I asked: O my Lord, who is this Wali of Yours?

I asked: O my Lord, who is this Wali of Yours? He replied: It is the one who has made a covenant of Wilayat for you, for your successor and your progeny.”[^3] As you have understood this, we say: There is no doubt in the necessity of love and devotion to the Awliya of Allah and the necessity of hatred and enmity to the enemies of Allah. Rather it is a fundamental requirement of our faith. Reason and religious texts also prove this. As for reason: Perhaps there is no reason to discuss this.

As for religion: There are widely related texts ( Mutawatir ) about it but we shall be content by quoting only some of them, for good augury: In Kafi through an authentic chain of narrators it is mentioned from His Eminence, Abu Ja’far the Second, Imam Jawad (as) from his father from his grandfather that Amirul Momineen (as) said: The Messenger of Allah (S) said: “The Almighty Allah created Islam, appointed for it a field, a light, a fort and a help.” “The breadth of the field of Islam is Qur’an, its light is wisdom and its fort is good deeds and charitable acts.

And as for its helpers and supporters it is me, my family and our Shias. So have love for my family and their Shias because when I was taken up to the sky of the world in Me’raaj , Jibraeel introduced to me the folks of the heavens, the Almighty Allah has entrusted to the hearts of the angels love for my family and their Shias and it is a trust with them till Judgment Day. Then he brought me to the inhabitants of the earth and introduced the people of the world to me.

So Allah, the Mighty and Sublime kept in the hearts of the believers of my Ummah love for me, my family and their Shias. On the basis of this, the believers of my Ummah guard our trust till Judgment Day.

Know that if someone from my Ummah worships Allah, the Mighty and Sublime, all his life, but meets Him having hatred of my family and his Shias, the Almighty Allah has not expanded his heart but with hypocrisy.”[^4] In the same way it is mentioned in Kafi through his own chain of narrators from Yaqoob bin Zahak from one of our companions that Siraj, a servant of His Eminence, Abu Abdillah Sadiq (as) said: “Imam Ja’far Sadiq (as) was in Hira when he sent me and a group of his followers…till he said: Thus we returned.

Mention was made of some people. I said: May I be sacrificed on you, we seek aloofness from them as they are not having the same beliefs as us.