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Hamza Malik.- The Grey Falcon: The Life and Teaching of Shaykh ʿAbd
al-Qādir al�Jīlānī (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 251p.

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Hespéris-Tamuda LIV (2) (2019): 281-285

Hamza Malik.- The Grey Falcon: The Life

and Teaching of Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-
Jīlānī (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 251p.
Hamza Malik’s The Grey Falcon has set
out to probe into an account of the life and
teaching of the twelfth century pious scholar
and preacher, Sufi of Baghdad and the founder
of the largest Sufi order in the world today,
the Qādiriyya, Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī
(1077-1166). For many Muslims, Jīlānī is not
just a historical personality but rather a figure
of living importance whose spirit continues to
provide emotional and spiritual nourishment to
his disciples and to those who seek and need it. He is known by a variety of
names and titles including, Sulṭān al-Awliyā (King of the Saints), the ghawth
al-aʿẓam (the Greatest Help), and the pīr-i dast-gīr (the saint who keeps one’s
hand for support), Muḥiyyiddīn (Reviver of the Faith), and Bāz al-Ashhab
(The Grey Falcon) or sometimes Bāz Allāh al-Ashhab.
The crux of this study is catalyzed by the discrepancy between how
Jīlānī on the one hand is admired all over the Muslim world along with the
vast spread of “his order,” and on the other hand how the person of Jīlānī
is understood in Western academic scholarship. Jīlānī may be studied,
amongst other means, through the biographies and hagiographies that have
been written about him, as well as through his own works. However, Malik
postulates that there seems to have already been too much attention given to
the hagiographies and biographies with a resulting lack of attention given to
his works. This study therefore aims to attempt to rectify that by analyzing
his works.
The question of whether Jīlānī was a Sufi, or simply a scholar appropriated
by later Sufis as has been sometimes suggested, is explored through an in-
depth analysis of his most and recognized popular works, specifically al-
Ghunya li- Ṭālibī Ṭarīq al-Ḥaqq, Futūḥ al-Ghayb, and Fatḥ al-Rabbānī, as a
first category. Malik undertakes also a survey which takes into account a set
of works which is associated with Jīlānī from biographies and hagiographies
to commentaries on his texts. This second category includes great many a
work in traditional Muslim languages, and very few in Western languages,
all of which are of course modern. Malik identifies and presents Jīlānī’s
general teaching, Sufi thought and theological stance, and furthermore aims

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282 Hamza Malik

at portraying his character and personality, as might be established solely

from the works analyzed.
Abd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī was born in 470/1077 and died in 561/1166.
Notwithstanding he was born in the village of Nīf, which is situated in an
area to the northeast of Iraq and south of the Caspian known as Gīlān, he
moved to Baghdad during his teenage years and was to spend the rest of his
life there. Around the time of his arrival in Baghdad, or even before, ʿAbd al-
Qādir became drawn to ascetical and mystical endeavours and for this reason
seems to have become attached to the locally known sufi Hammād al-Dabbās
(d. 525/1131) for a while. Upon completing his formal studies, he spent a
number of years in spiritual retreats.
To understand Jīlānī’s thought and writings, Malik first explores the
social, political and educational milieu that Jīlānī entered into and became a
part of. The political situation between 400/1000 and 500/1200 was one of
great changes in the Muslim lands, especially for Baghdad and the surrounding
country. It saw the rise to power of the Seljuks (446-596/1055-1200), with a
patchy period, oscillating between stability and then a return to instability
as had been the case during the end of the Buwayhid period (334-446/945-
1055).
Baghdad was ethnically composed of Arabs, Persians, Turks and Kurds,
and there were, aside from the Muslim majority population, Jews, Christians
and Zoroastrians. In such a milieu there is an investigation into the various
groups and sects (Sunni and Shīʿī) that were present in Baghdad – the Zaydīs,
the Ismāʿīlīs, the Imāmiyya, the Muʿtazilīs, the Ashʿarīs, the Ḥanafīs, the
Shāfiʿīs, the Ḥanbalīs, the ʿAyyārūn – and into their activities. Meanwhile,
between 400/1000 and the Mongol devastation of Baghdad in 656/1258,
many few educational institutions emerged such as cathedral-mosque (the
jāmiʿ), mosque-college (the masjid) and lawcollege (the madrasa).
After bringing into sharper focus an overview of the political and social
atmosphere in Baghdad leading up to and during the life of Jīlānī, Hamza
Malik accentuates a biographical account of Jīlānī’s life in as much detail as
possible. Jīlānī’s full name is Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Qādir Ibn Abī Ṣāliḥ
al-Jīlānī. His life is roughly divided into two general phases. The first of his
youth and education, of finding himself and gaining a good grounding in the
spiritual aspect of Islam, and the second of teaching, giving sermons to large
crowds and guiding new adherents on the spiritual Sufi path. The first phase
 ͨUrūḍ biblioghrāfia, Comptes Rendus, Reviews of Books, Reseñas Bibliográficas 283

