FIFTEEN LETTERS
Khamsata ʿAshara Maktūban

Shaikh ʿAbd Al-Qādir Al-Jīlānī

(470/561 H - 1087/1165 CE)

Editing, Translation, and Commentary

Louay Fatoohi

Birmingham – UK

 
  
 
© 2014 Louay Fatoohi

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,

translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise, without written permission from the author.
 
Published in the United Kingdom by
Safis Publishing Limited, Birmingham, UK.
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ISBN 978-1-906342-20-3 (paperback)

978-1-906342-21-0 (ebook)

First Edition
First published: September 2014
Version: 21030603
 
Although all care has been taken to ensure the integrity and
quality of this publication and the information herein, no
responsibility is assumed by the publisher nor the author for
any damage to property or persons as a result of the operation
or use of this publication and/or the information contained
herein.

 
  
 
Table of Contents

The Author ..................................................................... 5

The Manuscripts ........................................................... 13
The Letters ................................................................... 29
The Edited Text ........................................................... 31
The English Translation .............................................. 33
Prelude (Manuscript “S”) .............................................. 35
Prelude (Manuscript “B”) ............................................. 37
Prelude (Manuscript “M”) ............................................ 39
The First Letter ............................................................ 41
The Second Letter ........................................................ 45
The Third Letter .......................................................... 49
The Fourth Letter ........................................................ 55
The Fifth Letter ............................................................ 59
The Sixth Letter ........................................................... 63
The Seventh Letter ....................................................... 67
The Eighth Letter......................................................... 71
The Ninth Letter .......................................................... 75
The Tenth Letter.......................................................... 81
The Eleventh Letter ..................................................... 85
The Twelfth Letter ...................................................... 89
The Thirteenth Letter .................................................. 93
The Fourteenth Letter ................................................. 97
The Fifteenth Letter ................................................... 101
Epilogue ...................................................................... 105
References ................................................................... 107

 
  
 
Acknowledgement

I would like to thank my brother Faiz who brought this

masterpiece by Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī to my
attention.
I am especially grateful to my dear wife, Shetha al-
Dargazelli, for her helpful comments on the editing
process and the translation.
I would also like to thank my close friend Tariq
Chaudhry for his feedback on the translation.
My thanks also go to King Saud University and
Michigan University for making their manuscripts of
the book available online for public access, and to the
Bodleian Library of Oxford University for providing me
with a digital copy of its manuscript of the book.

 
  
 
The Author

Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī was born in 470 H. (1077

CE). Old sources claim that he was born in “Gaylān” in
the north of today’s Iran. 1 But recently it has been
suggested that he was, in fact, born in a village called “al-
Jīl” near the city of Madāʾin, forty kilometres south of
Baghdad.2 That the current work was originally written
in Persian seems to support the mainstream view that he
came from Iran. Either way, this is why he is known as
“al-Gaylānī”, “al-Jīlānī”, or “al-Jīlī”.
Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir was born to very pious parents,
both of whom descended from Prophet Muhammad
(prayer and peace be upon him). His father and mother
are from the lineage of al-Imām al-Ḥasan and al-Imām
al-Ḥusayn, respectively. He received his first religious
education at home before migrating to Baghdad at the
age of eighteen to continue his learning and start what
turned out to be a unique and amazing spiritual journey.
References to only his mother advising him before he
left his hometown suggest that he had lost his father by
the time he headed to Baghdad.
Baghdad was then the capital of the Abbasid caliphate
and, more importantly, it was a centre of knowledge and
education that was vibrant with spiritual and intellectual
activities. But this was also a period of political upheaval,

1
Al-Dhahabī, Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ, vol. 20, p. 439
2
Al-Gaylānī, Al-Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Gaylānī: Ruʾya Tārīkhiyya
Muʿāṣira, p. 9. Also, al-Gaylānī, Jughrāfiyyat al-Bāz al-Ashhab.
 
