Did Ibn Hajar al-ʿAsqalani Wrote a Book on Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qadir al-Jilani?

Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Question

Is the book Ghibtat al-Nazir fi Tarjamat al-Shaykh Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani (غبطة الناظر), published in English as The Onlooker’s Delight, genuinely by Imam Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (Allah have mercy on him)?

Answer

The attribution to Imam Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (Allah have mercy on him) is credible.

Imam Sakhawi, his closest student, confirms that Ibn Hajar composed a biographical abridgment of Shaykh Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani (Allah sanctify his secret) from Shattanufi’s Bahjat al-Asrar.

Imam Suyuti is reported to cite that work by name as Ghibtat al-Nazir. The surviving printed text most likely represents that abridgment in substance.

The 20th Century Publication: Some Caution

The exact recension printed at Calcutta in 1903, however, should be cited as “attributed to Ibn Hajar,” not alongside his firmly established major works like Fath al-Bari and Tahdhib al-Tahdhib.

The text is not a forgery. But it is also not authenticated to the standard that allows treating every individual report inside it as personally vouched for by Ibn Hajar himself.

Either way, the rank of Sayyiduna Shaykh Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani does not stand or fall on this attribution. His standing as one of the greatest scholars, jurists, and friends of Allah (awliya) in this umma is established independently and beyond serious dispute.

Clarification on the Title

One clarification on the title. It is Ghibtat al-Nazir, not Ghiybat. The Arabic غبطة means delight or good fortune at what one beholds, which fits the English rendering The Onlooker’s Delight.

Classical Attestation

The strongest witness is Imam Sakhawi (Allah have mercy on him), Ibn Hajar’s closest student. In his exhaustive biography of his teacher, al-Jawahir wa al-Durar fi Tarjamat Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Hajar, Sakhawi records that Ibn al-Mulaqqin abridged a biography of Shaykh Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani from al-Bahja, “and likewise the subject of this biography.” (ملخصا لها من البهجة، وكذا صاحب الترجمة) [Sakhawi, al-Jawahir wa al-Durar]

“The subject of this biography” is Ibn Hajar himself. So Sakhawi confirms that Ibn Hajar produced an abridgment of Shattanufi’s Bahjat al-Asrar on Shaykh Abd al-Qadir.

Two Cautions: He Wrote a Work–But is it This?

Two cautions on this passage. Sakhawi confirms the work exists. He does not appear to name it Ghibtat al-Nazir specifically.

Imam Suyuti (Allah have mercy on him) corroborates the title.

As the contemporary specialist, Shaykh Abd al-Hakim al-Anis has documented, Suyuti cites the work by name in al-Falak al-Mashhun and ascribes it to “al-Hafidh Ibn Hajar.”

If the report holds, it is a near-contemporary witness that closes the gap between Ibn Hajar’s attested abridgment and the title transmitted to us.

Later bibliographers carry the attribution forward. Katip Çelebi (Haji Khalifa, d. 1067 AH) lists Ghibtat al-Nazir under the letter ghayn in Kashf al-Zunun and assigns it to Shihab al-Din Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani.

Isma’il Pasha al-Baghdadi (d. 1339 AH) includes it in Ibn Hajar’s bibliography in Hadiyyat al-Arifin.

The Manuscript and the Modern Edition

The printed text descends from the Orientalist Sir E. Denison Ross’s 1903 Calcutta edition, prepared from a manuscript at the Khuda Bakhsh Library in Bankipore.

Ross notes that the title and the author’s name do not appear in the manuscript body. They appear in a copyist’s note on the first page.

He also records that he did not find this risala in the standard enumerations of Ibn Hajar’s works available to him.

That weakens the printed recension. An attribution supported by multiple early copies, audition records, or an autograph would be stronger.

Yusuf Ilyas Sirkis, in Mu’jam al-Matbu’at, rejected the attribution of the Calcutta edition outright. The objection is real.

The rejection does not, in the judgment of experts such as Shaykh Anis (cited above), outweigh Sakhawi’s notice, together with the reported Suyuti citation.

The Considered Judgment

Researchers (and my limited consideration) would suggest that the careful position is this:

Imam Sakhawi, the top student of Ibn Hajar, establishes without serious doubt that Ibn Hajar composed a work or abridgment on Shaykh Abd al-Qadir.

The surviving Ghibtat al-Nazir appears to represent that work in substance, and Suyuti’s reported citation strengthens this reading.

That every individual report in the printed text carries Ibn Hajar’s personal authentication is the weakest claim, and should not be assumed.

Not His Independent Work: An Abridgment

One further point matters. Ibn Hajar’s text is, even on the strongest reading, an abridgment of Shattanufi’s Bahjat al-Asrar.

Responding to Imam Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali’s (Allah have mercy on him) criticism of Shattanufi, Ibn Hajar said he had read much of al-Bahja and would not endorse a blanket dismissal.

He also conceded that Shattanufi gathered reports of mixed strength, like a hatib layl (حاطب ليل) — a gatherer in the night who cannot tell sound from unsound. [Sakhawi, al-Jawahir wa al-Durar]

Ibn Hajar’s voice in this work is therefore discriminating rather than blanket-endorsing.

