Karamas of Shaikh ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Gaylani
Karāmas of Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Gaylānī
The karāmas that are associated with Shaikh ʿAbd al Qādir al Gaylānī are numerous and are well recorded in the many biographical works that have been written on him and other historical sources. We mention here only a few of them:
- One day Shaikh ʿAbd al Qādir al Gaylānī was talking to a gathering in his school when it started to rain so some of the audience left the place. Shaikh ʿAbd al Qādir then raised his head toward the sky and said: ‘So I gather [people] but you disperse them?’ The rain immediately stopped falling on the school though kept falling outside it.” (Reported by Shaikh ʿUday bin Musāfir)
- One year, the level of the river Tigris went so high that Baghdad became under the threat of flood. People came to Shaikh ʿAbd al Qādir asking for his help. He then went to the river and inserted his staff at the edge of the land that the water had covered and said: “This far.” From that moment the water started to subside.
- ʿUmar al-Bazāz said that one Friday he was with Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir heading to the mosque when he noticed with much surprise that no one came to salute the Shaikh. ʿUmar then wondered in himself: “This is strange. Each Friday we reach the mosque with much difficulty because of the crowds that gather around the Shaikh”. At that point, Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir looked at ʿUmar al-Bazāz and smiled, and people started to come to salute the Shaikh. Soon ʿUmar al Bazāz found himself separated from the Shaikh by people, so he thought in himself blamefully: “Is this better now?” Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir immediately turned toward him and said: “O ʿUmar! You wanted this! Didn’t you know that the hearts of people are in my hand if I wish I can turn them away from me and if I wish I can call them to me?”
- One day a woman wanted to dedicate her son to the worship of God, so she took him to the Shaikh to live and study in his school and under his supervision. The Shaikh accepted her son and ordered him to start doing jihad, that is to follow a strict regime of fasting and worshiping. One day the mother came to visit her son but found him pale and have lost a lot of weight, and he was eating a piece of rye bread. She then went to visit the Shaikh just to find in front to him a plate that contains the bones of a chicken he had eaten. She couldn’t help asking him: “Sir, you eat chicken but make my son eat rye bread?” The Shaikh then put his hand on the plate and said: “Rise by the permission of He who brings the bones back to life!” At this point the chicken came back to life and clucked. The Shaikh then said to the woman: “If your son becomes capable of this, let him eat chicken and anything he likes.” (Reported by Yāfiʿī)
