though he is a habitual liar.’” He also told him that it was a devil.

Thus, when someone sincerely recites this verse in the presence of satanic states, it dispels them. This applies, for example, to someone who enters fire through a satanic state, or attends a gathering of whistling and clapping, where devils descend upon him and speak through his tongue in words whose meaning is unknown and which may be unintelligible. He may disclose what is in the heart of someone present, or speak in different languages, just as a jinn speaks through the tongue of a possessed person. The person experiencing this state is unaware of it, like someone whom Satan throws into convulsions through his touch, possessing him and speaking through his tongue. When he regains consciousness, he has no awareness of anything he said. Thus, a possessed person may be struck without the blows affecting the human being. On regaining consciousness, he reports that he felt nothing, because the blows fell upon the jinn possessing him.

Among these people are those to whom a devil brings foods, fruits, sweets, and other things unavailable in that place. Others are carried through the air by a jinn to Mecca, Jerusalem, or elsewhere. Some are carried there late on the Day of ‘Arafa and brought back that very night. Such a person does not perform Hajj as prescribed by Islamic law. Rather, he goes in his ordinary clothes, does not enter the consecrated state for pilgrimage when he comes level with the appointed boundary, does not recite the pilgrim’s invocation, does not stop at Muzdalifa, does not circumambulate the House, does not perform the ritual passage between al-Safā and al-Marwa, and does not stone the pillars. Instead, he stands at ‘Arafa in his ordinary clothes and returns that very night. This is not Hajj.

For this reason, one of these people saw the angels recording the pilgrims and asked, “Will you not record me?” They replied, “You are not among the pilgrims”—meaning those performing Hajj as prescribed by Islamic law.