SUFISM

"SUFI SAINT AND ITS SYNONYMOUS QURANIC WORDS"

Saint is a Latin word. It stands for a holy person,eminent for piety and virtue.  The Islamic term for saint is Wali and Sufi. The definition of saints, their position in this world and here after are mentioned on Quran and Hadith. God has chosen in the Holy Quran words like Auliya Allah, Salihin, Fuqara etc. to denote the saint. I shall deal with these words one by one;

VALI- In the Quran, God says, “Beware, the friends of God shall have no fear nor they grieve’, Auliya is the plural of wali, wali Allah means friend of God, one who has intense love of God, devotion to Him and seeks His utmost nearness.

                The Holy Prophet once said, ‘vali is a person whose sight recalls the memory of God. On another occasion he said that friends of God are the persons whom you will find always  busy in the remembrance of God. Auliya Allah have neither grief nor fear, in every action, every pose, every motion, every halt, God is with them….. they are always drowned in the memory of God.

Some saints observe that valayat (sainthood) is the state of nearness of God and dedication to Him.

FAQIR- In the Holy Quran, God has used the word faqir for human beings and ghani for Himself. He says, ‘o men, you are they who stand in need of Allah and Allah is He who is self-sufficient, the praised One’. In other verse he says, ‘Faqirs are confined on the path of Allah. They do not beg from men importunately’. Shaik Hujwari thinks faqir is not that person whose hand is empty of wealth and money but one whose nature is free form greed.

SALIH- Salih are the religious person who perform the duty of God. In the Quran, God Himself  says, ‘They believe in Allah and the last day and they enjoy what is right and forbid the wrong and they strive with one another in hastening the good deeds and are of the righteous.’

SUFI- Eight words are given by different scholars as the source of the word sufi.
1. Safa, meaning purity of the heart,
2. Saff Awwal, meaning first row of the faithful,
3. Banu Safa, name of a Bedouin tribe.
4. Ahl-e-Safa, section of devotees who during the time of the Prophet were engaged in devotional act in the mosque of the Prophet at Madina.
5. Sufana, name of a vegetable.
6. Safwat-al-Kifa, lock of hair at the nape of the neck,
7. Sophia, a greek wore meaning wisdom or philosophy, and
8. Suf, meaning wool.

WE HAVE MANY OTHER QURANIC WORDS LIKE, SIDDIQUE, MUTTAQQI, MOMIN WHICH COULD HAVE BEEN USED FOR SAINTS.

SIDDIQUE- About the Siddique, God says, ‘And whosoever obeys Allah and the Apostle, these are with those upon whom Allah has bestowed favors from among the Prophets and the truthful and faithful and the righteous and a goodly company are they’.

MUTTAQQI- The word means God fearing and pious. ‘Verify, among you, he is honorable who is pious before God.

MOMIN- In the true sense of faithful, Momin is also a meaningful word. By Momin, Allama Iqbal refers to that person who possesses miraculous power, he says:

A glance from the mard-I-momin changes destinies.

Thus we find that the Quranic dictionary has many words which are more or less equivalent to the word saint. Instead of using these words, the copious use of the word sufi which is not a Quranic word, has created doubt in the minds of some orient lists about the Quranic origin of Sufism.