywhere, controlling severely all the activities and realities of life of Muslims in Egypt, especially in the struggle between the Sunnite creed and its historical arch-enemy: the Shiite creed.

Let us leaf through some quick historical facts that summarize tens of pages of the history of Muslim Arabs.

1- War was waged between the Umayyad Dynasty and the Shiite who claimed that the caliphate should be for the descendants of their mortal deity: Ali Ibn Abou Talib. This struggle, apart from the military level, had an intellectual level too. Both sides, the Sunnite Umayyads and the Shiite renegades, began to fabricate sayings (hadiths) and attribute them to Prophet Muhammad, as a means of political propaganda. Abou Hurayrah was famous for his taking the side of the Umayyads and his fabrication of hadiths to elevate the stature of Mu'aweiya and his descendants, the Umayyads, and other hadiths to detract the stature of Ali Ibn Abou Talib. At the time, Abdullah Ibn Abbas was an opponent of Abou Hurayrah and defended the descendants of Ali Ibn Abou Talib against the Umayyads and the followers of Abdullah Ibn Al-Zubair. Naturally, the followers of the descendants of Ali Ibn Abou Talib fabricated their own line of hadiths to elevate that stature of Ali Ibn Abou Talib and his descendants. Fabrications of hadiths led to the accumulation of oral tradition attributed falsely to Prophet Muhammad. These hadiths have been written down during the Abbasid caliphate, with increased sayings of every sort to support the Abbasid Dynasty. These accumulated, ever-increasing hadiths came to be known later on as the Sunna; thus the Sunnite creed has emerged. 

2- The Shiite conspiracies and secret machinations succeeded in destroying the Umayyad caliphate in 132 A.H. The Abbasids were the real agents behind the fall of the Umayyad caliphate. The Abbasids made use of the Shiite forces and then forsake them. The enmity between the Abbasid Dynasty and the Shiite creed followers grew fierce during the revolt of Muhammad Al-Nafs Al-Zakeyya, and after his death and his Shiite followers' imprisonment in 145 A.H., the military conflict between the Abbasids and the Shiites continued in Al-Hejaz area in Arabia. Other Shiite revolts ensued, such as the battle of Al-Fakh, and were crushed by the Abbasid caliph Al-Hadi in 169 A.H.  Two survivors of the massacre of Al-Fakh continued the struggle against the Abbasids. One of them was Yahiya Ibn Abdullah who fled to the Daylam area (now in modern Iran) and led the revolt in Middle Asia. He was deceived by the Abbasid caliph Harun Al-Rashid by granting him a false promise of amnesty, and then Al-Rashid imprisoned and killed him. The second survivor was Idris Ibn Abdullah who fled to Egypt in 172 A.H. and then to Morocco. Al-Rashid sent someone who poisoned him in 177 A.H. But the slave-women of Idris Ibn Abdullah bore his child who was named after his father and was sworn allegiance by his father's followers as the new caliph. The Idris Dynasty was established in Morocco. Other Shiite revolts occurred everywhere. The Idris Dynasty was the precursor of the rise of the Shiite Fatimid caliphate in Tunisia first, and later on in morocco, Egypt, and parts of the Levant and Iraq, in the 4^th century A.H.

3- During the revolts and wars between the Abbasids and the Shiites in North Africa and Middle Asia, the fabrication of hadiths on both sides was widespread and everywhere by everyone. The Abbasids revived the name of Abou Hurayrah – two centuries after his death – to attribute hadiths to him and to Prophet Muhammad. Abou Hurayrah became the most prominent narrator in the Sunnite creed. The Abbasids did the same with their great grandfather Abdullah Ibn Abbas. Yet, both men did not accompany Prophet Muhammad most of the time. The Abbasids claimed that their grandfather was the most knowledgeable person in matters of Islam! In the early Abbasid era, the imams of Fiqh emerged, such as Abou Haneefa (died 150 A.H.), Malik (died 179 A.H.), Al-Awza'i (died 181 A.H.), and Al-Shafei (died 204 A.H.). Any imams that held religious and/or political opinions that differed from the Abbasid point of view were persecuted. This happened to Malik and Al-Shafei. Some imams were imprisoned and killed such as Abou Haneefa. The Abbasids then bribed his two disciples Abou Yusuf and Abou Hassan, and subsequently both men served the Abbasid Dynasty and created a Fiqh school of thought subservient to the Abbasids, ignoring the history of Abou Haneefa, their teacher, who was independent and suffered for it. The Abbasids took special care to write down the so-called hadiths to face the Shiite hadiths. Shiites began writing down their fabricated hadiths as well. The volumes and tomes of the Sunnite and Shiite hadiths have been influenced by the cultural climate that has been widened by translating the heritages of the oriental countries and the Greeks.                                  

