It should also be understood that miraculous gifts may be granted according to a person’s need. If someone whose faith is weak, or who is in need, requires them, he may receive what strengthens his faith and meets his need. Someone whose closeness to Allah is more complete may have no need of them, and so receive nothing of this kind because of his higher rank and his lack of need—not because of any deficiency in his closeness to Allah. For this reason, such occurrences were more frequent among the Successors than among the Companions. This differs from the case of those through whom extraordinary events occur to guide people and meet their needs: these people are of greater rank.

This is unlike satanic states, such as the case of ‘Abd Allāh ibn Sayyād, who appeared during the Prophet’s lifetime, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Some of the Companions thought that he was the Dajjāl. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, withheld judgment about him until it later became clear to him that he was not the Dajjāl. He was, however, one of the soothsayers. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said to him, “I have concealed something for you.” He replied, “Al-dukh, al-dukh (smoke, smoke).” He had concealed for him Surah al-Dukhān (Smoke). The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, then said to him, “Begone! You will never exceed your station.”

He meant: you are merely one of the brethren of the soothsayers. A soothsayer would have a companion from among the devils who informed him of many unseen matters through what he overheard by stealth. They would mix truth with falsehood, as related in the authentic hadith narrated by al-Bukhārī and others, in which the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“The angels descend into the clouds and mention a matter decreed in heaven. The devils listen by stealth and convey it to the soothsayers, who add a hundred lies of their own to it.”