Understanding servanthood and killing your self

In the time our liege lord Abd al-Qadir Jilani ق whoever was affiliated to our liege lord al-Jilani was exempt from serving in the military. (So) Everyone started to affiliate themselves with al-Jilani.

It so happened that an attack from the unbelievers took place and the Muslim army was not present because all were affiliated to our liege lord Abd al-Qadir. At that time the caliph wrote to al-Jilani asking him what he should do as he was in need of the army, but he could not revoke the agreement made with al-Jilani. Our liege lord al-Jilani answered, “I will send you an army of unlimited size.”

Then our liege lord al-Jilani ordered the public crier to call for the people to gather up, especially all those that were affiliated to him, in a certain large public place in Baghdad, in the centre of which there was a sandhill. Our liege lord al-Jilani set up a tent on the sandhill and when the people gathered he came out of the tent carrying a sword and said, “O my brothers! I was commanded to slaughter everyone that is affiliated to me.” And he asked them to surrender themselves to be slaughtered. Whereupon a man went up and our liege lord al-Jilani made him lie down and said to him, “Act as if you had been slaughtered.” Then he slaughtered a ram next to his head and the man started to agitate his arms and legs as if he had been slaughtered.

Then he called out again, “Who is next?” Seeing that, half of the people fled. Then a woman climbed up. She was the wife of the one who had been “slaughtered.” He slaughtered another ram next to her head. At that time all the people fled.

Al-Jilani wrote to the caliph, “O Commander of the believers! I have one murīd and a half, and the rest are all soliders for you.”

Translated from the Arabic by Shaykh Gibril Fouad Haddad ﵀