The Sūfīs have always declared and believed themselves to be God’s chosen people. The Koran refers in several places to His elect. According to the author of the _Kitāb al-Lumaʿ_, this title belongs, firstly, to the prophets, elect in virtue of their sinlessness, their inspiration, and their apostolic mission; and secondly, to certain Moslems, elect in virtue of their sincere devotion and self-mortification and firm attachment to the eternal realities: in a word, the saints. While the Sūfīs are the elect of the Moslem community, the saints are the elect of the Sūfīs. The Mohammedan saint is commonly known as a _walī_ (plural, _awliyā_). This word is used in various senses derived from its root-meaning of ‘nearness’; _e.g._ next of kin, patron, protector, friend. It is applied in the Koran to God as the protector of the Faithful, to angels or idols who are supposed to protect their worshippers, and to men who are regarded as being specially under divine protection. Mohammed twits the Jews with professing to be _protégés_ of God (_awliyā lillāh_). Notwithstanding its somewhat equivocal associations, the term was taken over by the Sūfīs and became the ordinary designation of persons whose holiness brings them near to God, and who receive from Him, as tokens of His peculiar favour, miraculous gifts (_karāmāt_, χαρίσματα); they are His friends, on whom “no fear shall come and they shall not grieve”;[13] any injury done to them is an act of hostility against Him. [13] Kor. =10.= 63. The inspiration of the Islamic saints, though verbally distinguished from that of the prophets and inferior in degree, is of the same kind. In consequence of their intimate relation to God, the veil shrouding the supernatural, or, as a Moslem would say, the unseen world, from their perceptions is withdrawn at intervals, and in their fits of ecstasy they rise to the prophetic level. Neither deep learning in divinity, nor devotion to good works, nor asceticism, nor moral purity makes the Mohammedan a saint; he may have all or none of these things, but the only indispensable qualification is that ecstasy and rapture which is the outward sign of ‘passing-away’ from the phenomenal self. Any one thus enraptured (_majdhūb_) is a _walī_,[14] and when such persons are recognised through their power of working miracles, they are venerated as saints not only after death but also during their lives. Often, however, they live and die in obscurity. Hujwīrī tells us that amongst the saints “there are four thousand who are concealed and do not know one another and are not aware of the excellence of their state, being in all circumstances hidden from themselves and from mankind.” [14] _Waliyyat_, if the saint is a woman.