Could Huzoor most kindly elaborate the difference between Gauze, Qutub and Abdal? Further kindly, advise us briefly about some persons who attain this status. These are all terms of Sufiya to denote some very pious people on whom as if the world of spirituality is resting. So of all these names we have only one name mentioned in tradition of the Holy Prophet peace be upon him and that is Abdal.
The word Abdal has been mentioned in traditions and also we find at one time when Hazrat Ali was present and somebody cursed the people of Syria and he forbade him to curse the people of Syria because he said there are Abdal of God living in Syria. So don’t curse generally the people of Syria. Also in Hazrat Masih Maud’s revelation we find this mention Yaduna laka Abdal us-Shamay Yaduna we have, I know. There would also be Usulun but Yaduna is definitely there. Yaduna laka Abdal us-Shamay Abdal us-Sham are praying for you.
So that is to say the word Abdal has a religious sanction. It is a religious authority. Now Abdal are according to the common knowledge for that we have no Quranic or the traditional authority but according to the common saying of Sufiya and the general belief there are 70 in number and out of 70, 40 must always live in Syria and 30 should be spread over the world. This is just fiction, no reality in this, no truth. In fact the only solid thing which is acceptable to logic and reason has been mentioned by Hazrat Masih Maud about Abdal and he has explained in detail the meaning of Abdal.
The word Badal means to change and Hazrat Masih Maud A.S. has mentioned that this term Abdal applies to those people who have transformed themselves and these are the people who are referred to by A.S. as Abdal. If somebody, you know everybody is changing slowly either towards evil or towards good but if there is a revolutionary change and if that revolutionary change occurs in the direction of goodness then that phenomenon is described as Badal and such people are called Abdal who has completely abandoned his previous way of life and become entirely godly.
So Hazrat Masih Maud A.S. has given us, told to us the significance of this word and as I have already told you this tradition regarding Syria, it must be correct because Hazrat Masih Maud A.S. has also been shown by Allah that there are some very pious people in Syria who have transformed their lives for the sake of Allah. And other thing about Qutub Qutub is in fact the name of the pole star, the lord star or pole star that is called Qutub.
So anyone among the religious you know as I should say among the holy people who has risen beyond everyone else in his time and acquired a position of being in the middle of that universe, religious universe he is called a Qutub who does not change his position who is fixed from whom people can take direction and who is strongly rooted in truth such people are called Aqtab but it is said that there is one Qutub-ul-Aqtab as well normally speaking according to the meaning of this word there should be just one Qutub but according to Sufi belief generally there are more than one Qutub there are Aqtab that is the plural of Qutub there is not just one religious pole star but according to them there may be many but one among them is Qutub-ul-Aqtab he is the pole star of pole stars the very central figure, the middle one and they say that in every age there has to be one Qutub or the heaven would fall on earth everything would go topsy-turvy and finished and chaos would result if that Qutub is not found in every age also in the tradition about Abdal is mentioned that Abdal would always be there in the world and the world would never be without Abdal.
So that prediction of A.S. has been by these Sufis transferred to the word Qutub as well but in reality the only religious authority about the constant presence of some holy man is the religious authority of A.S. and according to that authority out of all these terms it is only Abdal who must be found at every juncture of human history and without which the world would be dead Ghaus is another term Ghaus means the one who comes to redress something if somebody has been wronged has been ill-treated and he invokes somebody else’s help some powerful man’s help the one who redresses such a wrong is called Ghaus Istirasa is a commonly used word in Urdu as well.
When an istirasa is made against police atrocities and so on so Ghaus has acquired a meaning which is very close to this literal meaning it is said about the Ghaus as a term that if you address him directly and if you are in trouble he can come to your aid and come to your help even if he is dead so this is why Hazrat Abdul Qadir Jilani is called Ghaus-e-Azam Ya Ghaus Abdul Qadir Jilani is the common manner of addressing him and ordinary people among the Muslims believe many among them that whenever they say Ya Ghaus al-Madar immediately Hazrat Abdul Qadir Jilani comes to aid them all this is fiction.
There is no truth in it whatsoever the only true meaning if the word is to be taken seriously lies in the direction of their helping the wrongful people the sinful people and getting them out of this predicament being prisoners of evil this is if at all there is a meaning to the word Ghaus an acceptable meaning the only acceptable meaning is this otherwise no Ghaus can come to anybody’s help even if he is alive from a distance as it is said interfering in the decree of God all this is hocus pocus imagination and myth and no Ahmadi should believe in such a thing but Ghaus as a term in Islam by the knowledgeable people should be applied to such pious people who have a large benefit in all directions giving the suffering sinful humanity and coming to their aid
