Similarly if Islamic society wants to survive an enemy in a timely manner...

Similarly if Islamic society wants to survive an enemy in a timely manner, its command center must be secure. And if the society wants to fight the enemy, it behooves on all the groups of this society to become one to face it and be united to hit the enemy hard.

It must not happen that every group works on its own, because in such a situation what will take place is like the three people going to a grape orchard as related by Mulla and the enemy will conspire to finish them off - just like it has happened so many times in history and the Islamic history.

So if the Islamic society wants to safeguard its interests and is desirous of staying out of harm's way, its different organs need to be mellow to each other and be united; and they should become a clenched fist and a single body while facing the enemy.

In short, if the Muslims want to live with the two manifestations of Wilayat mentioned above, it is imperative that they should have a strong command center so that all the active elements of the society seek their ideological, workable, enemy-bashing and friend-kind action plan from this center.

This center should organize all the groups in the Islamic society; assign responsibilities to each one based on their capabilities; preclude any confrontation between them; and direct all forces in one direction. Such a center and personality should come from God. He should be learned, aware and infallible. He should be someone who captures all the constructive elements of Islam. He should be a manifestation of Qur'an. Such a personality in our Islamic teachings is called a Wali (super guardian).

So based on the two above-mentioned aspects the Wilayat of an Islamic society demands the presence of a Wali. This is another aspect of Wilayat. Who possesses Wilayat? The next questions arises. Do you and I hold Wilayat? It is possible that you and I have Wilayat. But does our society as a whole have Wilayat or not? Someone may ask, "aren't the two - individual and the society - one and the same?

Are they different from each other?" We will say, "First of all if an organ is intact on its own, it does not imply that the whole body is in one piece and secondly, if a whole organ is part of an incomplete body, it will not have all the qualities of a whole organ." First we need to see what sort of a person possesses Wilayat so that we know, if you and I are holders of Wilayat or not.