Saints and Miracles...

You must know that the principle and foundation of Sufism and knowledge of God rest on saintship" (H 210),2 says Hujwiri, and three centuries after him Jami opened his discussions about the history of Sufism with a paragraph on saintship. In fact, the theories of saintship, wilaya, have formed one theme that has been discussed by the Sufis since the late ninth century, when Kharraz, Sahl at-Tustari, and al-Hakim at-Tirmidhi wrote their essays on this subject.

The word usually translated as "saint," wali, means "someone who is under special protection, friend;" it is the attribute given by the Shiites to 'Ali, the wali Allah par excellence. The word is, as Qushayri points out, both active and passive: a wali is one whose affairs are led (tuwalla) by God and who performs (tawalla) worship and obedience (cf. N 6). The auliya' Allah, the "friend of God," are mentioned in the Koran several times, the most famous occasion being Sura 10:63: "Verily, the friends of God, no fear is upon them nor are they sad."

The concept of wilaya developed during the early centuries of Sufism. An authority of the early tenth century, Abu 'Abdallah as-Salimi, defined the saints as "those who are recognizable by the loveliness of their speech, and fine manners, and submission, and generosity, showing little opposition, and accepting the excuse of everyone who excuses himself before them, and perfect mildness towards all creatures, the good as well as the bad" (N 121). Thus, the ideal Sufi is here called a wali.

The wilayat 'amma, the "general saintship" common to all the sincere faithful (and it is to that wilaya that Salimi's statement points), is usually distinguished from the wilaya khassa, that of the advanced mystics, "who have become annihilated in God and remain through Him, and the wali is he who has been annihilated in HIm and lives in Him" (N 5). From among those perfect mystics, a whole hierarchy of saints has evolved since at least the time of Tirmidhi. he highest spiritual authority is the qutb, "axis, pole," or ghauth, "help." He is surrounded by three nuqaba', "substitutes," four autad, "pillars," seven abrar, "pious," forty abdal, "substitutes," three hundred akhyar, "good," and four thousand hidden saints. Some authorities, e.g., Ibn 'Arabi, claim that there are seven abdal, one for each of the seven climates;3 Ruzbihan Baqli expressed similar ideas. The qutb is the virtual center of spiritual energy upon whom the well-being of this world depends (CL 80). Henri Corbin has shown, in a penetrating study, the importance of the orientation toward the Pole, the place where the celestial revelation, "the sun at midnight," will appear to the pilgrim on the mystical Path. The qutb rests in perfect tranquility, grounded in God--that is why all the "minor stars" revolve around him...........by Annemarie Schimmel