Amir ‘Abd al-Qādir al-Jazā’irī (1808-1883), is an important figure in Algerian history. He was a shareef, a descendent of the Prophet Muhammad, and a Berber of the Banu Ifran tribe. Amir ‘Abd al-Qādir (alt. spellings: Emir Abd el-Kader, Emir Abdel Kader) was trained from a young age in Islamic sciences, and he became a scholar with knowledge of both the exoteric and esoteric (i.e. Sufism) dimensions of Islam. His father was a shaykh of the Qadiri Sufi Order. After the invasion of the French colonial power in Algeria in 1830, Amir ‘Abd al-Qādir became the most important leader of the rebellion against the invaders. After years of victories, he was finally captured and exiled to France, and later to Damascus. There, Amir ‘Abd al-Qādir resumed his scholarly pursuits, writing books on theology and philosophy, but always with a mystical bent. Today, he is considered one of the major heroes in ultimately winning Algerian independence, and his spiritual writings are held in considerable esteem.
Emīr ʿAbd al-Qādir: Jihadist Doesn't Equal Psychopath
By John Kiser
Abdelkader ibn Muhieddine, known as Emīr ʿAbd al-Qādir or ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī, was an Algerian Islamic scholar, Sufi, political and military leader
Emir Abd el-Kader.Name doesn't ring a bell? Perhaps that's because he has been dead for 130 years. Nevertheless, the emir's story shouldn't be forgotten, especially on 9/11. His legacy of heroic — and honorable — resistance to Western interference in Islamic lands is a model for how Muslim nationalists today can put their region's interests first without becoming monsters who would slaughter thousands of innocents to make a political point. More than ever, young Muslims need good role models to rebut false religious teaching of those who cherry-pick the Quran to justify evil.
Global Admiration
For 40 years, beginning in the 1830s, el-Kader was a world figure admired from Missouri to Moscow to Mecca. Born into a Sufi religious order in 1808 near Oran, a remote province of the Ottoman empire, the emir's life of study, teaching and prayer took an unexpected turn when he was elected chief of a "tribal confederation “to lead resistance against French occupiers of what is now Algeria.
The next 15 years bore witness to his efforts to fight according to Islamically correct rules: not killing women, children or the wounded; not mistreating prisoners, mutilating dead bodies or shooting priests or monks unless armed. El-Kader's respectful treatment of French prisoners was one weapon the French command had no answer to, other than keep it secret. He was a unifier who believed that no religion owned absolute truth. He lived the Quranic teaching that there should be no compulsion in matters of faith.
As el-Kader's fame grew, people of all stations sought him out, first as a resilient adversary of the French, later as an unbending prisoner and finally in honorable exile, where his reputation reached its peak after the emir saved the lives of thousands of Christians during a rampage in Damascus in 1860. This humanitarian intervention won him the French Legion of Honor and accolades from Pope Pius IX, President Abraham Lincoln and Queen Victoria.
In 1883, The New York Times confirmed el-Kader's status: "The nobility of his character won him the admiration of the world (as) one of the few great men of the century."
During his life of warfare, imprisonment and exile, the emir kept at bay the demons of hatred and bitterness. His ability to understand and forgive was harnessed to his unusual capacity to empathize with his adversaries. His disciplined intellect, knowledge and sense of duty to divine law allowed him to distinguish between Christians who attacked his country as invaders and Christians in Damascus he had an obligation to protect as minorities and innocents.
Battle for Islamic Soul
Muhammad Ammar Khan Nasir, editor of the monthly Al-Sharia and a respected Pakistani Islamic scholar, says the emir's life offers a beacon to a Muslim world engaged in a struggle for its soul: "Abd el-Kader is not only a symbol of the Muslim concept of resistance and struggle against foreign domination, but also an embodiment of true theological, moral and rational ideas taught by Islam."
Calendar
Subject: Great Muslim Personalities 
