Abdāl, the plural of badal or bidl meaning ‘substitute’ or ‘successor’, which can also mean ‘generous’ (karīm) and ‘noble’ (sharīf). This name is given to a group of God's servants who, amongst the awliyāʾ (‘friends of God’, saints), have attained a special spiritual station. The term attained particular importance in Sufi literature. The abdāl are deemed to comprise a group of a fixed number of individuals, such that whenever one of them dies, his place is filled by someone fr…