When Saints Get Angry

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

It is recorded in Qala’id al-Jawahir of Shaykh Muhammad ibn Yahya at-Tadifi (r.a.) and translated by Ustadz Mukhtar Holland the following. 

It was related by Shaykh Baqa’ ibn Batu an-Nahr al-Maliki (q.s.), “Shaykh ‘Abdullah arrived, accompanied by a young man.  He entered the presence of Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qadir and said to him. ‘O my master, offer a prayer of supplication for this young man, for he is my son!’ 

He was not his son, however, and he had something improper on his conscience, so Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qadir grew angry and cried, ‘It has gone far enough, the way you all treat me!’ 

Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qadir got up and withdrew to his private apartment, and fires immediately broke out in all the districts of Baghdad.  As soon as the flames were extinguished in one place, fire would flare up in another spot. I could see calamity descending on Baghdad, like a cloudburst, and all because of the anger of Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qadir.  I made haste to enter his presence and found him in his state of wrath, so I sat down and said, ‘O my master, take pity on your fellow creatures for the people are facing destruction!’  His anger subsided and I realised that the calamity had been averted, for all the fires had instantly been extinguished.”