amounts to roughly the first forty or fifty years of his life, while the second
phase amounts to the remainder of his life, again a forty to fifty year period.
To examine Jīlānī’s thought as a whole means looking at him as a
Ḥanbalī as well as a Sufi if he can be rightly rendered as such. The term
Ḥanbalī can be used to refer to a school of theology as well as a school of
jurisprudence and sometimes in popular idiom as a school of morality too.
By the twelfth century, all four Sunni schools of law were generally accepted
as equally valid according to their own methodologies, and so all four were
considered orthodox. Jīlānī was known to be a Ḥanbalī in jurisprudence and
this could not have caused any controversy. Malik has singled out five issues
that are discussed by most writers on theology and that cover some of the
major points. They are heavily debated between the different sects during this
period, and gauging Jīlānī’s standpoint on these topics will hopefully help
identify his theological perspective. They are the attributes of God, the status
of the Qurʾān, faith, human actions (Afʿāl al-ʿIbād) and the Caliphate.
Using Ibn Baṭṭa and Ashʿarī as a gauge, it has been shown that on each
of these doctrinal issues there has been fitness between what Jīlānī wrote
and what these authors who preceded him wrote. Jīlānī’s views appear to
be in agreement with other Ḥanbalīs that precede him. Still, there are some
interesting differences that exist with regard to the presentation of these three
works.
The second part of Jīlānī’s theology pivots on names and nomenclature;
that is, the names and occurrences of persons and groups whom Jīlānī refers
to in his theology section of the Ghunya. The names that are evaluated
here are persons other than the companions of the Prophet and names that
merely appear in a chain of transmission (isnād) for any given ḥadīth. They
are persons from whom Jīlānī is taking an opinion, rather than just a report.
Fourteen different persons are mentioned, and five of them more than once.
Jīlānī viewed the opinions of the Ḥadīth scholars as an unrivalled authority,
with Ibn Ḥanbal standing out as the leader of a prestigious pack in this regard
and the one most relied upon.
After looking at the theology of Jīlānī, Hamza Malik broaches on
understanding his thought as a complete system, and thus in the course of
attempting to set down this system, the theology just enumerated must be
reconsidered and put in its proper place and given its appropriate significance
with a more focus on al-Jīlānī’s al-Ghunya li-Ṭālibī Ṭarīq al-Ḥaqq. Jīlānī
is a devotee of Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal, who is mentioned 46 times more than
284 Hamza Malik

double the amount of the next most frequently mentioned person. This is not
only because of his prominence as the founder and originator of the school
of law named after him and which Jīlānī adhered to, or as a traditionist, or
as a theologian he was considered a great saint by many that came after him,
and a person who many of the Sufis regarded as a role model of piety and
asceticism. As an “austere Hanbali,” Jīlānī in al-Ghunya constantly shows an
amazing knowledge of differing opinions from different schools. He regularly
relates the opinions of the other three jurists, Abū Ḥanīfah, Mālik and Shāfʿī.
In al-Ghunya, Jīlānī reveals an “ocean of knowledge” in Qurʾānic exegesis
(tafsir), Arabic language and Islamic law (fiqh), inter alia.
Malik highlights the Sufi path of Jīlānī as extracted from his works. The
author looks at some elementary aspects such as the basic understanding of
Sufism (taṣawwuf) as something that involves a permanent change of character
and state, on both a personal and social plane. He also explores Jīlānī’s
standpoint regarding the prerequisites to the Sufi path and its foundations.
These rudiments are: (1) the strict adherence to the Qurʾān and sunna, and
this can be achieved through two very essential principles, the first being sidq
or truthfulness and the second ijtihād; and (2) the importance of a Shaykh.
Hamza Malik offers us a thorough analysis of Jīlānī’s main foundations
of his Sufi path or “method” (ṭarīqa). Jīlānī mentions seven khiṣāl (virtues
or characteristics) which are mujāhada (struggle against the base desires and
impulses) of the nafs, tawakkul (complete and absolute reliance upon God),
ḥusn al-khulq (having good character and behaviour), shukr (gratefulness),
ṣabr (patience), riḍā (contentment) and ṣidq (truthfulness). Hamza Malik ends
his study by illustrating the personality and character of Jīlānī, as culled from
his three works. The author relies on material produced during his lifetime
and from individuals that personally witnessed the events and comments that
are recorded. Malik finds occasional comments upon Jīlāni’s physical actions
and the situational condition, which are given to us by the scribes taking note
of his speech.
Malik’s The Grey Falcon: The Life and Teaching of Shaykh ʿAbd al-
Qādir al-Jīlānī is an invaluable attempt to provide a meticulous analysis and
study of some of the works of ‘Abd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī. There are many further
tracks of research that need to be sought in order for us to be able to fully
appreciate the importance, influence and impact that Jīlānī had on the history
of Sufism and on Muslim society and culture after him. Interestingly enough,
this spiritual guide and pious scholar’s legacy needs to be deeply unearthed.
The issue of the Qādirī order is also something that can be considered again
 ͨUrūḍ biblioghrāfia, Comptes Rendus, Reviews of Books, Reseñas Bibliográficas 285

and in more depth than has been done previously. This order as the mantle
of spiritual inheritance was passed down through his sons and aspirants into
different corners of the Islamic world. Notwithstanding Shaykh ʿAbd al-
Qādir al-Jīlānī never set his feet in the Maghreb in general, and in Morocco in
particular, his influence on Sufi issues was immense as an eponymous Zawiya
was built in Morocco and Algeria under his name “the Qādirī Zawiya,” which
greatly influenced other orders, and it has a lot of aspirants (murīdin) and
disciples.
Lahoucine Aammari
Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Beni Mellal

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