ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī

ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī ( Arabic عبد القادر الجيلاني, DMG ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Ǧīlānī , sometimes with the Nisba الجيلي al-Jīlī , or Persian گیلانی Gīlānī , or Kurdish Evdilqadirê Geylanî , * 1077/1078 in the province of Gilan ; † 1166 in Baghdad ) was a Hanbali scholar, preacher and Sufi , to whom the Qādirīya order is attributed. He is related to the well-known Sufi Ahmed Rifai , whose Rifai order works closely with the Qadiri. Against the widespread assumption that he was a Kurd , the religious titles seyyid (descendant of Hussain ibn Ali) and sharif (descendant of Hasan ibn Ali) are cited. Since Hussain and Hasan were both sons of Imam Ali , he is attributed with Arab origins.

Retouched image of the six Sufi masters: Chvadscha Mu'in al-Din Tschishti , Ghaus al-A'zam, Chvadscha Qutb al-Din , Sheikh Mihr, Shah Sharaf Bu 'Ali Qalandar and Sultan-ul-Mashaikh

Life

ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī traveled to Baghdad at the age of 18 to deepen his traditional Islamic education. There he studied Hanbali Fiqh with Ibn ʿAqīl and Abū Saʿd al-Mubārak al-Mucharrimī, literature with Abu Zakariya and the hadith literature with Bakr al-Muzaffar .

Al-Mucharrimī was also a Sufi and gave him the chirqa , the Sufi patchwork skirt. ʿAbd al-Qādir also had another Sufi master named Hammād ad-Dabbās, who died around 1131. Later he himself bestowed the Sufi Chirqa on two other Hanbali scholars, namely the two brothers Abū ʿUmar Ibn Qudāma (d. 1210) and Muwaffaq ad-Dīn ibn Qudāma (d. 1223).

It is said that Abd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī drew such a crowd with his sermons that he had to speak to them in the open air because there was no building enough space.

Works

ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī is said to have written more than 50 works. The best known include:

• al-Ġunya li-ṭālibī ṭarīq al-ḥaqq , edited in Beirut in 1996.
• al-Fatḥ ar-rabbānī wa-l-faiḍ ar-raḥmānī , edited in 1988 by Muḥammad S. al-Bauwāb in Beirut.
• Futūḥ al-ġaib , collection of 78 sermons, translated by Walther Braune. Berlin [u. a.]: de Gruyter 1933.
• Ǧalāʾ al-ḫāṭir fī l-bāṭin wa-ẓ-ẓāhir , Arabic work in 50 "sessions" ( maǧālis ), in which al-Jīlānī explains his Sufi teachings. It was edited in 1994 by Chālid az-Zarʿī and ʿAbd an-Nāsir Sirrī. Textarchiv - Internet Archive Dilâver Gürer described the various manuscripts of this work in an essay published in 2000 and summarized its contents in Turkish.

Adoration

ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānīs fame became very great after his death. His admirers give him the titles of al-Ghauth al-Aʿzam ("Supreme Help") and Sultān al-auliyā ' ("Sultan of God's friends"). Even Ibn Taymiyyah held Abd al-Qādir honor and wrote a review of his sermon collection Futuh al-Gaib .

Another nickname of his is Muhyī d-dīn ("revivor of religion"), because according to a legend he helped a weak and wretched person one day, whom he found completely exhausted at the roadside, and also provided them with a meal. The subsequently regained strength revealed to him that he was "the religion of Islam", whereby Abd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī came to this honorary name.

ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī are ascribed qualities such as tolerance and charity . In general, the followers of Abd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī are considered tolerant and progressive up to the present day, far removed from fanaticism , whether religious or political. However, there are also counterexamples. So the West African Qādirīya Sufi Usman dan Fodio felt through a dream in which ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī appeared to him and handed him the “sword of truth”, entitled to call a jihad against the kings of the house states. Usman dan Fodio also wrote a Qasīda in praise of ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī, which he called Qādirīya . It was translated into Arabic by Usman's brother Abdullahi dan Fodio .

tomb

His grave in Baghdad is still a heavily frequented place of pilgrimage for pious Muslims , who mainly come from the Indo-Pakistani region. The pilgrims , who often stay there for weeks, walk in silence with a small broom and clean the sanctuary . It is considered a most meritorious work to sweep the threshold of a saint.

literature

• Walther Braune: ʿAbd al-Ḳādir al- Dj īlānī. In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition , Volume 1, pp. 69a-70b.
• Carl Brockelmann: History of Arabic Literature . Leiden 1937–1949. Vol. I², pp. 560-563, Supplementary Volume I, pp. 777-779.
• George Makdisi: Ibn Taimīya: a Ṣūfī of the Qādiriya order . In: American Journal of Arabic Studies , 1, 1973, pp. 118-129.

Web links

• Literature by and about ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Dschīlānī in the catalog of the German National Library
• The Alcove of Sufis and Saints . (Shrine of Sheikh Syed Abdul Qadir Jeelani in Srinagar)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Philip Khuri Hitti: Islam, a way of life . University of Minnesota Press (Aug 12, 1970). P. 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)”
2. ↑ See Braune 69a.
3. ↑ See Braune 69a.
4. ↑ Makdisi: Ibn Taimīya: a Ṣūfī of the Qādiriya order . 1973, p. 123.
5. ↑ Dilâver Gürer: Abdülkâdir Geylânî'nin fazla tanımayan bir eseri - Cilâü'l-hâtir fil-bâtin ve'z-zâhir . In: Journal of the History of Sufism , 2000, pp. 21-51.
6. ↑ Makdisi: Ibn Taimīya: a Ṣūfī of the Qādiriya order . 1973, p. 126 f.
7. ↑ ʿAbdallāh ibn Muḥammad: Tazyīn al-waraqāt . Edited with a translation and introductory study by M. Hiskett. Ibadan University Press, Hertford 1963, pp. 51-54, 105-107.