According to traditional Sufi teachings, there exists a hierarchical system of saints who control the entire world order. Hujwīrī says: "But of those who have power to loose and to bind and are the officers of the Divine Court there are three hundred, called Akhyār, and forty called Abdāl, and seven, called Abrār, and four called Awtād, and three called Nuqabā, and one called Quṭb or Ghawtb." ¹² Ibn 'Arabī calls Shaykh 'Abd al-Qādir the quṭb (or Pole) of the times;" ¹³ generally among the people he is known as al-Ghawth al a'ẓam (the greatest ghawth), which places him at the apex of the mystical hierarchy. His contribution to spirituality in Islam cannot be exaggerated. He initiated a powerful movement for the spiritual culture of Muslim society. Some of the founders of mystic orders--like Khwājah Mu'īn al-Dīn Chishtī and Shaykh Najīb al-Dīn 'Abd al-Qāhir Suhrawardī--were influenced by his mystic ideas and had benefited from his company. The Shaykh is reported to have remarked: "My foot is on the head of every saint." While in the case of other mystics such utterances made in a state of spiritual exhilaration have become the subject of criticism, his remark was taken seriously and according to Jāmī some of the eminent saints of the age actually put their heads under his feet. ¹⁴

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