Its members are present in India, Bangladesh, China, Turkey, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Balkans, Russia, Palestine, as well as East and West Africa.

After the fall of the Abbasid Caliphate, the legend of Abdul Qadir Gilani was again found in many texts such as The Joy of the Secrets in Abdul-Qadir's Mysterious Deeds (Bahjat al-asrar fi ba'd manaqib 'Abd al-Qadir) attributed to Nur al-Din 'Ali al-Shattanufi, who taught that Abdul Qadir Gilani was the greatest saint within Islam, helped the Qadiri order flourish far beyond Baghdad.

[4] By the end of the fifteenth century, the Qadiriyya had distinct sub-orders and had spread to Morocco, Spain, Turkey, India, Ethiopia, Somalia, and present-day Mali.

[4] Khwaja Abdullah, a Sheikh of the Qadiriyya and a descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, is reported to have entered China in 1674 and traveled the country preaching until his death in 1689.

[6] Sheikh Sidi Ahmad al-Bakka'i of the Kunta family was born in the region of the Noun river, Akka) established a Qadiri Zawiya or Sufi lodge in Walata.

[8] Dan Fodio later had visions of Abdul Qadir Gilani, the founder of the Qadiri tariqa, through which he was initiated into the Qadiriyya and the spiritual chain of succession (Silsila), which ultimately leads back to Prophet Muhammad.

His writings dealt with Islamic concepts of the Mujaddid and the role of the Ulama in teaching history, and other works in Arabic and the Fula language.

[11] The origin of the rose of the members of the Qadiri order is as follows: "Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani, under the direction of Khidr, proceeded to Baghdad.

[15] These thirteen names can be found in the Qadiriyya Library and each aspect (وجه) and their orientation (توجه) are represented by a location, colour, number and litany.

[20] After becoming a Sheikh, he must recite an additional six names of Allah: "Haqq" or the Just, "Qahhar" or the Avenging, "Qayyum" or the Everlasting, "Wahhab" or the Bestower, "Muhaymin" or the Protecting, and "Basit" or the Extending.

[28] This sub-order of the Qadiriyya came into being in the eighteenth century, led by al-Mukhtar al-Kunti of the western Sahara who wished to establish Qadiri Sufism as the dominant Sufi order in the region.

[31][32] Founded by Shah Barkatullah Marehrawi, an Islamic scholar, jurist, and Sufi living at the time of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, who died on the tenth of Muharram 1142 AH or October 1729 CE.

[33] It was founded in 1738 by the Indian Sunni Muslim Sheikh Seyfullah Effendi Hintli in Selamsız, and became popular among the Romani people in Turkey.

Muhammad ibn Ahmad Lebbai is a well-known Qadiri Sheikh in Sri Lanka, who is seen as a reviver of Islam and an advocate of communal harmony by the people of the island nation.