And whoever imagines that, when he sees a person in his sleep, that person’s very essence has actually entered him is only exposing his own ignorance. The one who is seen is often alive and wholly unaware of the dreamer; neither his soul nor his body perceives anything at all. So one must not suppose that the man’s soul has taken on his bodily form for the sleeper; rather, what is projected into the dreamer’s mind is an image that matches him, while his body and soul remain where they are.

A vision may come from Allah, in which case it is true, or it may come from Satan, for the sound hadiths divide dreams into these two categories. Just as Satan can take on a person’s likeness in a dream, he can also do so while people are awake, so that many actually see him; by this he leads astray those who lack knowledge and faith. The same occurs with many of the polytheists of India and elsewhere: when one of their dead dies, they later see him returning to pay debts, restore deposits, and inform them about matters concerning their deceased. In reality it is only a devil assuming his form. He may even appear in the guise of a righteous person they venerate and say, “I am so-and-so,” while he is nothing but a devil.

At times a shaykh will rise and leave, and in his place there remains a figure in his exact likeness, which they call “the shaykh’s spirit-double, his companion.” Yet it is merely a jinni that has assumed his form—and this