Wafāʾ
Definition
Wafaʾ is the quality of keeping faith with friends — maintaining the relationship through absence and change, not allowing friendships to decay through neglect, and remembering obligations to friends when it would be easier to forget them. Al-Ghazali describes wafa as the virtue that distinguishes genuine brotherhood from social utility: the person who is your friend only when you are useful, entertaining, or prestigious, and who disappears when you are struggling, sick, or diminished, has demonstrated that they were not a friend at all but a skilled social transactor. True wafa shows itself most clearly in the moments when sustaining the friendship costs something.
As understood in the classical tradition of Imam al-Ghazali and the scholars of his school.
How the scholars use Wafāʾ.
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"No one who seeks to advise themselves should ignore them Letting themselves fall into sins and relying solely on hope and good expectations Abu al-wafa ibn aqeel said Beware and do not be deceived for a hand was severed for three dirhams and the prescribed punishment was lashed for the amount of wine that would fit on a needle's head a Woman entered the fire because of a cat and a cloak became a flame around the one who misappropriated it during battle yet was martyred Imam Ahmad shared a story a Man entered paradise because of a fly and another entered the fire because of a fly When asked how this was possible the Messenger of Allah explained"
— Ibn al-Qayyim, The Disease and The Cure
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"Abu Sheikh Ibn Hibban included it in the book "Akhlaq Rasul Allah" [Character of the Messenger of Allah], and it is transmitted via Ibn al-Jawzi in "Al-Wafa," though there is weakness in his narration. Ibn Hibban reported it in his "Sahih" through the narration of Abdul-Malik ibn Abi Sulayman from ‘Ata’ without her saying, “All of his affairs were astonishing,” and Muslim reported it from ‘Urwa from Aisha focusing on the end of the hadith."
— Imam al-Ghazali, Book 32: Patience and Gratitude
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"The hadith narrated by Hasan about the old woman was reported by al-Tirmidhi in his Shamail as a mursal and was narrated by Ibn al-Jawzi in "Al-Wafa" with a weak chain from Anas. The hadith of Zayd ibn Aslam regarding Umm Ayman and the story of the whiteness in her husband's eyes was narrated by al-Zubayr ibn Bakkar and by Ibn Abi al-Dunya with variations."
— Imam al-Ghazali, Book 24: Evils of the Tongue
Appears in
1 book in the library
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