Twelfth-century Muslim saint Sheikh Abdul Qadir Gilani’s impact transcends time and geography and inspires devotees worldwide through his teachings and spiritual presence, fostering a sense of community and acceptance across sectarian and cultural divides through coexistence, empathy, understanding, truth, compassion, unity, and honesty.
Sometime in the late 11th century, a teenager left his native Gilan in modern-day Iran for higher education in Baghdad, now in Iraq. He bid his mother goodbye, promising to always tell the truth, whatever the situation. It was not too long before circumstances put him to the test to see if he would make good on his pledge.
A group of bandits waylaid the teenager’s caravan en route to Baghdad. The gang looted his fellow travellers before asking him if he had anything of worth when they could not find him carrying anything visibly valuable. The bandits were shocked when the teenager told them he had a princely sum of 40 dinars sewn under the armpit of his shirt. They were dismissive and did not believe him, thinking that he would not risk losing the money he claimed to have.
After some time, when the bandits gathered on a nearby hill to divide the loot, the gang leader got to know about the teenager’s insistence. The leader called him and inquired whether he was indeed telling the truth. The teenager insisted he was, prompting the gang leader to order the cloth to be ripped up. When he found the money, he asked him why he did not keep quiet to save his money. The teenager replied that he had to stick to the truth because of the promise he made to his mother.
How Sheikh Abdul Qadir Gilani Became the King of Saints
The response moved the bandit leader to tears and inspired him to repent. The rest of the gang followed suit and returned the loot. This was the first instance, the story goes, of someone repenting because of Sheikh Abdul Qadir Gilani, who would go on to be regarded as the king of Muslim saints. Many more would follow as the saint attracted innumerable followers, who fanned out across the world to carry his message.
Follow MyPluralist on WhatsApp, Twitter, and Facebook
The saint, a direct descendant of the Prophet, continues to enjoy a legendary reputation for miraculous powers across the world. The waliullah, or friends of God, as saints such as Sheikh Abdul Qadir Gilani are known, are considered spiritually so powerful that they can inflict punishment upon sinners.
The saint’s appeal is not limited to Baghdad, where he lies buried in Bal al-Sheikh locality, or Iraq alone. It is universal. The saint is known as Sulṭan al-Awliya’ (king of the saints), Muḥiyyiddin (reviver of the faith), Ghaus-ul-Azam (great helper), and Dastageer (hand-holder) in different parts of the world. He is invoked far beyond the warren lanes of Bal al-Sheikh. As the founder of the biggest Sufi order globally—Qadiriyya—his name is among the most familiar in the Muslim world.
Enduring Power of Sheikh Abdul Qadir Gilani’s Shrine in Baghdad
Hamza Malik of SOAS University of London has compared the familiarity of his name among Muslims to figures such as St Paul, one of the leaders of the first generation of Christians and the most important Christian figure after Jesus, or St Patrick, who is believed to have played a key role in converting the Irish to Christianity.
During his lifetime, another story goes, Sheikh Abdul Qadir Gilani was once preaching in Baghdad when he stopped suddenly. Gilani took off his wooden clog, raised it in his hand, and tossed it up in the air. The clog vanished and is said to have fallen on a man’s head in India to save a distressed woman’s honour. The woman is believed to have called on the saint’s help against the man attempting to molest her.
In Baghdad, Bab al-Sheikh remained untouched by the hatred and violence, which had many Iraqis at each other’s throats, thanks to the saint’s legacy. It strengthened the faith of the saint’s devotees in his spiritual powers. The saint’s shrine in Bab al-Sheikh continued to be the neighbourhood’s anchor and bound people together. Devotees from different sectarian backgrounds were at the shrine when we arrived there as part of a group of journalists covering the war on ISIS in 2016.
Bab al-Sheikh: Baghdad Locality of Coexistence
Bab al-Sheikh did what he did best. It stayed strong and united, drawing inspiration from the saint. Iraq was then in the middle of a civil war, which was triggered a decade earlier when a bomb ripped through the Askari Mosque in Iraq’s Samarra, leaving scores dead and deepening social fissures.
The bombing at the Shia shrine sparked the two-year civil war and retaliatory sectarian violence. The conflict would displace over a million people and leave more than 6,500 civilians dead in 2013 alone. A rapprochement was in the works in 2016. The schisms were far from over, but Bab al-Sheikh, a dusty maze of streets on the eastern bank of the Tigris in Baghdad, stood out as a shining example of co-existence.
