Advice for the Muslim

helpful to the people. They cannot supply faid. Most awliyâ’ had
the excellences of wilâya. For example, qutbs, awtâd and abdâl
were so. They are able to bring up the youth with ’Alî’s (radî-
Allâhu ta’âlâ ’anh) help.
“The superiority of the status of awliyâ’ is proportional to the
degree of Allâhu ta’âlâ’s love for them. Wilâya is the state of
having attained to the zills (shadows, images, see next
paragraph). Awliyâ’ love and enjoy only the shadows. Wilâya is
the shadow of nubuwwa (prophethood). One should take wilâya
as wudû’ (ablution) and nubuwwa as salât. Wilâya means
purification from bad habits. A walî does not have to know that
he is a walî. It is not a defect for the walî if he is granted wilâya
without being made aware of it. To be a walî, it is necessary to
expell the love for this and the next world out of the heart. It is
good to be fond of the next world, this being one of the
excellences of prophethood. There exist in man ten latîfas, ten
faculties from the spiritual world. The superiorities of wilâya and
prophethood occur on these ten latîfas. Wilâya means fanâ’ and
baqâ’. It means to detach the heart from this world and to attach
it to the hereafter. Wilâya cannot be comprehended through
intellect or logic. Wilâya means nearness to Allâhu ta’âlâ, and it
is bestowed on those who have driven out of their hearts the
thought of creatures. Throwing the thought of creatures out of
the heart is called fanâ’. All excellences of wilâya are to be
obtained by obeying Islam. And the excellences of prophethood
are given to those who obey also the inner subtleties of Islam not
known by everybody. The excellences of prophethood is not the
prophethood itself. The kashfs and ilhâms occuring to those who,
passing all the degrees, have reached the end of wilâya happen to
be in complete accordance with the knowledge drawn from the
Nass, that is the Book and the Sunna, by the scholars of Ahl as-
Sunna. Half of the progress in wilâya is upwards and the other
half is downwards. Many people supposed that the upward
progress was of wilâya and said that the downward progress was
of prophethood. In fact, the descent is also of wilâya as the ascent
is. Wilâya consists of jadhba (attraction) and sulûk (progress by
endeavouring), which are the two main corner-stones of wilâya
but non-essential for the excellences of prophethood. The last
rank in the wilâya is the degree of ’abdiyya (slavery to Allâhu
ta’âlâ). There is no further rank higher than this rank. Awliyâ’ are
directed towards Allâhu ta’âlâ. However, with the excellences of
prophethood, there are directions both towards Allâhu ta’âlâ
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