TheWorks of Abdul Qadir
T
WENTY
-
FOUR
TITLES
ARE
ascribed to Shaykh Abdul Qadir, of which the
most important are:
(1) al-Ghunyah li-talibi tariq al-haqq
(‘ThatWhich Is Sufficient to the Seekers
of the Path of Truth
’
), generally known as
Ghunyat al-talibin
, an exhaustive
work on the obligations enjoined by Islam and the Islamic way of life;
(2) al-Fath al-rabbani
(‘The Revelations of the Divine’) a record of
sixty-two sermons delivered by him during the years 1150-1152;
(3) Fath al-ghayb
(‘The Revelations of the Unseen’) a record of seventy-
eight sermons compiled by his son, Abdul Razzaq.
He wrote the
Ghunyat al-talibin,
a detailed account of his religious views,
at the request of his followers and friends. It was translated into Persian by
Abdul Hakim Sialkoti (d. 1657). Unlike the two other works, the
Futuh al-
ghayb
and
al-Fath al-rabbani
, it is a comprehensive work dealing both with
Islamic law and mystical thought. His sermons, however, are less than
exhaustive, for his compilers were unable to record his every utterance,
resulting in certain inevitable omissions. In the two collections of his sermons,
the Shaykh emerges as being of an entirely other-worldly nature, but in the
Ghunyat
there is a greater equilibrium
between spiritual and worldly
obligations. His deliberations on faith, charity
(zakat),
fasting, and
hajj
(pilgrimage) are followed by an analysis of the propriety of behaviour to be
observed in daily life. He also deals with the sects that he considered to have
strayed from the true path, ending with an exposition of his mysticism. On
the whole, the Shaykh set forth his ideas on religion and ethics in the
context of faith, devotion to God, and interaction with his fellow men.
The sermons contained in
Futuh al-Ghayb
are loosely arranged according
Th e Qa d r i Or d e r 118
