In the era in which 'Abd al-Qādir lived, his mystic activity contained a response to the challenges of the time. Adam Mez The Renaissance of Islam portrays the condition of Muslim society in the fourth/ tenth century. ² The disintegration of Muslim political power and the degeneration of Muslim morals weakened the fabric of society while materialistic pursuits froze the heat of spiritual life. The innumerable sects that appeared during this period were expressions of intellectual anarchy and religious confusion rather than indications of spiritual virility and intellectual curiosity. The horrifying activities of the Assassins, the endless internal broils among the Seljuq princes, the disintegration of the Abbasid power, and the holocaust caused by the Crusades had created an atmosphere in which Muslim society needed moral animation and spiritual resurrection.

Shaykh 'Abd al-Qādir's movement for the spiritual regeneration of society crossed the boundaries of Iraq and reached many countries, initially in the form of a vigorous religious activity by individual mystic teachers, later in the form of the ṭarīqah (small body of like-minded people devoted to the spiritual life) propagating the Qādirī mystic ideals, and subsequently as a silsilah (chain of a spiritual order) aiming at a mass effort for the spiritual culture of humanity and society. Initially the Qādirī teachings spread in and around Baghdad, but later on Arabia, Morocco, Egypt, Turkestan, and India came under their influence and large numbers of people entered the fold. The social milieu and the religious background of these regions being different, the order was confronted with diverse problems of response and adjustment. In African countries, it had to adjust to the conceptual framework of the tribes, and many customs and ceremonies of the earlier period were continued under new rubrics of Qadirī ideals and practice; in Ghur, Gharjlstan, Bamiyan, Khurasan, and Central Asian regions where the Karrāmiyans dominated the religious scene, ³ Qadirī activities paved the way for the rejection of anthropomorphic ideas and attracted people toward the "personal God" without physical features. In many areas the activity and doctrinal orientation of the Qadirī saints were determined by the nature of activities of other mystic orders which had reached these areas earlier.

Because the crystallization of the Qadiriyyah Order did not take place during the lifetime of the saint, many of the spiritual exercises and litanies that were later consolidated into a system were not initiated by the Shaykh himself. Significantly enough, these spiritual exercises absorbed the attention of the people more than the thought of the saint. ⁴ The Shaykh's books being in Arabic, their direct impact on people of non-Arab regions was limited. Persian commentaries and translations of his works no doubt appeared in India and other countries, but the standard of spiritual life and the doctrines preached by the Shaykh were so elevated that it was beyond the capacity of ordinary individuals to follow them meticulously. Later generations, consequently, relied more on the litanies of the Qādiriyyah Order than on the teachings of the Shaykh.