such manifestations occur among disbelievers, polytheists, and the People of the Book, they do not necessarily entail faith, let alone being an ally of Allah, nor are they exclusive to either. They therefore cannot serve as evidence of either. Allah’s allies are the believers who fear Him, and their miraculous gifts are the fruit of their faith and piety, not of polytheism, innovation, or wickedness. The greatest of Allah’s allies use these miraculous gifts only to support the religion or to meet a need of the Muslims. Those who follow a moderate course may use them for permissible purposes. But whoever uses them to assist him in sinful acts wrongs himself and transgresses the limits set by his Lord, even if those gifts arose from faith and piety.

If someone fights the enemy and acquires spoils, then spends them in obedience to Satan, that wealth becomes a source of ruin for him, even though he acquired it through a righteous deed. How much worse, then, when extraordinary feats arise from disbelief, wickedness, and disobedience, and lead to further disbelief, wickedness, and disobedience! This is why the leaders of these people acknowledge that most of them die outside Islam. A fuller discussion of these matters belongs elsewhere.

The point here is that among the greatest causes of the polytheists’ misguidance is what they see or hear at idols: information about something hidden from them, something that brings about the fulfillment of a need, or the like. When one of them sees a grave split open and an impressive-looking sheikh emerge from it, embrace him, or speak to him, he supposes that this is the prophet or sheikh buried there. Yet the grave has not split open; Satan merely made it appear so to him