{{short description|Muslim Sufi saint and mystic}} {{Infobox religious biography | honorific_prefix = Shaykh al-Islām | native_name = عبد الكريم الجيلي | native_name_lang = ar | image = | birth_date = 1365 AD | birth_place = Baghdad, Abbasid Caliphate (now Baghdad, Iraq) | death_date = 1424 AD | death_place = Salihiyya, Damascus, Ayyubid Sultanate | resting_place = | children = | father = | mother = | grandfather = | religion = Islam | nationality = Abbasid, Ayyubid | denomination = Sunni | jurisprudence = Hanbali | creed = Athari | occupation = Mufassir, Muhaddtih, Theologian, Philosopher, Academic, Poet | main_interests = {{hlist|Sufism|Tafsir|Epistemology|Ontology|Poetry|Fiqh}} | notable_works = al-Insān al-Kāmil | influences = Abdul Qadir Gilani, Sharaf al-Dīn Ismā'il al-Jabartī, Ibn Arabi, Mu'ayyid al-Dīn al-Jandī, ‘Abd al-Razzāq al-Kāshānī, Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi, Dawūd al-Qayṣarī, al-Busiri, Fakhr-al-Din Iraqi, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, Qadi Baydawi, 'Adud al-Din al-'Iji, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Fairuzabadi | influenced = Virtually all of Sufism | students = | module = {{Infobox Arabic name|embed=yes | ism = ʿAbd al-Karīm<br/>محمد | nisba = al-Jīlī}} | caption = | era = Medieval philosophy * 14th century philosophy * 15th century philosophy | region = Middle Eastern philosophy * Islamic philosophy | name = ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Jīlī | teachers = }}
'''ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Jīlī''', or '''Abdul Karim Jili''' (Arabic:عبد الكريم الجيلي) was a Muslim Sufi saint and mystic who was born in 1365, in what is modern day Iraq, possibly in the neighborhood of Jil in Baghdad.<ref>{{citation |author=NICHOLAS LO POLITO |title='ABD AL-KARĪM AL-JĪLĪ: Tawḥīd, Transcendence and Immanence |page=11}}.</ref><ref>Dr. Margaret Smith, "Al-Jili: The Apostle of Thought" in The Aryan Path, Volume 2, 1931, p. 842.</ref> He is known in Muslim mysticism as the author of ''Universal Man''.
Jili was a descendant of the Sufi saint Abdul Qadir Gilani, the founder of the Qadiriyya dervish order. Although little is known about his life, historians have noted that Jili travelled in various places around the world. He wrote more than twenty books, of which ''Universal Man'' is the best known.<ref>[http://www.salaam.co.uk/knowledge/biography/viewentry.php?id=940 "Jili Al Abdul Karim Qutbuddin Ibn Ibrahim" ''Salaam Biographical Dictionary''].</ref>
Jili was the foremost systematizer and one of the greatest exponents of the work of Ibn Arabi. ''Universal Man'' is an explanation of Ibn Arabi's teachings on the structure of reality and human perfection. Since it was written, it has been held up as one of the masterpieces of Sufi literature.<ref>Peters, F.E. (1990) ''Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: The Classical Texts and Their Interpretation, Volume III: The Works of the Spirit'' Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, pp. 254-257.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.sunnirazvi.org/qadiri/ego/carnal.htm |title=''The Qadiriya Sufi Way'' Sunni Razvi Society |access-date=2006-07-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061231192011/http://www.sunnirazvi.org/qadiri/ego/carnal.htm |archive-date=2006-12-31 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Jili conceived of the Absolute Being as a Self, a line of thinking which later influenced the 20th century Muslim philosopher and poet Muhammad Iqbal.<ref>Allama Iqbal in his letter dated 24 January 1921 to R.A. Nicholson ''Letters of Iqbal'' Iqbal Academy, Lahore (1978), pp. 141-42.</ref>
==See also== * Al Akbariyya (Sufi school)
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jili, Abd-al-karim}} Category:1365 births Category:1424 deaths Category:Sufi writers Category:Sunni Muslims Category:Sunni Sufis Category:Akbarian Sufis Category:Sufi saints Category:Supporters of Ibn Arabi
{{Sufism-stub}}