Can someone please explain what awliya is?
Awliya
Can someone please explain what awliya is?
Assalamu 'Alaykum,
Awliya is the Arabic plural of wali, which means friend, protector, and/or guide. It is usually used to refer to the friend of Allah or wali Allah/awliya Allah. The closest western equivalent is the word saint. Some Sufis and Shi'ites refer to 'Ali (as) in this context, "Aliyun wali Allah" or "Ali is the friend of Allah."
While there is no church to say who is a friend or Allah and who is not, many consider the family and great companions of the Prophet to be awliya Allah, and also various Sufis such as 'Abd al-Qadir Jilani (ra) and Abu'l-Hasan Shadhili (ra). Some, such as Ibn 'Arabi (ra), have spoken of a spiritual hierarchy of awliya that always exists among men to guide them to Allah, and perform other functions.
wa salam,
Abu Abdallah
Thanks because I knew the meaning but wasn't sure who it reffered to and stuff. Thanks a lot.Originally Posted by Abu Abdallah
I got the best definition of what a Wali is.
The best forty Awliyah are the Abdal and they are in Sham or Syria.
Let me get you some references.
In the end, the one who is misguided will not harm those that are
guided - rather, it is very likely that the one who is misguided will
incur great harm to himself due to his ignorant attacks on the friends
of Allah.
[This brings us to a needing a definition of a
friend of Allah "wali" in the hadith. The
definition is:
"al-waliyyu al-muttaqiyyu hasala lahu `ala
d-dawami l-fana'u fi-l af`ali awi l-fana'u
fi s-sifati awi l-fana'u fi dh-dhaat. aw
huwa al-muttaqiyyu fi l-baqa'."
"The Wali (friend of Allah) is the person who
Allah has given tawfiq to in obeying Him and
not disobeying Him (both externally and
internally) in most circumstances and has given
tawfiq to always or almost always be in one of
four states: (1) annihilation in His actions,
(2) annihilation in His attributes,(3) annihilation
in His Entity, or (4) in the state of subsistence
(which entails constant full ma`rifah coupled with
non-egocentrism)."
Reference(s):
This definition is derived from al-`Asqalani,
Sharh Bukhari, hadith #6021, raqa`iq, tawadu`
`Asqalani states that the wali is "The person who obeys
Allah regularly and sincerely worships Him." Now, it
is our view that a person cannot become truly *sincere*
until he gets rid of the "I" in his worship. And
such only happens either through fana' or baqa'
with its various levels.
One should note here that it is possible to achieve
fana' fi l-af`aal without a spiritual Path - and this
is the limit the common man can reach without further
training. Thus, people who are not associated with
a spiritual path can also be awliya' (friends of Allah).
If the person undergoes some formal training (even if
self-taught - as long as he is very astute), then he
can reach fana' fi s-sifaat even without a qualified
teacher. [This is what Ibn `Ajibah says in his Sharh
of al-Mabahith al-Asliyyah in the section of taking
a spiritual teacher. But, if he does not have a teacher
and is also not astute (unaware of the pitfalls), then
Shaytan is likely to become his teacher - and in such a
case is likely to commit a grave mistake which will
land him in Allah's punishment either in this world
or the next.]
And in order to reach either fana' fi dh-dhaat or
baqa', the person must have a completed kamil teacher;
otherwise, the chances are very slim.
And people are of varying degrees in their wilayah.]
Very interesting^
Sufism is not a sect or group,
Sufism is the science of purifying the soul to increase Iman and become a Wali of Allah. This is done usually through a Shaykh of Tarbiyah or Murshid (a scholar expert on the spiritual heart) who like all Islamic disciplines was trained by a scholar who was trained by a scholar in a chain of succession to the Prophethimself.
Thus through Sufism if we reach a certain level of purifying our souls that we are absolutely certain in our belief in Tawheed of Allah then we get to a certain point where Allah gives us Wilaya or we become Walis.
There are different techniques at training the heart and thus we have different "tariqas" which means madhabs of spirituality. Some tariqas like the Naqshbandi use total submission and fighting the lower desires extremely strong along with total fear to reach wilaya. Then the Shadhilis for instance concentrate on thankfulness to Allah and realizing only Allah gives and thanking him. Other tariqas like the Mawlawiyah concentrate on love. Yet in the end they all have the same result with different means to get there.
This is the true Sufism which is following the Qur'an and Sunnah as much as one can.
Wassalam.
Thus you have many people on this board who are Shadhilis, Naqshbandis, Chishtis, etc. different tariqas striving hard to follow the Qur'an and Sunnah with a spiritual teacher or Shaykh to help them progress. You may be interested in this the more you learn.
It is although possible without a Shaykh as Ibn `Ajibah notes to purify the heart. Imam al-Shatibi also has a letter about this. Yet it is extremely hard without a real living wali right next to you to rub his state on you.
