Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani: Life and Teachings

Abdul Kader Choughley
Paperback, 212 pages
9789391601980

In this work, Abdul Kader Choughley, a reputed South African scholar, delves deep into the life and teachings of the medieval Sufi master par excellence, Abdul Qādir Jilāni (1077-1166). The Shaykh is widely known in the Muslim world as Muhiyuddin (reviver of the religion), denoting his enormous contribution to the revival of the true spirit of Islam and its teachings in the crucial post-classical age of Islam, by freeing Sufism from superstitious and syncretic practices, thus making it in accordance with the teachings of the Qur'ān and the Sunnah of the Prophetﷺ. The eponym of the Qādiriyya, one of the oldest Sufi orders, Shaykh Jilāni was also an insightful jurist, author, deeply involved himself in the quest for justice and building of social and political system based on the principles of Islam. Choughley's study, deeply analytical and objective, covers all these multifaceted aspects of the Shaykh's life, along with introductory analyses of his works such as Futuh Al-Ghaib (Secrets of the Unseen), Al-Fatḥ ar-Rabbānī (The Sublime Revelation), Ghunyat al-Ṭālibin (Treasure for Seekers) and Jila' Al-Khatir (The Purification of heart). A very unique feature of the volume is a detailed study of Tafsir Jilāni, the manuscript of which was found approximately eight hundred years after the Shaykh's death.