4- The Shiite cunning persons were so clever in infiltrating their hadiths and agents in the Sunnite ever-increasing tomes. This is a long subject to tackle here. Their cleverness was manifested in creating new doctrines, movements, and groups that apparently could not be identified as belonging to the Shiite lines of thought. Some of these groups broke away from Shiite creed having gathered thousands of followers. Among the most prominent groups or movements that emerged and later on broke away from Shiite creeds were Sufism and Al-Mu'tazala.

5- Al-Mu'tazala movement burgeoned from the Shiite creed and opposed the Umayyads. Its name means those who departed from the mainstream line of thought dominant in society, religion, and caliphate. By the way, the "deniers" as an epithet was attributed to the Shiites by the Sunnites especially in the Mameluke era in Egypt after the reign of the Abbasids. Both terms, Al-Mu'tazala and the deniers, reveal the perspective of the dominant widespread Sunnite creed in viewing their opponents in religion. Abou Haneefa in the late years of the Umayyad Dynasty used to be an imam of Al-Mu'tazala, and he opposed the notion of hadiths: that is why he was an intellectual opponent of Abbasid imams, especially Al-Awza'i. In the Abbasid era, Muslim Arabs turned to the translated works of Oriental and Greek philosophies. Famous long-forgotten philosophic schools were revived. Al-Mu'tazala were influenced by such cultural ambiance and hence their parting from the Shiite creed. They loved philosophy and tried to create reconciliation between philosophy and religion. Their reverence to the human mind led them to shun the gravest sin committed by the Sunnites, Shiites, and Sufis; Al-Mu'tazala did not attribute their thought and opinions neither to God nor to Prophet Muhammad. They did not consider their views as divine revelation. Al-Mu'tazala did the right thing, even if some of their ideas were wrong. Al-Mu'tazala remained "Muslims" in the true sense of the word, whereas the Sunnite, Shiite, and Sufi creeds have been purely human-made fabrications unrelated to God. Yet, each of these three creeds claims to be the representative of the true Islam! They insisted that their lies are divinely revealed holy notions! The Abbasid caliph Al-Ma'moon (198 – 218 A.H.) favored Al-Mu'tazala and tolerated the Shiites despite his being a Sunnite, because he liked philosophy and reasoning, hence the rise of Al-Mu'tazala as a full-fledged and developed movement in his era. They exerted great influence in the life and reign of this caliph. Al-Mu'tazala urged him to persecute Abou Haneefa. Their powerful influence on the Abbasid Dynasty continued until the reign of the caliph Al-Motawakil in 232 A.H. that historically marked the beginning of the Second Abbasid Era.

6- Sunnite imams in the First Abbasid Era (132-232 A.H.) opposed fiercely all philosophers, Al-Mu'tazala, and Greek thought. They considered all these lines of thought as blasphemous that led to atheism. During the reigns of the caliphs Al-Ma'moon, Al-Mu'tasim, and Al-Wathiq, Al-Mu'tazala thought was favored, and Al-Wathiq killed and crucified the Sunnite imam Ahmad Ibn Nasr Al-Khozaei. The caliph Al-Motawakil hated Al-Mu'tazala and killed their leader and favored the Sunnite leaders and imams so fanatically that he sent so many Sunnite imams everywhere to spread their line of thought and doctrine. This marked the beginning of the Sunnite dominance that was imposed by force until the present time by all rulers.

