for them. But if the shaykh is someone with no grounding in the Sacred Law, the devil relates the supplicants’ words to him and relays his answers back to them. The callers therefore imagine that the shaykh heard their voices from a distance and replied from a distance, when in reality Satan is the intermediary.

One of the shaykhs who had experienced this kind of unveiling and direct address once said:

“The jinn show me something glittering, like water or glass, and within it they project whatever I am asked to disclose. I then inform the people of it. They also convey to me the speech of any of my followers who seeks my help; I answer him, and they deliver my reply back to him.”

Satanic ploys

Many shaykhs who witnessed numerous such marvels were accused by those unfamiliar with them and told, “You do this by sleight of hand, just as some people walk through fire by using talc stone, bitter-orange peels, frog oil, and other natural tricks.” The shaykhs would be astonished and say, “By Allah, we know nothing of these tricks.”

When an informed scholar told them, “You are truthful in that—you really do not use such devices—but these states are satanic,” they admitted it. Those whom Allah enabled to repent did so once the truth became clear. From various signs they realized that these feats came from Satan and recognized them as the work of devils, for they occurred in conjunction with innovations condemned by the Sacred Law and acts of disobedience to Allah; they never appeared alongside the acts of worship loved by Allah and His Messenger.