Likewise, one of them may engage in forms of worship contrary to Islamic law, in both belief and practice. These acts of worship and practices produce powerful, overwhelming states in him, causing him to neglect obligations and commit prohibited acts against people’s lives and property more grievous than those committed by a tyrannical king intoxicated with wine.

When someone addresses him while he is sober and in possession of his reason, he says: “I was overpowered. A spiritual impulse came upon me and did this to me, and the spiritual impulse rules.” Such is the condition of many who protect the enemy, and of many among those who experience spiritual states who assist unbelievers and oppressors and commit aggression against Muslims and believers. Such a person says that he was overpowered in this, that a spiritual impulse came upon him and compelled it, and that he was instructed to perform that act.

He should be told:

“As for your loss of reason, to the point that you no longer understand Allah’s commands and prohibitions, and your loss of control, to the point that you are compelled to perform those acts—even if you are truthful about this, it results from your own initial negligence and transgression, which brought you into the condition of the insane and the intoxicated. You are therefore like someone who drinks wine and becomes intoxicated, or someone who exposes himself to passionate love until he falls in love and it wreaks havoc upon him. There is no difference between intoxication through sounds, beautiful forms, and drink: one is intoxication of the body, another intoxication of the soul, and another intoxication of the spirit. If its cause is prohibited, the intoxicated person is not excused in Islam.