Ahl-i Hadith
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Ahl-i Hadith (
Initially coterminous with the so-called (Indian) "Wahhabis", the movement emerged as a distinct group around 1864, having claimed the appellation of "Ahl-i Hadith" to highlight its commitment to the body of
Holding considerable influence amongst the urban Islamic intellectual circles of South Asia, the Ahl-i Hadith consolidated themselves into the All India Ahl-i-Hadith Conference in 1906[14][15] and, in Pakistan, formed a political wing in the Jamiat Ahle Hadith in 1986.[16] The movement has drawn support and funding from Saudi Arabia.[17]
History
Origins
Imam
After the death of his father,
Indian Jihad Movement
Under these circumstances the call to
One of the prominent disciples of Sayyid Ahmed was Wilayat Ali Khan, a student of
In 1821, Syed Ahmad embarked on a journey for Hajj in Hejaz accompanied by Shah Ismail Dehlvi and Maulana Abdul Haie with 400 disciples. They performed Hajj in 1823 (1237 A.H) and stayed in Hejaz for 8 months. Shah Ismail and Abdul Haie authored the Arabic book "Sirat e Mustaqim" to call Arabs to their reformative movement. They returned home in 1824. The three scholars then charted a strategic plan to wage Jihad against the colonial occupation across India. Many parts of the subcontinent became recruitment centres for the Mujahideen. When his Pathan disciples offered him territory, Syed Ahmed set-up the North West Frontier Province as the operations headquarters for the future "Wahhabite" Jihad in 1826 to re-take the subcontinent from the British. However this put the Mujahideen into conflict with the Sikh empire. In January 1827, Syed Ahmed was elected as Imam and Amir-ul-Mu'mineen (commander of faithful) by religious scholars and tribal chiefs. Soon war broke out between Sikhs and "Wahhabi" Mujahideen.[29][30][31][32]
On 24 February 1828, one of the three leaders of Jihad, Maulvi Abdul Haei, the chief advisor to Syed Ahmed died as an old and ailing person. In his letters to Sikh ruler Ranjit Singh, Syed Ahmed clarified that he didn't seek a confrontation with Sikhs, but only their help in defeating the British. Ranjit Singh, for his part, respected Syed Ahmed as a "courageous, bold and determined person". By 1830, many Pathan tribal chiefs rose against the Wahhabi Mujahideen and committed massacres against the Wahhabi emigrants. Disillusioned by this, Syed Ahmed lost interest in the movement and made plans to migrate to Arabia. However, senior advisors such as Shah Ismail opposed the idea and sought to complete the objectives of the movement, despite the setbacks.[33][34]
On 17 April 1831, Syed Ahmed set out on his last journey for Balakot with the aim to capture Kashmir, accompanied by Shah Ismail. A Pashtun chieftain named Zabardast Khan who made a secret deal with the Sikh commander Sher Singh withheld promised reinforcements. On 6 May 1831, an army of 10,000 Mujahideen faced a strong force of 12,000 Sikh soldiers led by Sher Singh. On that day Syed Ahmed, Shah Ismail and prominent leaders of the Wahhabi movement fell fighting in the battlefield. Sikh victory at Balakot arose jubilation in Lahore. The defeat at Balakot made a devastating blow to the Wahhabi movement.[35]
After the death and defeats of both Sayyid Ahmed Shahid and Shah Ismail Dehlwi; many of his followers continued the Jihad movement across South Asia. Others became the followers of Shah Muhammad Ishaq (1778–1846 C.E), the grandson of Shah 'Abd al-Azeez and head of the Madrasa Rahimiyya in Delhi. Some of the disciples of Shah Muhammad Ishaq would formally establish the Ahl-i Hadith movement.[36]
Establishment of Ahl-i Hadith
In the mid-nineteenth century, an Islamic religious reform movement was started in Northern India that continued the Tariqah-i-Muhammadiyya movement. It rejected everything introduced into
