Module 18:

Wali: The Siant

The term ‘saint’ is used as the
translation of Arabic word ‘Wali’ (pl.
Awliya) which Allah used to designate
those who are close to him. But, a more
appropriate translation is “close
friend” because wali literally means an
“ally”. This term has a variety of
meanings, as mentioned in Qur’an:
1.Allah used the word wali for those who are closer to
Him, His close friends

“And Allah is the Walî (Protector and

Helper) of the believers.” (3:68)
“wa-Allahu walliyyul muttaqeen”
Allah is the wali of the righteous
2. Satan is also being used as a wali

ً۟ ‫ُّم ب ِینً۟ا‬
“And whoever takes Shaitân (Satan) as a Walî
(protector or helper) instead of Allah, has surely
suffered a manifest loss.” (4:110)
 It also means ‘close relatives’ 3 َِ ‫ی‬ ِّ ِ ‫فقَ ََ َ َجعَلنَا َ ل ِوََ ِل‬.
َ ‫ى ٱلقتََ َِ ِل‬ ِّ ِ ‫فََ یسَُ َِ ِرف ف‬ َ ً۟ ‫ط ٰـنً۟ا‬
َ ‫سل‬
ُ َِ ‫َِ ِِّھ‬
“We have given his heir the authority [(to demand
Qisâs, Law of Equality in punishment— or to forgive,
or to take Diya (blood - money)]. But let him not
exceed limits in the matter of taking life (i.e he should
not kill except the killer).” (17:33)
To indicate closeness and
َ‫نوََ ن‬ُ ‫ َّل ا یَتَ َّخ َِِ ِذ ٱل ُمؤ ِم‬.4 friendship between men
ِ ‫فر َِیَنَ أوََ ل ِیا ََََٓ ِِمن دُ ِو ِن ٱل ُمَؤ ِم‬
َ‫نیََ ن‬ ِ ‫ٱل َك ٰـ‬
“Let not the believers take the disbelievers as Auliyâ
(supporters, helpers) instead of the believers,”
(3:28)

The friends of Allah: Awliya Allah

Allah’s description and criteria of His friends is:
1. “None can be His friends except Al-Muttaqûn

(the pious), but most of them know not” (8:34)

2. No doubt! Verily, the Auliyâ' of Allah, no fear

shall come upon them nor shall they grieve. Those

who believed), and used to fear Allah much. (10:62-
63)

Allah described to us that to be friend of

Allah, one has to have; a. Eemaan: true
belief and faith in Allah
b.Taqwa: consciousness and fear of Allah
the criterion for “Walayah” (divine friendship) is
Eeman (faith) and Taqwa (piety) and those qualities
are shared by all true believers

among the ignorant masses, the main criterion for

“walayah” (sainthood) is the performance of miracles
which commonly called Karamath to distinguish them
from the miracles- Mujizath of the prophets

So ignorant people designate this title of Wali to

a. people have performed miracles called, Karamaat to
other than prophet, to distinguish from miracles of
Prophets, Mu’jizat
There is a very line between these two, as the magic
of magicians of Pharaoh and the miracle of Moses
was the same
Similar is the case with Dajjal, who will do
miraculous things and people will think him to be
God incarnate.
b. Who are particularly righteous so that are chosen as
intermediaries between God and mankind, believing
that their piousness would help in getting their
prayers answered

Mystics’ (sufis) saints:

Order of sufi saints:
The ascending order of these sufis is like this:
1. Akhyar: chosen ones: number is 300
 2. Abdal: substitutes: number is 40
3. Abrar: pious: number is 7
4. Awtaad: pegs: 4
5. Nuqaba: watchmen: 3
6. Qutub: pole: the greatest saint of his time, he
replaces Ghawth when he dies
7. Ghawth: Succor: the greatest of saints, who is
also believed in some circles to be capable of
taking on his shoulders the portion of sins of
the believers.
→ They believe that the saints of top three
classes (qutub, awtad and abraar) are
present in Makah invisibly at the hours of
prayers.
→ There is moving up all in the chain, when
one dies, the others replacing him in the
chain from below
→ This mythology has been borrowed from
Christian’s saint’s mythology. Like Dhikr
beads from Christian rosary and Mawlid
from Christian celebration of Christmas.

Fana: the Union of man with God

Belief: The belief of sufi circle is that within
humans is a fragment of Allah, the Divine Soul,
and the aim of this life is to liberate that fragment
form Physical being and reunite with God. this
claim can further be explained by the claim of the
most prominent sufi figure, Al-Hallaj, who said
that ‘I am reality’ [in fact Allah is reality]

Origin:
▪ Buddhism: This claim of Hallajis very similar to

the ultimate state in Buddhism, Nirvana(blown

out), extinction of all worldly desires, ego
disappears, and human soul and consciousness
are extinguished and salvation is achieved.
▪ Greek: This belief also forms the core of Greek

