Ahl-i Hadith
Ahl-i-Hadith or Ahl-e-Hadith is a Salafi reform movement that emerged in North India in the mid-nineteenth century from the teachings of Sayyid Ahmad Shahid, Syed Nazeer Husain and Nawab Siddiq Hasan Khan. It is an offshoot of the 19th-century Indian Tariqah-i-Muhammadiya movement led by Titumir and tied to the 18th-century traditions of Shah Waliullah Dehlawi and the Wahhabi movement. The adherents of the movement described themselves variously as "Muwahideen", "Ahl-us Sunnah wal Jamaah" and as "Ahl e-Hadith."
Initially coterminous with the so-called "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 ḥadīth—statements attributed to Muhammad, validated through chains of transmission—and its political quietism. The movement was noteworthy for its robust opposition to practices associated with the veneration of saints, which they regarded as a breach of the doctrine of Tawḥīd. Its adherents profess to hold the same views as those of the early Ahl al-Hadith school. They reject taqlid and favour ijtihad based on the scriptures. Today, the terms "Salafi" and "Ahl-i Hadith" are often used interchangeably, the movement shares doctrinal tendencies with the Hanbali school prevalent in the Arabian Peninsula, and many of its members have identified themselves with the Zahiri school of thought. Some believe it possesses some notable distinctions from the mainly Arab Salafis.
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 and, in Pakistan, formed a political wing in the Jamiat Ahle Hadith in 1986. The movement has drawn support and funding from Saudi Arabia.
History
Origins
Imam Shah Waliullah Dehlawi is considered as the intellectual fore-forefather of the Ahl-i-Hadith. After his Pilgrimage to Mecca, Shah Waliullah Dehlawi spent 14 months in Medina, studying Qur'an, Hadith and works of the classical Hanbali theologian Ibn Taymiyya under the hadith scholar Muhammad Tahir al-Kurani, the son of Ibrahim al-Kurani. Upon return to India, he preached Tawhid and a return to the Sunnah, and claimed Ijtihad just like Ibn Taymiyya. Shah maintained that Ijtihad is essential for Muslim scholars for all ages since cognizance of Divine injunctions related to the novel issues of each era is obligatory. He also opposed various rituals of saint veneration and customs at saint's tombs which he held to be idolatrous. Shah's campaigns against bid'ah, emphasis on Ijtihad as well as his political activities were immensely influenced by Ibn Taymiyya. His precepts for reviving an Islamic Caliphate modelled on the Khulafa al-Rashidun as elucidated in his treatises like Izalat al-Khifa, Qurrat al-'Aynayn, etc. echoed the doctrines propounded by Ibn Taymiyya during the 14th/7th century.After the death of his father, Shah 'Abd al-Aziz continued the works of Shah Waliullah. He was a Muhaddith who emphasized the importance of Hadith with students all across the subcontinent. As a teacher, preacher and social religious-reformer, Shah 'Abd al-Aziz was closely monitoring the socio-political developments in the subcontinent. British were gaining ascendancy in India by capturing power in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. In 1799, British defeated the Kingdom of Mysore in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War. When the British armies entered Delhi in 1803, the Mughal Empire was turned into a protectorate of British East India Company, thus gaining political supremacy in the subcontinent. Upon this, Shah 'Abd al-Aziz declared a decisive fatwa declaring India to be Dar-al Harb. This was the first significant fatwa against colonial rule in the subcontinent that gave an indirect call to South Asian Muslims to fight colonial occupation and liberate the country. This decisive fatwa by Shah Waliullah's eldest son and successor, Shah 'Abd al Azeez, calling upon Muslims to strive to restore India back to Islamic rule, would greatly inspire his student Sayyid Ahmed Shahid and motivate him to plan for future Jihad. After a brief period as a mercenary, Sayyid Ahmad would further pursue his religious studies and re-appeared as an eminent religious scholar and a visionary leader, gaining many disciples. He came to be widely identified as the inheritor of Shah Waliullah's mantle and numerous Sunni Muslims volunteered to join his cause.
Indian Jihad Movement
Under these circumstances the call to Jihad against British rule began becoming popular amongst the Muslim masses. Shah Ismail Dehlvi, the nephew of Shah 'Abd al-Aziz and grandson of Shah Waliullah, would lead a religious revivalist movement. In addition to being an excellent orator, he was also a soldier and military commander. Shah Muhammad Ishaq, the grandson of Shah 'Abd al-Aziz would continue his religious reform after Abdul Aziz's death in 1823. Maulana Abdul Haie, son-in-law of Shah 'Abd al-Aziz was also a reputed scholar. These three theologians prepared the spadework of Tariqah-i-Muhammadiyya, the reform movement that would be known as the Indian "Wahhabi movement". During his last years, Shah 'Abd al-Aziz would give his cloak to Syed Ahmed Bareilly appointing him as his successor. Sayyid Ahmed would campaign against the corruption of various Sufi orders, and initiate his disciples into Tariqah-i-Muhammadiya. The disciples in this order were required to make a vow that they will strictly abide by Sharia and would not follow anything not proven by Qur'an and Hadith.One of the prominent disciples of Sayyid Ahmed was Wilayat Ali Khan, a student of Hajji Abdul Haq of Benares; popularly known as the "Nejdi Sheikh". Abdul Haq was an Islamic scholar who spent years studying in the remote Central Arabian Province of Nejd, the seat of the Wahhabi movement. Upon his return, he preached many of its militant ideals and had already established Wahhabi doctrines in South Asia before Sayyid Ahmad's Hajj in 1821. 'Abd al-Haqq would later become a member of Tariqah-i Muhammadiya and join Sayyid Ahmad's Hajj to Hejaz in 1821 along with his disciple Wilayat Ali. Unlike other members of the group, 'Abd al-Haqq travelled to Yemen to study under the theologian Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-Shawkānī and would become greatly influential in shaping the teachings of Ahl-i Hadith. Meanwhile Wilayat Ali Khan, being a disciple of both Sayyid Ahmad and the Najdi Sheikh, emerged as an important leader of Indian "Wahhabi" movement and its military campaigns of Jihad.
