For that reason, in their eyes prophethood became something that can be acquired, and many of them—early and late—set out to make themselves prophets. Some even imagined that they were prophets who could lay down a new code that would abrogate the laws of the earlier messengers, just as occurred with the leaders of the Ismāʿīlī Bāṭinīs and the like. The portion of prophethood they acknowledge—indeed, even what is higher than it—can, in fact, be attained by individual persons who possess both intellectual and practical excellence. Yet those endowed with knowledge and with faith in the messengers know that their standing in relation to the prophets is like the standing of those who receive a true dream in relation to the prophets, for a true dream is one part out of forty-six parts of prophethood, as is established in the sound collections from the Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace). Likewise, it is related in the Sunan that he said: “Sound guidance, a dignified bearing, and moderation constitute one part out of twenty-five parts of prophethood.” And it is authentically reported in the two Ṣaḥīḥs that he said: “Faith consists of more than seventy—or more than sixty—branches: the highest of them is the declaration ‘There is no god but Allah,’ the lowest of them is removing something harmful from the road, and modesty is a branch of faith.”