a form of freedom from need for the kinds of knowledge, authority, wealth, and sufficiency outwardly granted to people.

Whatever Allah grants His servant of these things, if he uses it to help him do what Allah loves and is pleased with, what brings him nearer to Him and raises his rank, and what Allah and His Messenger command, he thereby gains greater distinction and nearness to Allah and His Messenger, and his rank rises. If, however, he uses it to help him do what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, such as associating partners with Allah, wrongdoing, and acts of indecency, he thereby deserves blame and punishment. Unless Allah Most High comes to his aid by granting him repentance or good deeds that erase sins, he will be like other sinners.

Thus, those who possess extraordinary abilities are often punished: sometimes by being deprived of them, just as a king is deposed from his kingdom or a scholar is stripped of his knowledge; sometimes by being deprived of voluntary acts of worship, descending from a special degree of friendship with Allah to its general degree; sometimes by falling to the rank of the defiantly sinful; and sometimes by apostatizing from Islam. This occurs among those whose extraordinary feats are satanic, for many of them apostatize from Islam. Many do not know that these feats are satanic, but suppose them to be miraculous gifts granted to Allah’s friends. Some of them suppose that when Allah, Mighty and Majestic, grants a servant something beyond the ordinary course of events, He will not hold him accountable for it—just as some suppose that when Allah grants a servant dominion, wealth, and power to act, He will not hold him accountable for these things.

Some use extraordinary abilities to pursue permissible matters that are neither commanded nor forbidden. Such a person belongs to the general body of Allah’s friends: the righteous who follow a middle course. As for the foremost, those brought near to Allah, they rank above these, just as the servant