angels. If they are unknown to him, he says, “These are men of the unseen.” If they identify themselves, saying, “This is al-Khidr, this is Elijah, this is Abū Bakr and this is ‘Umar, and this is Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qādir, Shaykh ‘Adī, or Shaykh Ahmad al-Rifā‘ī,” or someone else, he assumes that this is indeed the case. Here, the error is not in what he saw, but in his judgment: he failed to recognize that these were devils appearing in the forms of those people.

Many such people suppose that the Prophet himself—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—or another prophet or righteous person comes to them while they are awake. Some see such a figure at the grave of the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—or of a shaykh. They truthfully report that the figure claimed to be the Prophet or the shaykh, or that someone identified it to them as such; their error, however, lies in believing those claims.

A person endowed with reason and knowledge knows that this is not the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Sometimes he recognizes this from the conduct of these figures that contradicts the revealed Law, such as their ordering him to do something contrary to the commands of Allah and His Messenger. Sometimes he knows that the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—never came to any of his Companions while they were awake after his death, nor did he address them from his grave, and asks, “How, then, could this happen to me?” At other times, he knows that the deceased has not risen from his grave, and that his soul is in Paradise and does not come into this world in this manner.

This happens frequently to many of these people, and they call that form the raqīqa of