Wali
Walī (Arabic: ولي, plural ʾawliyāʾ أولياء), is an Arabic word whose meanings include "custodian", "protector", "helper", and "friend".[1] It can refer to someone who has "Walayah" (authority or guardianship) over somebody else. For example, in fiqh, a father is wali of his children especially for his daughters in marriage.[citation needed]
In Islam, the phrase ولي الله walī allāh can be used to denote one vested with the "authority of God":
Only Allah is your Wali and His Messenger and those who believe, those who keep up prayers and pay the poor-rate while they bow.
However, the most common meaning of the word is that of a Muslim saint or holy person.[3] In Turkish the word has been adopted as veli.[4] In Palestine the word wali means both holy man and the tomb or mausoleum of a holy man. This is reflected in 19th- to early 20th-century Western scholarly literature, where the word is spelled "wali", "weli", "welli" etc. in English and "oualy"[5] in French.[citation needed]
It should not be confused with the different word wāli (والي) which is an administrative title that means magistrate[6] or governor and is still used today in some Muslim countries, such as the former Wali of Swat.[citation needed]
Walī as male custodian of a woman
According to Islamic law (shari'a) a woman needs a walī' (not to be confused with wāli), that is a male custodian. In marriage, the marriage contract is signed by not by the bride and groom but by the bride's walī (typically the father or, failing that, a paternal grandfather or brother of the bride) and the bridegroom. After marriage the husband becomes the walī. Typically a father or brother (a mahram) or husband is a wāli.[citation needed]
In the case of the woman's first marriage the father or paternal grandfather is al-wali al-mujbir. Her approval is necessary, but the bride's silence is considered consent as being shy.[7] If father and grandfather are deceased another male relative may function as wali. If there is no Muslim relative, a qadi may function as wali. In the Hanafi school of Islamic law a woman may under certain circumstances marry without a wali, if it is not her first marriage.[citation needed]
At least in conservative Muslim countries, such as Saudi Arabia, girls and women are forbidden from traveling, conducting official business, or undergoing certain medical procedures without permission from their male wāli.[8]
Use in Sufism
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A hierarchy of ʾawliyāʾ and their functions are outlined in the books of Sufi Masters. There is disagreement as to the terms used for each rank but there is a general agreement about the numbers and functions of each level. Starting from the top downwards:[9]
- One Ghawth (Guide)
- Three Qutb (World Pillar)
- Three Nuqaba (Watchmen)
- Four Awtaad (Pegs)/Aqtab (Poles)
- Seven Abraar (Pious)
- Forty Abdal (Substitutes)
- Three Hundred Akhyaar (Chosen)
Al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi and Ibn Arabi amongst others also contended that there was a Seal of the ʾawliyāʾ much in the same way that Muhammad is considered the Seal of the Prophets.[9][10]
See also
References
- ^ Hans Wehr, p. 1289
- ^ Quran 5:55
- ^ Robert S. Kramer; Richard A. Lobban Jr.; Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban (2013). Historical Dictionary of the Sudan. Historical Dictionaries of Africa (4 ed.). Lanham, Maryland, USA: Scarecrow Press, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield. p. 361. ISBN 978-0-8108-6180-0. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
QUBBA. The Arabic name for the tomb of a holy man... A qubba is usually erected over the grave of a holy man identified variously as wali (saint), faki, or shaykh since, according to folk Islam, this is where his baraka [blessings] is believed to be strongest...
- ^ http://www.seslisozluk.net/man+close+to+God,+holy+man,+wali,+saint-nedir-ne-demek/tr-en-da/
- ^ Guérin, 1880, p. 488
- ^ Hans Wehr, p. 1290
- ^ Sahih Muslim, The Book of Marriage (Kitab Al-Nikah), Book 008, Number 3303.
- ^ "World Report 2013 - Saudi Arabia". 2013. Human Rights Watch. Archived from the original on 2014-01-09. Retrieved 22 February 2014.
- ^ a b Chodkiewicz, Michel. The Seal of the Saints: Prophethood and Sainthood in the Doctrine of Ibn 'Arabi. trans. Liadain Sherrard. Cambridge, UK: Islamic Texts Society, 1993. ISBN 978-0-946621-40-8.
- ^ Radtke, Bernd, and John O'Kane. The Concept of Sainthood in Early Islamic Mysticism: Two Works by Al-Hakim Al-Tirmidhi. Richmond, Surrey, UK: Curzon Press, 1996, pp. 10, 109. ISBN 978-0-7007-0452-1, ISBN 978-0-7007-0413-2.
Sources and external links
- Sajid, Imam Dr. Abduljalil (22 December 2004). "Scholars Smash Hizb Argument Against British Politics". Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK.