with excellence, as well as by the leading scholars of the ummah and its overwhelming majority. Numerous proofs attest to this, which we have set out in detail in our work Minhāj Ahl al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah, composed to refute the assertions of the Shiʿah and the Qadariyyah.

To summarize: all Sunni and Shiʿi groups agree that the most virtuous member of this community after its Prophet is one of the four Caliphs, and that no one who comes after the Companions can be superior to the Companions themselves.

The foremost of Allah’s friends (awliyāʾ) are those who possess the greatest understanding of what the Messenger brought and who follow it most closely—such as the Companions, who were unequalled in grasping his religion and implementing it. Abu Bakr al-Ṣiddīq excelled everyone in comprehending and practicing the Prophet’s message; therefore he is the greatest of Allah’s friends. The nation of Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—is the best of nations, its best members are Muhammad’s Companions, and the best of them is Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him.

[On the “Seal of the Saints”]

Some mistaken people assumed that the Seal of the Saints is necessarily the greatest of the saints, by analogy with the Seal of the Prophets. None of the early masters ever spoke of a “Seal of the Saints” except Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī, who wrote a treatise in which he erred in several places. Later, certain claimants arose, each alleging that he was the Seal of the Saints; some even maintained that this Seal surpasses the Seal of the Prophets in knowledge of Allah, and that the prophets derive their knowledge of Allah from him.

[The claims of Ibn ʿArabī]

This is precisely what Ibn ʿArabī—author of al-Fatūḥāt al-Makkīyah and Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam—asserted, thereby contradicting both revelation and sound reason, as well as opposing all the prophets.