Old bonds continued to thrive in Bab al-Sheikh, which held out hope that the reconciliation would eventually succeed in unifying the country. Deep inside its warrens, Sunnis, Shias, Kurds, and Christians continued living cheek by jowl, rebuffing the toxic mix of religion and politics that was tearing Iraq apart. The neighbourhood gets its name from the saint’s epithet, and residents believe he (1077-1166) watches over them 10 centuries after he passed. Trust was the bulwark against the war that came hard to the locality’s edges. But Bab al-Sheikh residents did not let sectarianism drive a wedge between them.
The Mother Shrine of the Qadiriyya Order
Sheikh Abdul Qadir Gilani’s shrine preserved the spirit of coexistence in Bab al-Sheikh. A sense of calm and tranquillity struck me as we arrived at the shrine. The serenity was a far cry from the palpable tension in the fortified Green Zone across the Tigris. There was no visible security at the shrine, unlike in the heart of Baghdad, where armed soldiers and barricades seemed to cover every inch of land. An unmanned walkthrough gate was all the shrine had in the name of security.
The shrine within the walls of Baghdad’s old city became the mother shrine of the Qadiriyya Sufi Order when the saint was buried there. It was earlier a theological college before becoming a hospice for Gilani’s followers and students in the 12th century.
Sheikh Abdul Qadir Gilani arrived in Baghdad in 1095. He studied the Prophet’s traditions, Sufism, Arabic philology, theology, and jurisprudence as per the Ḥanbali School—one of the four Islamic schools of jurisprudence. The saint spent 25 years wandering in the deserts of what is now Iraq as an ascetic. In 1127, he returned to Baghdad and began the preaching career that brought him to prominence as the Abbasid Empire was fragmenting.
Dastageer Sahib in Kashmir and Sheikh Abdul Qadir Gilani’s Spiritual Reach to Indonesia
For many Muslims, writes Hamza Malik, the saint is ‘not just a historical personality. He is rather a figure of living importance. His spirit is believed to continuously provide spiritual sustenance and aid to those who seek and need it. The saint is an integral part of the spiritual life in Kashmir, the Himalayan Valley he never visited, over 4,000 km from his burial site in Baghdad. He is known as Dastageer Sahib there. Myane Dasgeera, the invocation to the saint, is perhaps the third most common in Kashmir after that to God and the Prophet Muhammad.
When a Kashmiri, the story goes, fell sick in Mecca during the Hajj pilgrimage, he called his relatives to ask them to pray for him at the Dastageer Sahib shrine in Srinagar, Kashmir’s main city, which houses a relic of the saint. An Afghan traveller is believed to have brought the relic there. He handed it over to the then-governor of Kashmir, Sardar Abdullah Khan, who gave it to Syed Buzargh Shah, a Qadri Sufi. The Dastageer Sahib shrine was constructed at Khanyar in 1806, mainly to house the relic. The relic is displayed to devotees who throng the Dastageer Sahib shrine on important occasions.
Popular devotion turned Sheikh Abdul Qadir Gilani into a saint with local characteristics in Indonesia, which is even farther, 8,166 km from Baghdad. The saint is believed to have visited and spread his teachings in Indonesia. A 19th-century text appears to suggest he was the fountainhead of a Javanese Muslim mystical tradition corresponding with a popular belief in the region that Gilani personally brought Islam to Java.
Soup Kitchens and Coexistence: Why Sheikh Abdul Qadir Gilani’s Teachings Endure
Legends associate him with the sacred cave at Pamijahan in West Java, the site linked to one of the revered Java saints, Shaykh Abd al-Muhyi, who introduced the Shattariyya sufi order there. One of the martial arts schools in Java is characterised by its use of Sheikh Abdul Qadir Gilani’s hizb or prayer formula, which he is believed to have received thanks to long meditations in Pamijahan.
In Sri Lanka, a prehistoric forest cave in Kūragala in Sabaragamuwa province’s Ratnapura district is venerated due to its association with Gilani. Legends have it that he rested there on his way to Śrī Pāda (Adam’s Peak), a shared sacred Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, and Muslim site, making the ancient site sacred for Muslims of Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu (India), especially to Sufi followers of the Qadiriyya order.
The saint’s shrine in Baghdad is key to understanding why his influence endures far and wide centuries after he passed. A soup kitchen there remained an oasis of acceptance when Baghdad was riven with sectarian bloodshed. We met Sunnis, Shia, and Kurds there, swearing by unity. Sunnis and Shias queued to serve lentils, chicken, and rice without anyone caring about sectarian, ethnic, or religious lines that blur completely at the shrine, which is also an important site for a ritual marking the end of mourning for their loved ones among Shia women.
