ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on walaya, an essential concept in Shi'i Islam. Shi'ism is frequently called "the religion of walaya", and the Shia willingly call themselves the "people of walaya". Walaya, in its Shi'i technical sense, has two principal meanings: one relates to the imam, the other to his faithful follower. Walaya refers to the sacred function of the imams and in this sense is the equivalent of the imamate; that is, the temporal and spiritual guidance of the faithful. Walaya also refers to the essential nature of the imam, his ontological status; that is, his reality as a theophany of the revealed God. For the Shia walaya in its technical acceptation has several distinct meanings that are still complementary and interdependent: the imamate, the love of the imam, and the theology of the Cosmic Imam as divine theophany.
