29.) Are
Sufi saints to be considered equal to, if not better than, the Prophets who were concerned
largely with exoteric rituals and litanies?
Decidedly
not. Although all Prophets have the quality of being an awliya or friend of Allah, not all
those who are awliya of Allah are Prophets.
In effect,
this means there are different levels of saints. According to the shaykhs of the Sufi way,
no non-prophetic saint can match or exceed the potential for spiritual ascension of those
saints who also are Prophets.
Outwardly,
despite being given the responsibility of ministering to a range of spiritual needs,
Prophets often appeared to be concerned with exoteric matters. This was the case because
the largest part of their community tended to be more preoccupied with these sorts of
issues, to the extent such people were interested in such things at all.
Although
Allah had granted the Prophets the highest forms of spiritual ascension possible, the
Prophets had come back from those spiritual heights to act as ‘ordinary' people in
the world in order to assist, minister to, encourage, support, and care for people who
were, for the most part, worried about, and preoccupied with, a host of everyday problems
and struggles. In short, the Prophets chose servanthood, and, by the grace of Allah, this
enabled them to teach the way of servanthood, and its many levels and dimensions, to the
entire spectrum of spiritual capacities which resided in their spiritual communities.
Non-prophetic
saints have never been faced with such responsibilities. And, this is just one of many
reasons why Prophets are spiritually far superior to even the greatest of non-prophetic
saints and servants of God.
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