How sound is the saying: "You are in need of a Shaykh, one who knows Allah, to guide you to Allah"?

If what is meant is the need of a student of knowledge for a scholar to guide him, this is true; for scholars are the inheritors of the Prophets, and they are the most knowledgeable of the paths leading to Allah, and benefiting from them is better and further from error, as Allah Almighty says: "So ask the people of the Reminder if you do not know." However, it is not obligatory to imitate a specific scholar.

But if what is meant is that a person cannot be guided to the knowledge of Allah except through a shaykh, or that the seeker must follow a shaykh like a dead person in the hands of the washer, or that a seeker of guidance must adhere to a shaykh who claims sainthood even if he is ignorant or an innovator, then this is false; for the knowledge of Allah is an innate matter, and guidance does not depend on the existence of a shaykh, and Allah has not granted anyone other than the Prophets the status of being obeyed without disobedience. And the masters of the Sufi orders and those who claim sainthood, there is no good in following them; because their knowledge is not regulated by the Quran and Sunnah. All salvation lies in knowing the Sunnah, following it, and adhering to its people.