Islamic Character Spiritual Purification With the Divine

To Become Allah’s Wali

How to Achieve Tranquility of the Heart Series: Part IPart IIPart III Part IVPart VPart VIPart VIIPart VIIIPart IXPart XPart XIPart XIIPart XIIIPart XIV | Part XV | Part XVI | Part XVIIPart XVIIIPart XIXPart XX

Today we will move on to a new section: the things we should aspire to. In our journey, what we have tried to do is change the way we think about Allah and our relationship with Him. We started with things that we need to know, and moved on to the things that we have to do. Once we achieve those, we need a goal to aspire to so that we do not become complacent.

Live for Allah

I want to be of those who are close to Allah“. Imagine being like Ibn Taymiyyah, who stated, “What can my enemies do to me? I have in my breast both my heaven and my garden. If I travel they are with me, never leaving me. Imprisonment for me is a chance to be alone with my Lord. To be killed is martyrdom and to be exiled from my land is a spiritual journey.”

We need to have high aspirations, and we need to have the desire to be someone special to Allah. Once Allah becomes our main concern, we caninsha’Allah be in the same mindset as Ibn Taymiyyah. What can people do to us when we carry paradise in our hearts?

One of the Names of Allah that should inspire us is Al-Wali, The Ally. Allah says in the Qur’an:

“Allah is the ally [Wali] of those who believe. He brings them out from darkness into the light…” (Qur’an, 2:257)

What do you feel when you read this verse? Many of us have read this verse again and again, and some of us have contemplated over the meaning of being a wali of Allah. Whenever we think of someone being a wali of Allah, we think of great devoted scholars, courageous fighters, people truly close to Allah… but not us. “We could never be His awliya… could we?”

Allah tells us in this verse that He is the Wali of those who believe. As believers, we are already part of that group, insha’Allah. But to truly earn the status of Allah’s Wali, to be at that elevated level, we have to aspire towards it.

What does Al-Wali mean?

Al-Wali has different translations; the ‘ally’, ‘protector’, ‘guardian’ or ‘patron’. In Arab countries, schools usually request the permission of “wali amr” (the Wali of the affairs) of a child for anything concerning him or her, meaning the child’s guardian. What are the characteristics of a child’s guardian?

It must be a person who a) is close to the child, and b) takes care of the child.

If Allah is your Wali, then He is close to you and takes care of you.

Allah took care of the affairs of the Prophet Yusuf `alayhi sallatu wa sallam (may Allah send His peace and blessings on him). When Yusuf (as) was alone in the well, Allah made specific travelers thirsty at that particular time so that they could rescue him and take him on their journey with them. Later, the people who bought Yusuf (as) as a slave turned out to be a couple who were infertile. At every step of the way, Allah was with Yusuf (as). No doubt, he faced hardships, but Allah is always protecting.

So, there are going to be problems even if you are a Wali of Allah, but at the end of the day, He is still taking care of you. At the end of Yusuf’s (as) story, he proclaims, “Creator of the heavens and earth, You are myWali in this world and in the Hereafter.” (Quran, 12:101).

Truly, it is an impoverished person who does not have Allah as their Wali, the person who takes his Wali as the dunya.

What happens if you are a Wali of Allah?

1. You have no fear in this dunya, no sadness in akhirah.

“Unquestionably, [for] the awliya of Allah there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve”. (Qur’an, 10:62)

2. He will put light in your life.

“Allah is the ally of those who believe. He brings them out from darkness into the light.” (Qur’an, 2:257)

3. Allah will give you victory

Allah says in a hadith qudsi: “Whoever takes a Wali of Mine as an enemy, I will wage war on him…” (Bukhari)

Would’nt you want to be one of these people? Be ambitious. Why couldn’t it be you?

So how can I be a Wali?

 

 

“Unquestionably, [for] the awliya of Allah there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve. Those who believed and had taqwa of Allah” (Qur’an, 10:62)

Striving for taqwa gives us the status of a Wali inshaAllah.

So how do we get Taqwa?

