—a brazen falsehood that contains nothing of the true tokens of the righteous.

In the same way, the people of heterodoxy who have altered the religion of Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—adopt a form of worship that neither Allah nor His Messenger ever prescribed. They elevate it into a path to Allah and may even prefer it to the path that Allah and His Messenger laid down.

A case in point is their choosing to listen to tambourines and reed-pipes instead of listening to the Book of Allah, Exalted is He. One of them may then be seized by a demonic rapture and passion; the devil envelopes him and speaks through his tongue with words the man himself does not recognize once he comes to, just as a jinn speaks through the tongue of an epileptic. He may even disclose to someone present what that person was harboring in his own mind, yet all of this is from the devil; when the devil departs, the man has no idea what he has said.

Some of these people are carried aloft by the devil, who raises them before the eyes of the assembly into mid-air.

Others merely point at someone in the gathering and that person dies, falls ill, or becomes stiff like a piece of wood.

Still others point at a person present, whereupon the devil possesses him and his reason departs, leaving him wandering about for a long time against his will.