1. PIRAAN-e-PIR, DASTAGIR, HAZRAT SHIEKH SYED ABDUL QADIR

JILANI (R.A.)

Part - I

He is Hasani and Husaini

The most universally acclaimed saint of all times and the most celebrated, in all the aalameen (worlds) among jinn and men as well as among the arwaah (souls) and the malaik (angels), and the beloved of Allah Ta'ala who throughout history has been showered the titles of muhyiddeen (reviver of the faith), qutb Rabbani and ghauth-al-a'zam (the greatest helper), Sayyidi wa Imami Shaikh-ul -Akbar Abu Muhammad Abdul QadirJilani, Radhy Allahu Anh was born in Ramadhan 470 A.H ./ 1077 C.E in Jilan, Persia. His father's name was Abu Salih, a man of taqwa (piety) and a direct descendant of Hazrat Imam Hasan ibn Alt Radhy Allahu Anh. His mother Ummul-Khair Fatima was a saintly daughter of a saintly father Shaikh Abdullah Sumi who was a direct descendant of Imam Husain ibn Ali Radhy Allahu Anh. Thus Muhyiddeen Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani was both Hasani and Husaini, a descendant of the Holy Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam. For this reason, the Sindhis for example, lovingly call him "Putar mithe mahboob jo" (the blessed son of the sweet beloved Holy Prophet), Sallallahu alaihi wa Sallam

He Reached The State of Siddiqeen

The Holy Prophet Muhammad Mustafa Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam is the last Prophet, there is no Prophet after him. But people can still aspire to spiritual progress, acquire taqwa (piety) and saint" liness and become Awliya Allah (friends of Allah). And the highest spiritual state after the anbiva (prophets) belongs to the siddiqeen (the truthful), that is why the Holy Prophet taught us to make the dua: Allahummaj-'alna mina-s-Siddiqeen (Yaa Allah make us among the truthful).Well, Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani manifested to the world that he ranked among the Siddiqeen at the ripe age of 18. At that age, his thirst for knowledge and eagerness for the company of the Awliya Allah took him to the City of Baghdad. It is related that as he was about to leave home on this momentous journey, his widowed mother sewed forty gold coins inside his coat as part of his inheritance, and as parting advise told him to be for ever truthful. The caravan with which he travelled had gone as far as Hamadan where it was attacked by a gang of robbers. In the course of their loot, one of the robbers asked him whether he had anything with him and he truthfully replied that he had forty gold pieces sewn in his coat. The robber

obviously thought he was joking and narrated this incident to his chief who decided to come and see this young man. When his coat was torn open, sure enough, there were the forty gold pieces.Thegang leader was astounded. He asked Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani why he revealed this when he could very well have kept it a secrect. Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani replied that his mother had told him not to lie and he was duty bound to obey his mother. Hearing this, the gang leader was overpowered with remorse, repented, accepted Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani as his Shaikh and so did all his followers and they went on to acquire wilayah (sainthood) themselves. This is how Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani came to be ranked among the Siddiqeen. Allahummaj 'aina mina-s-Siddiqeen, Aammeen YaaRabbal Aalameen.Sayyid Haji Abdul Raheem Bin Sayyid Muhammad Ismail Shirazi has captured the essence of this incident most beautifully in the following verses of his Urdu poem on the Gauth-al-A'zam:"Choron pay turn nay kar kay tawa/j'oh Abdaal banaaya 'aali shaan Yaa Gauth-al-A'zam ajab tumharee shaan". (Guizare Tawiba, Vol 3, p. 18)

Translation:Focussing your spiritual glance at the thiefs You turned them into great saints 0. the great helper, your stature is truly astounding.

Shariah, Tariqa and Haqeeqi Ma'rifa

In matters of Shariah (sacred Muslim Law), Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani followed the Hanbali madh-hab (school of sacred Muslim Law) but was an authority on the Shafi-i madh-hab as well, and a chief exponent of the Ahl-e-Sunnah wal Jama'ah (the people who follow the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet and the Jama'ah of his blessed companions).The way to draw nearer to Allah Ta'ala is through additional supererogatory prayers day and night, through His constant rememberance (zikr), unceasing salawaat (durood) on the Holy Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, sunnah fasting, charity, zuhd (abstinence) andjuhd (exertion in the way of Allah Ta'ala) as exemplified by the Holy Prophet himself. This then is the tariqa (spiritual path leading to Allah Ta'ala) which is rooted in shariah (sacred Muslim Law). A Shaikh musk-scented in shariah. tariqa and haqeeqi-ma'rifa (knowledge of Allah Ta'ala) is able to ascertain the spiritual level of a mureed (disciple) and can assign additional awraad and azkaar (prayers) to be performed to attain spiritual progress. Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani learned tariqa at the hands of Shaikh Hammad Bin Muslim al-Dabbas. When a mureed (disciple) is initiated in the tariqa he is given a khirqa. This traditional piece of clothing was given to Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani by Shaikh Qadi Abi Said al-Mukhrami.The tariqa followed by Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani came to be called after him the Qadiriyya tariqa and it came to be universally accepted as a divinely -guided path to spiritual progress though Zikr of Allah to polish one's heart of all evil, lead a virtuous life, to attain the love of the Holy Prophet, Sallallahu

Alaihi wa Sallam, the love of the Sahaba (companions) and the Ahlu Bavt (the Prophet's blessed household), the love of the awliya (saints), and to follow the shariah (sacred Muslim Law) according to the teachings of any one of the Imams ofMadh-hab that is. Imam Abu Hanifa, Imam Shaafi-i, ImamMalik and Imam AhmadIbnHanbal, may Allah Ta'ala be pleased with them all.Any Tariqa has a silsila or spirtual chain linking the teachings of the Shaikh to the teachings of Rasulullah Sallallahu alaihi wa Salaam. The spiritual geneology of Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani is traced back to the Holy Prophet as follows.Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani disciple of Shaikh Qadi Abi Said Alt Mubarak al -Mukhrami disciple of Shaikh Abul Hasan Alt Ahmad Qureshi al -Hankari, disciple of Shaikh Abu Farah Muhammad Yusuf Tartusi, disciple of Shaikh Raziuddin Abul Fazi Abdul Wahid Abdul Aziz, disciple of Shaikh Abu Bakr Abdullah Shibli, disciple of Shaikh Abul Qasim Junaid of Baghdad, disciple of Shaikh Abul Hasan Siri Saqti, disciple of Shaikh Maroof Al-Karkhi, disciple of Shaikh Sulaiman Dawood Tai, disciple of Shaikh Habib ul Ajami, disciple of Shaikh Hasan al-Basri, disciple of Sayyidna Alt ibn Abi Talib, Khalifa of Sayyidna Muhammad ibn Abdillah, Nurimmin-Nurillah, Allah-umma Salli wa Sallim wa bank alaih.The names of the Awliya Allah in this silsila (spiritual chain) are given in the Tawassul of Qadiriyya in the kitab Abdul Qadir Fee Eedahittasawwuf compiled by Nuriddeen ibn Shaikh Husain Mahmud al-Ghasani as well as in the biography of the Shaikh by Dr. Zahurul Hasan Sharib.

Nasiha

Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani taught Muslims and preached to non-Muslims in Baghdad. His khutbas and Nasiha (advise) have been compiled and handed down through centuries as classics of Muslim spirituality. His major spiritual works in this field are:1. Sirr al-asrar (the Secret of Secrets)2. Futuh al-ghavb (Revelation of the Unseen)3. Ghunvatal-talibeen (Wealthfor Seekers)4. Al-Fat'hu Rabbani (The Endowment of Divine Grace)Besides the Qur'an Kareem and Hadith Shareef, these are required minimum reading for someone who aspires to be an Alim (learned).As we read his masterpieces, we are struck by the fact that his style of expression is different from that of any Shaikh, Alim or Wall. He is so much saturated with the spiritual power ofTawheed that his exposition and its flow has a spiritually confident personality all its own so that anyone who reads his Khutbas spontaneously admits that he is the Qutb-ul-Aqtaab, the Shaikh-ul -Mashaikh, the Gauth-ul-A'zam and much more — a Shaikh who epitomised Mujaddidiyya and Wilayah.

