ولی کون؟

Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) reports that the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Allah Almighty says: Whoever bears enmity towards a friend (wali) of Mine, from Me there is a declaration of war against him. The most beloved things by which My servant draws near to Me are the deeds I have made obligatory upon him. My servant keeps drawing nearer to Me through voluntary acts of worship until I begin to love him. When I love him, I become the ear with which he hears, the eye with which he sees, the hands with which he works and the feet with which he walks (that is, he begins to be granted full ability to do good). Then if he asks of Me I shall surely give him, and if he seeks My refuge I shall surely take him into My protection. And I do not hesitate over anything I do as much as I hesitate over taking the soul of a believer: he does not like death, and I do not like to grieve him, yet death is unavoidable for him.”

The word wali means friend, and it occurs many times in the Holy Qur’an. It is used both for Allah and for the believers. For example:
“And besides Allah you have no protector (wali) and no helper.” (Al-Baqarah 107)
From this verse and others we learn that He is the wali of the believers in the sense that He is their helper in this world and in the Hereafter, the remover of difficulties (Al-Baqarah 107, Hud 113); the Compassionate, the Forgiving (Al-A‘raf 155); the Master of life and death (At-Tawbah 116); the Giver of guidance (Al-Kahf 17); the One who brings people out of the darkness of ignorance and shirk into the light of Tawhid (Al-Baqarah 257); the One worthy of worship (Az-Zumar 39); the Master of benefit and harm (Ar-Ra‘d 16); the Owner of rule, authority and power (Al-Kahf 44); the Protector who saves (Ar-Ra‘d 34, Al-Ma’idah 175); the All-Powerful (As-Sajdah 4); the Giver of sustenance (Al-An‘am 14); the Knower of the unseen (An-Nisa 45, Al-Kahf 26). In these senses the believers have no wali besides Allah, and the people of truth stop anyone from taking another as a wali in these senses, because to accept someone as a wali with these attributes is to take an axe to the very foundation of one’s religion.
The word wali is also used in the Holy Qur’an for the believers. Allah Almighty says:
“Behold! The friends (awliya) of Allah — no fear shall come upon them, nor shall they grieve.” (Yunus 62)
Now it must be seen in what sense a believer is a wali, that is, a friend of Allah — by which qualities a believer becomes a friend of Allah, of whom Allah said that they shall have no fear nor shall they grieve. In all those verses in which the friends of Allah are given the glad tiding that they shall have neither fear nor grief, these qualities of theirs are mentioned: to believe in Allah and stand firm upon it (Al-Ma’idah 69, Al-Ahqaf 13); to obey and follow the guidance Allah has sent down (Al-Baqarah 112, 38); to follow the Noble Prophet (At-Tawbah 71); to adopt piety (Al-A‘raf 35); to believe in the Day of Judgement (Al-Ma’idah 69); to establish prayer (Al-Baqarah 277); to give zakat (At-Tawbah 71); to spend wealth in the way of Allah, both openly and secretly, and not to follow it with reminders of one’s favour (Al-Baqarah 262, 274); to do righteous deeds (Al-Baqarah 277); to call towards good and to restrain from evil (At-Tawbah 71); to work for reform (Al-An‘am 48). In the same way, those who give their lives in the way of Allah have also been given the glad tiding of deliverance from fear and grief.
If these verses are pondered over, it will become clear that every God-fearing believer is a friend of Allah. There is certainly a difference of ranks: the more pious, God-fearing and righteous in deed a person is, the closer he is to his Lord. For this walayah only two conditions are needed — faith and righteous action. Neither unveilings and inspirations are necessary, nor the manifestation of miracles, nor any particular colour or style of dress. Sayyid al-Ta’ifah Junayd Baghdadi (may Allah have mercy on him) said that there is only one road by which Allah is reached, and that is following the Sunnah. It is for such friends of Allah that there is glad tiding from Allah Almighty:
“Enter Paradise; no fear shall be upon you, nor shall you grieve.” (Al-A‘raf 49)