6 THE AUTHOR

with the crusaders in action in Palestine, Syria, and

Antakya in Turkey, and Baghdad at the mercy of the
neighbouring Turkish and Seljuq Sultans.
In Baghdad, Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir first accompanied
the Sufi Shaikh Ḥammād al-Dabbās (d. 525/1131), and
later Shaikh Abū Saʿīd al-Mukharramī (al-Makhzūmī). It
has also been reported that Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir was a
student of al-Imām Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111)
and that the Shaikh’s book al-Ghunya reflects influences
by al-Ghazālī’s Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn.3 He also had other
teachers.4
When Shaikh Abū Saʿīd saw how his student was
developing, he asked him in 521/1127 to teach in his
school. Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir used to lecture three days
a week. His audience grew quickly until a lecture would
attract tens of thousands. Many students used to write
down his lectures, preserving the words of the Shaikh.
He continued to preach in his school until he died in
561/1165. 5 The fame that this school developed as a
result of the respect and following that Shaikh ʿAbd al-
Qādir had, and it being his burial place, guaranteed its
status as one of the most revered and visited Islamic sites.
The Shaikh disapproved of the scholars and Shaikhs
who built close ties with the rulers, visited them, or
benefitted from them, often at the cost of performing
their religious duties properly. This is what he says in
one of his sermons:

3
Al-Gaylānī, Al-Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Gaylānī, p. 12.
4
Al-Dhahabī, Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ, vol. 20, p. 443.
5
Al-Dhahabī, Tarīkh al-Islām wa-Wafiyyāt al-Mashāhīr wal-Aʿlām,
pp. 86-100.
 
FIFTEEN LETTERS (KHAMSATA ʿASHARA MAKTŪBAN) 7

O backslider, you build relations with the sultans, the

princes, and the rich seeking power and further worldly
things, yet you do not do business with the King of kings,
the Wealthiest of the wealthy, the One who never dies, the
One who never becomes poor, the One who repays your
loan to Him multiplied manifold!6

Nobilities and rulers still attended his lectures, while he

did not spare them any criticism he had of how they
governed.
The Shaikh went on a pilgrimage to Mecca twice, the
first time in 505/1112, when he was still little known.
On this trip, he met Shaikh ʿUdayy bin Musāfir (d.
557/1162). On his second, in 555/1160, he met the
famous Moroccan Shaikh Abū Midian (d. 594/1197). By
then, Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir had become one of the most,
if not the most, famous Sufi Shaikhs, with countless
followers everywhere. His mother, who had gone to live
in Baghdad, is said to have been with her son on his
second pilgrimage. If this account is accurate, then
reports that his mother conceived him when she was
sixty years old are probably incorrect.7
There is no figure in the history of Sufism who has
been linked to as many miracles as Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir.
He is reported to have performed some miracles as a way
to convey and support his teachings.
The influence of Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir on Muslims
and his role in the spread of Islam are impossible to
exaggerate. There are far more Sufi Tarīqas (Ways)
whose chains of masters trace themselves back to him

6
Al-Jīlānī, Purification of the Mind (Jilāʾ al-Khāṭir), p. 8.
7
Al-Tāfidhī. Qalāʾid al-Jāwāhir, p. 3.
 
8 THE AUTHOR

than any other Shaikh. Accordingly, the followers of

Qādirī Ṭarīqas far outnumber the followers of any other
Ṭarīqa. Sufis in general, and Qādirīs in particular, played
a major role in spreading Islam in Asia and Africa.
Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir left a large number of sermons
and writings. These include al-Ghunya li-Ṭālibī Ṭarīq
al-Ḥaqq, al-Fatḥ al-Rabbānī wal-Faiḍ al-Raḥmānī, Futūḥ
al-Ghayb, Jilāʾ al-Khāṭir and many more. As noted
earlier, while he authored a lot of works, some were
compiled by his students who attended his lectures.
Let’s read some of Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir’s words on
several topics, starting with the following about love:
Woe to you! You claim to love Allah, yet you open up
your hearts to others! Because Majnūn Layla (the mad lover
of Layla) became truthful in his love for Layla, his heart
would not accept other than her. One day he came across
some people who asked him: “Where have you come
from?” He replied: “From being with Layla”. They asked
him: “Where are you going?” He answered: “To Layla”.
Once the heart has become truthful in its love for Allah
(mighty and glorified is He) it becomes like Moses (prayer
and peace be on our Prophet and him) about whom Allah
(mighty and glorified is He) has said: “And We prevented
from him all wet-nurses” (28.12). Do not lie; you do not
have two hearts but one, so once it is filled with something
there is no room for another. Allah (high is He) has said:
“Allah has not made for a man two hearts in his interior” (33.4)
— a heart that loves the Creator and a heart that loves the
creatures. There can be no heart in which this world and
the hereafter coexist.8

