Close friends of Allah are very much so scattered amongst the people and you don’t know who they are. In fact, some of the Awliya Allah themselves don’t know that they’re wali of Allah. They don’t quite understand how much Allah loves them and how they could have ascended in those ranks.

Three ways that ulemas mentioned that a person attains that status of wilayah of that special friendship with Allah Subhanahu wa’ta’ala. The one that the prophet (saw) narrated and Hadith in qudsi that whoever takes wali of mine someone that is  beloved to me of mine, that special friend of mine as an enemy, I will wage war on him.

Ambiya & Awliya they’re hidden. Ali (ra) said Allah has hidden two things amongst people; He’s hidden His pleasure in His Good Deed. So you don’t know which of the Good Deeds the one that unlocks His pleasure is. And Allah has hidden his Awliya; special friends amongst the people.

There are three things that allow a person to attain that state. The first one is that you do, you fulfill the obligations  and you do good until you taste the sweetness of that good which is the pleasure of Allah and that becomes your unique driving force and The pleasure of Allah becomes your exclusive driving force in life.

And now you start to do the voluntary Deeds until Allah loves you. Until Allah loves you with that exclusive Special Love.

Second one, Is that the sincerity of your repentance? It’s actually a more sudden one, a person makes a sincere repentance to Allah subhanahu wa’ta’ala for Allah subhanaw Taala.

The third one is Allah tests you with a major tragedy. Allah takes away something from you and through that tragedy you do… which is to seek the reward and the reward is Allah’spleasure.

He knows that worldly status is not what conveys, confers status on a person but he had a special status with Allah subhanahu wa’ta’ala, so he said well I ask you by your love for me that you would allow rain to come upon all of us. Ibn Abbas (ra) said I was the only one close enough to that man where I could hear his Dua and as soon as he finished making that dua, started to rain upon all of us.

I looked at him and I thought who is this man? Subhanallah simple servant of Allah subhanahu wa’ta’ala, he was not a alam, wasn’t a scholar. He wasn’t giving kutbah (sermon). He wasn’t someone that was known he didn’t have any prominence, but he had a status with Allah.

If a person reaches that position, it is special and sometimes again, you don’t know.

-Shaykh Omar Suleiman