of the heavenly spheres or natural forces. They say:
When a person loves a righteous man who has died, especially if he visits his grave, his spirit becomes connected to the spirit of the deceased. Whatever emanates upon that disembodied spirit from what they regard as the active intellect or the celestial soul also emanates upon the spirit of the visitor seeking intercession, without Allah knowing anything of this. Indeed, even the spirit whose intercession is sought may be unaware of it. They liken this to the sun: when a mirror faces it, sunlight falls upon the mirror; when another mirror faces the first, light passes from the first mirror to the second. If a wall or water faces that mirror, its reflected light falls upon it. This is their conception of intercession, and this is how, according to them, the visitor benefits.
The forms of disbelief contained in this view are plain to anyone who reflects upon it. There is no doubt that the presence of devils at idols, their speech and their activities are among the causes of humanity’s misguidance. Turning graves into idols was the beginning of shirk. Thus, at graves, some people hear speech, see a figure or witness extraordinary activity that they suppose comes from the deceased, though it may come from jinn and devils. For example, a person may see the grave split open and the deceased emerge, speak to him and embrace him. Such things are witnessed at the graves of prophets and others, but it is only a devil. A devil can assume human forms, and one of them claims to be Prophet So-and-so or Shaykh So-and-so, lying in doing so.
There are very many incidents of this kind, more than can be recounted here. An ignorant person supposes that the figure he saw emerge from the grave and embrace or speak to him was the person buried there—a prophet, a righteous person or someone else. A believer of great stature, however, knows that it is a devil. This becomes clear through several things: