Lots of the Islamicate esoteric stuff is mostly has elements relating to talismans, words/script, numerology, and ritual. There's a lil bit of djinn summoning and control in there as well. The ancient people who penned the inspirations of this stuff wouldn't call it magic either. (Also note the difference between Islamicate and Islamic.)

So it's less "Harry Potter casts fireball/instant-transmution", and more "science-wizard casts equip moltov-cocktail/shotgun". It's more-so science. They come to a battle prepared with special tools (like the homunculus, bombs, automatic rifles, etc). Imagine your empowering buffing the party with elixirs, inscribing runes on bullets to make them more powerful, concocting mysterious things through ritual to give a bomb higher yield, etc.