He takes his place. (Iṣṭilāḥ, 531; Kāshānī, 32; Jāmiʿ, 76)
The awtād (sing. watad) are those by whom Allah preserves the world; they are four in number. They are more specific than the abdāl. The imāmān, who are found to the right and left of the quṭb, are more specific than these, and the quṭb is the most specific of all. The abdāl is a general term for those who replace bad qualities with good ones, and refers to a specific number of individuals, such as forty, thirty, or seven. (Mashāriq, 119)
After the Companions (ṣaḥāba), the greatest of the friends of God (awliyāʾ) is the quṭb. Then come the afrād—though there is some disagreement about this—then the imāmān, then the awtād, and after them the abdāl. (Mashāriq, 120)
The imāmān are two persons: one is on the right of the quṭb, the other on his left. The one on the right looks to the realm of malakūt (the spiritual world) and is higher than his companion. They are mirrors reflecting the aid that is the source of existence and subsistence (baqāʾ) from the center of the quṭb to the spiritual world, and there is no doubt about this mirror. The other looks to the realm of mulk (the physical world) and is a mirror reflecting the material of animality (hayvāniyya) from the other quṭb to the world perceptible by the senses, and there is no doubt about this mirror either. The imam on the left is the deputy (khalīfa) of the quṭb. These two imams have four outward (ẓāhirī) and four inward (bāṭinī) acts. Their outward acts are asceticism (zuhd), scrupulousness (warāʿ), enjoining good, and forbidding evil; their inward acts are truthfulness (ṣidq), ikhlas (sincerity), modesty (ḥayāʾ), and murāqaba (spiritual vigilance). (Jāmiʿ, 4)
The imāmān, one on the right of the quṭb and the other in the position of vizier on his left, inherit their vizierate from the prophets. (Jāmiʿ, 76)
The imāmān are two friends of God (awliyāʾ), one on the right and the other on the left of the quṭb. (Qawānīn, 102)
(See also: quṭb/aqṭāb)