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Who are the Saints of Allah?

Source: Honouring Allah's saints,P.1, by Yaqoub Jafri.
Since the very time when Adam was expelled from the Paradise and he set his feet upon earth, obliged and compelled to accept this distance and seperation, Allah never at all left him alone and by sending apostles, prophets, descending holy books and boradcasting His messeges informed the sons of Adam about their duties, and obligations and invited them to His worship, prayers and adoration.

Consequent upon this invitation, the sons of Adam (a.s) seggregated into two groups, one of the two ignored the invitation of Allah and moved upon the way of Satan and those of the other group accepted the invitation from the core of their hearts and recognised the aim of the creation, whcih was the same, adoration and worship of Allah, and steped along the course of Allah. These are all the friends of Allah, whome Allah has led out of darkness, towards the light.

Just as light has power and strength and sometimes weakness and dimness, the friendship of Allah too has degrees and stages. Those who have reached the higher stages, have attained the station of Wilayat (devolution to holy Imam) and we call them Aulia Allah (the Saints of Allah).

The holy Qur`an has introduced the saints as follows:

«الا ان اولياء الله لا خوف عليهم و لا هم يحزنون الذين آمنوا و كانوا يتقون لهم البشرى في الحيوة الدنيا و في الاخرة لا تبديل لكلمات الله ذلك هو الفوز العظيم»

"Now surely the friends of Allah they shall have no fear nor shall they grieve. Those who believe and guarded (against evil). They shall have good news in this World's life and in the hereafter, there is no changing the words of Allah; that is the mighty achievement ." (Younas :62-64)

A few of the facts which we comprehend from this verse of the holy book are as under:

1. "Fear" and "grief" , the former one of which is the apprehension about the future and the later one is sorrow about the past, is away from the Saints of Allah and they enjoy peace and tranquility of mind and heart, which are the important signs of the faith in Allah.

2. The Saints of Allah possess characteristics through which they have attained the station of Willayat. The first one is faith and the second one is continuous and stable piety. (We must see that the text و كانوا يتقون leads to the continuity and persistence of piety.)

3. The saints of Allah hold the station of "Bushra" (glad tidings and good news) both in this World and Hereafter. Bushra in the Hereafter means making use and benefiting from the boons and benedictions of Allah and entering the paradise, and in this World it consists of a kind of special and peculiar relation between Allah and His saint, which has been referred to as "Mubashirat" (fore runners) according to the Hadiths (traditions).

عن رسول الله صلى الله عليه و آله انه قال«لهم البشرى في الحياة الدنيا،الرويا الصالحه يبشر بها المومن جز من ستة و اربعين جزءاً من النبوة ».

The Prophet (p.b.u.h) said: "Bushra which exists for the Saints of Allah in this World is the true and good dream through which a faithful one is given glad tidings and that is one part of the forty six parts of Prophecy."(Tafseer Tabari vol. vii p. 137.)

و ايضا قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه و آله «ان الرسالة و النبوة قد انقطعت فلا رسول بعدى و لا نبى و لكن المبشرات. قالوا:يا رسول الله و ما المبشرات؟قال:رؤيا السلم و هى جزء من أجزاء النبوة»

Again the Prophet of Allah (p.b.u.h.) said: "Prophethood and apostleship has discontinued and no Prophet will come after me. But "Mubbashirat" will remain there. They (the friends of Prophet (p.b.u.h.) said: "Oh Prophet of Allah what is "Mubbashirat "? He said; it is' the dream of a Muslim and that is a part out of the parts of Prophethood." (Ad dur ul Mansoor vol iv, p. 376.)

Doubtlessly, the "Muslim" in this tradition does not consist of each and every Muslim, instead according to the symmetry and context of the verse and the narrations it means the same "saints of Allah" .

4. The station which Allah has approved for His saints is like the traditions of Allah and is totally unchangeable

(لا تبديل لكلمات الله)

5. This is a very much sublime and great status and is a gigantic success and great deliverance which is not achievable for and accessible to every one. Many traditions of the Prophet (p.b.u..h.) have reached us as an exegesis introduction to the Saints of this of Allah, verse and the we content ourselves with presenting one of those as an example.

قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه و آله:«ان من عباد الله عبادا يغبطهم الأنبيا و الشهداء،قيل:من هم يا رسول الله فلعلنا نحبهم؟قال:قوم تحابوا فى الله من غير أموال و لا أنساب،وجوههم من نور، على منابر من نور،لا يخافون اذا خاف الناس و لا يحزنون اذا حزن الناس و قرأ ألا ان اولياء الله لا خوف عليهم و لا هم يحزنون»

The Prophet of Allah (p.b.u.h.) said: "There are some out of the servants of Allah so that the Prophets of Allah and the martyrs envy upon (seeing) their status (station). They; (companions of Prophet [p.b.u.h.]) said: "Oh Prophet of Allah (p.b.u.h.), whom does that group consist of, so that we become their friends."

He said, "They are a group who, without any attention to wealth or race, befriend each other, solely for the sake of Allah. Their faces are from the light and they stay on the Cathedra (tribune) of light and while the people have fear, they are not afraid, and when the people are sorrowful they do not get sorrowful, and he (Prophet) recited this verse of the holy book.
ألا ان اولياء الله لا خوف عليهم و لا هم يحزنون (Tafseer Tabri vol. vii p. 132.)

We must note that according to this tradition the station of saints of Allah is above that of Prophets and martyrs since they envy and emulate their stations.

The other point to be taken in view is that it is possible that the saints of Allah with such qualities and peculiarities may be present in every age but their tracing out and recognition itself is a much difficult and a cumbersome work. According to the substance and purport of the above mentioned verse, the saints of Allah possess continuous, progressive and stable faith and piety, and it is difficult or rather may be impossible for us to recognize a person having persistent piety and who may have led his life from beginning to the end with piety and fear of Allah and avoid sins and prohibited activities, as this is a condition of the interior which only Allah and that person himself know. Now, if Allah introduces us to some special and particular persons having such condition only in that way we would recognize the saints of Allah with complete satisfaction.

Consequently, we say that Allah has introduced the Ahl al-Bayt (a.s) (Family members of Prophet; Fatima his daughter, All her husband and eleven Imams from their lineage) in Qur`an, as persons who are pure, infallible and away from every kind of impurity, contamination and sin, that too in such a manner that the resolution and intention of Allah has become incumbent and is acrued in connection with their purity and not getting contaminated with impurities and sins.

This is the same persistant piety about which Allah has informed us regarding Ahl about al-Bayt (a.s) in Qur`an:

«انما يريد الله ليذهب عنكم الرجس اهل البيت و يطهركم تطهيرا»

"Allah only desires to keep away the uncleanness from you, Oh people of the House! and to purify you a (thorough) purifying." (Ahzab: 33)

Now, let us see who are the Ahl al-Bayt (a.s) referred to in this verse of Qur`an. The Prophet (p.b.u.h.) numerous repetition has introduced his Ahl al-Bayt traditions, which have reached and successive (hear say). through stage of You may focus your attention upon the following two traditions, as a specimen.

First Tradition:

It is clearly evident from these two traditions and many more, which have reached us in this connection, that "Ahl al-Bayt" in the (above mentioned) verse means Ali (a.s) Fatima (a.s), Hassan (a.s) and Hussain (a.s). Of course, this verse was revelated as in the middle of the verses in which the wives of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) have been addressed. But the pronouns used in the verses of both sides (before and after) which are concerned and pertaining to the wives of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) are in the form of feminine plural. Whereas, in this verse those (Pronouns) are in the form of masculine plural which indicates that the addressees of this verse are different from those of the verses before and behind this particular verse.

Viewing this symmetry, context and similarly numerous traditions out of which we described two, should we say that the addressee of this verse are the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) Ali (a.s), Fatima (a.s) Hassan (a.s) and Hussain (a.s). If they introduce an other person or persons out of their children as Ahl al-Bayt we would certainly and doubtlessly accept it. According to this very verse these five persons never at all tell a lie. The reason being that false hood and lie is a great impurity and contamination and Allah has moved impurity away from them.

Therefore, we conclude that the existance of Allah's saints, as a kind, with all those signs which are described in Qur`an, is possible in every age. But the recognition of their personalities is very difficult rather impossible and absurd for us. But of course only when Allah or the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) introduce particular persons to us.

In the "verse of Purification" some qualities of Ahl al-Bayt (a.s) have been described, which are distinctly and clearly coincidable with the qualities of the Saints of Allah described in the other verse.

Ahl al-Bayt (a.s) are the worthy, valuable and distinct evidence and living proof of the existence of Saints of Allah.

We find in so many traditions that the love of Prophet (p.b.u.h.) and his Ahl al-Bayt (a.s) is considered as the part of the conditions of faith.