8:15 PM
NK
He Reached The State of Siddiqeen
The Holy Prophet MuhammadMustafaSallallahu alaihi wa Sallam is the last Prophet, there is no prophet after him. But people can still aspire to spiritual progress, acquire taqwa (piety) and saintliness and become Awliya Allah (friends of Allah). And the highest spiritual state after anbiya (prophets), belongs to the Siddiqeen (the truthful) that is why the Holy Prophet taught us to make the dua:Allahummaj 'alna min-as-Siddiqeen (O Allah make us among the truthful). Well, Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani Rady Allahu Anh manifested to the world that he ranked among the siddiqeen at the ripe age of 18. At that age, his thirst for knowledge and eagerness for the company of the Awliya Allah took him to the city of Baghdad.
It is related that as Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani was about to leave home on this momentous journey, his widowed mother sewed forty gold coins inside his coat as part of his inheritance, and as parting advice told him to be forever truthful. The caravan with which he was travelling had gone as far as Hamadan when it was attacked by a gang of robbers. In the course of their loot, one of the robbers asked him whether he had anything with him and he truthfully replied that he had forty gold coins sewn in his coat. The robber obviously thought he was joking and narrated this incident to his chief who decided to come and see this young man. When his coat was torn open, sure enough there were forty gold coins. The gang leader was astounded. He asked Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani as to why he revealed this when he could have very well kept it secret. Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani told him that his mother had advised him not to lie and he was duty bound to obey his mother, Hearing this, the gang leader was overpowered with remorse, repented, accepted Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani as his Shaykh and so did all his followers and they went on to acquire wilayah (sainthood) themselves. This is how Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani came to be ranked among the Siddiqeen. Allahummaj 'alna min-as-Siddiqeen, Aameen Yaa Rabbal 'Aalameen. Sayyid Hajji Abdul Raheem Bin Sayyid Muhammad Ismail Shirazi has captured the essence of this incident most beautifully in the following verses of his Urdu poem on the Gauth-al-A'zam:
Choron pay tum nay kar kay tawajjoh Abdaal banaaya 'aali shaan
Yaa Gauth-al-A'zam ajab tumhaaree shaan
" Focusing your spiritual glance at the thieves You turned them into great saints O, the great helper, your stature is truly astounding "
(Gulzare Tayyiba, vol 3, p 18)
