Abd al-Qadir al-Gillani

ʿAbd al-Qādir Gīlānī, (, formally Muḥyī l-Dīn Abū Muḥammad b. Abū Sālih ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Gīlānī al-Ḥasanī wa'l-Ḥusaynī  (, , , ), known as for short was a Hanbali Sunni Muslim preacher, orator, ascetic, mystic, sayyid, faqīh, and theologian. He was known for being the eponymous founder of the Qadiriyya tariqa (Sufi order) of Sufism.

Urs festival of Shaikh Jilani is celebrated as Gyarvi Sharif in Indian subcontinent and abroad.

Early life 
Born 29 Sha'ban 470 AH (around 1077) in the town of Na'if, district of Gilan-e Gharb, Gilan, Iran and died Monday, February 14, 1166 (11 Rabi' al-Thani 561 AH), in Baghdad, (1077–1166 CE), was a Persian Hanbali Sunni jurist and sufi based in Baghdad. The Qadiriyya tariqa is named after him. And say that he was born in Gilan Iraq, a historic village near the cities (Al-Mada'in) of 40 kilometers south of Baghdad, as evidenced by historical studies academic and adopted by the Gilan Family in Baghdad.

Name's origin 
The name Muhiyudin describes him as a "reviver of religion". Gilan (Arabic al-Jilani) refers to his place of birth, Gilan. However, Gilani also carried the epithet Baghdadi. referring to his residence and burial in Baghdad. He is also called al-Hasani wa'l-Husayni, which indicates a claim to lineal descent from both Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali may Allah be pleased with them.

Paternal heritage 
Gilani's father was from Sayyid lineage. He was respected as a saint by the people of his day, and was known as Jangi Dost "who loves God", thus "Jangidost" was his sobriquet.

Education 
Gilani spent his early life in Gilan, the town of his birth. In 1095, at the age of eighteen years, he went to Baghdad. There, he pursued the study of Hanbali law  under Abu Saeed Mubarak Makhzoomi and ibn Aqil. He was given lessons on Hadith by Abu Muhammad Ja'far al-Sarraj. His Sufi spiritual instructor was Abu'l-Khair Hammad ibn Muslim al-Dabbas. (A detailed description of his various teachers and subjects are included below). After completing his education, Gilani left Baghdad. He spent twenty-five years as a reclusive wanderer in the desert regions of Iraq.

Education in Baghdad 
At the age of 18, Gilani went to Baghdad to study the Hanbali school of fiqh.

Later life 
In 1127, Gilani returned to Baghdad and began to preach to the public. He joined the teaching staff of the school belonging to his own teacher, al-Mazkhzoomi, and was popular with students. In the morning he taught hadith and tafsir, and in the afternoon he held discourse on the science of the heart and the virtues of the Quran. He was said to have been a convincing preacher and converted numerous Jews and Christians. His strength came in the reconciling of the mystical nature of Sufism and strict nature of the Quran.

Death and burial 

Gilani died in the evening of Tuesday, February 21, 1166 (11th Rabi' al-thani 561 AH) at the age of ninety one years according to the Islamic calendar. His body was entombed in a shrine within his madrasa in Babul-Sheikh, Rusafa on the east bank of the Tigris in Baghdad, Iraq. During the reign of the Safavid Shah Ismail I, Gilani's shrine was destroyed. However, in 1535, the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent had a turba (dome) built over the shrine, which exists to this day.

Birthday & Death Anniversary celebration 
1 Ramadan is celebrated as the birthday of Abdul Qadir Gilani while the death anniversary is on 11 Rabi us Thani though some scholars and traditions say 29 Shaban and 17 Rabi us Sani as birth and death day respectively. The later is called in the Subcontinent as Giyarwee Shareef or  Honoured Day of 11th.

Books 
 Kitab Sirr al-Asrar wa Mazhar al-Anwar (The Book of the Secret of Secrets and the Manifestation of Light)

Related pages
 Jilala
 Moinuddin Chishti

Bibliography 
 
 Fifteen letters, khamsata ashara maktūban / Shaikh Abd Al-Qādir Al-Jīlānī. Translated from Persian to Arabic by Alī usāmu ́D-Dīn Al-Muttaqī. Translated from Arabic into English by Muhtar Holland.
 Kamsata ašara maktūban. First edition. ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn, ʿAlī B., ʿAbd al-Malik al- Muttaqī al-Hindī (about 1480–1567) and Muhtar Holland (1935–). Al-Baz publications, Hollywood, Florida. (1997) .
 Jalā Al-Khawātir: a collection of forty-five discourses of Shaikh Abd Al-Qādir Al-Jīlānī, the removal of cares. Chapter 23, pg 308. Jalā al-Khawātir, Holland, Muhtar (1935–) (translator). Al-Baz publications, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. (1997) .
 
 
 Al-Ghunya li-talibi tariq al-haqq wa al-din, (Sufficient provision for seekers of the path of truth and religion), Parts one and two in Arabic. Al-Qadir, Abd, Al-Gaylani. 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.) in Arabic. Introduced by Al-Kilani, Majid Irsan. Dar Al-Khair, Damascus, Bairut, (2005).
 
 Geography of the Baz Ahhab second reading in the biography of Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani, and the birthplace of his birth according to the methodology of scientific research (MA in Islamic History from Baghdad University in 2001) of Iraqi researcher Jamal al-Din Faleh Kilani, review and submission of the historian Emad Abdulsalam Rauf،Publishe Dar Baz Publishing, United States of America, 2016, translated by Sayed Wahid Al-Qadri Aref.

Notes

References

Other websites
   GOGHRAFI ALBAZ ALASHB, at archive.org.
 Revelations of the Unseen Translation of Futuh al-Ghaib, at archive.org.
 Sufficient Provision For Seekers Of The Path Of Truth Translation of parts of Al-Ghunya Li Talibi Tariq Al-Haqq, at archive.org.
 Openings from the Lord Translation of excerpts from Al-Fath Al-Rabbani, at archive.org.
 Utterances Translation of Malfuzat, at archive.org.

1077 births
1165 deaths
Asian Sufis
Muslims
Religious leaders
Iranian writers