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 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 by religious scholars and tribal chiefs. Soon war broke out between Sikhs and "Wahhabi" Mujahideen.
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 did not 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.
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.
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, 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.
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 Islam after Qur'an, Sunnah, Hadith and the early eras. This was led by Nawab Siddiq Hasan Khan of Bhopal whose father became a Sunni convert under the influence of Shah 'Abd al-Aziz and Syed Nazir Husain who was a student of Muhaddith Shah Muhammad Ishaq, the grandson of Shah 'Abd al-Aziz and his Khalifa. With the aim of restoring Islamic unity and strengthening Muslim faith, they called for a return to original sources of religion, "Qur'an and Hadith" and eradicate what they perceived as bid'ah, shirk, heresies and superstitions.Siddiq Hasan's father Sayyid Awlad Hasan was a strong supporter of Sayyid Ahmad Shahid and had accompanied him to Afghanistan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to participate in his famous Jihad movement. Another major source of influence on Khan was the "Najdi Sheikh" 'Abd al-Haqq Benarasi who had returned from Yemen and became the first scholar to teach the doctrines of Yemeni theologian Al-Shawkani in South Asia. Benarasi was Khan's Hadith master in Delhi; teaching him doctrines such as rejection of shirk, bid'ah, Taqlid, etc. and became influential in laying the doctrinal foundations of the later Ahl-i Hadith. Khan also had studied under the tutelage of other notable students of Shawkani such as Nāṣir al-Ḥāzimī, ʿAbd al-Qayyūm Buḍhānawī and the Bhopali scholar Ḥusayn b. Muḥsin al-Yamanī.
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. Alongside the Yemeni reformers, the teachings of Shāh Muḥammad Ismāʿīl Dehlvi also became highly important in Ahl-i Hadith circles. Shah Muhammad's ground-breaking theological works like Taqwiyat al-īmān, al-Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm, Yak Rūzī, etc. elucidated the core doctrines of the Ahl-i Hadith movement. All these works called upon the believers to uphold the principle of Tawhid, and condemned various practices associated with saint-venerations, visitations to tombs, Sufi rituals, etc. as shirk.
Following the teachings of Shah Ismail, Ahl-i Hadith also rejected Taqlid to works of classical Sunni Fiqh and believed in direct understanding of Qur'an and Hadith. Due to their connections with Shah Ismail and Sayyid Ahmad's Jihad movement, Ahl-i Hadith were considered as "Wahhabi" conspirators by the British administration. The anti-colonial activism of Ahl-i Hadith religious reformers as well as their sympathies for Jihad made them the primary target more than any other reform movement. For the British imperial statesmen, their endeavours were part of a wider "Wahhabi" conspiracy. Apart from the British, many Hanafite scholars also were critical of Sayyid Ahmad and his followers. Throughout the 19th century, Ahl-i Hadith scholars were persecuted under various pretexts during the "Wahhabi trails". Eventually the leaders of the movement sought pragmatic accommodation with the British Raj in order to stop the repression campaign against Wahhabis. Upon the petition of Ahl-i-Hadith scholar Muhammad Hussain Batalvi to the British Indian Administration, the government of India issued a notification in 1886, stopping the use of the term "Wahhabi" in official correspondence. In a victory to reform movement, the government conceded to referring the community as "Ahl-i Hadith".
University of Paris political scientist Antoine Sfeir has referred to the movement as having an elitist character which perhaps contributes to their status as a minority in South Asia. Folk Islam and Sufism, commonly popular with the poor and working class in the region, are anathema to Ahl-i Hadith beliefs and practices. This attitude toward Sufism has brought the movement into conflict with the rival Barelvi movement even more so than the Barelvis perennial rivals, the Deobandis.
In the 1920s, the Ahl-i Hadith opened a center for their movement in Srinagar. Followers of the Hanafi school of law, forming the majority of Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir, socially boycotted and physically attacked Ahl-i Hadith followers, eventually declaring such followers to be apostates and banning them from praying in mainstream mosques. From the 1930s the group also began to be active in the political realm of Pakistan, with Ehsan Elahi Zaheer leading the movement into a full foray in the 1970s, eventually gaining the movement a network of mosques and Islamic schools. Following other South Asian Islamic movements, the Ahl-i Hadith now also administer schools and mosques in the English-speaking world. In the modern era, the movement draws both inspiration and financial support from Saudi Arabia, now being favoured over the rival Deobandi movement as a counterbalance to Iranian influence.