The Comprehensive Reminder for Knowing the Path

The Comprehensive Reminder for Knowing the Path

This noble book is a didactic poem (urjuza) composed by the Gnostic of Allah, Sheikh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani, which he titled "Tadhkirat al-Shafiq al-Jami'ah li-Ma'rifat al-Tariq" (The Comprehensive Reminder for Knowing the Path). In it, the Sheikh summarizes the etiquettes that a spiritual seeker should embody on the path to Allah, describes the duties and states of the disciple, and explains the meaning of Sufism from his unique perspective.

The poem was verified from its sole surviving manuscript by Sayyid Muhammad Fadel Jilani, who included an image of the manuscript at the opening of the book, and then provided the poem with a detailed and precise commentary, in which he sought, wherever possible, to refer back to Sheikh al-Jilani's own works — drawing on what the Sheikh elaborated on elsewhere to explain what he had summarized here. He also added main headings for the verses and explicitly cited the Qur'anic verses and hadiths implicitly referenced within the poem.