Philosophy ‘Mysticism’, that states that the goal

of life is to achieve this mysticism which is union
of man with God.
▪ Mysticism: is defined as an experience of

union with God and the belief that man’s

main goal lies in the seeking that union.
▪ Mysticism is from Greek word “Mystes”

meaning “one initiated into the mysteries”

→ The philosophy origins can be traced back
to the writings of ancient Greek philosophers
like Plato’s Symposium, in which he
stated that there are various steps of a ladder
of this goal, each steep and hard, ascending
and finally a union with God is attained.
▪ Hinduism: the unification of Aatma (human

soul) with Brahma (the impersonal

Absolute) is the goal of this life and way to get
free from existence and rebirth.
 ▪ Christians: these philosophies combined with
Platonism by Egyptio-Roman Philosopher
Plotinus to combine a religious philosophy of
union with God known as Neoplatonism, and
were adopted by monastic Christians.
▪ St. Pachomius established the first set of rules

for Christian monasticism and founded 9

monastries in the Egyptian desert; St.
benedict of Nursia in developing the
Benedictine rule for the monastery at Monte
Cassino in Italy, came to be regarded as the real
founder of Western monastic order.
▪ Muslims: these Christian monastic traditions

found its way in the Islam in the 8th century, as

the Islam spread to the world and reached the
centers of the Christian monasticism.
People coming into Islam brought with them these
philosophies.
→ they developed a parallel system to
Islamic Sha’ria called Tariqa (the way)
→ the goal of this life is the unification of
human soul with Allah, dissolution of
human ego called Fana
→ the unification and meeting of human soul
with Allah in this life is called Wusool
(arrival)
→ a series of stages and states, which were to
be attained were defined, called Muqamaat
and Halaat
→ A series of spiritual exercise was also
designed to bring about this meeting, called
Dhikr. It involves movements of head and
body and even dance movements.
Dhikr: which normally means the
remembrance of God, in mystic circles,
is used to refer to the continuous
repetition of God’s names and
attributes.
All these were attributed back to prophet ‫ ﷺ‬by
false chains of narrations in order to validate
their acts.
→ They developed orders like that of
Christians (benedictan, fransiscan), called
Qadiri ( abdul qadir al jeelani),
Naqshbandi, Chishti, Tejaani etc→ The
monasteries of these sufis were called
Zawiyahs (lit. corners)
→ Legendry and fairy tales spun around the
founders and important personalities of
these sufis just as the personalities of Hindus
and Christians
→ They believed that as Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬met Allah
at Mi’raj, this was his wusool and can be
 attained by them as well. When this is
attained, the basic practices like of prayer,
fast etc are no obligatory for them
→ They believed that the prayers can be sent to
Allah through Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬or these saints
→ Tombs were made on the dead saints and
started the practice of making Tawaf, animal
sacrifices, and other acts of worships around
these tombs and shrines
→ Shariah was the external path for common
people while Tariqah was internal path for
few chosen one
→ Fabricated hadiths and Tafsir with twisted
meanings was introduced to support their
false concepts

The union of God with man:

The most commonly used hadith for the support of
their claim of Union of man with God is as follows:
“The most beloved thing with which My slave may
close to Me is that which I have made obligatory
(Fard) on him. and My slave keeps on coming
closer to Me through performing Nawafil 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; (sahih bukhari, hadees qudsi)
The interpretation used by sufis is that in fact man
and Allah become one, unify.
➢ The correct interpretation:
1. The pious ones try to do carefully their

obligatory acts and make up any deficiencies

in them by doing voluntary acts. It means
that if man is sick or in kind of some
situation not to perform religious duties at
most, the one doing voluntary acts will give
them up for the time being to fulfill his
obligatory acts. Those who do not adopt this
method often fall into not fulfilling their
obligatory ones in times of trails.
2. The more person is on fulfilling this acts, the

more he is on the Sha’ria’ path. This wali of

Allah will hear, see, grasp and walk to what is
Halal and will avoid anything Haram and
anything leading towards it. So he does what
pleases Allah and avoid what displease
Him. He sees what pleases Allah, he
hears what pleases Allah….
3. By him listening only to what Allah

wishes for him to hear, Allah has

metaphorically become his hearing. In
the similar way, Allah becomes his
sight, hands and feet. This is the
 correct interpretation of the
previously mentioned hadith .
4. This can be attained by only following the
Sunnah of Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬and avoiding the
innovations. As said by Prophet ‫;ﷺ‬
“You must keep to my Sunnah and of the
Sunnah of the rightly-guided Caliphs, cling
to it firmly. Beware of newly invented
matters, for every new matter is an
innovation and every innovation is
misleading, which leads to the Hell fire

Roohullah: the spirit of Allah:

Support for the sufi claim is also deduced from the
verses of Quran in which Allah has mentioned to
blow His spirit in Adam (as). .1 َ

Then He fashioned him and breathed into him of

His Spirit; (32:9)

ِ ُ‫س َّو یت ُ ُھ ُۥ َونفَخََ َُ ت‬

.2 ‫فی َِ ِھ ِِمن ُُّّر ِو ِحى‬ َ َ ََِ‫فإ َ َََِ ذ‬
So, when I have made him and have breathed
into him of My Spirit, (15:29) So this is believed
that as the descendants of Adam, every human
has got a part of that spirit within him. And this
part yearns to go back to where it came from.
 Correct interpretation:
The spirit which Allah blew into Adam as well as
Esa, was created by Allah like other all spirits and
then it was given a high rank by calling them
Allah spirits, and then Allah blew from it.
There are things which Allah referred them as to
be Him, like
1. The camel which Allah sent to the people of

Thamud, He referred to it as
she-camel of Allah
But this does not mean that Allah had a camel,
and he rides it. Out of the camels he created, he
made that one miraculous and called it His
camel.

