Shaykh al-Islām—may Allah sanctify his soul—said:

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A group of Sufis discussed the “Seal of the Saints” and magnified his importance. These included al-Hakīm al-Tirmidhī—this was one of his errors, for his statements are generally sound, unlike Ibn Arabī, whose statements contain much confusion, particularly concerning union—as well as Ibn Arabī and others.

Several individuals, including Ibn Arabī, each claimed to be that Seal. A claimant might qualify this by saying that he was the seal of Muhammadan sainthood, or perfect sainthood, or something similar, so as not to entail that Allah would create no saint after him. Sometimes they went to extremes concerning him, as Ibn Arabī did in his Fusūs, making him a source of inward support for the Seal of the Prophets. This followed from their false exaggeration, whereby they may place sainthood above prophethood, agreeing with extremists among the philosophers who may place the perfect philosopher above a prophet.

Likewise, the ignorant among the Qadariyyah, Ahmadiyyah, and Yūnusiyyah may give their shaykh precedence