For instance, Afifuddin al-Tilimsani explicitly said that the whole Quran is polytheism. And the great Persian Sufi Abu Sa'id Ibn Abil-Khayr declared:
"Not until every mosque beneath the sun
Lies ruined will our holy work be done;
And never will true Musalman appear
Till faith and Infidelity are one."
Today the challenge which many preachers of Sufism have posed to Islam is even more serious. Baba Garibh Shah, the famous Sufi Master of Piran-e-Kaliyar, said in an interview: "There is nothing in Shariah (Islamic law). It is empty. It is devoid of reality. From it you cannot even gather the real meaning of tawhid (oneness of God). It is our tariqah (Sufi path) which tells you that tawhid means, apart from God nothing exists." It is for this reason that Baba does not offer salat (Islamic prayer). Says he, "There is no difference between the Creator and the created. If I pray it would amount to affirming the difference between Lord and servant. It would be shirk (to worship others along with God)...In my opinion Iblis (Satan) was a better Muslim. In refusing to bow to Adam he demonstrated that God, Adam and he were not different from one another. They were One and from the same essence."
It is to be noted that in the opinion of Baba Garibh Shah the annual pilgrimage or the world conference of the Muslims at Mecca is not Hajj, it is the urs of Adam, the first Sufi. Says he, "The Sufis go to Mecca to participate in the annual urs of Pir-o-Murshid Adam. He is buried in the Kaaba. We go there for ziyarat and not to perform Hajj."
Not only this, the entire Sufi ideology is different from the Muslim theology. If it is not wholly anti- or un-Islamic.
Still, the Sufis claim to have inherited their doctrines directly from the teachings of the last Messenger, Muhammad, who, strictly speaking, has given no dogmatic or mystical theology.
Sufism has often been described as Islamic mysticism, Shahid A. Chaudhary challenges this definition of Sufism. He explores both Islam and Sufism (nay mysticism) in the light of the Quran and says that Sufism and Islam are two entirely different thoughts and this fact should be accepted as such.