The Military Struggle and Propaganda War between the Sunnites and Shiites in the Second Abbasid Era (232-658 A.H.)

1- The Second Abbasid Era witnessed weak caliphs who were controlled by military forces. The Abbasid caliphate became a mere symbol of the Sunnite creed, and the real rulers where military leaders who came from Middle Asia to Baghdad aiming for wealth, power, and authority. The Second Abbasid Era began with the caliph Al-Motawakil (232-247 A.H.). He was the most fanatic Sunnite bigot in the Abbasid history. He disbanded Arab and Persian soldiers form his army and enlisted the military help of the Turkish men only, who controlled later on the following caliphs. The years of Turkish influence continued from 232 to 334 A.H. Bani Buweih controlled and humiliated the Abbasids from 334 to 447 A.H. and they favored the Shiites. Then came the Seljuks (329 – 552 A.H.) who were Sunnite fanatics, and they persecuted Christian pilgrims coming from Europe to Jerusalem. Subsequently, European fanatics called for the so-called crusades that invades and established kingdoms in Syria, Iraq, and Asia Minor and defeated the Seljuks. Meanwhile, the Abbasid Dynasty was so weak and fragmented that it never took part in the struggle against crusaders. This struggle was overtaken by other successive dependent Sunnite monarchies that swore allegiance to the Abbasids at the same time. The Abbasid caliphate came to an end, and its power was bequeathed to new leaders who served it. The Atebeg Dynasty ruled in the capitals of the Levant and Iraq after the demise of the Seljuk Dynasty. Emad-Eddine Zinki in Mosul, Iraq, became famous in his victories over the crusaders. He used to be a military leader serving the Seljuk monarch Muhammad Ibn Malek Shah. Zinki established the State of Bani Zinki, and was succeeded by his son Nur-Eddine Zinki in the struggle against crusaders. Among the military leaders who served Nur-Eddine Zinki, the Ayyubids became prominent. Among the Ayyubids, Saladin came forth as a fierce, clever leader who later on established the Ayyubid Dynasty that ruled after the demise of the Zinki Dynasty. The Ayyubids conquered Egypt and crushed its Fatimid Dynasty. The Mamelukes ruled Egypt after the demise of the Ayyubids who were crushed by the Mamelukes. The Mamelukes continued the struggle against crusaders, who were vanquished by the Mamelukes later on in the Levant. The crusaders' presence in the Levant came to an end once and for all.

2- The Abbasid Era came to an end after the fall of Baghdad in 658 A.H. in the beginning of the Mameluke Era in Egypt. The Ayyubids ruled Egypt, the Levant, Iraq, Yemen, and Hejaz while swearing allegiance to the Abbasids. The Mamelukes established their monarchy in 648 A.H. under the leadership of the Queen Shagaret Al-Dor. The last Abbasid caliph refused to acknowledge a female ruler. Within ten years, Hulago crushed the Abbasid caliphate in 648 A.H. Al-Dhaher Beibars, one of the Mamelukes who ruled Egypt, retained the name of the Abbasid rule in Cairo so as to make the remaining Abbasid family members at the service of the Mamelukes to add the guise of legitimacy over the Mamelukes' rule. This went on till the Mamelukes were crushed and defeated by the Ottomans in 921 A.H. the Ottoman Sultan Selim coerced the last living member of the Abbasid Dynasty to move to the Ottoman capital and surrender the caliphate to the Ottomans. The Ottoman Empire and caliphate was annulled by Turkey in 1924 A.D.