8
Al-Jīlānī, Purification of the Mind (Jilāʾ al-Khāṭir), p. 16.
 
FIFTEEN LETTERS (KHAMSATA ʿASHARA MAKTŪBAN) 9

He said about trust:

O young man, religion in the sight of Allah is Islam,
and the reality of Islam is surrender! You have to reach the
state of Islam first and then fulfil surrender. Purify your
outwards by Islam and purify your inwards by surrender.
Surrender yourselves to your Lord (mighty and
glorified is He) and be satisfied with His management of
your affairs. Give up your will and accept the destiny that
your Lord (mighty and glorified is He) has decreed. Accept
all of what destiny brings. Your Lord knows you better
than you know yourselves. Accept His words with
certitude. Receive His commandments and prohibitions
with total acceptance. Receive His religion with all of your
hearts, and make it your inner and outer covers.9

Here he criticizes the hypocrites:

Woe to you! How can you tell others to endure with
patience when you are impatient? How can you tell him
to give thanks in return for the favours when you have
given up thankfulness? How can you tell him to be satisfied
with the divine decree when you are dissatisfied? How can
you tell him to renounce this world when you are full of
desires about it? How can you tell him to yearn for the
hereafter when you have renounced it? How can you tell
him to trust Allah (mighty and glorified is He) when you
have relied on other than Him? You are hated by the True
One (mighty and glorified is He), the angels, and the hearts
of the truthful and the righteous of His servants.10

This is how he encouraged spending on the poor:

O miserable one, when a poor person comes asking for

9
Al-Jīlānī, Purification of the Mind (Jilāʾ al-Khāṭir), p. 24.
10
Al-Jīlānī, Purification of the Mind (Jilāʾ al-Khāṭir), p. 36.
 
10 THE AUTHOR

a loan, go ahead and lend him and never say: “Who is

going to give me?” You must disagree with your lower self
and give him a loan, and after a while make it a donation
to him. Among the poor is one who disapproves of
begging for alms, preferring to ask for a loan, with every
intention of paying it back. He has confidence in Allah
(mighty and glorified is He), and on the basis of this
confidence he borrows. So, if he approaches you for a loan,
O wealthy one, lend him and never face him with a request
to pay back, for this would further humiliate him. If a long
time passed without you receiving any repayment, go to
see him, ask him to accept that loan as a gift, and absolve
him of his obligation. Thus, you will be rewarded for his
first joy [when you gave him the loan] and for his second
one [when you turned the loan into a gift.] The Prophet
(Allah’s prayer and peace be on him) has said: “A beggar at
the door is a gift from Allah (mighty and glorified is He)
to his servant”.
Woe to you! How can the beggar not be a gift from
Allah (mighty and glorified is He) when he takes from
your share in this world to add to your share in the
hereafter? He saves for you something that you will find
when you need it. The amount that you give him will
vanish and disappear anyway, yet on account of giving it
to him, you will be promoted by several degrees in the eyes
of Allah (mighty and glorified is He).11

He said on good manners:

The Prophet (Allah’s prayer and peace be on him) has
said: “Keep to good manners in your social relationships
with people so that when you are dead they pray for Allah
to show mercy to you and when you are alive they yearn

