so there is no physician for it, no healer to recite over it, save the Beloved who has captivated my heart; with Him alone is my cure and my elixir.

Likewise, the claim that the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—was so overtaken by ecstatic rapture that his mantle slipped from his shoulder is, by consensus of the hadith scholars, a sheer fabrication. Even more patently false is the report some circulate that he tore his garment, whereupon Gabriel took a piece of it and hung it upon the Throne. Such narrations and the like are recognized by scholars acquainted with the hadith corpus and with the Messenger of Allah—peace be upon him—as among the most blatant lies ever attributed to him.

The same judgment applies to what is reported from ʿUmar—may Allah be pleased with him—that he allegedly said, “The Prophet ﷺ and Abū Bakr were talking while I sat between them like an African slave.” This, too, is a forged lie according to the unanimous verdict of the hadith experts.

[Can a friend of Allah be found among Christians and Jews?]

The point under discussion is this: among those who outwardly acknowledge his universal mission are individuals whose inner beliefs contradict that acknowledgment. Such a person is a hypocrite, yet he and those like him still claim to be awliyāʾ (friends of Allah) even though, in their hearts, they reject what the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—brought, whether out of stubbornness or ignorance. Many Christians and Jews likewise believe that they are the friends of Allah and that Muhammad is indeed the Messenger of Allah; yet they contend, “He was sent only to people other than the People of the Scripture, and therefore we are not obliged to follow him, for messengers were sent to us before him.” All of these are unbelievers, despite the fact that within their own circles they imagine themselves to be friends of Allah.