Moreover, the title “Seal of Allah’s close servants” has come to denote an imaginary rank with no reality. Various groups have claimed it for themselves or their shaykhs, and more than one person has laid claim to it. Yet none has claimed it except those whose words contain falsehoods that neither the Jews nor the Christians have uttered. Thus, the author of al-Fusūs claimed it, followed by the writer on letters, a shaykh among their followers who lived in Damascus, and another who claimed that he was the Mahdī who would marry his daughter to Jesus son of Mary, and that he was the Seal of Allah’s close servants. These people and others like them claim things that belong to Allah alone, just as one of them may claim for himself or his shaykh what the Christians have claimed for the Messiah.

The author of al-Fusūs and others like him then based their position on the premise that a close servant of Allah receives from Allah without an intermediary, whereas a prophet receives through the intermediary of an angel. For this reason, they regard the Seal of Allah’s close servants as superior in this respect. This is false and a lie. A close servant of Allah receives from Allah only through the Messenger sent to him. If he is someone who receives divine inspiration and something has been imparted to him, he must weigh it against the Book and Sunnah brought by the Messenger.

Allah speaks to His servants in three ways: from behind a veil, as He spoke to Moses; by sending a messenger, as He sent angels to the prophets; and through inspiration, in which a close servant of Allah has a share. As for the first two forms, they are exclusive to the prophets. Thus, Allah’s close servants, for whom the messengers have established the proof, receive knowledge of religion only through the mediation of Allah’s messengers sent to them—even if that mediation consists only in submitting it to what the Messenger brought