Some scholars have defined taqwa as when Allah finds you where He has ordered you to be, and does not find you where He has forbidden. The following hadith qudsi sheds more light:

“Whosoever acts with enmity towards a closer servant of Mine (Wali), I will indeed declare war against him. Nothing endears My servant to Me than doing of what I have made obligatory upon him to do. And My servant continues to draw nearer to Me with the supererogatory (nawafil) so that I shall love him. When I love him, I shall be his hearing with which he shall hear, his sight with which he shall see, his hands with which he shall hold, and his feet with which he shall walk. And if he asks (something) of Me, I shall surely give it to him, and if he takes refuge in Me, I shall certainly grant him it.” (Bukhari)

Another thing to be inspired by: Jannah

Sometimes we forget about Jannah, Paradise. But Paradise is a reality.

I’m supposed to travel to Granada tomorrow insh’Allah (if Allah wills). Everyone has been telling me how amazing and beautiful it is. A part of me is really excited to explore it and its history, but another part of me is just looking forward to having a break. I’ve been preparing: I will take two books, one spiritual and one political. I’ve made sure I’ve tied up all the ends here. Just as Granada is a reality for me and something to look forward to, Jannah should be just the same for us since we have its description.

Imagine this: you’ve just crossed the sirat (bridge over hell) and made it to the other side. You are waiting for the doors of Jannah to open. Finally they open to the Prophet ﷺ (peace be upon him) and you are in awe. Truly this place is as the Prophet ﷺ described which “no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and the mind of no man has conceived”, [Bukhari]. What is the ground made of? It smells a little like saffron, subhan’Allah! What are those trees with huge fruits? Is that a river of honey? Dip your finger in it, that can’t be honey! You’ve never had anything like it in your life. You try it again and it tastes even better. How is that possible? Ok, enough honey. Where is my house? As you are being escorted to your home, you see it’s not just a house. It’s a mansion! Not even Bill Gates had it this good, and you are told you earned it because you donated $10 for that masjid1. If only you had donated more! Well this mansion is enough. You’re eager to start exploring.

You enter from the front door with a texture that feels pearly. Are the doors made of pearls? Subhan’Allah! You walk in and there’s someone there. Is that your spouse from the dunya? But they look different. They’re so beautiful, you’re mesmerized. You take their hand and walk out and you see that person who wronged you in the dunya. Even though you forgave on earth, whenever you saw them, you’d still get a bit frustrated. But for some reason it’s ok now. It’s all good. Actually- you’re happy to see them. In fact, you can’t stop smiling.

This place is awesome. You feel so light and airy. You feel as though nothing bad has ever happened to you in your life. You have peace.

It can’t get better than this, right?

Yes it can. As you walk outside your mansion, you see people rushing to go some place. They’re crowding around someone. Is that RasulAllah ﷺ?! Without realizing, tears stream down your face, it IS Rasul’Allah! And he is more beautiful than any of the descriptions you’ve read. You embrace him. He smiles at you, and then you invite him to dinner at your house. You walk away, still in awe that you’ve just seen the final Messenger of God, and… Is that Abu Bakr (ra)? With `Umar (ra)! And over there is Fatima (ra), sitting with her mother Khadija (ra)! And there’s Mariam (as)! You overhear a conversation and it’s someone asking Salaah ad-Deen how it felt to liberate Jerusalem. And you recognize an accent, it’s Malcolm X!2

Finally, it’s the pinnacle of Jannah. Being with Allah. You actually get to see Allah. The highest, greatest most amazing pleasure that surpasses everything we’ve just talked about. Seeing your Lord, Most High.

I want that! What should I aspire to?

We were all created differently for a reason. Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror known in Arabic as Muhammad al-Fateh, was inspired by something. He heard the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ “Verily you shall conquer Constantinople. What a wonderful leader will he be, and what a wonderful army will that army be!” [Ahmad] and he wanted to be that person. He had the opportunity and the skill. He persisted and Allah gave him success. We don’t all have to be Sultan Mehmet II, but we should all desire to be something special to Allah.

So read the Qur’an and find something inspirational. I knew someone who was inspired by the hadith where the Prophet ﷺ names the categories of people who are protected under the shade of Allah on Judgment day. The category that they were inspired by was “the person whose left hand doesn’t know what his right hand has given (in charity)”. So they decided to apply that hadith. They would give money every Friday atsalaat al-jumu`ah, without looking at how much they were giving. Whatever was in their wallet, they would give. The person said, “SubhanAllah. Never did I give money but that it came back to me!”