Siddiq Hasan’s father Sayyid Awlad Hasan was a strong supporter of
Syed Nazeer Husain from Delhi and Siddiq Hasan Khan of Bhopal drew primarily on the work of hadith scholars from Yemen in the early years of the movement, reintroducing the field into the Indian subcontinent. Their strong emphasis on education and book publishing has often attracted members of the social elite both in South Asia and overseas.[41] Alongside the Yemeni reformers, the teachings of Shāh Muḥammad Ismāʿīl Dehlvi (1779–1832 C.E) also became highly important in Ahl-i Hadith circles. Shah Muhammad's ground-breaking theological works like Taqwiyat al-īmān (Strengthening of the Faith), al-Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm (The Straight Path), Yak Rūzī (One Dayer), etc. elucidated the core doctrines of the Ahl-i Hadith movement. All these works called upon the believers to uphold the principle of Tawhid (montheism), and condemned various practices associated with saint-venerations, visitations to tombs, Sufi rituals, etc. as shirk (polytheism).[28]: 174–175
Following the teachings of Shah Ismail, Ahl-i Hadith also rejected
In the 1920s, the Ahl-i Hadith opened a center for their movement in
Tenets
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Its adherents oppose
Ahl-i-Hadith movement continues the reform tradition of Shah Waliullah Dehlawi (1703–1762) whom the adherents regard as its first modern member. They also draw upon the teachings of his son Shah 'Abd al-Aziz Muhaddith Dehlavi, his follower Syed Ahmed Barelvi, and the Yemenite Qadi Muhammad al-Shawkani (whom they regard as Shaykh al-Islam[51]). Siddiq Hasan Khan's father studied under Shah Abd al-Aziz and Syed Nazir Husain was a student of the Muhaddith Shah Muhammad Ishaq, a grandson of Shah Waliullah Dehlawi.[39] Due to their reliance on the Qur'an and Hadith only and their rejection of Qiyas (analogical reasoning) in Islamic law, the modern-day Ahl-i Hadith are often compared to the older Zahiri school of Fiqh (Islamic law),[52][53] with which the Ahl-i Hadith consciously identify themselves.[13]
While their educational programs tend to include a diverse array of Muslim academic texts, few adherents of the movement ascribe themselves to one
According to Islamic scholar Muhammad Asadullah al-Ghalib, the aim and objective of the Ahl-i Hadith movement is:
"To earn the satisfaction of Allah by preaching and establishing unmixed Tawheed and by following properly the Kitab and Sunnah in all spheres of life. The social and political aim of Ahle Hadeeth Movement is to make all out reforms of the society through the reforms of Aqeedah and Amal."[58]
Practices
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Like other
Breaking with the dominant Hanafi and
According to Professor Abdul Ali, former chairman and Director of the Department of Islamic Studies, Aligarh Muslim University:[61][62][63]
"The Ahl-i-Hadith movement was inspired by the school of thought of Shah Wali Allah of Delhi, who in the eighteenth century, imparted renewed emphasis on the study of Hadith, and raised his voice against the principle of taqlid in legal matters by justifying the principle of ijtihad, which gave Hadith the right of primacy over the rulings of the juristic schools. This particular trend in Shah Wali Allah's thought became the starting point of Ahl-i-Hadith movement... The Ahl-i-Hadith movement which was started in India in the nineteenth century was quite different from that of Wahhabism, because it drew its inspiration not from Muhammad bin 'Abd al-Wahhab of Najd but from his Indian contemporary Shah Waliullah of Delhi. At the same time... both these movements had some elements of religious purification in their rejection of taqlid and innovation."
