It is mentioned clearly in Hadith Qudsi, that, due to Ibaadat, the Awliya get close to ALLAH so much that ALLAH becomes their ear through which they hear, their eye through which they see, their tongue through which they speak, their hand through which they act, their feet through which they walk, etc
From this we learn, that when Allah becomes, for e.g, the Wali's ear through which he hears, so the Wali starts hearing from far and long distance. And likewise for eyes, tongue, etc.
EXAMPLE ONE
Iron does Not burn. Put the iron into fire. What happens? The iron submits itself to the fire. The iron makes its all attributes "fana" into the fire. Then what happens? The fire take the iron into its possession. The iron becomes red. The attributes of the fire start manifesting through the iron. I repeat, the attributes of the fire start manifesting through the iron. I repeat again, the attributes of the fire start manifesting through the iron. Now even the iron will burn like the fire.
Just like this, a man surrender himself to Allah. The man loses himself in Allah. The man becomes Fana in Allah. The man loses all his attributes in Allah. What happens? Allah takes possession of this man. The ATTRIBUTES of ALLAH start manifesting through this man. I repeat, the ATTRIBUTES of ALLAH start manifesting through this man. Just like fire and iron. So, Allah listens , sees, can help from long distance. When these attributes of Allah start manifesting through that man, even that man sees from far, even he helps from far, even he listens from far.
~Attribute of fire is to burn. Iron does not burn. But when iron submitted itself to fire, even iron started burning.
~ Allah has many Attributes. Some of them, He listens (ALL), He sees (ALL), He has power over ALL. So when man submits himself to Allah, Attributes of Allah start manifesting through that man, even that man sees (from far, how far Allah knows),even that man hears (from how far, Allah knows), even that man helps (from how far, with what strength Allah knows).
EXAMPLE TWO
A man is possessed by Jinn. Observe. The Jinn talks with the mouth of the man. The Jinn sees through the eyes of the man. The Jinn moves through the body of the man. How? When Jinn came into him, he submitted himself to the Jinn. So the Jinn desactivated the man's attributes, and started manifesting its own attributes through that man. So Jinn is talking, through that man's tongue. Jinn is seeing through that man's eyes etc etc
So Mawlana Rumi (rahmatullahi 'alayh) said. Jinn has so much capacity that it manifests itself so much through man. Man submitted himself to jinn and so much of this happened. Now imagine if that man had submitted himself to Allah, what would happen?? The Attributes of Allah start manifesting through that person. So, when the person talks, Allah talk through his tongue, when that man sees, Allah sees through his eyes, that man helps his mureed from long distance. He sees from long distance, he hears from long distance etc, because Allah's Hearing , Seeing, Helping, etc is without limit, and everywhere
When Hazrat 'Ali ('alayhis salaam) lifted the door of khaybar, later 40 men were needed to lift it. It was so heavy that 40 men was needed to lift it. so they asked Hazrat 'Ali ('alayhis salaam) how he lifted it alone. He replied that, he lifted it with the Power of Allah, not his own power.
Then, you see Ghaws e Paak (radi Allahu 'anhu) sitting in Baghdad and helping a ship from getting drown in sea, which was in another country.
There many thousands of examples like this from the lives of Prophets (peace be upon them), Sahabah (radi Allahu 'anhum), Sufis & Awliya (may Allah be pleased with them)
Taken from Hadhrat Mawlana Shafi Okarvi (rahmatullahi 'alayh)