After completing his formal education, he sat at the feet of Shaykh Abul Khair Hammad ibn Muslim al-Dabbas who was an illiterate, but prominent, authority on Islamic spirituality and gnosis, and from him received training in Sufism. Under Shaykh al-Dabbas’s instruction he not only learned the theories and methods of Sufism, but also became exposed to a new universe of meaning, purpose and spiritual fulfilment – one where the ‘inner’ meaning and implication of religious teachings became clear to him for the first time. The move from the ‘text’ to the ‘spirit of the text’ enabled him to purify his soul and continue his quest for spiritual development and fulfilment. Being a Sufi himself, the hanbali jurist Abu Sa’id also played a decisive role in Abd al-Qadir’s early quest for spirituality and fulfilment. He personally guided him in the methods and practices of Sufism, until the latter had attained complete mastery of Islamic spirituality and gnosis, whereupon he conferred on him the robe of an initiate of Sufism. During this period Abd al-Qadir earned his livelihood by cultivating crops and vegetables, and he only spoke when it was required. After living amidst the ruins of Mada’in (Ctesiphon) like a hermit for eleven years, in 1117, at the age of forty, he finally returned to Baghdad where he soon established his reputation as a gifted scholar of the Qur’an, Prophetic traditions, hanbali jurisprudence and practitioner of Sufism. This prompted the locals to appoint him head of the same madrasah (Islamic seminary) where his former mentor Abu Sa’id once served as principal.
According to Abd al-Qadir, it was during this period that the Prophet Muhammad visited him in a dream and advised him to preach Islam and admonish the locals. At the time he was busy lecturing on the religious sciences at the local seminary, without showing any desire or inclination to become a social activist and popular disseminator of Islam. However, his encounter with the Prophet, coupled with the encouragement he received from Khwajah Yusuf Hamdani (a notable savant of Baghdad), prompted him to begin delivering public lectures on all aspects of Islamic thought and practice, in order to encourage and inspire the locals to lead a more Islamic life based on the teachings of the Qur’an and sunnah (normative practice of the Prophet). As a prominent scholar of traditional Islamic sciences and master of Islamic spirituality, Abd al-Qadir was able to interpret Islamic teachings in a traditional, yet spiritually enhancing, way so that both the traditionalist scholars and the Sufis used to sit side by side to listen to his inspiring lectures on all aspects of Islam, without raising any objections. His remarkable and unique ability to combine Islamic traditionalism with Islamic spirituality made him a hugely popular figure during his lifetime. If al-Ghazali played a pivotal role in intellectually harmonising traditional Islam with Sufism, then the credit for fully explaining this synthesis – to the religious scholars, Sufis and the masses – must go to Abd al-Qadir.
According to his biographers, he became such a popular lecturer that the college grounds where he used to deliver his talks regularly overflowed, as thousands of people flocked from in and around Baghdad to hear him speak. Thanks to his intellectual brilliance and unique style of delivery, hundreds of non-Muslims (including Jews and Christians) embraced Islam and thousands of ordinary Muslims began to take their faith seriously. To accommodate the large crowds attending his lectures, the houses adjacent to his college were later purchased and demolished to create more space for the people. Indeed, he became one of the first Sufi scholars in the annals of Islam to acquire such a mass following. His ability to transcend theological differences and sectarian barriers encouraged the leading religious scholars, jurists, mystics, preachers and even the politicians of his day to set their differences aside, and unite under the banner of Islam. He used to deliver lectures three times a week: on Friday morning before the weekly Friday congregational (salat al-jumu’ah) prayer; on Tuesday evening, and also on Sunday mornings. More than seventy thousand people used to attend his lectures at any one time and around four hundred scribes used to write down his talks for the benefit of posterity.
Abd al-Qadir enjoyed such success and popularity because he was able to combine practical Islam with its spiritual dimension. Not surprisingly, he did not consider himself to be an esoteric or an exoteric; he did not believe in one without the other. Though he was a strict adherent of the Prophetic norms and practices, he also found time to engage in spiritual retreat. He emphasised the importance of leading a balanced and moderate lifestyle, focusing on the need to purify one’s heart, mind and thought. Like Maruf al-Karkhi and Abul Qasim al-Junayd al-Baghdadi before him, Abd al-Qadir was a ‘sober’ Sufi, who strictly avoided the path of ‘intoxication’ pursued by other Sufis like Abu Yazid al-Bistami, Abul Hussain al-Nuri and Hussain ibn Mansur al-Hallaj, and in so doing he tried to revive the authentic norms and practices of the Prophet. As it happens, Abd al-Qadir was one of the most meticulous followers of the Prophetic sunnah. Unlike many other Sufis, he married, even if it was late in life – at the age of fifty-one – and he ensured his personal and family life were regulated strictly in accordance with the teachings of the Prophet; indeed, he refused to eat a meal if it was not prepared in accordance with the Prophetic sunnah. His contribution to the revival of Prophetic sunnah, as well as Islamic spirituality, thus earned him the coveted title of muhyi al-din (or the ‘reviver of Islam’) during his own lifetime.
Thanks to his band of dedicated scribes, Abd al-Qadir’s lectures were preserved in the form of books and manuscripts for the benefit of posterity. They include Al-Fath al-Rabbani (The Opening Discourse), which contains sixty-two sermons delivered between 1150 and 1152; Al-Ghunyah li-Talibi Tariq al-Haqq (That Which is Sufficient to the Seekers of True Path), wherein he explained the traditional Islamic principles and practices in considerable detail, and Futuh al-Ghaib (Disclosure of the Unseen), which consists of seventy-eight sermons on the mystical dimensions of Islam, and was compiled by his son, Abd al-Razzaq. In total, more than twenty-four books and manuscripts have been attributed to Abd al-Qadir but, according to his biographers, some of these books are not his own works; they have been wrongly attributed to him by other people. Inspired by the Qur’an and Prophetic wisdom, Abd al-Qadir argued that man was a creature of God Who created him only to serve Him. Abd al-Qadir did not consider God to be a theological construct or a logical abstract; rather, he believed, He is One Who resides in our hearts and continues to influence us in every sphere of our life – both individually as well as collectively – so that man can experience Divine grace, mercy and compassion in this life and the hereafter, guided as ever by the supreme example and personality of the Prophet.
Abd al-Qadir’s unique and hugely influential interpretation of Islamic spirituality led to the emergence of one of the most powerful spiritual movements in the annals of Islam. Named after him, the qadiriyyah Sufi Order is today followed by millions of people throughout the Muslim world. The majority of the Sufi theoreticians and practitioners who came after him were one way or another influenced by his religious ideas and spiritual practices, and includes Khwajah Mu’in al-Din Chishti, Shihab al-Din Umar al-Suhrawardi and Muhyi al-Din ibn al-Arabi. Aware of his immense influence and standing, Abd al-Qadir himself once remarked, ‘My foot is on the head of every saint.’ He died at the venerable age of around eighty-nine and was buried in Abbasid Baghdad.
MODERN WESTERN SCIENTIFIC thought and culture owes a tremendous debt to the early Muslim philosophers, scientists and thinkers who, by the sheer strength of their characters, intellectual brilliance and powers of imagination lit up the firmament of human thought, culture and civilisation like never before. The Muslim contribution to the study of philosophy and medicine was such that it paved the way for the emergence of modern philosophical and scientific thought. Indeed, mankind’s achievements in these domains were primitive and severly limited when compared to the dazzling contributions