Relations with other Reform Movements
With Wahhabi Movement
Both the Wahhabis and Ahl-i-Hadith shared a common creed, opposed Sufi practices such as visiting shrines, seeking aid (istigatha) from dead
Ahl-i Hadith leader
To call those Indian Muhammadans who do not worship tombs and pirs and prohibit people from unlawful acts by the name Wahabi is entirely false for several reasons: In the first place they do not represent themselves as such, on the contrary they call themselves Sunnis. If there was anything of Wahabism in their creed they would call themselves by that name and should not resent the epithet. Those who worship one God object to being called Wahabis in the Abd al-Wahhab kind of way not only because of his belonging to a different nation and all its politics, but because they consider God as the ruler and protector of the whole world and this [universalist] stance is blunted if they are said to be followers of a territorially rooted Abd al-Wahhab."[73][74]
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In 1931, Ahl-i-Hadith scholar Shaykh Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Dehlawi, founded the Dar-ul-Hadith institute, which would later be attached to the
With Salafiyya Movement
The early
Organizations
Leading proponents of the movement joined forces against the opposition they faced from established
In 1930 Ahl-i Hadith was founded as a small political party in India.[44] In Pakistan, the movement formed a political party, Jamiat Ahle Hadith, which unlike similar Islamic groups opposed government involvement in affairs of sharia law.[82] Their leader, Ehsan Elahi Zaheer, was assassinated in 1987. The Ahl-i Hadith opposes Shi'i doctrines.[37]
Funding
Millions of dollars in Saudi funding has also been given into Indian and Pakistani Ahle Hadith madrassas, and educational institutions.[48]
Demographics
During the rule of the British Raj, no accurate census was ever taken of the movement's exact number of followers.[45] The group itself claims 22 million followers in India (out of a population of 1396 million) and 10 million in Pakistan (out of a population of 227 million),[83] as well 25 millions in Bangladesh with strongholds in 40 districts of the country.[84]
In the United Kingdom, the Ahl-i Hadith movement maintains 42 centers and boasts a membership which was estimated at 5,000 during the 1990s and 9,000 during the 2000s.[85] Although the movement has been present in the UK since the 1960s, it has not been the subject of extensive academic research and sources on the movement are extremely limited and rare.[85]
Relationship with other Muslim sects
Subcontinent
The relations of Ahl-i Hadith with other Islamic sects and movements in the
Afghanistan
When the
Prominent Ahl-i Hadith figures
Scholastic
Political/militant
- Ehsan Elahi Zaheer
- Sajid Mir
- Hafiz Saeed
- Abdul Rehman Makki
- Jamil al-Rahman
See also
References
- ISBN 9780521653947"In India rejection of taqlīd and preoccupation with hadīth became focused in a single reformist sect, the Ahl-i-Hadīth, which drew directly on the tradition of Shâh Wali Allāh and al-Shawkänī. Almost all of the group's early and influential representatives had direct connections with the line of Shāh Walī Allāh and especially with the Indian mujāhidin movement, led by Sayyid Ahmad Barēlvī, which carried to an extreme the purificationist tendencies within Shāh Waī Allāh's school."
- ISBN 9004113711
- ^ ISBN 9780195125580.
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The Jama'at Ahl-e Hadith, an elitist politico religious movement aimed at islah (reform), has its origins in the early 1870s. Like other Sunni reform movements, it claims to continue the tradition of Shah Waliullah Dehlavi (1703–1762) whom it regards as the first modern Ahl-e Hadith member and draws on ideas of Syed Ahmed Barelvi (Ahmed Shaheed) (1786–1831), follower of Shah Abdul Aziz (1746–1824), the son of Shah Waliullah, and the Yemenite qadi Mohammad ibn Ali al Shawkani (1775–1839).
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"They called themselves variously as Muwahideen (that is, unitarians, the term preferred by Nawab Siddiq Hasan Khan), and Ahl e-Ḥadīth (that is, the Followers of the Prophet's Words, the term preferred by.. Syed Nazir Hussain).
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- ^ ISBN 9789004161214. Archivedfrom the original on 8 November 2019.
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Ahl-i-Hadith [...] consciously identified themselves with Zahiri doctrine.
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- ^ Muneer Goolam Fareed, Legal reform in the Muslim world, p. 172. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1994.
- ^ ISBN 9780521653947
- ^ ISBN 1-57607-516-8.
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- ^ ISBN 978-0-7656-1747-7.