There is so much to look forward to and so much to have hope for. We should not be satisfied with a basic level of faith and doing extra only once in a while. Rather we should say, “this is who I want to be!” and live every day wanting to become the Wali of Allah.


  1. “He who builds a Masjid for Allah (swt), even as small as a bird’s nest or smaller, Allah (swt) will build for him a house in Paradise .”
  2. of course only Allah knows who will be in Jannah, but this is just so we can imagine.

About the author

Jinan Yousef

Jinan's main interests within the field of Islamic Studies are the Names of Allah, the life and character of the Prophet ﷺ, tazkiya and Muslim personalities.

58 Comments

  • Wow! That was Jannah but portrayed by a human mind. What would it be when mind of no man can conceive it? Subhanallah! I can see the tranquility descending upon my heart.

      • Assalamu Alaikum brother,strive hard brother,pray Tahajjud every night,give lot of charity,be respectful towards all creation of Creator,but most important thing is-BE SINCERE BROTHER, may Allah Subhana Wa Ta’ala reward you hugely

    • assalamu alaikum….
      ****make dua to be the best of creations (in the sight of allah),to be the most beloved,the most dearest closest to allah,to be tat the upper most position of jannah,jannahtul firduaus,enjoying the most in jannathul firdaus,seeing allah the most (at a perticular time reference)

      ****Special ones—-> ex:Nabi,rasool,and etc…

      Insha allah, allah the bestower will bestow it……

  • SubhanAllah, that was absolutely amazing. I have read so many descriptions of Jannah, but I must say this was the first one, that made me imagine each word as I read it, as if I was tasting the honey, walking through the gates…JazakAllahu Khairan katheeran, this has done alot more for me than I can describe in words. May Allah grant you Jannah Al-Firdous!

  • subhanallah! My tears started coming down before I read the part where you mention it. Very touching and real, may ALLAH reward you.
    Thank you

  • this is phenomenal! jazaki Allah alf keir sister Jinan!
    may Allah swt reward you with jannah!
    ameen
    (please do cnotinue the series- its genuis!)

  • Assalamu Alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu
    Subhanallah! jazakumullah ta’ala ahsanal jaza wa khairan katheeran katheera sister for such a beautiful post, This is actually my favorite topic and my dream, may ALLAH ta’ala really make me his wali bil a3fiyah, aameen! It really really touched my heart, especially the part where you talked about seeing the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, I actually started to cry, such a touching post mashaALLAH.

  • That was really awesome! So well written and very descriptive, it made me tear up. MashaAllaah, may we all be of those who will enter Jannaah inshaAllaah.

  • Aslamo’Alleikum to my dearest brothers and sisters. such a beautiful post. Brought tears to my eyes…ya Allah be our Wali, bring us closer to You…for it is the most beautiful feeling in the world…when Allah is with us no one can cause us harm…For He is the Protecter and loves us sooooooo much more than we can imagine SubhanAllah
    Allah increase Your love in our hearts
    Ameen

  • Assalamoualaikoum…indeed very touching…felt Allah so close and near..had tears..keep up the good job…just had a question, I feel very confident about getting Jannat..is it bad of me to think like dat?coz you have mentioned that only Allah knows who will get Jannat..so does that make me I am doing something wrong by having this confidence of getting jannat?

    • Assalaamoualaikoum. The best way I can give you a hint is through this:

      “It is obligatory upon the allies of Allah to hold tight to the criterion; the Qur’aan and the Sunnah, and no one of them is ma’soom; i.e. protected against falling into errors, such that it is permissible to him or to his followers to follow that which comes to his heart without subjecting it to the test of the Qur’aan and the Sunnah. Whoever does not accept this is in no way or shape or form among the allies of Allah, whom Allah has ordered us to emulate. Such a person is either ‘kafir’ or is engaged in extreme and excessive foolishness and ignorance.”

      Wa’alaikoumoussalaam.
      Hope it sheds light on your question.

