Baraka
The Arabic word for blessing, treated in North African and Sufi practice as a power that rests in saints, shrines and their objects.
Also: barakah, barakat, blessing power
Baraka means blessing in Arabic. In Morocco and across the Maghreb, and in Sufi practice more widely, it is understood as a power from God that can rest in a person, a place, a food or an object. A saint, called a wali or marabout, is believed to have it in life, and his tomb to retain it, which is why visitors touch the shrine, tie cloth to a nearby tree, or carry away a bit of earth. A descendant of the Prophet, a sharif, is also thought to hold some. Reformist Muslims object to treating anything as a source of blessing besides God. Anthropologists such as Clifford Geertz and Ernest Gellner have studied it as the basis of authority in Moroccan society.