As a result, many people do not know what powers sorcerers and soothsayers possess or what wonders devils perform, and they suppose that such things occur only through a righteous man. Someone through whom these phenomena appear therefore imagines them to be miracles granted to the righteous, reinforcing his conviction that his path is the path of Allah’s friends. Others likewise think this of him. They then say, “Once someone becomes a friend of Allah, no objection may be raised against him.”

Some of them see such a man violating what is known beyond doubt to be part of the Messenger’s religion: abandoning the obligatory prayers; consuming vile substances such as wine, hashish, carrion and the like; committing indecent acts; engaging in obscenity and vulgarity in speech; wronging people; killing without right; and associating partners with Allah. Yet they still believe him to be one of Allah’s friends, to whom Allah Most High has graciously granted these miracles without any deeds on his part. They do not know that these are the works of devils and come from the devils’ allies, and that devils use them to mislead people and lead them astray.

Devils have become involved in various forms of this. Sometimes they come to a person in a dream, and one of them says, “I am Abū Bakr al-Siddīq. I shall lead you in repentance to me and become your shaykh, and you shall lead others in repentance to me.” He puts a head covering on the man, who wakes with it on his head. The man has no doubt that it was al-Siddīq who came to him, not knowing that it was a devil. Things like this have happened to several shaykhs in Iraq, al-Jazīra and Syria.

Sometimes a devil cuts a man’s hair while he is asleep, and he wakes to find his hair cut. At other times, he says, “I am Shaykh so-and-so,” and the man has no doubt that the shaykh himself came to him and cut his hair.