Author: Sayyed Musleh Uddin
Deoband: The Mother of Religious Schools in the Indian Subcontinent (Part 10)
Shah Abdul Haq Dehlavi (May Allah Bless Him}
Another Indian thinker whose thoughts influenced the Deoband school was Shah Abdul Haq Muhaddith Dehlavi (MABH). He was born in 958 AH. When deviant thoughts peaked, he moved to Hijaz in 996 AH (1587 AD) and undertook a spiritual migration from the court of Akbar Shah. From there, he initiated a movement to revive true Islam in India by standing against deviant thoughts and innovations of that period, especially the divine religion of Akbar Shah, which downplayed the importance of prophethood and sought to create a new religion encompassing all religions and sects through explanation, interpretation, and reasoning based on the Prophetic Sunnah.
Shah Abdul Haq was primarily a theologian and received spiritual teachings from several Sufi lineages. He was proficient in almost all theological sciences and was considered the most prominent Muslim theologian before Shah Waliullah in the 12th century AH/18th century AD. He authored a commentary on the book Bayzawi in the field of Quranic interpretation. In Hadith sciences, which was his field of study, he relied more on the book Mishkat al-Masabih and provided detailed explanations and interpretations in two works. He based his critiques of various intellectual ideas and schools on the principles of the beliefs of Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama’aا. His mystical and Sufi education was completely aligned with correct religious principles and free from superstitions, thus beginning a reform movement in India that reached its peak during Shah Waliullah’s time.
Shah Waliullah Dehlavi (May Allah Bless Him)
The most important figure who influenced the thought of Darul Uloom Deoband was Ahmad bin Abdul Rahim, known as Shah Waliullah. Qutbuddin Ahmad, known as Shah Waliullah, was born four years after the death of Aurangzeb, in 1114 AH/1703 CE. He was a radiant personality who, during a turbulent period in Indian history, guided the Muslims of that state onto the right path of peace, glory, and honor. He was endowed with profound insight, comprehensive knowledge, and heroic nobility.
When the Mughal Empire began to decline after Aurangzeb’s death (1118 AH – 1707 CE) and the Muslim community of India started to disintegrate at the beginning of the 18th century, for the first time, the religious and spiritual leadership of the Muslims of India fell into the hands of a theologian, Shah Waliullah. He established contacts with scholars throughout the Muslim world and wrote in both Persian and Arabic. He translated the Quran into Persian, reinvigorating the study of Hadith that had been revived by Shah Abdul Haq Dehlavi in the 10th century. He conducted a deep study of various Sunni theological and jurisprudential schools of thought, believing that Muslims were on the right path in following any of them. He also sought to reconcile the idea of Wahdat al-Wujud (the unity of being) with correct belief.
Shah Waliullah established a tradition of religious inquiry and scholarship that would influence religious thought and modernity in Muslim India for the next three centuries. His thought was founded on the categorical rejection of polytheism, stressing that: “God (Allah) is one, and none of His attributes can be attributed to the Prophet or the saints. No one should be worshipped except Allah, directly or indirectly. The basis and foundation of religious belief is the Quran, and the Hadith and other sources of belief and Sharia have complementary aspects that are subject to research and examination. Islamic theology needs to be examined and re-evaluated and must be presented in new ways. Sharia prescriptions and prohibitions have three goals: purifying the soul, promoting religious life, and serving humanity. His understanding of the structure of Islamic society is based on the revival of the theory of the global Caliphate.”
In summary, Shah Waliullah’s activities can be listed as follows:
A: Reforming beliefs and calling to the Quran;
B: Promoting and disseminating Hadith and Sunnah and striving to adapt jurisprudence to Hadith;
C: Introducing the evidence and relevance of Sharia rulings and explaining the secrets and purposes of Hadith and Sunnah;
D: Interpreting the office of the Islamic caliphate, especially the Rightly Guided Caliphate, and proving it;
E: The role of intellectual leadership during the period of political chaos and the decline of the Indian Mughals;
F: Attention to different strata of the Ummah and their call towards reform and transformation;
G: Training and nurturing steadfast scholars and individuals who would take on the heavy task of reforming the Ummah and spreading the religion after them.
It is clear from the study of his most important work, “Hujjatullah al-Baleghah,” that he, through realistic analyses, understood and predicted the changing conditions and circumstances of the Islamic world in the 18th century AD. He realized that, in the near future, people would attempt to understand the rulings of Sharia, especially the wisdom and secrets of the Hadiths and the teachings and guidance of the Prophet, along with their civilizational, social, and practical benefits. On the other hand, they would search for the relationship between religion and life and try to discover the role that religious teachings and heavenly guidance play in human life, alongside the context and sequence of the relationship between causes and effects.
Shah Waliullah and his associates rose to revive the intellectual life of Muslims, disseminated correct knowledge, and introduced primary sources of religion. They wrote innovative and authoritative books and prepared thoughts and consciences for the creation of a revolution and an Islamic state. After him, his son, Shah Abdul Aziz Dehlavi (MABH, continued to teach and write, leaving behind students who expanded the science of Hadith, engaged in reviving the religion, fought against innovations, and called to the Book and the Sunnah.
Shah Waliullah’s school of thought continued to develop under his son Shah Abdul Aziz, a man of learning and insight. His response to the abolition of Hanafi jurisprudence by the Anglo-Islamic laws under the East India Company was a dire and harsh warning. One of Shah Abdul Aziz’s prominent disciples was Sayyed Ahmad Barelavi, also known as Sayyed Ahmad Shahid, whose movement became commonly known as the Mujahideen movement. This was a jihad-based movement that arose against the Sikhs and later turned against the British.
Sayyed Ahmad Shahid’s movement was a practical manifestation of the ideas of Shah Waliullah, and one of its goals was to eliminate eclectic elements that had infiltrated Islam from Hinduism. He systematically expelled extraneous, eclectic, and heretical elements from religious belief while clearly expressing the ideas propagated by Shah Waliullah, emphasizing absolute monotheism (Tawheed). This movement led to the formation of a religious and political community or organization with a network of propaganda centers aimed at purifying Islam, with villages serving as its main units. It was the first call in the history of Islam in India that evolved into a public and popular movement. Sayyed Ahmad traveled to many regions to present his reformist and jihad call, and ultimately, he and many of his followers were martyred in this endeavor.
Continues…
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