They turn away from their objects of worship and turn to Him. Walāya (sainthood) also carries the meaning of maḥabba (love). The word walī (friend of God) can also, in the pattern of faʿl, bear the passive participle meaning as a kalima (word). As Allah the Exalted has said: "He protects His righteous servants" (al-Aʿrāf 7:196). For Allah the Exalted, (because He loves His servant as His own creation,) does not abandon His servant due to his attributes or actions. He preserves him in His presence.
The word walī can also, with hyperbole, be in the active participle sense on the pattern faʿīl. For the servant assumes (takes upon himself) obedience to Him, constantly follows His rights, and turns away from everything other than Him. This servant is the murīd (aspirant, disciple), and He (the Lord) is the murād (the One sought and desired). (Hujwīrī, 254)
Junayd (may Allah have mercy on him) said: One of the attributes of the walī is to be without fear. For fear is to anticipate the occurrence of something undesirable in the future, or to expect the loss of something beloved in the future. However, the walī is the ibn al-waqt (the child of the moment, one occupied with the present time). He has no future for which he should fear anything. Just as the walī has no fear, he also has no hope. For hope is to expect the attainment of something desired or the removal of something undesirable, and this pertains to a time after the present. Likewise, the walī does not succumb to sorrow, for sorrow arises from constriction of the qalb (the heart). How could there be sorrow for one who is in the light of riḍā (contentment with God's decree) and in the garden of conformity to divine commands? (Hujwīrī, 260-261)
The highest rank is the degree of the nabī (prophet) to whom all or most ḥaqīqas (inner realities) are unveiled. This degree is attained without effort or striving, and is realized with great swiftness through divine unveiling. This is the felicity that a human being can attain. This felicity brings a person closer to Allah not by space or distance, but by meaning and ḥaqīqa. In this maqām (spiritual station), it is proper etiquette to restrain the tongue.
However, the matter, as claimed by a certain group, has reached the point of ittihād (union) beyond qurb (nearness). Some have said, "I declare myself free from imperfection; how exalted is my station!" Another has said, "I am the Truth (al-Ḥaqq)." Others have described this state with the word ḥulūl (indwelling); Christians have expressed it as the union of the divine and human natures (lahūt and nāsūt). To such an extent that Christians have claimed that Jesus (peace be upon him) is half of Allah. Allah is far above and free from the words of these wrongdoers!
In summary, the stations of those who journey to Allah are innumerable. Yet every sālik (spiritual traveler) knows both the station he has reached in his sulūk (spiritual journey) and the stations that will follow. He can only comprehend the reality of what he has attained in a general sense and with faith in the unseen. Only the nabī can know the reality of nubuwwa (prophethood). (Mīzān, 23)
The sign of the walī (the mark of the friend of God) is to endure the harm and transgressions of the people. They overlook what they see from people, ignore what they hear, and bestow their precious possessions upon others. (Fath, 180)
Bāsiṭān-i ayd/bāsiṭi aydihim ("those who extend their hands"): There are such noble people who have been graced with the luminous effusions of the Truth (God), that they have turned their faces toward divinity, and, just as they witness the manifestations of acts and attributes, they await the manifestation of the Divine Essence... Their unique capacity for divine grace has been brought to perfection (kamāl) by the Truth. Supplication made in the language of such capacity is accepted. (Hayākil, 103)
Legal rulings are learned only from the tongues of the messengers
while the knowledge of the verses
is unveiled only to those who walk the paths
for a walī to descend from a station
means to ascend even higher
for the Real (al-Ḥaqq) cannot be delimited
Here, there is an allusion to the verse: "If you could but see when the wrongdoers are in the overwhelming pangs of death while the angels extend their hands (bāsiṭi aydihim), [saying], 'Discharge your souls! Today you will be awarded the punishment of [extreme] humiliation...'" (al-Anʿām 6:93)
walī-nabī-rasūl
in the essence of intentions is the very nearness
of the chosen one
it is exaltedness among exaltedness
it can never be ruled over
nothing can affect
its exaltedness
(Futūḥāt, 1, 296)
Marāzil-i awliyāʾ (the degrees of the friends of God) are of two kinds: sensory and spiritual. Their sensory stations, even if Paradise has a hundred degrees, are in Paradise. Their sensory stations in this world are states with extraordinary results. This is manifest among the Abdāl and their likes. Some attain this state but display no outward sign of it. These are the Malāmiyya and the foremost nobles. This path consists of more than a hundred stations, each of which contains many sub-stations.
These are their perceptible stations in this world and the hereafter. Their spiritual stations in the degrees of maʿrifa (gnosis) are 248,000 stations. No one before this umma (community) has ever attained them. This is among the distinctions of this umma. They have various tastes, which only those who experience them know. This number is gathered in four stations: the station of ladunī knowledge, the station of nūr knowledge, the station of jamʿ and tafrīqa knowledge, and the station of divine inscription knowledge.
Then, among these stations, there are others of their kind, reaching up to more than a hundred stations. All are stations belonging to the friends of God. Each station is divided into many sub-stations, whose numbers are known. (Futūḥāt, II, 42)
The rasūl (messenger) is sent to his people. The nabī (prophet) worships on his own until he is given the duty of prophethood. The walī is the one awakened by the rasūl from his sleep. The rasūl is the imam, the walī follows the imam. The nabī is both one who follows the imam and an imam himself. He is protected but not infallible. The rasūl is among the infallibles, the one who is sought, loved, and to whom refuge is taken. The believer affirms and turns to him. The scholar produces evidence and proof for him. He acknowledges and confesses his truthfulness. The ignorant look to him.