Abdul-Qadir Gilani
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‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani ibn Salih ibn Jangidost, (Persian: عبد القادر گیلانی Abdolɢāder Gilāni) (also spelled Abdulqadir Gaylani, Abdelkader, Abdul Qadir, Abdul Khadir - Jilani, Jeelani, Jilali, Gailani, Gillani, Gilani,Al Gilani) (470-561 A.H.)(1077-1166 A.D.) was a Persian[1] Sunni Shafi/Hanbali preacher, Sufi sheikh and the figurehead of the Qadiri Sufi order. He was born on the 1st Ramadan in 470 A.H., 1078 A.D., in the Persian province of Gilan (Iran) south of the Caspian Sea. Since the Persian "G" does not exist in Arabic, his name has also been recorded as Kilani and Jilani in Arabic manuscripts.
Gilani belongs to the spiritual chain of Junayd Baghdadi. His contribution to thought in the Muslim world earned him the title Muhiyuddin (Lit. "The reviver of the faith"), as he along with his students and associates laid the ground work for the society which later produced stalwarts like Nur ad-Din and Saladin. His Sufi order named after him is generally thought to be the oldest and first of such orders.
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[edit] Biography
He was born in 1078 A.D. (471 A.H.) in a small town of Iranian Gilan Province. Many Muslims scholar claim him as a sharif and a blood relative to the Prophet Muhammad but such a claim has little likelihood and he was of Persian origin[2][3][4][5][6]. His complete name reads Muhyi ad-Din 'Abd al-Qadir son of Abu Salih son of Jenki-Dost (Jangi-Dost) al-Jili. Jangi-Dost is a Persian name and one tradition makes him spend eleven years in a tower which ever since bears the name Burj al-'Ajami 'The Persian Tower'[7].
[edit] Education
He spent his early life in the town of his birth. At the age of eighteen he went to Baghdad (1095), where he pursued the study of Hanbali law under several teachers. The Shaik received lessons on Fiqh from Abu Ali al-Mukharrimi, Hadith from Abu-Bakar-bin-Muzaffar, and tafsir from the renowned commentator, Abu Muhammad Jafar.
In Tasawwuf (The sciences of the heart), his spiritual instructor was Shaikh Abu'l-Khair Hammad bin Muslim al-Dabbas. From him, he received his basic training, and with his help he set out on the spiritual journey.
After completion of education, Abdul Qadir Jilani abandoned the city of Baghdad, and spent twenty-five years as a wanderer in the desert regions of Iraq as a recluse.[8]
[edit] Later life
He was over fifty years old by the time he returned to Baghdad in 1127, and began to preach in public. He moved into the school belonging to his old teacher al-Mukharrimii, there he engaged himself in teaching. Soon he became popular with his pupils. In the morning he taught hadith and tafsir, and in the afternoon held discourse on science of the hearts and the virtues of the Qur'an.
He busied himself for forty years in the service of Islam from 521 to 561 AH. During this period hundreds of Thousands of people converted to Islam because of him and organized several teams to go abroad for dawah purposes.
[edit] Death
Gilani died on Saturday night 1166 (11th Rabi' al-thani 561AH on the Islamic calendar) at the age of eighty-nine years, and was entombed in a shrine within his Madrassa in Baghdad.[9][10][11] His Shrine and Mosque are in what used to be the school he preached in, located in Babul-Sheikh, Resafa (East bank of the Tigris) in Baghdad, Iraq.
[edit] Family
The Shaikh had four virtuous wives and forty nine children, twenty seven sons and twenty two daughters. The most famous of his sons are Shaikh Abdul-Wahab, Sheikh Abdul-Razzaq, Shaikh Abdul-Aziz, Shaikh Isa, Shaikh Musa, Sheikh Yahya, Sheikh Abdullah, Sheikh Muhammed and Sheikh Ibrahim. His sons, and grandsons reached the Indian sub-continent through out the years preaching Islam in his method (Arabic=Tareqa,طريقة). As they have reached the Western part of the Arab world of North Africa and Morocco, and parts of Habesha (Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea).
[edit] Culture
He died on the 11th of Rabi' al-thani. He was born in late Sha'aban or early Ramadhan for he was known as an infant to abstain from suckling during the day of Ramadhan.[12].
The anniversary of his birth is referred to in South Asia as Gyarveen Sharif (The Noble Eleventh) and celebrated at places where people who revere sufis gather in addition to, and sometimes with as much pomp as, the urs or death anniversary of the locally-revered pir. This is also sometimes extended to the 11th of every month in the Hijri calendar. This has its base in the Prophet's visiting the graves of the martyrs of Uhud every year on the day of the battle. On this occasion, every person, most of all the poor are fed by the affluent class as there is much reward for feeding the poor. Also, many leaders and followers of the Qadiri sufi tariqa named after Shaikh himself, believe that the Shaikh (i.e Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani) is given by Almighty Allah, the rank of Ghawth Al A'azam (Lit. The Supreme Helper), as there is no harm in asking for help from one who is qualified to help, what is termed as istighatha (Lit. asking for help) as shown by this Hadith recorded and mentioned by none other than Ahmad ibn Hanbal (whose school of Fiqh the Shaikh follows):
The Prophet taught a blind man to pray for sight in the following words: "O Allah! I am asking you and turning to You with your Prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam), the Prophet of Mercy. O Muhammad (ya Muhammad)! I am turning with You to my Lord regarding my present need (According to another version-I am asking my Lord with your intercession concerning the return of my sight), so that He will fulfill my need. O Allah! Allow Him to intercede with You for me."
This Hadith has been narrated by Ahmad, Tirmidhi, Nasai, Ibn Majah, Hakim, Tabarani and declared to be Sahih i.e. rigorously-authenticated by 15 Hadith-Experts including the likes of Dhahabi, Shawkani and most of all Ibn Taimiyah as given in The Reliance of the Traveler.
[edit] Works
Some of Jilani's more well known works include:
- Al-Ghunya li-talibi tariq al-haqq wa al-din (Sufficient Provision for Seekers of the Path of Truth and Religion)
- Al-Fath ar-Rabbani (The Sublime Revelation)
- Malfuzat (Utterances)
- Futuh al-Ghaib (Revelations of the Unseen)
- Jala' al-Khatir (The Removal of Care)
[edit] Bibliography
- Utterances of Shaikh Abd al-Qadir al-Jīlānī (Malfūzāt) / transl. from the Arabic by Muhtar Holland Malfūzāt
Author: Muhtar Holland (1935-) Year: 1994, Publisher: Kuala Lumpur : S. Abdul Majeed & Co, ISBN 1-88221-603-2
- Fifteen letters, khamsata ashara maktūban / Shaikh Abd Al-Qādir Al-Jīlānī ; translated from the Persian into Arabic by Alī usāmu ́D-Dīn Al-Muttaqī ; and from Arabic into English by Muhtar Holland, Kamsata ašara maktūban
Author: ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn ʿAlī b. ʿAbd al-Malik al- Muttaqī al-Hindī (ca1480-1567); Muhtar Holland (1935-) Year: c1997 Edition: 1st ed Publisher: Hollywood, Fla : Al-Baz Pub ISBN 1-88221-616-4
- The removal of cares = Jalā Al-Khawātir : a collection of forty-five discoures / Shaikh Abd Al-Qādir Al-Jīlānī ; transl. from the Arabic by Muhtar Holland
Jalā al-Khawātir Author: Muhtar Holland (1935-) Year: c1997 Publisher: Ft. Lauderdale, Fla : Al-Baz Pub Extent: xxiii, 308 p Size: 22 cm ISBN 1-88221-613-X
- The Sultan of the saints : mystical life and teachings of Shaikh Syed Abdul Qadir Jilani / Muhammad Riaz Qadiri
Author: Muhammad Riyaz Qadiri Year: 2000, Publisher: Gujranwala : Abbasi Publications, Size: 22 cm, ISBN 969-851016-8
- The sublime revelation = al-Fath ar-Rabbānī : a collection of sixty-two discourses / Abd al-Qādir al- Jīlānī ; transl. from the Arabic by Muhtar Holland, al-Fath al-Rabbānī
Year: 1998 Edition: 2nd ed, Publisher: Ft. Lauderdale : Al-Baz Publishing, ISBN 1-88221-602-4
- Al-Ghunya li-talibi tariq al-haqq wa al-din (Sufficient Provision for Seekers of the Path of Truth and Religion) ,(Arabic),PartI,II,Abd Al-Qadir Al-Gaylani,Pub.Dar Al-Hurya, Baghdad, Iraq, 1988.
- Al-Ghunya li-talibi tariq al-haqq wa al-din (Sufficient Provision for Seekers of the Path of Truth and Religion)
(Arabic), Introdused by Dr. Majid Irsan Al-Kilani, Pub. Dar Al-Khair, Damascus-Bairut, 2005.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Philip Khuri Hitti, "Islam, a way of life ", University of Minnesota Press (August 12, 1970). pg 64: "The earliest and most attractive Sufi order was al-Qadiri, named after its founder, the Persian ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jili (al-Jilani 1077-1166)
- ^ Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics: Volume 1. A - Art. Part 1. A - Algonquins By James Hastings, John A Selbie Published by Adamant Media Corporation, 2001. pg 10:"and he was probably of Persian origin"
- ^ J. Spencer Trimingham, John O. Voll, "The Sufi Orders in Islam", Edition: 2, reprint, illustrated, revised Published by Oxford University Press US, 1998. pg 32: "The Hanbali Qadirriya is also included since 'Abd al-Qadir, of Persian origin was contemporary of the other two
- ^ Julia Ashtiany, J. D. Latham, "ʻAbbasid belles-lettres", Published by Cambridge University Press, 1990. pg 236: "Hanbali theologian, preacher and saint; of Iranian origin, he lived and taught in Baghdad; an important sufi center is named for him.
- ^ Philip Khuri Hitti , "Islam, a way of life ", University of Minnesota Press (August 12, 1970) . pg 64: "The earliest and most attractive Sufi order was al-Qadiri, named after its founder the Persian 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jili (al-Jilani 1077-1166)
- ^ Michael D. Coogan, "The Illustrated Guide to World Religions", Published by Oxford University Press US, 2003. pg 102: "Historians usually see the Qadirriya as among the first of the major Sufi orders to emerge. The name derives from Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani (1077-1166), a Persian scholar and preacher, whose sermon in Baghdad are said to have attracted a wide following
- ^ Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics: Volume 1. A - Art. Part 1. A - Algonquins By James Hastings, John A Selbie Published by Adamant Media Corporation, 2001. pg 10-11.
- ^ Abd-al-Haqq, Akbar, p.11
- ^ Al-Ghunya li-talibi tariq al-haqq wa al-din (Sufficient Provision for Seekers of the Path of Truth and Religion) ,(Arabic),PartI,II,Abd Al-Qadir Al-Gaylani,Pub.Dar Al-Hurya, Baghdad, Iraq, 1988. ,Al-Ghunya li-talibi tariq al-haqq wa al-din (Sufficient Provision for Seekers of the Path of Truth and Religion) (Arabic), Introduced by Dr. Majid Irsan Al-Kilani, Pub. Dar Al-Khair, Damascus-Bairut, 2005
- ^ Majid 'Ursan al-Kilani, Nash'at al-Tariqat al-Qadiriyah
- ^ The Qadirya Shrine, Baghdad (PDF)
- ^ Al-Ghunya li-talibi tariq al-haqq wa al-din (Sufficient Provision for Seekers of the Path of Truth and Religion) ,(Arabic),PartI,II,Abd Al-Qadir Al-Gaylani,Pub.Dar Al-Hurya, Baghdad, Iraq, 1988. ,Al-Ghunya li-talibi tariq al-haqq wa al-din (Sufficient Provision for Seekers of the Path of Truth and Religion) (Arabic), Introduced by Dr. Majid Irsan Al-Kilani, Pub. Dar Al-Khair, Damascus-Bairut, 2005
[edit] External links
- International Qadiri Order
- Website regarding Sarwari Qadri Order (Hazrat Sultan Bahu R.A)
- Website regarding Shaykh Abdul-Qadri al-Gilani and his descendants.
- A complete website regarding Ghaus ul Azam and Gilani Syeds.
- Website dedicated to the Lovers & Followers of the Great Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani
- Articles on mysticism of Ibn Arabi from Ibn Arabi Society
- Website dedicated to Shaikh Muhyi'din 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani from www.al-baz.com
- A Site of Web Links About Ghouse Azam Dastagir rz.
- Ghauth ul Azam
- Website of prominent Qadri Shaykh Hazrat Abu Anees Muhammad Barkat Ali (QSA)
- [1][2][3] Excerpts/Books by Abdul Qadir Jilani
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