Islam among the Tatars, was very frequent. The more Islam spread among them and they came to understand its true nature, the less influence the devils had among them. If a person is Muslim but chooses indecency and wrongdoing, they assist him in wrongdoing and indecency. This is exceedingly common—more common than the preceding kind—in lands whose inhabitants combine Islam with pre-Islamic ignorance, and righteousness with wickedness.

A shaykh may possess faith and religious devotion, yet have little understanding of the true nature of what Allah sent His Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, to convey. He may know in general that the friends of Allah receive miraculous gifts, without knowing that perfect friendship with Allah consists in faith, mindfulness of Him, and following the Messengers inwardly and outwardly. Or he may know this in general, yet lack sufficient understanding of the realities of inward faith and the outward prescriptions of Islam to distinguish states that come from the Most Merciful from those arising from the self or from devils. Dreams likewise fall into three categories: dreams from Allah; dreams reflecting what a person thinks about while awake and then sees in sleep; and dreams from Satan. The same applies to spiritual states.

If his understanding of the true nature of Muhammad’s religion, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, is limited, the devils instruct him to do something he does not recognize as wrong. Sometimes they carry one of these people through the air, have him stand at ‘Arafāt, and then return him to his own land, still wearing his ordinary clothes. He has not entered the state of pilgrimage consecration upon coming abreast of the prescribed boundary points, uncovered his head, or removed the clothing that a person in that state must remove. Nor do they let him, after standing at ‘Arafāt, perform tawāf al-ifādah (the pilgrimage circumambulation), stone the pillars, and complete his Hajj. Rather, he supposes that merely standing there—as he has done—