the unlettered Arabs to the exclusion of the People of the Book; for the latter believed in some parts of revelation and rejected other parts, and thereby fell into unbelief.

Faith of the Saints: The Inward and the Outward

In the same way, anyone who says, “Muhammad was sent only with outward knowledge and not with inward knowledge,” has accepted some of what he brought and denied the rest. Such a person is a disbeliever—and even more unbelieving than those earlier communities—because inward knowledge, the knowledge of the heart’s faith, its recognitions, and its spiritual states, comprises the inner realities of belief; this is more exalted than mere awareness of Islam’s visible practices.

The Disbelief of Those Who Claim that Muhammad, peace be upon him, Knew Only the Outward While the Saints Know the Inward

If someone alleges that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, knew only these outward matters and not the realities of faith, and that he himself does not derive those realities from the Quran and the Sunnah, he is claiming that part of what he believes came through the Messenger while another part did not. Such a stance is worse than the one who openly says, “I believe in some and disbelieve in some,” without pretending that the portion he accepts is the lesser of the two.

Muhammad’s Sainthood Is Absolutely Unmatched

These heretical freethinkers assert that sainthood (walāyah) is superior to prophethood, thereby misleading people. They say, “His sainthood is greater than his prophethood,” and they recite:

The station of prophethood lies in an isthmus—
Above the messenger yet beneath the saint.

Then they add, “We share with him in his sainthood, which is greater than…"