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Ahl-i Hadith were those who accepted the teachings of Shah Ismail of Delhi by rejecting unthinking deference to the Sunni jurisprudential tradition and scholarly authority in avor of personal readings and understanding of the Quran and hadith... the Ahl-i Hadith religious position had its origins in the teachings of Shah Wali Ullah and Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi... A large number of scholars (including myself) have historicized the Ahl-i Hadith interventions... Barbara Metcalf considers them the intellectual descendants of Shah Wali Ullah, counterparts in this sense, to the Deobandis.
- ISBN 978-0-19-012080-1.
The Ahl-i Hadith trace their intellectual roots back to Shah Wali Allah (1703–1762)..
- JSTOR 40209967– via JSTOR.
With the British takeover of the Mughal capital of Delhi in 1803.. Shah Waliullah s eldest son and successor, Shah Abdul Azziz, issued a fatwa, or religious judgment, that Delhi had been enslaved by kufr (paganism). He declared Hindustan to be a dar al-harb or "domain of enmity" and that it was now incumbent on all Muslims to strive to restore India to Islam. This was no more than a gesture, but it set a goal that his student Syed Ahmad did not forget.
- ISBN 0-7007-0299-7.
- JSTOR 26195671– via JSTOR.
- ^ Naqvi, A.Q. (2001). The Salafis (History of the Ahle Hadees Movement in India). New Delhi: Al-Kitab International. pp. 90–97.
- JSTOR 40209967– via JSTOR.
Shah Waliullah's eldest son and successor, Shah Abdul Azziz, issued a fatwa.. that Delhi had been enslaved by kufr (paganism). He declared Hindustan to be a dar al-harb or "domain of enmity" and that it was now incumbent on all Muslims to strive to restore India to Islam. This was no more than a gesture, but it set a goal that his student Syed Ahmad did not forget. After a murky period as a mercenary, Syed Ahmad returned to his religious studies, to reemerge in his early thirties as a visionary revivalist and preacher. He very soon acquired disciples.. Many Sunnis now saw him as the inheritor of the mantle of the Shah Waliullah and hundreds flocked to join his cause..
- ^ Naqvi, A.Q. (2001). The Salafis (History of the Ahle Hadees Movement in India). New Delhi: Al-Kitab International. pp. 93–98.
- ^ JSTOR 40209967– via JSTOR.
- ^ ISBN 978-3-11-028534-5.
- ^ Naqvi, A.Q. (2001). The Salafis (History of the Ahle Hadees Movement in India). New Delhi: Al-Kitab International. pp. 99–106.
- ^ Dr. Mubarak Ali, “Almiyah-e-Tarikh”, Chapter 11, pp. 107–121, Fiction House, Lahore (2012).
- ISBN 9780521397001. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
- ^ Altaf Qadir, "Sayyid Ahmad Barailvi", p. 66, SAGE, London (2015).
- ^ Naqvi, A.Q. (2001). The Salafis (History of the Ahle Hadees Movement in India). New Delhi: Al-Kitab International. pp. 109–132.
- ^ Qadir, Altaf, "Ahmad Barailvi: His Movement and Legacy from the Pukhtun Perspective Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Sage Publications India, 2015|
- ^ Naqvi, A.Q. (2001). The Salafis (History of the Ahle Hadees Movement in India). New Delhi: Al-Kitab International. pp. 132–139, 148.
The ill-equipped 1000 Mujahideen were no match to the well-equipped 12,000 strong force of Sikh gunmen (Banduqchis).. The Government of India also sent its message of congratulations to Maharaja Ranjit Singh, through its political agent
- ISBN 978-0-19-012080-1.
- ^ ISBN 9780231146401.
- ^ Naqvi, A.Q. (2001). The Salafis (History of the Ahle Hadees Movement in India). New Delhi: Al-Kitab International.
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- ^ ISBN 9780334040323. Retrieved 24 September 2012.
