62أَلا إِنَّ أَولِياءَ اللَّهِ لا خَوفٌ عَلَيهِم وَلا هُم يَحزَنونَMuhammad AsadOh, verily, they who are close to God1 - no fear need they have, and neither shall they grieve:The verb waliya (from which the noun wali, pl. awliya', is derived) signifies, primarily, the nearness or closeness of one thing to another: thus, God is spoken of in the Qur'an (e.g., in 2:257 and 3:68) as being "near unto (wali) those who believe". Although the term wali, when applied to God, as well as to the relationship between one created being and another, is often used in the Qur'an in the sense of "helper", "friend", "protector", "guardian", etc., none of these secondary meanings can properly - i.e., without offending against the reverence due to God - describe man's attitude to, or relationship with, Him. Consequently, the above reference to the believers as awliyd' of God is best rendered as "they who are close to God", in the sense of their being always conscious of Him. This rendering has the support of almost all the classical commentators.