especially Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. In his prophethood he had no need of anyone else; hence his law required neither a forerunner nor a successor. By contrast, the Messiah referred his people, in most matters of the Law, back to the Torah, after which he himself came and completed it. Therefore the Christians remained dependent on the earlier revelations that preceded Jesus, such as the Torah, the Psalms, and the full corpus of the twenty-four prophetic books. The nations before us likewise depended on God-inspired individuals (muhaddathūn), whereas the community of Muhammad—peace and blessings be upon him—was made self-sufficient through him; they needed neither another prophet beside him nor a muhaddath. Indeed, Allah combined within him the virtues, kinds of knowledge, and righteous deeds that He had distributed among other prophets, so the superiority with which Allah distinguished him came directly from what was revealed and sent to him, without any human intermediary.

This differs in the case of the saints (awliyāʾ). Everyone to whom the message of Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, has reached cannot be a friend of Allah unless he follows Muhammad, and every measure of guidance or true religion he attains is through the mediation of Muhammad. Likewise, whoever has received the message of any prophet cannot be a wali of Allah unless he follows that prophet who was sent to him.

Does a saint have a path that dispenses with Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace?

Whoever claims that among the saints who have received Muhammad’s message there exists someone whose path to Allah does not rely on Muhammad is a disbelieving heretic. And if he says, “I need Muhammad only for outward knowledge, not for inward knowledge—only for the sharīʿah, not for the ḥaqīqah,” he is worse than the Jews and Christians who said, “Muhammad is a messenger to…"