Someone said to him:

“What, then, of the hadith of the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

‘​I came out through the gate of Paradise, and the scales were brought to me. I was placed in one pan and my community in the other, and I outweighed my community. Then Abū Bakr was placed where I had been, and he outweighed my community. Then ʿUmar was placed where Abū Bakr had been, and he outweighed my community’?”

He replied:

“This is the weighing of deeds, not the weighing of what lies in hearts. Where are you being led, you non-Arabs? This is nothing but the dullness of your understanding!

“Do you not see that he says, ‘I came out through the gate of Paradise’? Paradise is for deeds, whereas ranks are for hearts. The weighing concerns deeds, not what lies in hearts: the scales cannot contain what lies in hearts.”

He also said in the book:

“Then, when Allah took His Prophet in death, He placed among them forty men of consummate truthfulness, through whom the earth is sustained. They are his household and his family. Whenever one of them dies, another succeeds him and takes his place. Then, when their number is exhausted and the time comes for this world to pass away, Allah will send a saint whom He has chosen and selected, brought near and drawn close. He will give him what He has given the saints and distinguish him with the seal of sainthood, so that he will be Allah’s proof against all the other saints on the Day of Resurrection.

“That seal—the authenticity of sainthood—will be found with him, just as the authenticity of prophethood was found with Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Destiny has not touched it, nor has the soul found a way to claim its share of sainthood. When the saints come forth on the Day of Resurrection and are granted true sainthood and servitude, thousands will be found with this one who has brought sainthood to its full completion. Thus he will be Allah’s proof against them and against all the other affirmers of His oneness after them