The Shiite rule in the Second Abbasid Era:

1- In the First Abbasid Era, the Shiites established the Idris Dynasty in North Africa. The Abbasids established the rule of the Aghlabids in Tunisia to stop the Shiite expansionist ambitions and to protect Egypt. In the Second Abbasid Era, two independent rules came into being in Egypt within allegiance to the Abbasids: the Tulunid Dynasty (254 – 292 A.H.) and the Ikhshidid Dynasty (323 – 334 A.H.). During the Ikhshidid rule in Egypt and the Levant, the Shiite Fatimids managed to establish their caliphate in Tunisia in 296 A.H. through the endeavor of the leader Obeidillah Al-Mahdi. When the Ikhshidid rule deteriorated in Egypt, the Fatimids conquered Egypt easily and made it the center of their caliphate. They established the city of Cairo and the Azhar Mosque in 358 A.H. / 972 A.D. the religious and political struggle between the Shiite and the Sunnite creeds took a new turn with the emergence of the Fatimid rule in Egypt and the Levant. The Fatimids took parts in Iraq as well as in Baghdad itself. The Fatimids persecuted any Sunnite subjects within their reach. Crucifixion and other violent deaths were in store for anyone who declared Sunnite sympathies and practices. This is narrated by Al-Maqrizi in his volumes of history. Later on came weak Fatimid rulers, who were controlled by their ministers and viziers. Ironically, it became hard to believe that Fatimid rulers were deified and at the same time weak before their ministers. The Fatimids were weakened by their political and military conflict with the Sunnites and the crusaders. Saladin ended the Fatimid dynasty and established the Ayyubid Dynasty in Egypt and the Levant (567 – 648 A.H.). Before the fall of the Fatimids, they created the biggest element of destruction that terrorized people for 150 years. This element was the Assassins group in Alamut Fortress in the Caspian area.  The leader of the Assassins Al-Hassan Al-Sabah was in Egypt when the Fatimid caliph Al-Moustansir died in 487 A.H. the minister Al-Afdal interfered to make the second son of the late caliph succeed his father instead of the first-born son as per the Shiite traditions. This created a schism in the Fatimids who were divided into two warring factions. Al-Hassan Al-Sabah left Egypt and seized Alamut Fortress by his cunning methods. He trained a group of young men to be assassins and to be sent to suicide missions for money. Al-Hassan Al-Sabah used to send his men to assassinate his enemies among caliphs, leaders, sultans, ministers, imams, and even crusaders. The Assassins went on spreading terror among Arabs and crusaders until they were all killed by Hulago in his way to Baghdad. We are told in history annals that Saladin once woke up to find a dagger on his pillow from the Assassins to warn him against their wrath. Due to their fame, the word ''ASSASSINATION'' came into the European languages by the crusaders. Saladin had to intellectually face Shiite creed after destroying the Fatimid dynasty politically. All dynasties came eventually to an end, but the Sunnite Sufism created by Saladin, who died in 589 A.H., is still alive as the religion followed by most Muslims, under the guise of Islam.

How the Sunnite creed contained the Sufi creed?

The above-mentioned historical background clears our vision to imagine the political arena in which the Sunnite Sufism was created and spread. Historical events in this region of the world are related to the struggle between the Sunnite, Shiite, and Sufi creeds.

1- During the reign of the Abbasid caliph Al-Motawakil, the Turkish leaders controlled the Abbasid Era from 232 to 334 A.H., and allowed the power of the followers of Ibn Hanbal, the most fanatic Sunnite faction, to rise. The followers of Ibn Hanbal controlled the everyday life and persecuted Al-Mu'tazala and any other opponents. They persecuted the Sunnite imam/historian Al-Tabari for holding different views, especially that he used to say that Ibn Hanbal was not an imam. The followers of Ibn Hanbal killed Al-Tabari by destroying his house while he was inside it. He died under the debris. The followers of Ibn Hanbal stopped his receiving proper burial in a Muslim graveyard, and he was buried in the place of his house in 310. The Abbasids could not save the man from such persecution. The followers of Ibn Hanbal persecuted many people from Al-Mo'tazala until they disappeared totally as people of a line of thought. At the same time, liars of imams increased exponentially; i.e., those who lie to God and attribute to Him and to Prophet Muhammad so many lies and falsehoods. Their lies were recorded in countless tomes and volumes. They insisted that fabricated sayings, hadiths, were part of the divine revelation to the Prophet of Islam. This crime and falsehood was perpetuated by Sunnite imams such as Ibn Hanbal, Al-Bukhari, Abou Dawood, Al-Tirmithei, Al-Nisaaei, and Ibn Maja. All these men became inviolable and infallible deities in the Sunnite creed. Anyone who would criticize, and not revere, them is excluded from Islam as an apostate or an atheist! Denying Sunnite hadiths is akin to apostasy! Ibn Hanbal was not a fiqh imam; he collected and wrote down hadiths. He even did not classify those hadith as done by Al-Bukhari among others. He never wrote fiqh books. Yet, the power and influence of the followers of Ibn Hanbal made him a gran imam with a fiqh school of his own that still is prevalent among the Sunnites.