2.The houses are creation of Allah, but those in

which Allah is worshipped are known as
The houses of Allah
Or Kaba is called, The house of Allah
This does not mean Allah has houses and lives
in there

3. Anybody who conveys the message of Allah is

messenger of Allah at his place. But to those
he sent revelation and chose them, they were
called, The Messengers of Allah.
4. On the day of Judgment, Allah will ask the
righteous ones to enter into my Paradise
 Allah has mentioned in the Quran, many
things done by others as to be done by Himself
1. Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬threw the hand of dust to
enemies before the battle of Badr, but Allah
made it possible to reach the eyes of all the
enemies miraculously and they all feel dust
just before the battle.
Allah referred this as: َ ‫َوََ َما َر َمیََ تَ ِإَ َر َمیََ تَ ََول‬
َ
And you (Muhammad SAW) threw not
when you did throw, but Allâh threw,
(8:17)
Possessive pronouns (his, hers, your) have two
implications in respect to the context they are
used. They may refer to the attribute or
possession, which
may or may not be the part of the owner
Allah said to Moses (as): َٰ ََ‫َوٱض ُمَم یدَََ ََ كَ إ ِل‬
‫ضا ََٓ ِمَن غَی َِ ِر‬ ِ َ ‫َجنا‬
َ ََ‫حََ كَ تخََ ُرَج بی‬
ٍٓ‫س َٓ ٍٓوء‬
ُ
"And press your (right) hand to your (left) side
shirt, it will come forth white
(and shining), without any disease (20:22)
Both hand and shirt belonged to him, but hand
was his attribute while shirt was his possession
Similar is the case with Allah with regards to
His creation and attributes. He referred the
 creation as being His, but they are not part of
Him.

َٓ ‫ى َو َماَو َما‬
ِّ ِ ‫ٱلر ُو ُح ِمَن أمََ َِ ِر ََرب‬ ُّ َِ ‫ح ُق‬ ِ ‫ٱلر ِو‬ َ ََ َ‫َویسََ ـٔلَ ُون‬
ُّ ‫ع َِ ِن‬
٨٥ (ً۟‫( ُأوت ِیت ُ ُم ِِّ ِ ِّم َنَ ٱل ِعل َِ ِم إ ِِّلََ ا قلَ ِیالقَ ِلی ال‬
“And they ask you about the soul. Say, “The
soul is something from the command of my
Lord, and you are not given from the
knowledge but a little.” (17:85)

It was created like everything else. And every

other thing was created by the command of
Allah, as said by Allah:
....... When He decides a matter, He simply says
to it ‘Be’, and it comes to be. (3:47)

Same is for Adam (as), he was created and the

command was also ‘be’ for him:
He created him from dust, then He said to him,
“Be”, and he came to be. (3:59)

The command is ‘be’ for all creations, as well as

the spirit

When Allah refers to blowing His spirit into

Adam (as) and Esa (as), it is due to the
special honour given to both of them.
a. Adam (as) being the father of all mankind
 b. To clarify the virgin birth of Esa (as) from
Maryam (as)

Allah’s attribute of the act of blowing spirit is

in fact carried out by His angels, as mentioned
by Prophet ‫ﷺ‬:
“Verily, your creation is combined into your
mother’s womb for forty days in the form of
an oily fluid, then as a leach-like clot for a
similar period and as a clump of flesh for
another similar period. Then an angel is sent to
him to blow a spirit into him.....”
So Allah blew spirit into us by one of His
angels.

When this spirit is within and connected to the

body, it is called Nafs(soul), and when it is not, it
is called Rooh (spirit). As said by Allah:
Allah fully takes away the souls (Anfus, of the
people) at the time of their death, and (of)
those who do not die, in their sleep. (39:42)

Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬said;
“Verily, when the spirit (Rooh) is taken, the
eyes follow it.”

So the souls reunite with body in graves, as well

as at the Day of Judgment, as said by Allah:
 “O content soul, (nafs) (27) Come back to your
Lord, well-pleased, wellpleasing. 6 (28) So,
enter among My (special) servants, (29) And
enter My Paradise.” (30) (sura Al fajr)
Thus the souls of the righteous ones will not
unite with Allah, but with his new own body
and enter Paradise.

Attributing spirit to Allah is breach in tawheed al asma

wa sifath.