PROPHETHOOD AND SAINTHOOD
An erratic concept prevalent for quite a long time among the then mystics was that sainthood occupies a place more exalted and sublime than Prophethood: the saints being always attracted to divine perfection severed all relationship with the world and sentient beings around them while the prophet’s mission being to propagate and expound the revealed truth, the latter had, very often, to remain in contact with their fellow beings.
And, since, the fellowship of God was a task more consecrated than the fellowship of human beings, the saints held a more elevated and hallowed place than the Prophets did.
Some other mystics, however, made a distinction between the two states of prophets when they were absorbed in Divine propinquity and when they were busy disseminating the divine message among their fellow beings, and thereby concluded that the prophets in their former occupation enjoyed a higher position than when they performed the function of their ministry.
Even this view signified an inferior position of prophethood and its mission by assigning a more exalted status to the engrossment in Divine Being, the chief pursuit of saints.
Thus, however interpreted, this blasphemous proposition was derogatory to prophethood and involved impairment of that exalted office besides paving the way to agnostic and irreligious way of thinking.
With characteristic vividness and vigour of his writings and discourses, Makhdoom Sharafuddin (1263–1380 CE) set in to give the reply to the nonconformist belief of the mystics and established through his clear and logical reasoning that the prophethood, in all its states and stages, was infinitely higher than sainthood.
He demonstrated that the shortest span of prophetic existence, a single breath of any prophet, was decidedly more blessed and sacred than a whole life-time spent in the state of saintliness. The arguments brought forth by Makhdoom to clinch his point were drawn more from the higher reaches of his ecstatic illuminations than cold and logical formulations of discursive reason.
Makhdoom writes in reply to a letter wherein Qazi Shamsuddin had sought a clarification in regard to the position of prophethood.
“Shamsuddin, my dear brother, you ought to know that there is a consensus of opinion among all the mystics treading the path of spirituality that the saints, in all states and stations, are subordinate to the prophets who are always superior to the saints. What is incumbent on the saints to translate into action is guidance vouchsafed by the apostles of God.
All the prophets are saints, but no saint can claim the honour of being a prophet.
There is not the least difference of opinion in this regard among the doctors of divinity bearing allegiance to the way of Ahl-i-Sunnat Wal-Jamaát (the followers of the Holy Qurán and the Holy Prophet). A sect among the renegades, however, claims that the saints surpass the prophets on the ground that that the latter are ever engrossed in effulgence of the Transcendent Being while the prophets are busy ever and anon in the pursuit of their mission of preaching the message of God to the human beings.
Thus, they argue that a man who is totally effaced and lost in beholding the Beauty of the Lord takes precedence over one who seldom engages his mind in contemplating the presence of God. Another group which venerates the saints and claims to be their followers goes even further to assert that the saints are higher up than the prophets for the reason that former are initiated into the divine mysteries whereas the latter have access only to the knowledge revealed to them.
They infer from it that the saints are acquainted with the secrets not known to the prophets. They avouch that the saints have intuitive knowledge not possessed by the prophets…
They draw this interference from the story of Hazrat Musa (Moses) and Hazrat Khizr (peace be upon them) and assert that Khizr was a saint and Musa a Prophet, who got revelations from the Lord. The latter was unable to fathom the secret of any mysterious event unless a revelation descended from on high. But, Khizr the saint, endowed with intuitive knowledge could immediately plumb the secret of every mystery in as much as Hazrat Musa had to submit himself as a disciple of Hazrat Khizr.
This, they say, clearly proves their point, for, a disciple is always an underlining of the mentor…but one should never lose sight of the fact that all the precursors of righteous path of religion, on whom reliance can be placed, have vehemently protested against such sacrilegious creeds and ideas.
They have never accepted this profane doctrine that any saint can ever excel or even be a match to a prophet of God. As for the story of Hazrat Musa and Hazrat Khizr, the latter was granted a momentary primacy by virtue of his intuitive knowledge on a particular occasion while Moses enjoyed an enduring paramountcy and as you know, abiding supremacy cannot be overshadowed by a passing pre-eminence.
Take Mariam (Mary), for instance, who was granted a temporary ascendancy over other women because of the birth of her child without being touched by a man, but this temporary advantage could not eclipse the perdurable superiority of Ayesha and Fatima and their illimitable supremacy over all women for all times to come.
Hark ye! My brother, the entire life spent in litanies and prayers, transports and illuminations by all saints of all times shall come short of a step taken by a prophet.
What saints endeavor to achieve through penance and devotion, flight of spirit and diving into the treasure of Divine mysteries; that knowledge is attained by the prophets straightaway. They are charged with the responsibilities of their apostolic ministry after being illuminated by the lamp of sanctity and that is the reason why they are able to awaken the zeal of God in thousands of their followers.
Hence, a breath of the prophets outweighs the entire life of saints. The saints are able to cast off their humanly veil and speak of the secrets of spiritual existence only after attaining the highest degree of sanctity but they still remain under the shadow of the weakness human flesh is heir to; but the prophets, on the other hand, find the secrets of nature unveiled before them on the very first step of ministry.
The last lap of the saints is the starting point of the prophets or, to be truthful, even the destination of saints cannot compare with the outstart of the prophets.
Once, someone asked Khwaja Bayezid al-Bistami: ‘What do you say about the life of the prophets?’
‘Heaven forbid!’ he replied, ‘We can never gain entrance in their realm.’
The way the stations and stages of sainthood remain hidden from the eye of uninitiated masses, the exalted reaches of prophethood are beyond the imaginative flight of the saints. Prophets take to strides while saints stroll: one rides the skies while the other creeps on the earth.
In clarity and purity of spirit, virtue and sanctity, the entire bodily frame of the prophets is like the head and heart of the saints, intoxicated with the love of God. There is thus a great difference between men who have found entrance to the place which, for others, is the goal of their hearts’ yearning.”
(Letter No.20)
(excerpt from ‘The Way of the Sufis: A Journey into the lives of three Saints of Islam’)