are also granted sustenance and victory. He may afflict the believers’ land with drought and cause them to fear their enemy so that they turn back to Him and repent of their sins, thus granting them both forgiveness of sins and relief from distress. He may give the unbelievers respite, send abundant rain upon them, and provide them with wealth and children, drawing them gradually towards ruin without their knowing—either to seize them in this world with the grip of One Almighty, All-Powerful, or to multiply their punishment in the Hereafter. Not every blessing is a mark of honour, nor is every trial a punishment. Allah Most High says:

“As for man, when his Lord tests him by honouring him and bestowing favours upon him, he says, ‘My Lord has honoured me.’”

“But when He tests him by restricting his provision, he says, ‘My Lord has humiliated me.’”

“No indeed!”

Among Allah’s God-fearing friends, His sincere and righteous worshippers, and the prophets He sent, there is none whose body was perpetually hidden from people’s sight. Rather, this is akin to the claims that ʿAlī is in the clouds, that Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah is in the mountains of Radwā, that Muhammad ibn al-Hasan is in the cellar at Samarra, that al-Hākim is on a mountain in Egypt, and that the forty abdāl are the men of the unseen on Mount Lebanon. All this and similar claims are the assertions of liars and fabricators.

Certainly, the ordinary course of things may be suspended for a person, so that he is sometimes hidden from people’s sight, whether to protect him from an enemy or for some other reason. But the claim that he remains this way throughout his life is false. Indeed, the light of his heart, the guidance within it, and what it holds of Allah Most High’s secrets, His trust, His lights and knowledge of Him may be hidden from people’s eyes, and his righteousness and friendship with Allah may remain hidden from