necessarily entails combining two contradictory propositions. They say of all created beings what the Christians say of Christ, and thus their views differ just as Christian views concerning Christ differ.

Among their claims is that the Seal of the saints is superior to the Seal of the prophets in certain respects. Neither Abū ‘Abd Allāh al-Hakīm al-Tirmidhī nor any other well-known spiritual master said this. Indeed, his stature was too great and his faith too strong for him to fabricate such blatant unbelief. But he erred by a handspan, and they built upon his error until it became unbelief.

Still worse is their claim that the saints and messengers, in respect of their sainthood, follow the Seal of the saints and draw their light from his lamp-niche. This is false according to both reason and religion: those who come earlier do not receive from those who come later, and the messengers do not receive from others.

Worse still, he made them his followers in knowledge of Allah, the noblest of their sciences. More blatant still, he equated knowledge of Allah with the doctrine of those who profess the unity of existence, who say that the existence of created beings is identical to the existence of the Creator.

Let the believer reflect upon this vile unbelief, step by step.

He cites the incident involving ‘Umar and that of pollinating date palms as evidence that someone other than the Prophet may be superior to him. Would any Muslim say that ‘Umar was superior to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, because of his opinion concerning the captives? Or that farmers skilled in pollinating date palms are superior to the prophets in that respect?

Yet he was not content with this, but went on to say:

“The perfect man need not have preeminence in every science and every rank. Men look only to preeminence in the rank of knowledge of Allah; that is what they seek.”