Al-Jubbaʾī said: “I was attending a reading of al-Ḥilya with Ibn Nāṣir when my heart softened, and I thought, ‘I wish I could withdraw from people and devote myself entirely to worship.’ I then went and prayed behind Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir. After we sat down, he looked at me and said, ‘If you mean to seclude yourself, do not do so until you acquire sound understanding of fiqh, keep company with the shaykhs, and cultivate proper adab; otherwise you will withdraw while still a fledgling whose feathers have not yet grown.’

Abū al-Thanāʾ al-Naharmalikī said: “We had heard that flies never alight on Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir. I went to see him, and he turned to me and said, ‘What would a fly want with me? Here there is neither the molasses of this world nor the honey of the Hereafter!’”

Abū al-Baqāʾ al-ʿUkbarī related: “I heard the man of letters Yaḥyā ibn Najāḥ say, ‘I said to myself, I wish to count how many locks of hair Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir cuts from each penitent. I attended his gathering with a piece of string. Each time he cut some hair I tied a knot in the string beneath my clothes, though I was seated at the very back of the assembly. Suddenly he called out, “I untie while you tie?!”’”

Ibn al-Najjār said: “I heard the Shaykh of the Sufis, ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad al-Suhrawardī, say:

‘I was studying fiqh in my youth when the thought occurred to me to read a little of kalām (dialectical theology). I resolved to do so without intending to debate. I prayed with my uncle, Abū al-Najīb, and Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir came to greet him ⦗1⦘. My uncle asked him to pray for me and told him that I was engaged in fiqh. I rose and kissed his hand; he took hold of my hand and said, “Repent of your plan to busy yourself with kalām and you will prosper.”

‘He then fell silent. I did not abandon my intention to study kalām until all my inner states became unsettled and my time became clouded. Only then did I realize that this was because I had gone against the counsel of the Shaykh. ⦗2⦘’”