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Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani

عبد القادر الجيلاني

1078 CE · 470 AH – c. February 1166 CE · Rabi' II 561 AH

One of the major masters of Sunni Sufism, named after Gilan. He had a large influence on preaching and spiritual guidance.

Depth

At a glance

Roles
mystic · Scholar
Counted among
Sunni
Era
The Crusades, Ayyubids and Mamluks
Region
Levant & Iraq
Identifiers
Wikidata
Review
Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it

Life in time

9501000105011001150120012501300 c. c.
The Buyid, Fatimid and Seljuk Era · The Crusades, Ayyubids and Mamluks · The Mongol and Post-Mongol Era Contemporaries: Ibn al-Manda'i al-Wasiti · Ibn Khumays, al-Husayn ibn Nasr · Ibn al-Kashshab al-Baghdadi · ابن ناصر الحافظ · al-Shahrastani

Spirituality and Sufism

Place in the story

  • Saint (as venerated)Tradition

Roles are dated and sourced; the museum describes the act and attributes the judgement.

Overview

Muhyi al-Din Abu Muhammad Abd al-Qadir ibn Abi Salih al-Jilani, one of the great shaykhs of Sunni Sufism, who was attributed to Jilan. 1

Influence

He had a great influence in preaching and guidance. 1 He was born in 470 AH (1078 CE) and died in 561 AH (1166 CE). 1

Notes for researchers

  • The data goes no further than this; his biography and works need an additional source.

In the 'Al-Mubdi'un' programme

Tareq al-Suwaidan presents Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani — founder of the Qadiriyya order — as the model balance of scholarship and faith: 'not all Sufism is false; there is a sound Sunni Sufism and Abd al-Qadir led it' (his corrective to the general image) 2 3 4. Of his lineage: Hasani through his father — eleven fathers from al-Hasan ibn Ali (may God be pleased with him) — and Husayni through his mother, and through his father's mother of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (may God be pleased with him)'s line 5 6 7 8 9. Of his upbringing: born in Gilan near the Caspian on 9 Rabi' II 470 AH, orphaned and ascetic from childhood; he emigrated to Baghdad in 488 AH, his seventy-year-old mother equipping him with forty gold dinars sewn into his clothes and the counsel 'never lie, for the believer does not lie' 10 11 12 13 14 15. The caravan story: bandits fell on their caravan and when they asked him 'have you anything?' he answered 'yes — forty dinars' and produced them; the bandit chief, shaken, repented at his hands through the blessing of his truthfulness 16 17 18. Of his trial in Baghdad: he ate what the rivers threw up, walked barefoot, wore patched rags until nicknamed 'the madman', yet never asked anyone anything nor stood at a minister's door — until he mastered thirteen sciences to the rank of debating the greatest scholars 19 20 21. He followed al-Ghazali's method and went beyond it, correcting some of his hadith errors, hearing hadith from the masters 22 23. After thirty years of taking he sat to preach at al-Makharrimi's school in Shawwal 521 AH, his sessions drawing an estimated seventy thousand so the school was enlarged repeatedly — the speaker explains relaying by voice from hearer to hearer 24 25 26 27. He was Baghdad's mufti ruling on both the Hanbali and Shafi'i schools, no fatwa ever spending a night under his consideration — he wrote the answer on reading it with astonishing precision 23 28 29. Of the scholars' testimony: al-Nawawi called him 'shaykh of the noble Shafi'is and Hanbalis of Baghdad, leadership of learning ended with him in his time… there was none like him in his age'; Ibn Taymiyya counted him and al-Junayd 'the true Sufism'; and Abu al-Hasan al-Nadwi gave him a chapter in Rijal al-Fikr wa-l-Da'wa 30 31 32 33 34 35. Of his sayings: 'I searched all deeds and found none better than feeding food, nor nobler than good character'; and when chided for his wealth ever departing, 'my palm is perforated — were a thousand dinars to reach me they would not stay a night' 36 37 38. He closes: the supreme model after the Companions and Followers for balancing sound learning with lofty spirituality, urging scholars to moisten their hearts with true spirituality and Sufis to build on evidence 39 40.

Connections

Explore the connections

Parent of
Abd al-Razzaq ibn Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani· Abd al-Wahhab ibn Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani
Taught
al-Juba'i
Studied under
حماد الدباس

People and things also explored

Abd al-Salam ibn Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani· Nasr ibn Abd al-Razzaq al-Jili· Abd al-Razzaq ibn Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani· Abd al-Wahhab ibn Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani· al-Juba'i· حماد الدباس· Prophetic adab (proper conduct)· Akhi Baba (title of the guild shaykh and tanners' head)

Sources

  1. Mawsu'at A'lam al-Ulama' wa-l-Adaba' al-Arab wa-l-Muslimin — Dar al-Jil / ALECSO
  2. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:01:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  3. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:12:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  4. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:12:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  5. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:02:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  6. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:03:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  7. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:03:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  8. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:04:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  9. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:04:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  10. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:05:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  11. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:05:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  12. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:06:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  13. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:07:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  14. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:07:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  15. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:13:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  16. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:08:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  17. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:09:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  18. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:09:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  19. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:13:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  20. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:14:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  21. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:14:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  22. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:15:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  23. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:15:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  24. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:16:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  25. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:17:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  26. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:17:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  27. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:18:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  28. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:19:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  29. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:19:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  30. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:20:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  31. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:20:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  32. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:21:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  33. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:21:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  34. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:22:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  35. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:22:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  36. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:10:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  37. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:10:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  38. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:11:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  39. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:23:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  40. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Mubdioune, episode 20, at 00:23:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  • Shadharat al-Dhahab — Ibn al-Imad al-Hanbali
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/abd-al-qadir-al-jilani/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-26.

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People

Prophets, companions, scholars, rulers, scientists, poets, travelers: women and men who shaped the story. Related

Abd al-Salam ibn Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani

Al-Rukn Abd al-Salam b. Abd al-Wahhab b. Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani — b. the night of 8 Dhu al-Hijja 548, grandson and student of Abd al-Qadir, holder of several offices; clever, well-bred, versed in logic, philosophy, astrology and 'those bad sciences' until he was charged with the creed of the ancients — his father, seeing a Bukharan gown on him, joked 'we hear Bukhari and Muslim, but a Bukhari who's a kafir we never heard of'. Under wazir Ibn Yunus his house yielded philosophy books, the Ikhwan al-Safa epistles, sorcery and star-worship texts with an address to Saturn in his own hand; his books were publicly burned, he was ruled fasiq, and his grandfather's madrasa was taken from his father and given to Ibn al-Jawzi — the same man he later informed on until the shaykh was arrested and shipped to Wasit, where Abd al-Salam sued him before the qadis. He died Friday 8 Rajab 611, buried east of Baghdad; Ibn al-Najjar reviled him bitterly and says he never transmitted a word.