Abdul Qadir Gilani

**ʿAbd al-Qādir Gīlānī**, (, formally **Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Qādir ibn ʾAbī Sālih al-Gīlānī al-Ḥasanī** (, (, (, (), 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.

## 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.

### Paternal heritage

Gilani's father was from  Sharif's Al-Hassani lineage. He was respected as a sheikh 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.
|Subject|Shaykh (Teacher)|
| --- | --- |
|Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence)|Ibn Aqil|
|Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence)|Abu Al Hasan Muhammad ibn Qazi Abu Yala|
|Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence)|Abu Al Khatab Mahfuz Hanbali|
|Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence)|Muhammad ibn Al Husnayn|
|Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence)|Abu Saeed Mubarak Makhrami|
|Tasawwuf (Sufism)|Abu Saeed Mubarak Makhrami Abu'l-Khair Hammad ibn Muslim al-Dabbas Abu Zakariya ibn Yahya ibn Ali Al Tabrezi|
|Hadith|Abu Bakr ibn Muzaffar|
|Hadith|Muhammad Ibn Al Hasan Baqalai Abu Sayeed Muhammad ibn Abdul Kareem|
|Hadith|Abu Al Ghanaem Muhammad Ibn Muhammad Ali Ibn Maymoon Al Farsi|
|Hadith|Abu Bakr Ahmad Ibn Al Muzaffar|
|Hadith|Abu Jafer Ibn Ahmad Ibn Al Hussain Al Qari|
|Hadith|Abu Al Qasim Ali Ibn Muhammad Ibn Banaan Al Karkhi|
|Hadith|Abu Talib Abdul Qadri Ibn Muhammad Yusuf|
|Hadith|Abdul Rahman Ibn Ahmad Abu Al Barkat Hibtaallah Ibn Al Mubarak|
|Hadith|Abu Al Nasr Ibn Il Mukhtar|
|Hadith|Abu Nasr Muhammad|
|Hadith|Abu Ghalib Ahmad|
|Hadith|Abu Abdullah Aulad Ali Al Bana|
|Hadith|Abu Al Hasan Al Mubarak Ibn Al Teyvari|
|Hadith|Abu Mansur Abdurahman Al Taqrar|

## 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.

## Other websites

- https://archive.org/details/lisanarabs_kilany11  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.

## Infobox (saint)

- **name**: ʿHazrat Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani رضي الله عنه
- **imagesize**: 250px
- **caption**: A 2011 photograph of the Mausoleum of Abdul-Qadir Gilani in Baghdad, Iraq
- **titles**: Muhiyuddin
- **venerated in**: All of Sunni Islam, but particularly in the Hanbali and Shafi'i school (Salafi movement, Salafi Sunnis _honor_ rather than _venerate_ him).
- **major shrine**: Mausoleum of Abdul-Qadir Gilani, Baghdad, Iraq
- **major works**: Ghunya Li Talib Al Haqq, Futuh Ul Ghayb,Fath Rabbani and Sirr Ul Asraar