Encyclopedia of Islam

wali

  

707  J

---

tomb, sacrificing 

animals

, and leaving offerings. 

Pilgrims seek the saint’s blessing, intercession in 

fulfilling personal requests of God such as healing 

and fertility, or a mystical experience.

Though some literalist Muslims, influenced 

by the writings of the jurist t

aqi

 

al

-d

in

  a

hmad

i

bn

 t

aymiyya

 (d. 1328), are opposed to such ven-

eration on the grounds that Islam does not allow 

human 

intercession

  between an individual and 

God, saints throughout the Islam world continue 

to inspire the admiration of Muslims.

See also 

martyrdom

; 

miracle

; 

prayer

; 

prophets

and

 

prophethood

; 

walaya

Mark Soileau

Further reading: Farid al-Din Attar, Muslim Saints and 

Mystics: Episodes from the Tadhkirat al-Auliya (“Memo-

rial of the Saints”). Translated by A. J. Arberry (New 

York: Arkana, 1990); Michael Gilsenan, Saint and Sufi 

in Modern Egypt: An Essay in the Sociology of Religion

(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973); Bernd Radtke and 

John O’Kane, The Concept of Sainthood in Early Islamic 

Mysticism: Two Works by Al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi (Rich-

mond, U.K.: Curzon Press, 1996); Grace Martin Smith 

and Carl W. Ernst, Manifestations of Sainthood in Islam

(Istanbul: Isis Press, 1993).