for them to bear fruit only once a year; the restoration of sight to one who had gone blind; and other marvels that will be mentioned later, in addition to the supplications already cited.

It is well known that when Allah makes a person’s prayers consistently answered, this can only occur alongside that person’s righteousness and sound faith. Whoever claims prophethood will—if truthful—belong to the most upright of humankind, and—if lying—to the most corrupt. Now, if Allah has habituated a man to answered prayers, he cannot be depraved; rather, he must be virtuous. When nothing accompanies a claim to prophethood but such proven virtue, it necessarily follows that the claimant is a true prophet: he could neither deliberately fabricate lies nor be so misguided as to imagine himself a prophet and the being who visits him an angel while he is in error.

As for one to whom a devil comes, that is the state of someone ignorant of his own condition and of the condition of the visitor. No one is more astray or more ignorant than such a person. Allah the Exalted has established between angels and devils, between genuine prophets and the impostors who imitate them, distinctions so numerous that only He can count them. Indeed, the differences He has placed between the righteous and the wicked are greater than those between night and day. Everything the prophets bring—be it information or commands—stands in total opposition to what the devil brings. Whoever studies the lives of the messengers and their followers, and compares them with the conduct of soothsayers and sorcerers, will see this truth with unmistakable clarity.