وليّ
Waliyy
Friend, ally or protector; used of one close to Allah and often rendered saint, with the plural awliya
What it means
Waliyy comes from a root meaning to be near. It means a friend, ally, patron or protector. The Quran says that Allah is the waliyy of the believers (2:257) and speaks of the awliyāʾ of Allah, on whom there is no fear and who do not grieve (10:62). The next verse describes them as those who believe and fear Allah (10:63). In English the word is often rendered “saint”, and Muslims use it of pious people believed to be close to Allah. Islam has no process of canonisation and no clergy, and every believer who has faith and taqwā belongs to the awliyāʾ. The word walī is also used for a guardian, as in marriage.
Often misunderstood as
That it means saint in the Christian sense of a canonised person, when Islam has no canonisation.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 47, listed as WALIYY. The definition is restated here.