2- The reasoning philosophical Al-Mo'tazala group vanished, and the Sunnite imams had to face the Sufi creed that came up from the sleeves of the Shiites. Maarouf Al-Karkhi was a Christian man converted to the Shiite religion. He was the very first man to talk of Sufism in these early days. Al-Motawakil was the first caliph to persecute and imprison the founding fathers of Sufism in Iraq (e.g., Al-Guineid) and Egypt (e.g., Tha-Alnoon the Egyptian) after the death of Maarouf Al-Karkhi. The Abbasids made use of the opportunity of Qarmatian revolts against them to imprison and kill the Sufi man Al-Halaj in 309 A.H. under the pretext that he was a Qarmatian. This violent clampdown on Sufism made Al-Guineid disappear and teach Sunnite fiqh and ordered his followers not to read his Sufi books.  Historians assert that he preached Sufism indoors and in secret. At the same time, the Abbasids destroyed the Shiite shrine of Al-Hussein in Karbala in Iraq and persecuted the Shiites, Christians, and Jews and made them to wear clothes according to a certain dress code.  This persecutions continued by the successors of the caliph Al-Motawakil.

3- The Abbasids paid the price soon enough; Bani Buweih the Shiite group controlled and persecuted the Abbasid Dynasty later on from 334 to 447 A.H., though they ruled through their name. Bani Buweih hated and persecuted the Sunnite creed followers, but no Sunnite imams emerged at the time to continue the legacy of their mortal deities like Al-Bukhari. Thus, the Shiites controlled North Africa and conquered Egypt in 358 A.H. and created a Shiite center to spread the Shiite creed, Al-Azhar Mosque. The Fatimid rule took over the Levant as well effortlessly, previously controlled by the Abbasids. Bani Buweih in Baghdad and the Fatimids in Egypt and the Levant persecuted the Sunnite creed followers everywhere. Sufism made use of that and it spread under the guise of the Shiite creed, and it widened its scope on both the philosophical and intellectual levels as well as on the popular side.

4- The Sunnites became lucky when the Seljuks who followed the Sunnite creed in a zealot, fanatic manner came to rule the Levant (329 – 552 A.H.). The Sufi creed grew stronger and could not be defeated or crushed. The Sunnite rulers and imams endeavored to contain it.

5- At the time, Al-Qushirei (376 – 465 A.H.) tried to advocate the so-called ''moderate'' Sufism. He wrote a famous book as the apology for Sufism and attacked the grassroots of Sufism. He gained the favor of rulers and lessened the influence of the fanatic followers of Ibn Hanbal. He persuaded everyone that any Sufi is a Sunnite as well, likewise said by Al-Guineid. Al-Qushirei attacked the notion of the personification of God in a human form as well as the Sufi notion of overlooking religious practices and sex rites. Ironically, he defended the same notions he attacked in other parts of his book in an indirect manner and defended late Sufi men who sanctioned these notions. Al-Qushirei served as an example for other Sufis to attack overtly what they propagate in secret. This is done by Al-Ghazaly the most prominent Sufi imam in the Seljuk Era in his volumes titled: "The Revival of Religious Branches of Knowledge". He mixed Sufi and Sunnite notions. Books of Al-Ghazaly dominated the Azharite thought during the Ottoman Era in Egypt.

