Sheikh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani, whose paternal ancestry goes back to Imam Hassan bin Ali ibn Abi Talib may Allah be pleased with him, the fifth rightly guided Caliph and grandson of the Prophet blessings and peace be upon him and his family, on his mother’s side the lineage goes back through his maternal grandfather Abdullah al-Sawma’i to Imam Hussain the martyr of Karbala may Allah be pleased with him. 

Imam Abdul Qadir was born 11 Rabi Akhir, around the year 470 AH/1077, in Jilan to a family from the Prophetic house known for the Knowledge and devotion. 

After studying his basics in his native home the young Abdul Qadir Jilani, moved to Baghdad, the capital city of the Abbasid Caliphate and one of the greatest centres of learning in its time.

In Baghdad he studied the scholarly sciences, he was a Hanbali Jurist and would go on to become the Sheikh of Hanbalite school in Baghdad. 

Among his teachers in jurisprudence was the famous Ibn Aqil al-Hanbali, and the Qadi  Abu Said al-Makhzoumi whose school he would later teach in after his teacher passed. 

He also went under the spiritual mentorship of both his teachers al-Makhzoumi and his main spiritual mentor Sheikh Hammad bin Muslim al-Dabbas May Allah have mercy on them. 

While studying in Baghdad he would also go to the uninhabited areas surrounding Baghdad to study, reflect on the transience of this world, pray and turn his attention to his inner life and the struggle against the ego, many saintly miracles are attributed to him by his contemporaries and narrated by scholars in subsequent ages. 

He went onto to teach among others Imam Ibn Qudamah al-Maqdisi who travelled from his native Jerusalem to Baghdad to study with him, he managed to stay with Imam Jilani for the last forty days of the latter’s life and Ibn Qudamah went onto become the systemiser of the Hanbalite school. 

Imam Jilani’s lessons and public talks attracted people in their thousands from every walk of life, scholar, princess, paupers and those devoted to their spiritual life all attended his public discourses. 

He left a body of work and if Imam Ghazali was the great systemiser of the inner science of self purification, and mapped the path of the human soul to move from a state of heedlessness to arrival at the Divine Presence, one of Imam Jilani’s legacies was to be the first to systemise a practical methodology for the seeker to follow. 

It was the revival brought about by both Imam Ghazalli and Imam Jilani which would inspire the generation before and the generation of the famous Saladin. 

He passed away in Baghdad 10 Rabi Akhir 1166, at the age of 90, leaving a body of written works, public talks transcribed during his discourses, many students and children, his legacy still lives on may Allah’s mercy be upon him.