Reddit reply in r/AcademicQuran: why jews accepted kabbalah while muslims rejected — February 15, 2025 | Ali Shukri Amin

With all due respect professor there's an inaccuracy in this comment.

Ibn Taymiyyah studied in a Sufi tariqah. He writes that he wore the khirqa (Sufi shawl) of Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani. The largest volume in the collected Majmu' al-Fatawa is on Suluk (spirituality). Additionally his most celebrated student ibn al-Qayyim wrote one of the most acclaimed Sufi works which is a commentary on al-Harawi's Manazil al-Sa'irin.

Ibn Taymiyyah had some disputes with scholars who were also Sufi but the majority of the disputes had to do with theological issues rather than issues of Tasawuff. He famously debated the great Maliki Sufi but the content of the debate primarily revolves around the istighatha/tawassul (accused saint worship) rather than any of the lesser issues ibn Taymiyyah criticized other Sufis for such as al-Qushayri.

Ibn Taymiyyah also pre-dates Salafism by a few centuries. An argument can be made that he was a proto-Salafi, but Salafism as a distinct movement doesn't exist until after Mohammad ibn Abd al-Wah'hab (who was agnostic about Sufism rather than anti-Sufi. Anti-Sufism explicitly came out of his students)

The anti-Sufi stance as part of Salafism doesn't really come about until possibly the third Saudi state and even then isn't some agreed upon doctrine of Salafism. Fawzan has famously said that all Sufism is a heresy, but many other Salafi bigshots quote al-Ghazali and respect at least the Sunni Sufis if not the theological Sufis.

Reference:

Ibn Taimīya's al-Ṣūfīyah wa-al-Fuqarāʾ tr. Th. E. Homerin
Al-Zuhd wa al-Wara' wa al-Ibadah by ibn Taymiyyah
Madarij al-Salikin by ibn al-Qayyim (tr. Ovamir Anjum)