The hawatif (calling voices)

Hawatif (voices) are sounds heard without a visible body. Al-Masudi notes that they were numerous among the Arabs, and most frequent in the days of the Prophet's birth and the beginning of his mission. ²

Al-Masudi transmits that people disputed about them. One group held that they come from solitude in the wilderness and isolation in the valleys. When a person is alone he reflects, and when he is afraid false suspicions and melancholy enter him, so that he imagines voices and figures, as happens to those afflicted with obsessive thoughts. ²

This is what al-Masudi transmits from that group. What is not recorded here: the explanations of other schools. It needs a further source.