6- In the Seljuk Era, Al-Ghazaly favored Sufism notions over Sunnite Fiqh ones. He used to resort to Greek philosophical notions, especially advocated by Plato, and he hates Aristotle, who was revered by Al-Mo'tazala. Al-Ghazaly advocated the notion of stopping the faculty of reasoning and that everyone should resort to tomes and volumes of the ancestors. He was lenient in his attack of certain Sufi heretic notions. Al-Ghazaly defended his opinions in other books, and eventually his endeavors made Sufism acceptable within certain boundaries, with total rejection of certain extremist Sufi notions deemed heretical by the Sunnites. Al-Ghazaly set an example that was followed by all Sunnite imams who gave him the epithet "the Most Learned Scholar of Islam". It was as if Prophet Muhammad left us nothing for five centuries until the advent of Al-Ghazaly! Prophet Muhammad left us the Quran, the divine word of God. This basic fact was totally forgotten by the Sunnites. Al-Ghazaly propagated what came to be called later on the Sunnite Sufism. Sufism, in fact, became a hybrid creed that combined some Shiite and Sunnite notions ant the same time. Rulers needed Sunnite Sufism to face Shiites and other groups like the Assassins who were the first to use the brainwash techniques with their followers. After such brainwash, a follower of the Assassins could easily commit suicide when ordered by his leader! 

7- Accordingly, Saladin's role came as an important phase. He died in 589 A.H. there were two mysterious aspects in his character in the struggle between Shiites and Sunnites. Firstly: he was the first to face intellectually the ideology of a certain group, not just to crush it politically and militarily. He sponsored a certain creed to crush opponents. Saladin's successors never followed his example. For example, Muhammad Ali Pacha crushed the first Saudi Kingdom in 1818 A.D. by the Egyptian army, but let the Wahabi creed grow and spread. Wahabism allowed the creation of the second and third – current – Saudi kingdom. Nasser in Egypt imprisoned the MB terrorist group – created by Great Britain and the Wahabi KSA – yet, he let Wahabism spread in Egypt under the guise of Islam in all institutions of Egypt. This led to more MB influence during the rule of Sadat. The terrorist MB group controlled the religious mentality of Egyptians in the 1970s, 198os, and 1990s, for political aims. All these military leaders, even the American military men, never imitated Saladin in his shrewdness, though he was a military man like them. Secondly: Saladin sometimes tolerated and treated crusaders in a lenient manner in his wars. He used to release thousands of crusaders who were taken as POWs. He gave the crusaders many opportunities to wage more wars against him. Yet, he never tolerated fanatic Shiites or Sufis. When Cairo was built by the Fatimids, they built Al-Azhar Mosque to spread the Shiite creed. Saladin closed down Al-Azhar and created another center to spread the Sufi Sunnite hybrid creed. He imported Sufi Sunnite imams and gave them wages to attract the Egyptian masses away from the Shiite creed and to propagate the Sufi Sunnite creed. He never liked Sufism, and in 587 A.H., he killed the famous fanatic Sufi man Al-Sahrawardi. But Saladin had an aim; the hybrid creed mixing Sufism and the Sunnite creed served him to intellectually face his enemies: the Shiites and the fanatic followers of Ibn Hanbal.

8- After the death of Saladin, the new hybrid religion was imposed under the pretext of combining "sharia and truth" i.e., fiqh doctrines of the Sunnites and notions of Sufism. The Sunnites had to tolerate the reverence, worship, and deification of ''moderate'' Sufi sheikhs and their supposed miracles. Others deified, revered, and worshipped the so-called descendants of the Prophet Muhammad as well as his companions.

9- The Mamelukes Era in Egypt was famous for widespread worship of shrines that contained, and sometimes not, dead men and women who were made holy and were deified as saints, whether they visited Egypt or not.  Shrines became popular trade that brought loads of money to so many beneficiaries. Even Sunnite imams visited these shrines!

9- The dominance of the hybrid Sufi-Sunnite creed did not stop the struggle between the Sunnites and the Sufis for power in the Mameluke and Ottoman eras. That is why Baha'ism has been attacked by the Sunnite people in Egypt urrently. This calls for another article on the subject.