How To Mention The Work: A Suggestion

The fair way to cite the book is: “attributed to Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, attested for him by Sakhawi, transmitted under the title Ghibtat al-Nazir.”

The Standing of Sayyiduna Shaykh Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani

Whatever one concludes about this recension, the rank of Sayyiduna Shaykh Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani (Allah sanctify his secret) stands on its own.

Allah Most High says in His Book:

(أَلَا إِنَّ أَوْلِيَاءَ اللَّهِ لَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ • الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَكَانُوا يَتَّقُونَ)

“Indeed, the friends of Allah, no fear is upon them, nor shall they grieve — those who believed and were ever-mindful of Allah.” [Quran 10:62-63]

Imam Ibn Kathir glosses the verse: “The friend of Allah (waliyy) is the believing, godfearing servant” — wilaya, in his reading, is constituted by sound faith and the sustained mindfulness of Allah called taqwa. [Ibn Kathir, Tafsir al-Quran al-Azim]

Shaykh Abd al-Qadir is among the clearest embodiments of that wilaya in the history of this umma.

A Little About Shaykh Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani

He is Abu Muhammad Abd al-Qadir ibn Abi Salih Musa al-Jili al-Hasani, a descendant of Sayyiduna al-Hasan ibn Ali (Allah be pleased with them).

He was born in Gilan, in present-day northern Iran, around 470 AH / 1077-78 CE, into a family of piety and renunciation of the world (zuhd). At about eighteen, he traveled to Baghdad, then the capital of the Muslim world.

There, he studied jurisprudence with the leading Hanbali authorities of his day, learned Arabic and literary arts with Abu Zakariyya al-Tabrizi, and heard hadith from the senior teachers of the city.

He became a jurisconsult (mufti) in both the Hanbali and Shafi’i schools.

He then gave himself, for some twenty-five years, to seclusion (khalwa) and spiritual struggle (mujahada) in the ruins outside Baghdad.

His Teaching and Its Impact

When, in the words of Ibn al-Najjar, he was “manifested to creation,” his public exhortation began around 521 AH [Ibn al-Najjar, Dhayl Tarikh Baghdad].

He brought together a school of sacred sciences (madrasa), a Sufi lodge (zawiya), and a public pulpit in one institution. He fed the poor in their thousands and taught seekers in their thousands.

Imam Ibn Qudama al-Maqdisi (Allah have mercy on him), the great Hanbali authority, said: “We entered Baghdad in 561 AH, and we found Shaykh Abd al-Qadir to be the one to whom leadership had come in the city — in knowledge, practice, wealth, and the issuing of fatwas.” [Ibn Qudama, in Dhahabi, Siyar A’lam al-Nubala]

General Consensus on His Rank

The imams of the umma agreed on his rank. Imam Dhahabi sums him up as “the shaykh, the imam, the scholar, the ascetic, the gnostic exemplar, Shaykh al-Islam, the standard-bearer of the saints, Muhyi al-Din Abu Muhammad Abd al-Qadir al-Jili al-Hanbali, the shaykh of Baghdad.” [Dhahabi, Siyar A’lam al-Nubala]

Dhahabi also transmits the testimony of Imam Izz ibn Abd al-Salam (Allah have mercy on him), Sultan of the Scholars: “The saintly wonders (karamat) of no one have reached us by near-mass-transmission except those of Shaykh Abd al-Qadir.”

Imam Sha’rani records the testimony of the Shaykh’s close disciple Abu al-Fath al-Harawi: “I served Shaykh Abd al-Qadir for forty years; throughout that time he would pray the dawn prayer with the ablution of the night prayer.” [Sha’rani, al-Tabaqat al-Kubra]

Shaykh Abd al-Qadir’s Teachings: A Return to Allah and His Messenger in Slavehood

His teaching is, at root, a return to the Book and the Sunna under the discipline of obedience.

In al-Fath al-Rabbani, he says, “Every reality (haqiqa) the Sacred Law does not testify to is sheer heresy.”

And, “Fly to the Real, Mighty and Majestic, on the two wings of the Book and the Sunna.” [al-Fath al-Rabbani]

In Futuh al-Ghayb, he gives a daily rule for the believer:

“There is no escape, for the believer in any of his states, from three things — a command to obey, a prohibition to avoid, and a divine decree to be content with.” [Futuh al-Ghayb]

In Sirr al-Asrar, he teaches that the servant moves only between blessing (ni’ma), which calls for gratitude (shukr), and trial (bala’), which calls for patience (sabr) and contentment with the decree (rida). [Sirr al-Asrar]

The Qadiriyya Order

The Qadiriyya order he established is today the most widespread Sufi path in the Muslim world, with living branches from West Africa to the Balkans, and across the Levant, the Subcontinent, and Southeast Asia.

May Allah (Most High) sanctify his secret, grant us a share of what He granted him, and let his blessings reach us.

Biographic details taken from my own notes from various talks on Shaykh Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani (Allah be pleased with him). 

And Allah knows best.

[Shaykh] Faraz Rabbani

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