Abdul Qadir Jilani to the level of a deity by the extreme devotees. He
himself is supposed to have observed: “All the saints are under my feet.” If
such a sentiment were actually voiced by the Shaykh, it could only relate to
his elevated spiritual state — without there being any suggestion of his
prominence in a saintly hierarchy, as claimed by his later admirers. Even
Shaykh Abdul Haqq Muhaddith of Delhi, an otherwise very careful scholar
of great insight, depicts the Shaykh in terms stemming from these far-
fetched tales of the saints. The greatness of Shaykh Abdul Qadir lay not in
his miracles, but in his “God-conscious” way of life and his total devotion to
the overarching ideal of Islamic mysticism: to realize God, to show people
the way to God, and to bring happiness to troubled hearts and distracted
souls.
Th e Qa d r i Or d e r 132