  • Asslamualaikum, one should not think like that at all we can do is carry on praying, please don’t be over confident no disrespect to you, sometimes takes one good deed to get in jannat or people who may pray all their lives might not get it, as Allah swt knows best we just try our best and inshallah why of course you will get it if you never mention that as someone else may think they are not worthy to get it because you do all your salah

  • i am very happy to have located this masterpiece and pray Allah(SWT) would shower us all with is blessings and mercy

  • SubhanAllah. Alhamdulillah, its a wonderful article, thank you Jinan. May Allah reward you.

    May Allah make our dou’as kabool:

    -May Allah guide us our parents & children in the right path, May us become Allah’s Wali and May Allah grant us Jannah Al-Firdous for eternity.

    -May Allah have mercy on us.

    -May Allah protect us from evil among men, jinn and shayateen.

    -May Allah guide those who are astray in the right path (because Jahannam is verily not a resting place to dwell – May Allah protect us from Jahannam and make it haraam for us).

    -May Allah help us to live Islam fully and propagate it.

    INSHAA ALLAH.
    Wa’alaikoumoussalaam.
    AMEEN AMEEN AMEEN.

  • SUBHAN ALLAH ,, ALHUMDULILAH, WALA ILLAHA IL LAL LAH , ALLAH O AKBAR…. YAH ALLAH YAH RAHMAN ….

    • Allah SWT has promised to forgive (if the servant repents and cries and stays away from evil in the future) every sin except shirk, so yes indeed if you repent with all your heart and offer salat and fast as much as you can and lead the most pious life and try to follow the footsteps of the prophet Muhammad SAW (pbuH) then in sha Allah you will be amongst the walis of Allah ,for he is ghafoor o raheem never ever be in doubt of his rehmat .

  • Ustaz Shuhaib Webb,

    Thank you for this article and also the series on TV. Al Hijrah “reflections”….2o years I lived in USA…I did no meet a single “orang putih” who is so knowledgeable about ISLAM….Subhan Allah…you are great…You have convinced me and been such an inspiration to my own efforts to “hafal” the Quran…Thank you .

  • mashaAllah!may Allah swt will reward you with jannatul firdauws.It is so wonderful.my eyes almost shedding tears especially when i read the part seeing rasulullah in jannah.I hope we will meet in jannah and lived with our love ones here in dunya and who passed away,Inshaallah.

  • Why are so Many people deceived by following the hadith ?
    Why do people not use their mind like God tells us to do .
    God invites us in THE quran( which God calls it the only hadith)
    To discover any fault , we will never succeed . Because its Gods
    true word . But the hadith is fabricated by the shaytaan to deceive
    Believers from Gods path as we know from the holy quran .
    Asaalam al eikum wa rahmatullah wa barakatie wa Allah jehdiena
    Inshaallah

  • .,jazakomoLLAhO khayr!.,but we will not be a wali of allah if we will not put(do) in our life what rasulollah did in his whole life.,

  • Jazak Allah for this beautiful message.What i have just learned recently is that whenever you are doing an ibaddat ,do it my love for Allah and His Beloved Prophete Mohamed Saw.Dont do ibaddat with the thought of gaining rewards in return.Do It because you love Allah and his messenger.

  • Mashallah this article really inspired and reminded me. Jazak Allah khair for the encouragement and inspiration 🙂

  • I want to come back to this website and tell you of how my journey went. Just wait for me inshallah I will come back my friends….

  • Hadith Number was missing so I just want that others should know
    Sahih Bukhari 6502
    “Whosoever acts with enmity towards a closer servant of Mine (Wali), I will indeed declare war against him. Nothing endears My servant to Me than doing of what I have made obligatory upon him to do. And My servant continues to draw nearer to Me with the supererogatory (nawafil) so that I shall love him. When I love him, I shall be his hearing with which he shall hear, his sight with which he shall see, his hands with which he shall hold, and his feet with which he shall walk. And if he asks (something) of Me, I shall surely give it to him, and if he takes refuge in Me, I shall certainly grant him it.” (Bukhari)

  • Wow, my heart was overwhelmed with joy, infact it as if am in jannah with just this description of our materialistic heart, imaging how it will looks like when we get there. May Allah never make jannah forbidden upon us.

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