manifest fabrication and blatant falsehood.

Third: extraordinary occurrences they imagined to be signs, though they were satanic phenomena1, and tales told to them about the occupants of graves—for example, that someone sought deliverance from a particular grave during a hardship and was rescued from it; that someone called upon its occupant, or supplicated through him, for a need and it was fulfilled; or that someone suffered an affliction, pinned his hopes on the occupant of a grave, and had his affliction removed. People are naturally eager to have their needs met and their hardships relieved. Through this opening, Satan gained access to their hearts and drew them toward it step by step. First, he made supplication at graves seem appealing to one of them, suggesting that it was more likely to be accepted there than in his home, his mosque, or during the hours before dawn. Once this became firmly established in his mind, Satan moved him to the next stage: from supplicating beside the grave to supplicating through its occupant and adjuring Allah by him. This is graver than what preceded it. Once Satan persuaded him that adjuring Allah by the occupant was a greater expression of veneration and respect for him, and more effective in securing the fulfillment of his need, he moved him to yet another stage: calling upon the occupant himself instead of Allah. Thereafter, he moved him to another stage, until he turned the grave into an idol to which he devoted himself, over which he lit lamps and hung drapes, and upon which he built a mosque. He worshipped it by prostrating before it, circumambulating it, kissing and touching it, making pilgrimage to it, and slaughtering sacrifices beside it2.

It is therefore imperative to beware of Satan and his hosts, to adhere to the path of the believers by devoting every deed sincerely to Allah, Glorious and Exalted, and, in all of this, to follow the noble Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. May Allah make us and you among his followers and guide us to adhere to his Sunnah.