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'Abd al-Qadir's Fables
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18132 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
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11 / 1990 |
2,300 Words |
| Author
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Jan Knappert
Jan Knappert is a folklorist and specialist in African and
Oriental languages who is based in Belgium. |
'Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani (born A.D. 1077, died 1166 in Baghdad) is probably the best known saint of Islam and certainly the most widely venerated. A visit to his tomb in Baghdad, over which Sultan Suleyman built a fine monument in 1535, is still the goal of many pilgrims. His works (mainly prayers attributed to him) are still being printed in Cairo; he is well known in Pakistan and Muslim India, as well. He is so much at home in West Africa that the Algerians claim he was a native of their country, even though it is known that he was born in the province of Jilan in northern Persia, along the Caspian coast.
'Abd al-Qadir is frequently mentioned in Hausa literature in Nigeria. He is venerated in Kenya and even in Zaire. In Swahili there is a booklet of tales of his miracles, and in Javanese there is a larger volume on his life and works. He has thus become the most universal of the Islamic saints. It is often difficult to assess where history ends and legend begins in the numerous tales told about him, but the believers are not worried by such details.
The legends presented here have been taken from collections of tales told about 'Abd al-Qadir in Africa, Indonesia, and the Middle East. Most of these tales are extremely popular and are retold in many languages; some are of pre-Islamic origin. Essentially the tales are not episodes from the saint's life but are fables or legends, that is, stories with a moral.
For instance, in the tale of the chicken bones, a young disciple has to begin by eating dry bread. Then, when he has achieved complete power over all his physical desires by continuous asceticism he will have the power to
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