عبد الجيل القادراني

'Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani

The author discusses in this book Imam ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī: his name, lineage, teachers, journeys in pursuit of knowledge, his methodology in matters of creed, and his efforts in confronting religious innovations and warning against them.

Sufism as understood and practised by this Imam also occupies a prominent place in this work, as it represented a reformative revival based on organised education, spiritual training, promoting the commanding of good and forbidding of evil, calling for justice towards the poor and the general public, confronting deviant trends, purifying Sufism of what had subsequently entered into it, cooperation between schools of reform, advising those in authority, and supporting them in matters conducive to the welfare of the Ummah.

Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir succeeded in establishing a school that, in its time, contributed to shouldering responsibility and confronting doctrinal, intellectual, economic, and social challenges. It also played a prominent role in preparing a generation of resistance to the Crusader threat in the lands of Syria.