Abd al-Razzāq b. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī (c. Dhu al-Qi’dah 528 AH – 6 Shawwal 603 AH/9 September 1134 – 7 May 1207), also known as Abū Bakr al-Jīlī or ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Jīlānī (often simplified as Abdul-Razzaq Gilani) for short, or reverentially as Shaykh ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Jīlānī by Sunni Muslims, was a Persian Sunni Muslim Hanbali theologian, jurist, traditionalist and Sufi mystic based in Baghdad. He received his initial training in the traditional Islamic sciences from his father, Abdul-Qadir Gilani (d. 1166), the founder of the Qadiriyya order of Sunni mysticism, prior to setting out “on his own to attend the lectures of other prominent Hanbali scholars” in his region. He is sometimes given the Arabic honorary epithet Tāj al-Dīn (Crown of the Religion) in Sunni tradition, due to his reputation as a mystic of the Hanbali school.
Abdul Razzaq Gilani Quotes
01. “O Peaceful Nafs turn to God being satisfied and giving satisfaction.”
– Abdul Razzaq Gilani
02. “Be careful before meeting death.”
– Abdul Razzaq Gilani
03. “When the heart is perfected all your conditions become perfect.”
– Abdul Razzaq Gilani
04. “Good men abstain themselves from the world and conquer it by fear of God and piety.”
– Abdul Razzaq Gilani
05. “My satisfaction with Taqdir (fate) has led me to God.”
– Abdul Razzaq Gilani
06. “Make piety your weapon and make Tawhid (Unification of God) contemplation. Piety and sincerity in seclusion and beseeching God’s help your army.”
– Abdul Razzaq Gilani
07. “When you get the ability assign this world to your Nafs, the Nafs, the next world to your heart and the Lord to your soul.”
– Abdul Razzaq Gilani
08. “Be constant in fear of God and his worship. Do not fear anyone else nor expect anything from any one. Save yourself – Fear God, fear God and fear God.”
– Abdul Razzaq Gilani
09. “Three things are indispensable for a believer in all conditions of life. He should keep those commandments of God: he should abstain from the forbidden things; and he should be pleased with the decree of Providence.”
– Abdul Razzaq Gilani
10. “Then He will give you death in your will and desires, and when you are dead in your will and desires it will be said to you: “May God have mercy on you” and He will restore you to (a new) life.”
– Abdul Razzaq Gilani
11. “When you are in a particular condition do not wish for another condition either higher or lower. Thus, when you arc at the palace gate of the King do not wish for an entrance into the palace unless you are made to enter it by compulsion and not of your own accord.”
– Abdul Razzaq Gilani
12. “Wealth is your servant and you are the servant of the Lord.”
– Abdul Razzaq Gilani
13. “Do not run away from God for He will overtake you.”
– Abdul Razzaq Gilani
14. “Be aware of sin in all its form in all your organs of body and in your heart.”
– Abdul Razzaq Gilani
15. “Trials and calamities strengthen the heart and certainty and establish the faith and patience and weaken the animal-self and its desires.”
– Abdul Razzaq Gilani
16. “Then know that God is every day in a new state of glory, in chancing and altering and raising and lowering (people).”
– Abdul Razzaq Gilani
17. “The worldly life is a cultivation ground of the life hereafter; and the good deeds of the Prophets and Awliya after the performance of commandments and prohibitions consist in patience and pleasure and reconcilement in the midst of trial.”
– Abdul Razzaq Gilani
18. “There is no spiritual stale nor any spiritual station but has fear and hope attached to it. These two are like two wings of a bird but for which no flight can be perfect. And this is true of every state and station. With this much of difference that every state has its corresponding fear and hope.”
– Abdul Razzaq Gilani
19. “Make your life after death your capital money and your wordily life its profit. Spend your time first of all in acquiring your life after death.”
– Abdul Razzaq Gilani
20. “Do you not know that for every occurrence of event there is an appointed time and for every calamity there is a point of consummation?”
– Abdul Razzaq Gilani
21. “All the parts of my body are ailing excepting my heart which has no pain in it and it is sound with God.”
– Abdul Razzaq Gilani
22. “And a dervish is he who is indifferent to everything besides God.”
– Abdul Razzaq Gilani
23. “Tasawwuf is based on eight qualities:
1. Generosity like that of Prophet Abraham (as),
2. Cheerful submission like that of Prophet Ishaque (as),
3. Patience like that of Yaqoob (as),
4. Prayer like that of Prophet Zachariah (as),
5. Poverty like that of Prophet Yahya (as),
6. Wearing of woollen dress like that of Prophet Musa (as),
7. Travelling about like that of Prophet Issa and (as),
8. Religious poverty like that of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.”
– Abdul Razzaq Gilani
24. “In everything there is an attribute from the attributes of God and every name is a sign one of his names. So surely you are between His names and His attributes and works, inwardly through His power and outwardly through His wisdom. He is manifest in His attributes and concealed in His person. His person is concealed in His attributes and His attributes are concealed in His works And He has revealed His knowledge through His will and He has expressed His will in movements. And He has concealed His skill and His workmanship through His wilt. So He is hidden in His invisibility and He is manifest in His wisdom and power. There is nothing like even a likeness of Him and He is hearing and seeing.
– Abdul Razzaq Gilani
25. “Do not will anything which is not the will of God.”
– Abdul Razzaq Gilani
26. “Human consciousness is divided into three conditions raising upward in the scale of evolution:
1. Nafs al-Ammara i.e, unruly animal self.
2. Nafs al-Lawwama, i.e. struggling moral self.
3. Nafs al-Mutma’inna, i.e. composed God realized self.
– Abdul Razzaq Gilani
27. “There is none worthy of worship but Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, the Ever-Living, Who has no fear of passing away. Glory be to Him Who exults in His omnipotence, and subdues His servants with death. There is none worthy of worship but Allah. Muhammad ﷺ is Allah’s Messenger.
– Abdul Razzaq Gilani
