Purification of the Mind

Purification of the Mind

This book is an English translation of Shaikh Muhammad al Casnazani al-Husseini’s edition of the Arabic manuscript “Jila’ al-Khatir” (Ishtar Press, Baghdad, 1989) which contains discourses of the great Sufi Master Shaikh ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Gaylani. In editing the original manuscript, Shaikh Muhammad consulted three copies of the manuscript, one at the department of manuscripts of the Iraqi Museum, one at the Library of the Iraqi Ministry of waqf and religious affairs and the third at the Library of Shaikh ‘Abd al-Qadir al Gaylani in Baghdad/Iraq.

Shaikh Muhammad al-Casnazani did not publish the manuscript in its original form but rather classified the contents of the discourses into forty sections each of which deals with a specific subject. However, the fact that Shaikh ‘Abd al Qadir would speak about a number of different issues in short statements in each discourse would inevitably make such classifications only approximate. They, nevertheless, usefully facilitate the reader with related collections of sayings of Shaikh ‘Abd al Qadir. A special symbol has been used to indicate the beginnings of paragraphs from different discourses. 

The text of the book includes citations of a number of Qur’anic verses. Qur’anic verses cannot be translated accurately from Arabic, their original language, because no translation can cover the deep meanings of a Qur’anic verse, as many of these meanings will be unknown to the translator himself. We have included in the book, therefore, the Arabic text of each of the cited Qur’anic verses after an appropriate, though inevitably limited, translation of its meanings. Phrases of glorification that follow the names of Allah ( ‘Azza wa Jall) and (Subhanahu wa ta‘ala) and the special phrase that follows the name of the Prophet Muhammad (Salla Allah ta‘ala ‘alayhi wa sallam) also cannot be translated. The Muslim is commanded in the Holy Qur’an to mention after the name of the Prophet Muhammad (Salla Allah ta‘ala ‘alayhi wa sallam), but the meaning of this phrase is difficult to identify with certainty: 

The courtesy phrase “Karrama Allah wajhah” that follows the name of al-Imam ‘Ali bin Abi Talib and “‘Alayhi as-salam” that follows the names of righteous people also should not be translated. Therefore, romanizations of the Arabic pronunciation of all of the above phrases have been used in the translated text. Approximate meanings of these phrases have also been given in the glossary of terms below. Apart from the glorification phrases that follow the names of Allah, the other Arabic phrases appear sometimes in slightly different variations for grammatical reasons, for instance, when they are in the plural. 

Table of Contents

• Translators’ Introduction and
• Shaikh ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Gaylani
• On Good Behavior in the Company of the Shaikhs
• On Repentance
• On the Mediator
• On Love
• On Trust
• On Renunciation
• On Fear
• On Patience
• On Sincerity
• On Truthfulness
• On Sorrow
• On Satisfaction
• On the Fear of Allah
• On Striving Against the Lower Self
• On the Blessing of the Remembrance (of Allah)
• On the Deeds of the Heart
• On the Knowledge of the Saints
• On Putting Knowledge Into Practice
• Spending on the Poor
• On Seclusion
• On Solitude
• On the Definition of the Sufi
• On Extinction
• On Pardoning
• On the Light of the Believer
• On Denouncing this World
• On the Fruit of Knowledge
• On Denouncing Hypocrisy
• On the Benefits of the Month of Ramadhan
• On the Benefit of Mercy
• On the Prohibition of Injustice
• On Neglecting That Which is of No Concern
• On Humility
• On Denouncing Dissimulation
• On Envy
• On the Curtailment of Hopes
• On Death
• On Thinking Well of Others
• Having a Sense of Shame
• On Enduring Affliction
• Epilogue
• Glossary of Terms

About Shaikh Abd Al-Qadir Al-Jilani: Shaikh Abd Al-Qadir Al-Jilani In A.H. 488, at the age of eighteen, left his native province to become a student in the great capital city of Baghdad, the hub of political, commercial and cultural activity, and the center of religious learning in the world of Islaam. After studying traditional sciences under such teachers as the prominent Hanbali jurist [faqiih], Abu Sa’d ‘Alii al-Mukharrimii, he encountered a more spiritually oriented instructor in the saintly person of Abu’l-Khair Hammaad ad-Dabbaas.

Then, instead of embarking on his own professorial career, he abandoned the city and spent twenty-five years as a wanderer in the desert regions of ‘Iraq. He was over fifty years old by the time he returned to Baghdad, in A.H. 521/1127 C.E., and began to preach in public. His hearers were profoundly affected by the style and content of his lectures, and his reputation grew and spread through all sections of society. He moved into the school [madrasa] belonging to his old teacher al-Mukharrimii, but the premises eventually proved inadequate. 

In the words of Shaikh Muzaffer Ozak Efendi: “The venerable ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani passed on to the Realm of Divine Beauty in A.H. 561/1166 C.E 

Editor: Shaikh Muhammad Al-Casnazani was born in 1938 in Sulaymaniyah, northern Iraq. After the death of his father Shaikh ‘Abd Al-Carim, he because the Master of the Sufi school Tariqa Casnazaniyyah, which is one of the Sufi schools that trace their origin to Shaikh ‘Abd Al-Qadir Al-Gaylani. He spends much of his time calling people to the righteous path and spreading knowledge. In 1989, he edited and published the Arabic manuscript of “Jila’ al Khatir”. Translator: Shetha Al-Dargazelli obtained her BSc and MSc from the Physics Department, College of Sciences, Baghdad University and her Ph.D. in Physics from Durham University. She taught in universities in Iraq where she became a Professor. She has published more than sixty scientific papers and general articles. She is also the author-co-author of four scientific books, one book on the status of women in Islam, and one on Islamic spirituality