that very mental representation, fashioned in proportion to the belief they hold about Allah, Exalted is He.
Many of them have Satan appear to them and say, “I am your Lord.” They converse with him and imagine him to be their Lord, whereas he is nothing but Satan.
Some of them see a throne radiating light, or behold what they think are angels—yet they are devils, and that too is Satan.
Many of these people think themselves superior to the prophets, claiming that they enter into the presence of Allah without permission, unlike the prophets. In truth, the “deity” they think they have reached is Satan himself. Those to whom Satan does not appear in person address the image that resides in their own hearts; that conceptual form then “answers” them, and they presume it is speaking to them, imagining that this is the speech of the True One.
This is like a man who remembers one of his companions: he pictures him in his heart and then speaks to that image as someone who reproaches or excuses himself, imagining a dialogue with it and saying, “I said such-and-such to you, and you said such-and-such to me.” Yet the real person neither speaks to him nor hears his words; it is nothing but the imagined figure—just as someone might sketch a human likeness and speak to it, supposing that he is conversing with the one depicted.
The Christians are even more deeply enmeshed in this than others, for they address the carved images in their churches—images of Mary, the Messiah, and the saints—and they say, “It is only…"