As for the devil’s allies who pose as saints and toy with the minds of the foolish and the masses, you will see a man wrap an oversized turban around his head, wear sleeves that trail, grow his beard long, and rub his forehead on the ground so that a mark of prostration shows—all of it mere stage-craft meant to deceive. He then enlists the devils for private ends: they may overturn a camel for him, or even lift him into the air so that he appears to fly. Some of them have been spotted on the morning of the first day of ʿArafah, only for the devils to whisk them away until they catch up with the pilgrims at ʿArafah…

This charade has been going on for ages; they have always been manipulating people’s minds. Such individuals are devils in human form. However spectacular their feats, they possess no karāma whatsoever. Scholars have written extensively about true karāmāt and about these humiliations. Among the best works on the subject is The Criterion Between the Allies of the All-Merciful and the Allies of Satan by Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH). In it he records numerous examples of the saints’ karāmāt and many accounts of the enemies’ disgrace.

He relates, for instance, that Musaylima the Liar—who appeared in al-Yamāmah, near Riyadh, claiming to be a prophet—was approached by a group who said, “We have a well whose water has dried up; only a little is left.”