ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī

Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Qādir ibn Abī Ṣāliḥ Mūsā al-Jīlānī al-Ḥasanī al-Baghdādī (470–561 AH / 1077–1166 CE)

Early Life and Background

ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī was born in 470 AH / 1077 CE, on the widely accepted date of 11 Rabīʿ al-Thānī, in Jīlān—a region on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, today part of northern Iran. Some early reports, however, suggest his birthplace as Jīlān near al-Madā’in in Iraq, a view maintained by the al-Jīlānī family of Baghdad and supported by later historical research. His lineage traces to the Prophet Muḥammad through al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī, and his ancestry is recorded in full by numerous biographers, including Ibn Rajab and al-Dhahabī.

Al-Jīlānī was raised in a family renowned for its piety and moral rectitude. His father, Abū Ṣāliḥ Mūsā, was known for asceticism and devotion, often described as a model of zuhd (renunciation) and self-discipline. His mother, Umm al-Khayr Amat al-Jabbār, is remembered in the hagiographic literature for her piety and for encouraging her son’s pursuit of sacred knowledge.

Education and Intellectual Formation

In 488 AH / 1095 CE, at the age of eighteen, al-Jīlānī traveled to Baghdad, then the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate and a center of Islamic scholarship. He arrived during a period of intense political and social turmoil marked by the Crusades, sectarian divisions, and Seljuk–Abbasid rivalries.

In Baghdad, he studied jurisprudence, theology, and Hadith under leading scholars of the Ḥanbalī school. Among his teachers were:

• Abū Saʿīd al-Mukharramī (d. 513 AH), under whom he later served as a teacher and spiritual heir;

• Abū al-Wafāʾ ʿAlī ibn ʿAqīl al-Baghdādī, from whom he studied theology and law;

• Abū al-Khattāb Maḥfūẓ ibn Aḥmad al-Kalwādhānī, a prominent Hanbali jurist;

• Abū Bakr al-Dīnawarī and Abū al-Qāsim ibn Zāhir, from whom he learned ḥadīth.

• Abu al-Husayn ibn al-Farra

Having mastered the Islamic sciences, al-Jīlānī began to teach at the school of his teacher al-Mukharramī, located in the Bāb al-Azaj quarter of Baghdad. He soon gained renown for his eloquence, ascetic discipline, and ability to combine juridical rigor with spiritual insight.

Preaching and Spiritual Leadership

By the mid-6th/12th century, al-Jīlānī had emerged as one of Baghdad’s most prominent preachers and scholars. His sermons drew vast crowds from all strata of society—jurists, merchants, soldiers, and commoners alike. His moral and spiritual revivalism sought to reconcile outward conformity to the Sharīʿah with inner purification (taṣfiyah al-nafs), a theme that became central to his teachings and writings.

His reputation for piety, learning, and miracle-working (karāmāt) led his followers to call him Muḥyī al-Dīn (“Reviver of the Faith”) and Sulṭān al-Awliyāʾ (“The Sultan of the Saints”). His lodge (ribat) became both a center for teaching the Hanbali school and a gathering place for Sufis seeking spiritual training.

Relationship to Sufism

Although firmly grounded in Hanbali jurisprudence, al-Jīlānī’s thought exerted a profound influence on Sufism. His teachings emphasized repentance (tawbah), sincerity (ikhlāṣ), humility, and trust in God (tawakkul). He systematized the Sufi path in a manner compatible with Sunni orthodoxy, integrating ascetic discipline with legal and theological exactitude.

The Qādiriyyah Sufi order—among the oldest and most widespread in the Islamic world—is attributed to him. While the institutional development of the order occurred primarily after his death, its foundational ethos and spiritual methods is claimed to stem from his circle of disciples and his moral teachings.

Works and Legacy

Several works are attributed to al-Jīlānī, many of which survive in manuscript and have been widely disseminated:

• Ghunyat al-Ṭālibīn (Sufficiency of the Seekers), a comprehensive guide to religious practice and ethics;

• Futūḥ al-Ghayb (Revelations of the Unseen), a collection of sermons emphasizing detachment and reliance on Allah;

• al-Fatḥ al-Rabbānī (The Divine Victory), a compilation of his discourses;

• Jalāʾ al-Khāṭir (Illumination of the Mind), another collection of spiritual exhortations.

His thought influenced subsequent generations of scholars, jurists, and Sufi leaders.

Family and Descendants

Al-Jīlānī married and had several sons, many of whom became scholars and preachers in their own right. Among them:

• ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, his eldest son and successor in Baghdad;

• ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, who fought the Crusaders and taught in Mosul;

• ʿAbd al-Razzāq, a leading ḥadīth scholar of the Hanbali school;

• ʿĪsā, a scholar who traveled to Egypt and composed works on Sufism.

Through his descendants and students, al-Jīlānī’s influence spread across Iraq, the Levant, North Africa, Central Asia, and the Indian subcontinent.

Death

ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī died in 561 AH / 1166 CE, on 10 Rabīʿ al-Thānī, in Baghdad, at the age of ninety-one. He was buried in his ribat in the Bāb al-Sheikh quarter.

Ibn Qudamah, who was asked about Sheikh Abd al-Qadir, and he said:

"We met him at the end of his life, and he housed us in his school. He cared for us and sometimes sent his son Yahya to light our lamps. He would also send us food from his home, and he would lead us in the obligatory prayers." He was an imam, and I used to read to him from memory from al-Khiraqi's book in the mornings, and al-Hafiz Abd al-Ghani would read to him from al-Hidayah in the book. No one else read to him at that time except us. We stayed with him for a month and nine days, then he died, and we prayed over him at night in his school. I have never heard of anyone else having more miracles attributed to him than those attributed to him. I saw someone whom people revered more for his religious knowledge than he did himself, and we heard only a few things said about him.

Abu Bakr al-Imad related,

I had been reading in Usul al-Din, and it caused me to have doubts, so I said: I will go to the gathering of Sheikh Abd al-Qadir, and Abd al-Qadir said, “Our belief is the belief of the righteous predecessors and the Companions.”

Assessment

Historians and biographers across the centuries have regarded al-Jīlānī as a pivotal figure in reconciling orthodox Sunni theology with the spiritual discipline of Sufism. Al-Dhahabī described him as “the shaykh of Islam, the exemplar of the knowers of Allah, and the imam of the Hanbalis in his time.” Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī praised his synthesis of jurisprudence and asceticism, noting that he revived the Hanbali tradition in Baghdad after a period of decline.

His enduring legacy lies in the vast transregional spread of the Qādiriyyah order, his moral teachings, and his model of an Islamic spirituality deeply rooted in the law, theology, and personal transformation.