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The Awliyâ'u-LLâhi About The Friends Or Saints of Allah For the believers' (al-mumin) orientation proofs from the Quran, the hadith and other scriptural sources concerning the wonderful and decisive issue of the Saints or awliyâ' of Allah will be presented. The words walî, plural awliyâ' and walâya are all of quranic origin with the root wly meaning: to be close, to be a friend, to govern. They appear in the Quran in different forms over 200 times. For those in the community (ummah) who
unwittingly deny the science of tasawwuf (spiritual
excellence) or neglect the believer's inner jihâd
(spiritual struggle) restrict the understanding of the 'friends
of Allah' as being 'pious worshippers', which
is what every believer should be anyway. Thus they risk to degrade their rank - at least in the eyes of the uninformed and to diminish their importance for the believers and the whole of the Ummah. It would be useful to start at the beginning:* At first, Allah is the Lord and Protector (walî)
of man; man is the one being tested as he is searching for
meaning in life, for fulfillment and purpose. When the believer
understands and accepts that truth, light and meaning derive
from Allah and His Messenger
In the Holy Quran, Allah says: ALLAH is the Friend (walî) of those who believe; HE brings them out of all kinds of darkness into light...
2-257 Surely those who believed and fled (their homes
, emigrated) and struggled hard in Allah's way with their
property and their souls, and those who gave shelter (asylum)
and helped - these are guardians , allies (awliyâ'u)
of each other ...
8-72 Here is protection (walâyah) only Allah's, the True One; He is best in (the giving of) reward and best in requiting.
18-44 Now surely the friends (awliyâ'u-LLâhi)
of Allah - they shall have no fear nor shall they grieve...
10-62 There is a comment on this last mentioned quranic
verse in the famous hadith (qudsi) where Allah through
the mouth of His Messenger "Allah said, 'I will declare war against him who
shows hostility to a pious worshipper (walî) of Mine. And the most beloved
things with which My slave comes nearer to Me, is what I have enjoined (frD)
upon him; and My slave keeps on coming closer to Me through performing nawâfil (praying or doing extra deeds besides what is obligatory) till I love him, so I become his sense of hearing with which he hears, and his sense of sight with which he sees, and his hand with which he grips, and his leg with which he walks; and if he asks Me, I will give him, and if he asks My protection (Refuge), I will protect him; (i.e. give him My Refuge) and I do not hesitate to do anything as I hesitate to take the soul of the believer, for he hates death, and I hate to disappoint him." Narrated by Abu Huraira in Bukhari, vol8, hadith 509
So it is clear that the awliyâ' are under the loving care and protection of Allah Almighty. They are those who are 'no longer subject to natural appetites, nor to desires of the soul.' SIA40 Freed from the entaglements of the world and their own souls they can devote themselves to their original function. Certainly our Leader and Doctor of hearts, the Messenger
of Allah, Sayyidunâ Muhammad “It has been given to the awliyâ' by Allah in advance to enjoy His dhikr and to have access to His proximity. The life of their body is that of earthly beings and the life of their spirit is that of heavenly beings.” Abu Sa`id al-Kharrâz in Sulami's Tabaqât Abu Nu`aym quotes this saying: “The servants whom God loves best are the pious and
the hidden. When they are away no-one misses them, and when
they are present they are ignored. They are the imâms
of good guidance and the torches of knowledge.” Al-Qushayri defined the walî as: “One whose obedience attains permanence without interference
of sin; whom Allah Most High preserves and guards, in permanent
fashion, from the failures of sin through the power of acts
of obedience.”
In Ibn `Abidin, Rasa'il (2:277) Walâya does not involve spectacular manifestations
and no walî would strive for those either. Far from
it - the awliyâ are concealed
as described in the words of Abû Yazîd al-BisTâmî
in a way that the “saint of Allah has no feature by which he
is distinguised, nor any name by which he can be named.”
SIA36 This also means that walâya is about the appropriation of the divine character (takhalluq). This is possible because man still possesses a shadow of some of Allah's qualities, such as 'life', 'mercy', or 'knowlege'. Walî is also a shared concept as expressedly stated in Sura Al-Ma'idah, the Table Spread (5), verse 55: Certainly, your protecting Friend ( ) is only
Allah and His Messenger and those who believe, those who keep
up prayers and pay the poor-rate while they bow.
5-55 This then is the channel of the believer to his spiritual goal and therefore the direction in which he has to turn when embarking on the greatest of travels, which is the Way towards Allah (tarîq ila -Allah). Analysing the many stations on the Way, R. Baqlî writes about walâya: • The start of the Way is the will [or spiritual desire,
irâdah] and it is accompanied by spiritual battles. • The middle of the Way is love [for Allah alone, mahabbah) and it is accompanied by miraculous graces (karamât). • The end of the Way is gnosis [direct intellectual intuitive knowledge, ma`rifah) and it is accompanied by contemplation (of the divine - mushâhadât). The above mentioned evokes the closeness or proximity between the walî and his rabb (Lord). (“But insofar as walâya applies to Allah, it is also nus.ra, the divine Assistance from which” he benefits and which has been promised. SIA42) Also it is clear that the 'way of knowledge' is not opposed from the 'way of love', they really are merely different aspects in islamic tasawwuf, as every "walî is both a `arif (knower) and a muhibb (lover)." Ibn al-Jawzi said:
“The Friends of Allah and the Righteous are the very purpose of all that exists (al-awliya wa al-salihun hum al-maqsud min al-kawn), they are those who learned and practiced with the reality of knowledge... Those who practice what they know, do with little in the world, seek the next world, remain ready to leave from one to the other with wakeful eyes and good provision, as opposed to those renowned purely for their knowledge.” * quoted from 'The Seal of the Saints; Prophethood and Sainthood in the doctrine of Ibn `Arabi,' Michel Chodkiewicz
to be continued
And Allah Knows Best
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, he will turn away from the distractions of the lower world
(dunyâ), the favours of other than God and will
turn to Allah in everything he intends and does, because: