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Born in Persia (Jilan) he came to Baghdad and studied with al-Ghazali. Was a wandering ascetic for 25 years. Died in Baghdad in Iraq 11th day of Rabi al-Thani (1166 A.D.).
Hazrat Sheikh Abdul Qadir Galani
Sheikh As Imagened By A Folower
His Resting Place
Chaddar, Despatched
From Pakistan
Golden Grills At
The Shrine
Minar At The Shrine
Of The Sheikh
His Resting Place
Inside The Premises
Wide Angle View
By Night
Minar Inside
The Premises
Amulet/Taweez prepared
by the Grand Sheikh
Sayyid Shaykh Muhyiddeen Abdul Qadir al Geylani (1077-1166) was the luminary of his time in the spiritual sciences and in the disciplines of the Divine Law. His reknown in the sciences of Sufism and shariah was so great that he came to be known as the spiritual pole of his time, al-Ghawth al-Azam.
He was born in the city of Jilan, in the northwestern province of Persia, in the year 1077 AC. At the age of eighteen he set forth for the city of Baghdad to seek the Divine Knowledge and Guidance. His first shaykhs of Divine Law were Shaykh Abul Wafa Ibn Aqil, Shaykh Muhammad bin al-Hassan al- Baqlani and Abu Zakariya Tabrizi. Under these great shaykhs he learned the Science of exegesis of Quran, the Science of the Traditions, the Science of the Life of the Prophet, theology, jurisprudence, grammar, Quranic recitation and philology. He studied the Hanbali school of jurisprudence, yet he was able to give decisions in the Shafii school as well. He memorized the Quran, not in only one form, but in all seven methods of recitation.
In his lifetime Baghdad was a cultural center for Sufism and science. Even in a time like this, Abdul Qadir al Geylani was famous in the whole Islamic world for his talks, sohbets, miracles, poems and books. From one source we know that "Hz. Geylani lived in ruins near Baghdad (Bagdat and Kerh) for twenty five years in retreat, fighting with his nafs. He left the world completely, and the last forty days he didn't eat anything." (Sadik Vicdani said in his book "Tomar- Turuk-u aliyeden Kadiriye Silsilenamesi")
After mastering thirteen discplines of the religious law and its related sciences, he then turned to the spiritual path under the guidance of Shaykh Hammad bin Muslim ad-Dabbas. He received initiation into the path of seekers under Shaykh al-Mubarak Said bin al-Hassan. Shaykh al-Mubarak Said was shaykh to most of the greatest seekers and masters in his time in Baghdad. Shaykh Abdul Qadir al Geylani received the ijaza and leadership of the tariqa at the age of fifty years old from his shaykh, Shaykh al-Mubarak Said. Not long after receiving the official title of Shaykh at-Tariqat, he was reknowned throughout the city and into the surrounding lands as a grand master and the source to which all yearning hearts must turn for guidance and illumination, guiding their hearts to the path of divine love and divine inspiration.
Sayyid Abdul Qadir relates, "Initially, only a few people would come to attend my association. As more people heard about me the school became crowded. I then used to sit in the mosque at Bab al-Hilba which became too small to hold the large numbers of people who would come to hear me. They would even come at nighttime, carrying lamps and candles to see. Finally it could no longer accommodate the crowds, and my chair of teaching was moved to the main thoroughfare and later to the outskirts of the city, becoming the new place of gathering. People would come to attend by foot, by horse, by mule, by ass and by camel. You could see seventy-thousand listeners standing in the circle in these meetings." In his gatherings, he would enjoin the people to do the good and to avoid committing wrong. His advice addressed rulers, ministers, governors, judges, his disciples and the common people. According to Ibn Kathir, the great historian, "Standing in the mosques, he reprimanded publicly the rulers who committed wrong, in the presence of all as witnesses and in his public speeches.
He avoided any sort of political appointments, never feared anyone in his speech except God Almighty and was unaffected by the reproach of anyone." Once when the caliph of the Islamic world at that time apointed an unjust person to be chief judge, Sayyid Abdul Qadir al Geylani stood up in the largest mosque in Baghdad to give the Friday sermon. He spoke in his sermon to the caliph directly. He said, "You have apointed the worst of the unjust ones to judge the affairs of Muslims! What will be your answer tomorrow in front of the Lord of the worlds, the Most Merciful of the merciful?" Upon hearing this, the caliph shook with fear. Shedding many tears, he quickly went after the prayers to dismiss that judge. Sayyid Abdul Qadir called on the people to correct themselves, to purify their hearts and to dispel excessive love of the worldly life from their hearts. He urged them to fill their hearts with the love of God and of his Messenger and his saints. He exhorted them to follow the Prophet in every deed and thought, behavior and manner, to avoid hyprocisy and pretence, to dispel pride, self-praise, hatred, enmity, jealousy, tyranny, deceitfulness and rancor from their hearts. He called on the people to break their attachments to this world and their dependence on those who are enslaved by it, and to turn themselves with their whole hearts to the Sustainer of the worlds, God Almighty, seeking His good-pleasure, His guidance and His mercy and forgiveness.
He opened the door to the people to renew their covenant with their Lord. Muslims and non-Muslims alike came forth in masses to hear him, to repent from their wrongdoing and to accept him as their leader and guide to the path of God, accepting to not associate partners with God, whether obvious or subtle, to praise God and thank Him for His bountiful favors, to follow the path of the righteous precedessors in religion and right guidance, to avoid all deviation and schisms in religion, to unify their hearts and join as one hand under the love of God and His prophets and saints. They turned their hearts from love of the worldly life to love of the Hereafter and from the pleasures of lust and fortune seeking to the pleasures of God's love and acceptance of His ordinances and prohibitions.
In one of his lectures, which it is said were attended by up to four hundred scribes, he said, "The walls of religion are falling and their foundations have cracked. Let us come together, O people of the earth and rebuild what was ruined, reestablish what fell! This is not acceptable. O Sun! O Moon! O Day! All of you come! O People, the religion is crying for aid and assistance, holding its hands above its head in its distress due to all the profligates, insolent ones, innovators, perverters of the Divine Law, the heedless folk, the unjust and tyrannical, those who falsify the Divine Knowledge and lay claim to it when in fact it is not in their hands. "O Man! How hardened your heart has become! Even a dog serves its master. He guards him, accompanies him in his walks, hunts for him, guards his herd and looks up to him with loyalty and hope that his master may grant him a couple of morsels from his repast or put something aside for him later. Reflect on that and compare it with your own fattening yourself on God's bounties, and fully satisfying your lowly desires with them, without ever obeying His commands or avoiding what He has forbidden! You do not pay Him what you owe him. You neglect His orders and you do not guard the limits of what he has ordained on you."
His Teachings
Abdul-Qadir al Geylani once gave his disciples the following order, "Slaughter a chicken in a place where no one can see you and return with it to me. Some people took the order literally and thought that they merely had to keep this a secret. After a few hours, the disciples came back, each with his slaughtered chicken. At the time of the evening prayer one of them was still missing. He had not as yet shown up. The shaykh said, "Where is so-and-so? No one knew. The time for the night prayer came and went. The next day came and still no one knew what had happened to the missing disciple. In the afternoon of the next day the disciple came with the chicken in his hand, but the chicken was still unslaughtered. The shaykh asked him, "Where were you all this time? Everyone brought their slaughtered chicken to me except you. Why is that? He answered, "O my shaykh, your order to me was to slaughter this chicken in a place where no one can see you. I tried all day yesterday and all night and all morning today to find a place where God is not present, where the Prophet (pbuh) is not present, and where you are not present, and I could not find such a place. How could I slaughter the chicken? Shaykh Abdul Qadir said, " Some of you took the order literally, but you did not keep in your heart that I am with my disciples, whereever they may be. Others thought, "Our shaykh is greedy and wants to stock up on chicken. It is bad manners on your behalf to think in such a way. But your brother here knows that I am in his heart twenty-four hours and that I never leave him. His only desire was to obey my order and to keep my respect, not seeking to understand the reason for the order or to try to discover its purpose. My son here is my successor who will teach you the proper code of conduct and be a good example for you to follow."
