the Yūnusiyyah had apostatized and become unbelievers alongside the other unbelievers.

One of their shaykhs came to see me, admitted his apostasy from Islam, and related many matters to me. When he mentioned how they justified themselves by what had reached them as the Messenger’s instructions, I said to him:

“Suppose that Muslims such as the people of Baghdad had sinned, and that there were a dozen or so prostitutes in Baghdad. The army of unbelieving polytheists who came was worse than those women. Those women committed fornication willingly, whereas those polytheists seized tens of thousands of the Muslims’ free women and concubines against their will, turned them from Islam to unbelief, and openly promoted polytheism, idol worship, Christianity, and veneration of the cross. The Muslims were left subjugated among the polytheists and the People of the Book, while sins were committed on a far greater scale than before. Would Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—command this and approve of it?”

The matter became clear to him, and he said, “No, by Allah!” He also told me about the shaykhs who had apostatized from Islam when the polytheists’ devils forced them to renounce their faith inwardly, tormenting them if they refused. I said, “This happened because of the weakness of their faith, their affirmation of Allah’s oneness, and the support they perceived as coming from the Messenger. Otherwise, devils have no authority over the hearts of those who affirm Allah’s oneness.”

This man and others like him did not believe that these beings were devils. Rather, they believed them to be human “men of the unseen” whom Allah had entrusted with directing affairs. I therefore explained to them that the “men of the unseen” were jinn, as the Most High says:

“And there were men from humankind who sought refuge with men from the jinn, and they increased them in