come to an end, whereas closeness to Allah never comes to an end. Thus the messengers, in their capacity as Allah’s close servants, perceive what we have mentioned only through the lamp-niche of the Seal of Allah’s close servants. What, then, of those close servants who are neither prophets nor messengers?”

This is because they could not posit a prophet and messenger after the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, for that would be manifest disbelief. They therefore claimed that only legislative prophethood and messengership come to an end. They mean that prophethood and messengership of realization—which, according to them, constitute closeness to Allah—have not come to an end. According to them, this closeness to Allah is superior to prophethood and messengership. Hence Ibn ʿArabī said elsewhere:

“The station of prophethood lies between:
just above the messenger, below Allah’s close servant.”

He also said in al-Fusūs (The Bezels), in the chapter concerning Uzayr:

“If you hear someone among the people of Allah Most High say—or it is reported to you that he said—‘Closeness to Allah is higher than prophethood,’ the speaker means only what we have mentioned. Or he may say, ‘Allah’s close servant is above the prophet and messenger.’ By this he means these qualities within a single person: the messenger, peace be upon him, is more complete in his capacity as Allah’s close servant than in his capacity as a prophet and messenger. He does not mean that a close servant who follows him is higher than he is, for a follower can never equal the one he follows in that in which he follows him. If he equalled him, he would no longer be his follower.”

When this point is examined closely, they say that the Prophet’s closeness to Allah is above his prophethood, and that his prophethood is above his messengership, because through his closeness to Allah he receives from Allah. They then claim for themselves a closeness to Allah like his, and hold that the closeness of the Seal of Allah’s close servants is greater than his, and that the messenger’s closeness to Allah is subordinate to that of the Seal of Allah’s close servants whom they have posited.