• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Why did God use the words Wali, Awliya, and Mawla, if ambiguous? And Prophet as well?

Link

Veteran Member
Premium Member
The word simply is contextual with no meaning itself except that there is some sort of relationship being established. That being the case, why not use particular words?

The nice thing about the word, is that, you can combine so many concepts and many words into it, all at once, if your contextualization of the word makes all those relationships obvious.

For example, in Suratal Shura (42nd Surah) - the word Wali through out it includes being "the God" (Allah) but includes more then the right of being worshiped and elaborates the meaning of Wali and proves the religion through it. In the case in 42nd Surah, the relationships or relationship meant by Wali, is unique to God, such that it's condemned right from the start of those taking Awliya (plural of Wali in this case) other then God. Part of this Wali relationship God is being the one to refer all disputes regarding guidance among humans to God, his role of judge and arbiter for humans, but many of these relationships is proven to need God to reveal a book as well send a Messenger. That is why it talks about that role of God sending a Messenger.

Naturally the context with 42:23, is that Mohammad (s) seeks no reward truly, but rather what disbelievers see as a reward is really just recognizing and loving him and his family for who they are, and then argues, that this is goodness and God will increase people in that beauty and God will forgive and appreciate those who do so. The start of the verse suggest the family and loving them is the way of faith. The next verse goes further in the defense and says suppose Mohammad (s) was a liar and forger, still, God would verify the truth with his words and so there would be guidance from him in form of scriptures and chosen ones together being the word of light brought to life and being the words of God (from plural perspective).

The Surah because of 42:23 is arguing mainly it's not about Ahlulbayt (a) and their authority which disbelievers might accuse Mohammad (s) of being greedy for fame, glory, authority and establishing a legacy in offspring of Fatima (a),but rather, God does this through Ahlulbayt (a) because he is the Wali - and argues why he would do so. So the verse has that context.

The words "Awliya' "Mawla" and "Wali" are all contextually defined. Believers relationship to one another, is such we can't do the same relationship with disbelievers. We can be friends and love non-Muslims who don't fight us, this is fine. This an act of justice and goodness per a Surah that forbids it regarding those who oppressed the Muslims and were fighting them but even said perhaps God will put love between them eventually.

We can't take intimate closeness with non-believers, but there is a word for that too.

The word 5:55 is in context of particularly the relationship some of the people of the book had over others, and that is contextual with the issue of judging by what God revealed and taking God as a judge. Because we have to judge by revelations of God - some people might look to Jews or Christian or Muslims "scholars" "priests" "rabbis" "Mullahs" etc, to understand what God revealed in his books and what was elaborated by the leaders of guidance and chosen family. The Quran argues don't take a people collectively as an authority in this sense, why? Well, because in fact, some of them as this over others, it's not that they all figured it out, and you are following a consensus people reflected over the revelations over and came to an agreement. They are divided and following different authorities of different sects. 5:55 is in context of that, and the Wali here is not about friendship at all. That would have no flow with the Surah.

There is no time God uses any of the words, in which we cannot be sure, by context what it means. The same is with the Ghadeer speech. In the Ghadeer speech, the following proves what is meant:

1. Context of Quran (the role of Quran as guidance)

2. The role of the Nabi with believers and how he compliments Quran as guidance.

3. Why Ahlulbayt is mentioned in terms of Quranic guidance.

The words "befriend who befriends him", some might be inclined to then say, see the word Mawla is obviously friend. But all this means, is loving Mohammad (S) And Ali (a) is part of the relationship of Mawla here. As stated before the word is contextual and is useful in combining many relationship by the context.

In this case, Mohammad (s) having more right over believers then themselves, is obviously included.

The word in 5:55 also includes love in terms of how people take their scholars and love them and hence, to an extent worship them, but in the case of 5:55 the love is in terms of guidance but others verses show while believers love God's chosen, their love for God is always more, while those who abandon truth and attribute God falsehood for their sake of their leaders, actually love their leaders as much or even in times more then God.

The Word Wali in 5:55 however definitely includes the role Prophets (a) of children of Israel had with respect to guiding people to the judgments of the Torah and the Laws. It definitely flows with role of Mohammad (s) judging with truth. Although society of believers in general are supposed to judge by what God revealed, the only authorities pertaining to God's judgment to be the axis to rely on is God and his chosen. This also flows all the way to God perfecting the religion and the role of Musa's (a) twelve successors as Captains and Navigators by the name of God - in which there was no other Captains to bring society to safety. The word safety I emphasize this purposely, because the word momin is also contextual, and when God uses it with respect to himself, it obviously means "Granter of security", but this is what it means in 5:55, the ones who granted security in terms of the salvation to God and bring them to safety.

In verse 33:6, the word "Awliya" refers back to "The Nabi is Awla to the believers (more so in that right and relationship) then themselves", and the Ulil-Arham are obviously his Ahlulbayt (a). The hadiths emphasize on this as well from Shiite sources, many of them, but 33:6 due to the sorcery, is read in a very odd way about different topics and the word Awliya not allowed to flow with the start which is what gives it context.

Perhaps the clearest verse of all pertaining to Ahlulbayt (a) is 33:6, but being so manifestly clear, there is plural amount - and it's his family, that have this relationship, some of them more so then others or some of them over others which according to hadiths, would mean for example Imam Hassan (a) has more right to take this role of leading society and who society must be ready to prefer the will of their Master over theirs and love serving them more then serving themselves, etc, before Imam Hussain (a) take this role.

These hadiths make total sense, and they break the sorcery, and 33:6 is beyond clear about the Wilayah of Ahlulbayt (a), the Nabi (s) being Awla contextualizing exactly what is meant by Awliya. The verses after also remind of the covenant of Prophets to truthful will be asked about their truthfulness and the punishment for hypocrites and disbelievers.

The word Wali, Awliya, and Mawla - none of their usages in Quran is ever ambiguous with room to assume different things. They are never used this way. This would be a misuse of the term which can mean anything if not defined by context. Some places, it means inheritor and it's obvious by context, that is the relationship being talked about as well as other verses that paraphrase it to mean that.
 
Top