11
Al-Jīlānī, Purification of the Mind (Jilāʾ al-Khāṭir), p. 106.
 
FIFTEEN LETTERS (KHAMSATA ʿASHARA MAKTŪBAN) 11

for you”. Heed to this good advice. Tie it to your hearts

and do not forget it. It points out to you an easy work that
carries many rewards. How good fine manners are! They
are a source of comfort to the person who has them and to
others. How detestable are bad manners! They are a source
of fatigue to the person who has them and a source of harm
to others.12

Finally, this is what he had to say about humility:

Be humble and do not be arrogant. Humility raises
people, whereas arrogance brings them down. The
Prophet (Allah’s prayer and peace be on him) has said:
“When someone behaves with humility with Allah, Allah
(mighty and glorified is He) raises him”. Allah has some
servants who do righteous works that are as great as the
mountains, like the deeds of the predecessors, yet they
humble themselves to Allah and say: “We have done
nothing that can cause us to enter Paradise. If we would
enter it, it would be by the mercy of Allah (mighty and
glorified is He), and if He would deny us admission, it
would be on account of His justice”. They continue to
stand in His company on the foot of bankruptcy.13

12
Al-Jīlānī, Purification of the Mind (Jilāʾ al-Khāṭir), p. 149.
13
Al-Jīlānī, Purification of the Mind (Jilāʾ al-Khāṭir), p. 157.
 
  
 
The Manuscripts

There are at least four manuscripts of this book. One is

kept under classification “Hs.or.14314” in Datenbank
der Orientalischen Handschriften der Staatsbibliothek
zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany. The second is in King Saud
University in Saudi Arabia, the third is in the Bodleian
Library at Oxford University, UK, and the fourth is kept
in the Special Collections Library at Michigan
University, USA. In editing the book, I used the last
three manuscripts as the Berlin manuscript was not
available to me.14
King Saud University has made its manuscript, which
we will refer to with the letter “S”, available for public
access on the University website. 15 It carries the
classification number of “218 / khāʾ . jīm”. The
manuscript does not carry any title, but the classification
information gives it the title of Khamsata ʿAshara
Maktūban lil-Jīlānī (Fifteen Letters by al-Jīlānī). It
mentions no date.
The manuscript is 17.5x25 cm and consists of eighteen
folios each containing two pages; except the first and last
folios, each of which has one page. The first two pages

14
I will use the term “book” or “work” to refer to the fifteen letters
of Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī. Each of the three manuscripts I used
as a source for the letters contains a prelude and one of them also has
an epilogue. These are clearly not written by the Shaikh, as will be
seen when we review them.
15
http://makhtota.ksu.edu.sa/browse/makhtota/2271/1#.U4Y x2
_ldX16.
 
14 THE MANUSCRIPTS

contain an introduction to the work, so they are not part

of the letters. The introduction names the author of the
letters as the renowned Sufi Master Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir
al-Jīlānī. After praising the work, it states that the book
was originally written in Persian, before identifying the
translator as a certain statesman called Sulaymān Raʾfat
Pasha. He is said to have done the translation after
becoming a governor (wālī) in Brūsa. The latter is
today’s Bursa, a city in the north-west of Turkey. The
Ottomans captured it from the Byzantines in 1326 CE
and turned it into their first major capital city between
1335 and 1413 CE. Having done some research, I could
identify one Ottoman governor with this name, who
became the governor of Aleppo in 1852 for two years.
He is said to have liked scholars and writers.16
The last two pages name and commend the sponsor of
the copying and distribution of the manuscript, as well
as praising the author of the manuscript. So, the
manuscript contains what represents a “Prelude” and an
“Epilogue” for the letters. Both carry no title and start
with the Basmala “In the name of Allah the
Compassionate, the Merciful”.
The work itself occupies the remaining thirty-four
pages. It consists of fifteen letters, hence the title given
to it. The first letter starts with the Basmala but does not
have a title. The remaining fourteen letters do not start
with the Basmala but each starts with a title indicating
the serial number of that letter, such as al-Maktūb al-
Thānī (The Second Letter). The words of the author are

16
Al-Bālī, Nahr al-Dhahab fī Tārīkh Ḥalab, p. 388.
 
FIFTEEN LETTERS (KHAMSATA ʿASHARA MAKTŪBAN) 15

written in black whereas the verses are in red.

