general in scope?

Is the hadith narrated by many ordinary people authentic, in which they say that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“No group gathers without there being among them a close friend of Allah: neither do the people recognize him, nor does he himself know that he is a close friend of Allah”?

Can the condition or way of Allah’s close friends be hidden from scholars or others? Why is a close friend of Allah called a walī, and what is meant by walī? Who are the poor who will enter Paradise before the rich? And who are the poor whom Allah commended to our care in His words, and whom the foremost of His creation and the last of His prophets and messengers, Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, mentioned in his Sunnah? Are they those who lack sufficient means to meet their needs—the destitute and needy—or not?

Shaykh al-Islām Taqī al-Dīn Abū al-Abbās Ahmad ibn Taymiyya—may Allah be pleased with him—gave the following response in his own hand:

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. The suffa, the shaded platform after which Ahl al-Suffa among the Prophet’s Companions were named, was at the rear of the Prophet’s Mosque, on its northern side, in Medina, the city of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Poor Muslims who had neither a family nor a place to stay would take shelter there. This was because Allah, glorified and exalted be He, commanded His Prophet