the aggression of these creatures is greater than that of any fanged beast of prey, and they are fouler and even more strictly forbidden to eat.

As for those who eat them and classify this as one of the “miraculous gifts granted to Allah’s allies,” they are worse than the evildoers who eat them. Such miraculous gifts cannot consist of eating foul things that Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, just as they cannot consist of abandoning religious obligations. Rather, these fraudulent feats performed by these innovators—entering fire, handling snakes, and producing labdanum, sugar, blood, and rosewater—are of two kinds.

The first consists of accomplishing these things through tricks involving natural means: for example, using certain known oils to go and walk through fire, or drinking something that counteracts snake venom. Other examples include grasping a snake by its ‘anqasah so that it cannot harm him, handling a water snake, or removing a snake’s skin and stuffing it with food. How many followers of these people have been killed by snakes! Another example is rubbing one’s skin with dragon’s-blood resin, so that, when one sweats during listening sessions, something resembling blood appears on the skin. All manner of tricks and deceptions are devised for them.

The second kind involves more formidable practitioners. They experience satanic states that come upon them during devilish listening sessions. Devils descend upon them just as they enter the body of a possessed person, and one of them becomes increasingly affected, as does a possessed person. He then comes into direct contact with fire and snakes