from your Lord’s bounty.” He, glorified be He, grants authority and wealth to the righteous and the wicked alike. One of these people may therefore be granted powers of influence, whether to subdue his enemy or support his ally, just as kings are granted such powers. He may also be granted some disclosure of hidden matters, either through information conveyed to him by some jinn—whether or not he knows that they are jinn—or by other means.

One of these people may say, “I receive from Allah, while others receive from Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.” His own state in this regard and what sets him apart lead him to see that the powers of influence and disclosures granted to him come through a path other than that of Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. In this he speaks the truth. Yet these things are, in reality, a source of ruin for him.

For if someone acts without the command of the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and takes what the Messenger has not permitted him; appoints and dismisses, gives and withholds without the Messenger’s command; kills and strikes without his command; honours and humiliates without his command; and receives an inward address containing commands and prohibitions, believing that Allah has commanded and forbidden him without the Messenger’s mediation—then this entire state of his comes from Satan. It is Satan who commands and forbids him: Satan commands him, and he acts, imagining that he is acting by Allah’s command.

By my life, he does act by Allah’s command governing creation and destiny, through the intermediary of Satan’s command, as Allah Most High says concerning sorcerers:

“They cannot harm anyone through it except by Allah’s permission.”

Likewise, the believer acts by Allah’s command governing creation and destiny, but through the intermediary of the command of the Messenger, who conveys it to him from Allah, Mighty and Majestic.