The Bodleian Library manuscript, henceforth “B”, is
one of thirty-six manuscripts contained in one volume
carrying the classification number “MS. Arab. c. 84” in
that library. The manuscript is 12.2x30 cm and carries
the title Al-Qawl al-Muṣīb fī Taʿrīb al-Makātīb al-
Khamsa ʿAshar or “The Right Say in the Arabic
Translation of the Fifteen Letters”. The manuscript
consists of three folios which are most of 6 recto through
8 recto. The second half of the last page contains an
Arabic translation of a Persian text that has nothing to
do with this book but is one of the other thirty-five
manuscripts that the volume contains. The copyist has
put a line above every Qur’anic verse in the text.
Like King Saud University, Michigan University has
made its manuscript available online.17 This manuscript,
henceforth “M”, is part of a volume with the
classification number “Isl. Ms. 257” that contains some
of the works of Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī.
According to the last page of the volume, these works
were collected by a Sufyān al-Wahbī al-Baghdādī at the
command of ʿAlī Riḍā Pasha in Baghdad in 1257 H
(1841 CE). The latter liberated Baghdad from the
Mamluks in 1831 CE and returned it under the rule of
the Ottomans. He then became the governor of Iraq,
Diyar Bakr, and Aleppo until 1842 CE when he was
transferred to Syria.
The volume consists of 170 folios and 340 pages. The
manuscript in question occupies 22 folios, from 11 recto

17
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015079126762.
 
16 THE MANUSCRIPTS

to 32 verso. It is written in a clear and very beautiful

script. The manuscript is 18.7x11.5 cm. Neither the
volume nor the manuscript contains a title, but the
copyist has used certain drawings to identify the
beginning and end of each manuscript in the volume.
Each of the manuscripts “B” and “M” starts with a short
introduction. The two introductions are almost
identical. Most of their text is found in the introduction
of “S”, but the latter has extra text that does not exist in
the other two. It looks to me that the additional
paragraphs in the introduction of “S” were added later
and that the text of the introductions of “B” and “M” is
the original one. The original introduction may have
been written by the translator of the Persian text of the
letters, but it is more likely to have been added by one
of the early copyists of the Arabic letters.
Apart from the extra text in “S”, the main difference
between “S” and the introductions of “B” and “M” is that
those two attribute the translation to “the poor man ʿAlī
bin Ḥusām al-Dīn who is known as ‘al-Muttaqī’”. The
latter is a well-known scholar who was born in India in
885/1480. He lived in Medina and Mecca where he died
in 975/1567. Although I have not had the opportunity
to directly view the volume that contains manuscript
“B”, as I have only a digital copy of the manuscript, it
looks from the information that I have managed to
gather that each of the thirty-six manuscripts of that
volume was either written or translated by Muttaqī.
While “S” has an epilogue that focuses on the sponsor
of the copying and distribution of the manuscript, “B”
and “M” do not have an epilogue. “M” concludes with

 
FIFTEEN LETTERS (KHAMSATA ʿASHARA MAKTŪBAN) 17

the fifteenth letter, whereas in the case of “B” this letter

is followed by a paragraph in which the copyist thanks
God for enabling him to finish the work on the
manuscript.
Manuscript “B” also differs from “S” in that every letter
title is followed by a short description, something like a
subtitle. For example, the title “The Second Letter” in
“S” appears in “B” as “The Second Letter: On explaining
strife and spiritual training and their fruit”. It is clear that
the brief description was not written by Shaikh ʿAbd al-
Qādir but was added by the translator or a copyist as
some kind of commentary. Nevertheless, I have included
these descriptions in my translation. Unlike “S” and “B”,
the letters of “M” do not have any titles, such as “The
Second Letter”. The copyist has used a particular
decorative design to identify the beginning of each
letter.
It is clear that the three manuscripts represent three
different copies of the same translation of the Persian
text, as we shall see later when discussing the edited text.
This means that it is not possible that the two claims of
the manuscripts about the identity of the translator are
true. It is highly likely that Muttaqī is the real translator
of the book of Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir, as he is a well-
known scholar with so many works. The attribution of
the translation to the Ottoman ruler Sulaymān Raʾfat
Pāshā, who seems to have lived three centuries after
Muttaqī, is wrong. Perhaps this governor supported the
copying of the manuscript, like ʿAlī Riḍā Pāshā.