Abdul Qadir al Geylani gave ten rules for his dervishes who wanted
to mature themselves and control their nafs:
01. Jokingly or seriously, don't lie, because once your tongue avoids lying Allah, the Most High, enlarges your chest and purifies your understanding and ilm. That person becomes as if they don't know what a lie is. Everything becomes truth to him. When he hears other people lie, the dervish should pray for them not to lie.
02. The dervish has to keep his promise at all times unless he has a very good excuse. He must avoid not keeping his promise because not keeping the promise is in the same class as lying. As long as the servant of Allah tries to keep his/her promise, the generosity door and modesty windows open to him/her. Loyal lovers of Allah love him/her and he/she gets to a higher place in Allah's presence.03. The dervish should avoid cursing or harming humans and the other created beings (from bugs to jinn) because avoiding cursing or harming is the character of the good and loyal friends of Allah. If a person is like this, Allah protects him/her and his/her end will be good. He/she will reach to high levels in Allah's presence. Allah will protect him or her from being destroyed. Allah keeps people from harming him/her. Allah rewards that person with being a blessing to human beings and being close to Allah's essence.
04. Even though a person has harmed or wronged him, the dervish should not pray badly about that person or curse him. Even if the dervish is wronged, he/she shouldn't damn anyone, whether by word or action. The dervish should put up with this and be patient for Allah's sake. This virtue takes the owner to high levels in this world and in the next. This person will be loved by people who are far away or nearby.
05. The dervish should not blame other believers with attributing partners to Allah, with disbelief, or causing trouble between people. This attitude is close to mercy. This will make the owner of this attitude reach high levels.
06. The dervish should not sin, inwardly (heart) or outwardly. He/She should avoid eating things that are not halal and protect all the organs of his/her body from sin. This state is the best deed you can send to your eternal life from this world. May Allah give all of us this beautiful state and bless us with these good deeds and take the lust out of our hearts.
07. The dervish should earn his/her own livelihood and not to be a burden on people who are independent of him/her. Because of this virtue, the fear of Allah will make their worship complete and honorable.
08. The dervish does not expect anything from people, or want what belongs to other people. The biggest honor and wealth, the highest levels, and what is most useful is to put one's whole trust in Allah only. Only with this attitude can the dervish be pious. Worship matures with this attitude. This is the action of those who give themselves to Allah.
09. With humility, the dervish reaches high levels and stays at the high level. This is the base of the goodness and the highest level of goodness. With this virtue, when the servant is in troubled times, Allah's lovers stay with him. The Pirs and walis (saints) visit him in the unseen and give him help. Humility is seeing everybody you meet as higher than you and thinking that they might be closer to Allah than you are. If the person the dervish meets is younger, he should say, "He didn't rebel against Allah; I did. I am sure he or she is better than I." If the person the dervish meets is older, he or she says, "That person has worshipped Allah longer than I have. This person might have reached levels I have not been able to reach. Maybe Allah has let them know things I haven't been allowed to know yet." If the person you meet is ignorant, than the dervish says, "This person rebelled against Allah because he was ignorant; I rebelled against Allah knowingly. I don't know what is going to happen at the end to me or to him/her." If the dervish meets a disbeliever or agnostic, the dervish says, "Maybe one day this disbeliever will become a Muslim and do better deeds than I, and he might end up in a better place than I and I might be misled and end up in a worse place." If a person acts with humility like this, Allah, the Most High, saves him or her from hardships and makes the dervish reach to the level of those who give advice for Allah's sake. He will be the closest friend of Allah the most merciful.
10. Intentionally or unintentionally, telling the truth or telling a lie, by mistake or on purpose, we should not take Allah's name in vain or swear anything in the name of Allah. You shouldn't get your tongue used to swearing. Allah will open a door where the dervish will be known among his friends as truthful, honest, having good character, and his neighbors will say what a good and helpful person he is. He will be respected among human beings.
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