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Ahl-i Hadith were those who accepted the teachings of Shah Ismail of Delhi by rejecting unthinking deference to the Sunni jurisprudential tradition and scholarly authority in avor of personal readings and understanding of the Quran and hadith... A large number of scholars (including myself) have historicized the Ahl-i Hadith interventions. The earliest British observers termed them Wahhabi conspirators, inspired by visits to Mecca and led by Sayyid Ahmad of Rai Bareily to lead an anti-Sikh jihad... Religious reformist impulses drove a number of teaching and learning movements across colonial north India in the nineteenth century but few, if any, provoked the ire of the colonial state in the manner that the Ahl-i Hadith did. Sayyid Ahmad's jihad produced suspicion and hostility among European statesmen who believed that hostile anti-colonial sentiments motivated this "Wahhabi" conspiracy. The Hanafi 'ulama accused Sayyid Ahmad, Shah Ismail, and their supporters of misleading common people into making financial contributions in their support.
- ^ Naqvi, A.Q. (2001). The Salafis (History of the Ahle Hadees Movement in India). New Delhi: Al-Kitab International. pp. 165–183.
- ^ ISBN 9780231146401. Retrieved 24 September 2012.
- ^ ISBN 9781570032011.
- ISBN 9780857450593
- ^ Sushant Sareen, The Jihad Factory: Pakistan's Islamic Revolution in the Making, p. 282. New Delhi: Har Anand Publications, 2005.
- ^ a b c "What Makes a Movement Violent: Comparing the Ahle Hadith (Salafists) in India and Pakistan". Middle East Institute. Archived from the original on 4 October 2020. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
Second, the group is opposed to the practice of associating with Sufi saints...
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- ^ Brown, p. 28.
- ^ M. Mahmood, The Code of Muslim Family Laws, p. 37. Pakistan Law Times Publications, 2006. 6th ed.
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- ^ MUHAMMAD MOSLEH UDDIN (2003). SHAH WALIULLAH'S CONTRIBUTION TO HADITH LITERATURE: A Critical Study. Aligarh, India: Department of Islamic Studies: Aligarh Muslim University. p. 152.
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In political, as well as religious matters, any Muslim who challenges the status quo is at risk of being labeled a Wahhabi. This is how the KGB and its post-Soviet successors have used the term.
- JSTOR 1571334– via JSTOR.
The use of the term to label all distasteful opponents has become so routine in post–Soviet discourse that Feliks Kulov, then Minister for National Security in Kyrgyzstan, could speak in 1997 of "foreign Wahhabi emissaries, from Iran in particular". People accused of being "Wahhabis" are routinely charged with treason and subversion against the state.
- ISBN 978-067473533-0.
- JSTOR 41305791.
- ISBN 978-067473533-0.
- JSTOR 41305791..
- ^ Commins 2006, p. 147.
- ISBN 978-0199333431.
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- ISBN 978-1-58868-080-8.
It was ... not an easy task for the Ahl-i-Hadis preachers to go against the powerful sunni ulema ... They encountered frequent opposition from the latter ... In order to consolidate their efforts, the leading members of the movement decided to form an all-India organization, called the All India Ahl-i-Hadis Conference in 1906, in Lucknow, India.
- ISBN 9781108621236.
- ^ Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A., eds. (2012). "Ahl-e-Hadith". Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
- ^ Roy, Olivier, The Failure of Political Islam, by Olivier Roy, translated by Carol Volk, Harvard University Press, 1994, p.118-9
- ^ Siyech, Mohammed Sinan (4 February 2020). "What Makes a Movement Violent: Comparing the Ahle Hadith (Salafists) in India and Pakistan". Archived from the original on 4 October 2020.
- ^ Political Islam and Governance in Bangladesh. Routledge. 2010. p. 53.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-521-53688-2.
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- ^ Sinan Siyech, Mohammed (4 February 2020). "What Makes a Movement Violent: Comparing the Ahle Hadith (Salafists) in India and Pakistan". MEI. Archived from the original on 4 October 2020.
- ^ Sayed, Abdul (20 November 2020). "Islamic State Khorasan Province's Peshawar Seminary Attack and War Against Afghan Taliban Hanafis". Jamestown. Archived from the original on 20 November 2020.
- ^ "Ahl-e-Hadith clerics announce allegiance to Taliban in Nangarhar". Afghan Islamic Press. 1 November 2021. Archived from the original on 13 November 2021.