—if there is anyone of that kind in my community, it is ʿUmar.”

In another narration: “Allah has made the truth flow upon ʿUmar’s tongue and in his heart.”

ʿAlī said, “We used to say that tranquillity (al-sakīnah) speaks through ʿUmar’s tongue.”

Al-Tirmidhī and others relate: “Had I not been sent among you, ʿUmar would have been sent; and if a prophet were to be expected after me, it would have been ʿUmar.”

Yet despite all this, the Siddiq—Abū Bakr—is more complete than he, for the Siddiq perfected his faith by believing the Prophet in everything, taking only from the Prophet, and the Prophet is infallible. The muhaddath, like ʿUmar, sometimes receives into his heart what is inspired to him and then speaks accordingly; but his heart is not protected from error. He must therefore weigh whatever is cast into it against what has come from the Messenger: if it agrees with it, he accepts it; if it conflicts with it, he rejects it. Hence ʿUmar retracted a number of opinions, and the Companions would debate him and cite proofs against him; whenever the proof from the Book and the Sunnah became clear to him, he returned to it and abandoned his own view. The Siddiq, however, receives only from the Messenger, not from his own heart, and thus he is more perfect than the muhaddath. After Abū Bakr there is no Siddiq superior to him, and after ʿUmar there is no muhaddath superior to him.

The criterion of sainthood, according to the gnostics, is strict adherence to the Book and the Sunnah:

Accordingly, the upright, discerning shaykhs—among the masters of Sufism and others—would instruct the people…