Wassalam.
Very nice. I always thought Sufism was a sect of people who believe their imams to have some sort of power and who hurt themselves and do weird stuff.Sufism is not a sect or group,
Sufism is the science of purifying the soul to increase Iman and become a Wali of Allah. This is done usually through a Shaykh of Tarbiyah or Murshid (a scholar expert on the spiritual heart) who like all Islamic disciplines was trained by a scholar who was trained by a scholar in a chain of succession to the Prophet
Thus through Sufism if we reach a certain level of purifying our souls that we are absolutely certain in our belief in Tawheed of Allah then we get to a certain point where Allah gives us Wilaya or we become Walis.
There are different techniques at training the heart and thus we have different "tariqas" which means madhabs of spirituality. Some tariqas like the Naqshbandi use total submission and fighting the lower desires extremely strong along with total fear to reach wilaya. Then the Shadhilis for instance concentrate on thankfulness to Allah and realizing only Allah gives and thanking him. Other tariqas like the Mawlawiyah concentrate on love. Yet in the end they all have the same result with different means to get there.
This is the true Sufism which is following the Qur'an and Sunnah as much as one can.
Wassalam.
Thus you have many people on this board who are Shadhilis, Naqshbandis, Chishtis, etc. different tariqas striving hard to follow the Qur'an and Sunnah with a spiritual teacher or Shaykh to help them progress. You may be interested in this the more you learn.
It is although possible without a Shaykh as Ibn `Ajibah notes to purify the heart. Imam al-Shatibi also has a letter about this. Yet it is extremely hard without a real living wali right next to you to rub his state on you.
Wassalam.
Yeah there are some crazy people who call themselves Sufis and do weird stuff.Very nice. I always thought Sufism was a sect of people who believe their imams to have some sort of power and who hurt themselves and do weird stuff.
For real Sufism you can listen to some of these good lectures of Sufis (totally Qur'an and Sunnah as you can see):
http://www.suhba.org
http://www.tassawuf.org
Also you can go read this great text:
http://www.guidinghelper.com/pdf/hikam4web.pdf
And then goto this book and just skip to the last 2 Songs and those are about Sufism:
http://www.guidinghelper.com/pdf/GH_Explanation.pdf
As well as:
http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.a...&ID=904&CATE=1
http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.a...&ID=829&CATE=3
Wassalam.
The Gateway of Knowledge is the Knowledge of Sufism
by Shaykh `Ali al-`Iraqi al-Husayni
In the Name of God the Most Merciful the Most Compassionate
And the Blessings of God upon Our Master Muhammad and upon his Kinfolk and Companions and upon them be Peace
Introduction:
I have chosen this subject to make it clear that Sufism is an Islamic matter and not a matter foreign from Islam and the Message of Muhammad (Sal Allahu `Alayhi wa Sallim) and is firm in it’s roots in the Qur’an, Sunnah, the actions of the Companions and their Predecessors as well as the scholars of the community of believers. Sufism is not a philosophical movement, an ideology, or a religious sect; it is a science from the sciences of religion with it’s source in the Honored Qur’an and Pure Sunnah. Indeed the Sunni Sufism is known with the Sufism of Junayd. I intend to make it clear how rumors formed concerning the reputation of such a majestic knowledge until the people started to reckon it a blameworthy innovation from the blameworthy innovations of religion.
The rumors which came against Sufism made the people far from it until they started to reckon that it had absolutely no connection to Islam at all. The confusion has taken two forms: an extreme form of radicalism and one of profligacy – both of these ideas have misinterpreted the purpose of Sufism as a result distancing people from the path of their Master – Glorious and High is He, or
Section One:
Imam Junayd (may Allah have mercy upon him) said “Sufism is using every Sunnah characteristic and leaving every worldly characteristic”
Shaykh al-Islam Zakariyyah Ansari (may Allah have mercy upon him) said “Sufism is the knowledge of knowing the states, purifying the ego, purifying character…”
Shaykh Ahmad Zarruq (may Allah have mercy upon him) said “Sufism is a knowledge with the intention of fixing the heart and removing all things except Allah from it”
Abul Hasan al-Shadhili (may Allah have mercy upon him) said “Sufism is training the self to worship and following the commands of the Lord”
Ibn `Ajiba (may Allah have mercy upon him) said “Sufism is a knowledge in which one knows with it the way to the King of the Kingdom…”
And of them it is said “Sufism is fully manners, so whoever increases upon you in manners has increased upon you in Sufism”
And of all of these definitions of Sufism, and there are 2000 of them, Shaykh al-Zarruq returns them to one base definition “It all returns to righteousness and turning towards Allah Most High”
And the summary of these sayings is that indeed Sufism is a knowledge from the Book and Sunnah in it the Muslim realizes the way to purification of the heart, perfecting of manners, and discipleship until he begins to worship Allah Most High as if he was seeing Him.
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