Imam Muhammad Al-Baqir (as) narrates from the Prophet of Allah (S), This is a firm and decisive Faith! Scale its heights, but calmly! Don't put excessive weight of prayer on your bodies! Don't be like a rider who tires his animal by travelling more than it possibly can! It may fail to reach you to your destination! Satan has misguided some of our people and made them abstain from meat and other delicacies. Such abstention is against the Jurisprudence (Shariah).
People have started calling such abstention tasawwuf or mysticism. They abstain from food and sit in a cave for forty days in thought of their Pir (the master). Since their physical and mental capabilities become dull due to abstention from food, they start getting hallucinations. They keep strengthening the thought of the master in their minds and this hallucination gets better of their rational thoughts. When they emerge from their seclusion (Chilla kashi) and show their condition to the Pir, he says that the previous night he had been to the Firmament five times and they don't feel any need for confirmation.
The Prophet of Allah (S) has said, A person who offers prayers every morning with a pure heart, Allah will give him access to knowledge and wisdom!
Every transgressor (Bidati) and the person who spreads canards about the Prophet (S) and his Holy Progeny (as) will be accursed. Every action of a person should be in the way of Allah. If a person, unwittingly, perpetuates an innovation (bidat) with the conviction that he has done it in the way of Allah, he will be a transgressor (Aasi). Allah dislikes such persons.
Remember that Chilla Kashi is contrary to the dictates of Allah. And is an innovation. Can it be termed as a prayer if someone practices wrestling for forty days! Definitely not! This Chilla Kashi is contrary to the tradition of the Prophet (S) quoted above about offering prayers every morning for forty days. This act of penance of the persons is a bidat according to the other tradition quoted.
After knowing the norms of sincerity of prayer, one will understand the futility and difficulty of the forty days' Chilla, which, in fact, is a sheer waste and ignorant activity. One should apply his mind to differentiate between a scholar who perpetuates knowledge and learning about Allah and the other who sinks his followers in the abyss of ignorance. Sufian Suri and Ibad Basri were persons who kept objecting to the Infallible Imams (as) and creating doubts in the faith of the people.
source : www.imamreza.net