Azkaar, Salawaat and Qasida

The Qadiriyya tariqa is a tariqa of Zikr, rememberence of Allah. The plural of Zikr is azkaaar. The azkaar and awraad (daily prayers) of Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani have been complied in many kitaabs (religious books), one of which is Fuvudha-tur-Rabbaniwa, compiled by al-Hajj Ismail Ibn as-Sayyid Muhammad Sa'eed Al-Qadiri. It gives the awraad and azkaar of Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani for each day of the week as well as for various special occassions.Then we have the Salawaat (durood) on the Holy Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wa-Sallam recited by the Gauth " al - A'zam and we have to read Fuvudha - tur -Rabbaniyya as well as his major classics to appreciate how profuse Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani was in sending salawaat and salaam on the Holy Prophet, Allahumma Salli wa Sallim alaih. His most famous salawaat is called Durood Gauthiyya after him while he also recited kibritil ahmar (the philosopher's stone.) Kibritil ahmar is given in both Fuvudha-tur-Rabbaniwa as wellas inMishkaatus-SalawaatofMaulana Muhammed Elias Burney. "The philospher's stone" means something veiy rare to find.His emphasis in immersing yourself in the Asma Allah - ul - Husna (the Most Beautiful Names of Allah Ta'ala) until they run through your veins is breathtaking. He has woven a qaseeda (poem) of 63 verses around these Asma-ul-Husma whose opening verses are:

Shara'tu Bi Tawheedil Ilahi Mubasmilaa Sa Akhtimu Bi-dh'dhikril Hameedi MujammilaWa Ash-haduAnnallahaLaaRabba GhairuhuTanazzaha 'cm hasril uquii takammulla (Transliteration ctvereee from Fuyu^ha-tur-Ra^aniyya. p52)

I start the Tawheed ofAllah with Bismillah I will finish with the Zikr of Allah, the Most Beautiful.And I bear witness that there is no Lord other than Allah. Glorified is He, beyond human under-standing, Most Perfect And his qaseeda Gauthiyya is universally popular. It is chanted from Rabat to Lahore and from Mombasa to Toronto. Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani passed away on 11 Rabi-ul-Akhir 561 A.H., 1166 C.E, at the age of 91. Those in Qadiriyya tariqa pray Qur'an kareem and do zikr on that night. In the Indian sub-continent it is called Igvaarween Shareef. or the blessed eleventh night of the month. Qasida Gauthiyya is also recited. In it. Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani gives us some of the secrets of his own spiritual stature.Consider the spiritual force with which the opening lines burst upon you: Saqaanil hubbu kaasaatil -wisaalee Faquitu likhamratee nahwee ta'aalee.

When we read the classics of Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani Radhy Allahu Anh like Sirr al-asrar. Futuh al-ghayb. Ghunyat al-talibin. Al-Fat'hu Rabbani. and Qasida Gauthiyya and pray the awraad and salawaat that he prayed, we begin to understand why he is considerd to be the Gauth-ul A'zam (greatest saint). But the initiate sometimes wonders why he revealed so many spiritual secrets when most other shaikhs are reticent. To answer that question, we will need to turn to Sayyidi wa Imami Maulana Abdallah ibn Alawi al-Haddad,

Radhy Allahu Anh. In Gjfts for the geekers he explains that Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani, Radhy Allahu Anh had received permission to divulge those spiritual secrets - "For the man who recieves such permission is under an order which he can but obey - and the secret of the permission granted in such matters is itself one that cannot be divulged".

courtesy(Gifts For The Seekers, translation by Mustafa al-Badawi.pll)