Awliyâ'î (singular walî): i.e., those who
are "close to" God, probably alluding to the
famous Qur'ânic verses
10:62-64:"...the friends of God, they have no fear and they do not
grieve...theirs is the Good News in this
lower life and in the next (life)...that is the Tremendous Attainment"..
The same Arabic term--which also carries
significant connotations of "protector", "guardian" and
even "governor"--also appears as one of the more frequent Names of
God (at 2:257; 3:68; 45:19; etc.).
In most branches of Shiite thought it is
one of the many Qur'anic terms taken as references to the spiritual function of
the Imams, while in later Sufism--most elaborately in the thought of Ibn cArabî
and his successors--the term is usually understood to refer to the particular
spiritual state of proximity to God (walâya) shared by the divine Messengers,
prophets (anbiyâ') and saints, besides the different spiritual functions that
distinguish each of those members of the spiritual hierarchy. (See the more
complete discussion in M. Chodkiewicz, Le Sceau des saints: Prophétie et
sainteté dans la doctrine d'Ibn Arabî, especially chapt. 1.)
In the influential poetic classics of the
later Islamic humanities, this complex of Arabic
terms is conveyed above all by the
recurrent, intentionally ambiguous references to the
"Beloved" or "Friend"
(Persian Yâr or Dûst, and their equivalents in Turkish, Urdu, Malay, etc.).
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