and a dream arising from one’s own thoughts; and a dream from Satan—what is cast into a person’s mind while awake likewise falls into “three kinds.” Thus spiritual states are also “three”: those from the Most Merciful, those from the self, and those from Satan. Experiences of unveiling and the exercise of powers fall into “three categories”: angelic, arising from the self, and satanic. For an angel has power, the self has power, Satan has power, and the believer’s heart has power.

Whatever comes from an angel or from the believer’s heart is true, while whatever comes from Satan or the whisperings of the self is false. Many groups have confused the two and failed to distinguish between Allah’s allies and His enemies. Indeed, they have come to regard people who resemble the polytheists and the disbelievers among the People of the Book in many respects as being among Allah’s pious allies. This matter is discussed at length elsewhere.

Consequently, some of these people consider it permissible to fight the prophets, while others believe themselves superior to the prophets, along with other notions of this kind. This is because they experienced satanic and self-generated phenomena which they mistook for the miraculous gifts granted to Allah’s allies, and so they imagined