Ahl al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah fī Naqd Kalām Ahl al-Shī‘ah wa-l-Qadariyyah”.

In short, the Sunni and Shia groups agree that the best member of this community after its Prophet is one of the caliphs. No one who comes after the Companions can be superior to the Companions. The best of Allah Most High’s close friends are those who have the greatest knowledge of what the Messenger—may Allah Most High bless him and grant him peace—brought and follow him most faithfully. Such were the Companions, whose knowledge of his religion and adherence to it were the most complete in this community. Abū Bakr al-Siddīq possessed the most complete knowledge of what he brought and put it into practice most fully. He is therefore the best of Allah’s close friends, since Muhammad’s community—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—is the best of all communities, its best members are Muhammad’s Companions, and the best of them is Abū Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him.

Some people have mistakenly supposed that the “Seal of Allah’s Close Friends” is the best of them, drawing an analogy with the Seal of the Prophets. None of the early spiritual masters spoke of the Seal of Allah’s Close Friends except Muhammad ibn Alī al-Hakīm al-Tirmidhī, who wrote a work in which he made errors in several places. Later, a number of people emerged, each claiming to be the Seal of Allah’s Close Friends. Some of them claim that the Seal of Allah’s Close Friends surpasses the Seal of the Prophets in knowledge of Allah, and that the prophets acquire their knowledge of Allah through him. Such is the claim of Ibn Arabī, the author of al-Futūhāt al-Makkiyyah and al-Fusūs. He thus contradicted both revealed law and reason, as well as all the prophets and close friends of Allah Most High. It is as one would say to someone who declared, “The roof fell upon them from beneath them”: “Neither reason nor Quran!”