over the Prophet or any other prophet, and they may even attribute a degree of divinity to their shaykh.

Likewise, some of the Sa‘diyyah place a saint above a prophet. Some of them have said, “Al-Shāfi‘ī is followed as an authority, but Abū Bakr and ‘Umar are not.” The same applies to the extremists among the Rāfidah, who may claim that the imam inwardly sustained the Prophet, just as they may regard him as a god.

As for exaggerating the status of a saint who is not a prophet until he is placed above a prophet—whether he is called a saint, an imam, or a philosopher—and their expectation of the awaited one, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan or Ismā‘īl ibn Ja‘far, which parallels the Sufis’ attachment to the Ghawth and the Seal of the Saints: the falsity of all this is evident from the known texts of the Quran and Sunnah and the consensus of the ummah. Allah has divided those whom He has blessed into four groups: the prophets, the utterly truthful, the martyrs, and the righteous. The highest rank anyone below a prophet can attain is that of the utterly truthful, just as the best of this ummah after its Prophet was a man of consummate truthfulness.

This was also the highest rank attained by Mary, as stated in His words:

“The Messiah, son of Mary, was no more than a messenger; messengers had passed away before him. His mother was a woman of truth.”

I used this as evidence for the consensus reported by a number of scholars—including al-Qādī Abū Ya‘lā and others of our school, Abū al-Ma‘ālī, and, I believe, al-Bāqillānī—that she was not a prophetess. They cited this consensus to establish the miraculous gifts of the saints through what took place at her hands. Some people had claimed that she was a prophetess, so I cited this verse, and the person I was addressing was delighted with this argument. For Allah mentioned this to explain the utmost extent of her excellence and to counter the Christians’ exaggeration concerning her, just as