practices of his predecessors, he began to redress the injustices and wrongs perpetrated by the Umayyads in the past. Known for their political notoriety and wilful misappropriation of public wealth and property for the royal family’s benefit, none of the Umayyad rulers were popular with the masses except Umar, who dramatically reversed the policies of his predecessors and returned to the people their stolen goods, properties and lands. He pursued this policy so ruthlessly that every member of the Umayyad family, including his own wife Fatimah, was asked to return to the public all the goods that had been taken from them unlawfully. His wife complied with his order and returned to the public treasury all the precious jewellery given to her by her father, Caliph Abd al-Malik. Although Umar’s policy angered all the members of the royal family, he did not relent or back down until all the confiscated goods, properties and lands were returned to their rightful owners. So much so, that soon all the members of the Umayyad family found themselves on the verge of poverty and destitution. Even though this remarkable and unprecedented act of restorative justice made him very unpopular with the leading members of the ruling Umayyad clan, no one dared to oppose him directly. In desperation, Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik, who was a leading member of the royal family, pleaded with Umar not to return anymore of the Umayyad wealth to the public. Characteristic of Umar, he retorted that he would continue to render justice until all known injustice had been corrected, ‘For fear of punishment on the Day of Judgement prevents me from disobeying God.’ During his short reign of two years, Caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz succeeded in restoring justice, fairness and equality across the vast Umayyad Empire. Unlike his predecessors, he was not keen on pursuing military expeditions abroad when social injustice, economic inequality and political oppression reigned supreme at home.
Thus it was his habit to send regular communications to all his governors to remind them to fear God, to observe justice and treat all their subjects well, whether they happened to be Muslims or non-Muslims. He also reminded all his provincial governors that it was incumbent upon them to restore to the people all the lands, properties and goods which had been wrongfully confiscated from them in the past. If any of his governors failed to comply with his instructions, he immediately removed them from their post. As expected, Umar’s sound principles and impeccable sense of justice and fair play soon made him very popular with the masses. Conversely, his refusal to give up his policy of restorative justice began to create much resentment within the Umayyad family; indeed, some of them even began to secretly conspire against the Caliph. But unable to topple him, they reportedly poisoned him instead. According to some of his biographers, after twenty day’s illness, Caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz passed away at the age of around thirty-seven. He died reciting, ‘We make this last home for those who neither seek superiority on earth nor make trouble, and peace is only for the God-fearing.’
His death shocked and horrified everyone within the Islamic world and all the people, young and old, men and women, Muslims and non-Muslims, shed tears for him. Influential Islamic scholars and sages like Hasan al-Basri not only prayed for him, they also fondly remembered him as an exemplary ruler. When the news of Umar’s death was relayed to the Byzantine Emperor, he also paid him one of the most glowing tributes, saying, ‘If there was any man after Jesus who could have brought the dead back to life, it was Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz. I do not marvel at the monk who renounces the world, shuts himself up and devotes himself entirely to prayer. I marvel at the man who had the world at his feet and who, trampling upon it, took to a monk’s life.’
That was the greatness of the man who came to symbolise true Islamic qualities and attributes, both as a citizen and ruler of one of the Muslim world’s greatest empires. That is why Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, the great Saint-King of Islam, continues to inspire Muslims to this day. His love for Islam and Muslims, coupled with his desire to promote peace, justice and fair play throughout his vast dominion, turned him into a powerful symbol of justice, goodness and rectitude. Today, across the Muslim world, people are crying out for a leader like Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz to emerge and guide them through the unpredictable and tumultuous waves of history.
IT WOULD NOT be an exaggeration to say that the Muslim world has produced some of the world’s great spiritual teachers who devoted their entire lives to acquiring a better understanding of the meaning and purpose of creation, and man’s role in this vast universe. Unlike the philosophers, theologians and scientists, their modus vivendi was to ‘experience’ knowledge as such. According to them, the universe and the human soul are not mere abstract concepts which are independent of each other, for at a certain level all things are inter-connected and inter-dependent, being ultimately connected to a common denominator. These great spiritual teachers were eager to understand the true nature of reality, that is to say, they sought to transcend the ‘exterior’, and plunge into the ocean of ‘inner’ meanings of things in order to attain ‘experiential’ knowledge which, they believed, would enable them to move closer to Divine proximity – the origin of all that exists. One of the Muslim world’s most influential, and arguably the most revered, Sufi (or spiritual teacher and guide) was Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani.
Sayyid Muhyi al-Din Abu Muhammad Abd al-Qadir Hasani al-Jilani was born in Nif, a district town of Jilan in the province of Tabaristan, located on the coast of the Caspian Sea. His family traced their lineage back to Hasan, the eldest son of Caliph Ali and a grandson of the Prophet, through Sayyid Hasan Muthanna. Abu Salih, his mystically inclined father died when he was a child, but his unusually pious mother, Umm al-Khair Fatimah, raised him with the support of her scholarly and saintly father, Abdullah al-Suma’i, who claimed to be a descendant of Hussain ibn Ali through his son Ali Zain al-Abideen. Abd al-Qadir received his early education in Arabic, committed the whole Qur’an to memory and studied aspects of hadith (Prophetic traditions) at home under the supervision of his mother and maternal grandfather. He then began his formal education at a local school when he was about ten. Thereafter, he pursued his intermediate studies at his local religious seminaries and acquired a sound knowledge of traditional Islamic sciences and Sufism (Islamic mysticism) before he reached his eighteenth birthday.
In 1095, Abd al-Qadir left his native Jilan and journeyed to Baghdad, which was the capital of the Muslim world at the time. However, on his way to Baghdad his caravan was surrounded by a group of robbers who confiscated the travellers’ belongings by force. When one of the robbers asked young Abd al-Qadir if he had any valuables on him, to the surprise of the robber, he said his mother had stitched forty gold coins up his sleeves. At first the robber did not take him seriously, presumably because he thought the youngster was pulling his leg. But when the leader of the gang questioned Abd al-Qadir and demanded to see the hidden gold coins, he opened up his sleeves and showed him the money. The robbers found his actions both puzzling and very unusual, to say the least. When they asked him why he admitted to having the gold coins, to their amazement, he replied that his mother’s parting words to him were that he must always speak the truth. Since denying that he had any money on him would have been to utter a falsehood, he decided to tell the truth, he said. Abd al-Qadir’s truthfulness and honesty clearly stirred the robbers’ consciences and they reportedly fell to the ground and begged for his forgiveness and clemency. After thanking him for teaching them a lesson in good behaviour, ethics and morality, the robbers returned all the goods they had seized from the people, and promised to change their ways.
After a long and eventful journey, he finally reached Baghdad. At the time Baghdad was a thriving centre of Islamic learning and commercial activity. He also found the people of Baghdad very friendly and hospitable. Although joining the Baghdad branch of the famous Nizamiyyah College (founded in 1065 by the celebrated Seljuk Prime Minister Nizam al-Mulk) would have been an attractive option, he decided not to join this college. Instead he studied Arabic grammar, literature, tafsir (Qur’anic exegesis), hadith and fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), especially hanbali fiqh, under the guidance of Baghdad’s leading scholars and teachers. He paid for his educational and maintenance costs out of the forty gold coins his mother had given him, but when the money ran out he began to experience considerable financial and personal hardship. His financial situation became so dire that he was not always able