 
18 THE MANUSCRIPTS

Manuscript “S” – Page 1

 
FIFTEEN LETTERS (KHAMSATA ʿASHARA MAKTŪBAN) 19

Manuscript “S” – Page 2

 
20 THE MANUSCRIPTS

Manuscript “S” – Page 3

 
FIFTEEN LETTERS (KHAMSATA ʿASHARA MAKTŪBAN) 21

Manuscript “S” – Page 4

 
22 THE MANUSCRIPTS

Manuscript “S” – Last Page

 
FIFTEEN LETTERS (KHAMSATA ʿASHARA MAKTŪBAN) 23

Manuscript “M” – Page 1

 
24 THE MANUSCRIPTS

Manuscript “M” – Page 2

 

 
FIFTEEN LETTERS (KHAMSATA ʿASHARA MAKTŪBAN) 25

Manuscript “M” – Page 3

 

 
26 THE MANUSCRIPTS

Manuscript “M” – Page 4

 
FIFTEEN LETTERS (KHAMSATA ʿASHARA MAKTŪBAN) 27

Manuscript “M” – Last Page

 
  
 
References

Al-Dhahabī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Shams al-Dīn. Siyar Aʿlām al-

Nubalāʾ, edited by Shuʿaib al-Arnaʾūṭ and Muḥammad
Naʿīm al-ʿIrqsūsī, 23 vols, Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla,
1996.
Al-Dhahabī, Abī ʿAbd Allāh Shams al-Dīn. Tarīkh al-Islām
wa-Wafiyyāt al-Mashāhīr wal-Aʿlām, edited by ʿUmar
Tadmurī, Vol. 39, Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 1996.
Al-Gaylānī, Jamāl al-Dīn. Al-Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-
Gaylānī: Ruʾya Tārīkhiyya Muʿāṣira, Pittsburgh: Dār al-
Fikr, 2011.
Al-Gaylānī, Jamāl al-Dīn. Jughrāfiyyat al-Bāz al-Ashhab, Fez:
Al-Munaẓẓamma al-Maghribiyya Lil-Tarbiyya wal-
Thaqāfa wal-ʿUlūm, 2014.
Al-Jīlānī, ʿAbd al-Qādir. Purification of the Mind (Jilāʾ al-
Khāṭir), edited by Shaikh Muḥammad al-Kasnazānī,
translated by Shetha Al-Dargazelli and Louay Fatoohi,
Birmingham: Luna Plena Publishing, 2008.
Al-Jīlānī, ʿAbd al-Qādir. Fifteen Letters (Khamsata ʿAshara
Maktūban), translated by Muhtar Holland, Florida: Al-Baz
Publishing, 1997.
Al-Tāfidhī, Muḥammad. Qalāʾid al-Jāwāhir, Egypt: Maṭbaʿat
ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd Aḥmad Ḥanafī, 1356 H.
Kāmil Muṣṭafā al-Bālī (al-Ghazzī). Nahr al-Dhahab fī Tārīkh
Ḥalab, Vol. 3, Aleppo: Al-Maṭbaʿa al-Mārūniyya.
Louay Fatoohi. “The Concept of ‘ladun’ in the Qur’an”,
http://www.louayfatoohi.com/quran/the-concept-of-ladun-
in-the-quran/, accessed 29 May 2014.
Warrām Bin Abī Firās. Tanbīh al-Khawāṭir wa-Nuzhat al-
Nawāẓir, Tehran, 1309 H.