indeed. More than one person I know has told me that they sought my aid and saw me in the air, coming to them and rescuing them from their distress. One had been surrounded by Armenian Christians who intended to seize him. Another had been surrounded by the enemy while carrying confidential letters from well-wishers; had they discovered what he was carrying, they would have killed him. There were other such cases.

I told them that I knew absolutely nothing of what had happened, and swore to this so that they would not suppose I was concealing it as miraculous gifts are concealed. I already knew that what they had done was not prescribed by Islam, but was rather associating partners with Allah and a religious innovation. Later, it became clear to me—and I explained to them—that these were devils assuming the likeness of the person whose aid was sought.

More than one follower of the shaykhs has told me that similar things happened to those who sought their aid. A great many people have related that they sought aid from the living and the dead and witnessed similar things. Such accounts became so widespread that it came to be known that these manifestations were the work of devils.

Devils lead a person astray as far as they can. If he knows nothing of the religion of Islam, they draw him into blatant association of partners with Allah and outright disbelief. They command him not to remember Allah, but to prostrate to the devil and offer sacrifices to him. They also command him to eat carrion and blood and to commit indecent acts.

This happens frequently in lands of outright disbelief, and in lands where disbelief prevails and Islam is weak. It also happens in some Muslim cities, in places whose inhabitants are weak in faith. Indeed, it has occurred in Egypt and Syria in forms that would take a long time to describe. Its occurrence in the lands of the East, before the emergence of