Shah Waliullah Dehlawi

Indian scholar and reformer; because he held hadith to be the foundation of all the sciences, he became famous in India under the title muhaddith. His full name was Abu 'Abd al-'Aziz Qutb al-Din Shah Wali Allah Ahmad b. 'Abd al-Rahim b. Wajih al-Din al-Dihlawi al-Faruqi.

He was born on 14 Shawwal 1114 (3 March 1703) at Muzaffarnagar, a dependency of Delhi. His lineage reaches 'Umar on his father's side and Imam Musa al-Kazim on his mother's; he belonged to a family that had settled in India towards the end of the VII (XIII) century. What is known of his life rests mostly on the autobiography in his work Anfas al-'arifin. His grandfather Wajih al-Din and his father 'Abd al-Rahim were among the scholars of Delhi, and both sat on the committee that compiled al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya (al-'Alamgiriyya). His mother Fakhr al-Nisa', daughter of Shaykh Muhammad Phulati, was also versed in the religious sciences.

He memorized the Qur'an at an early age and received his first education from his father. The teacher in India from whom he benefited most was Shaykh Muhammad Afdal al-Siyalkuti.

When only fourteen he completed his spiritual training and took initiation from his father, a Naqshbandi shaykh, from whom he received his licence as deputy before his father's death; in his youth he was invested with the cloak and given a licence to guide by his father. While attached to the Naqshbandiyya he was also interested in the Qadiriyya, the Chishtiyya and the Suhrawardiyya; later he received a licence as deputy from his teacher and guide in Medina, Abu Tahir al-Kurdi, as well.

After his father's death (1131/1719) he began teaching at the Rahimiyya Madrasa his father had founded; this activity, which lasted twelve years, gathered a large circle of students around him. At fourteen he had married the daughter of his maternal uncle 'Ubayd Allah, who bore him a son named Muhammad; on her death he married the daughter of Sayyid Thana' Allah Panipati. From this wife were born his sons 'Abd al-'Aziz, Rafi' al-Din, 'Abd al-Qadir and 'Abd al-Ghani — who would carry on the work of guidance after him — and his daughter Amat al-'Aziz.

In 1143 (1731) he went on pilgrimage and stayed about fourteen months in Mecca and Medina, occupying himself above all with hadith and also teaching students. He states that among his teachers he was deeply influenced by the scholarly and Sufi life of the Shafi'i scholar of Medina Abu Tahir Muhammad b. Ibrahim al-Kurdi. On his return to India he resumed teaching at the Rahimiyya, concentrating on hadith and Qur'anic exegesis. When the madrasa building could no longer hold his growing numbers of students, a larger building was assigned to him with the support of Sultan Muhammad Shah; the madrasa, later famous as the Dar al-'Ulum of Delhi, served as a house of hadith.

He was closely engaged with political affairs: in letters to the Mughal ruler, his officials and notables he urged economic, administrative and social reforms and the strengthening of the country against possible attacks. He wrote to the Afghan ruler Ahmad Shah Durrani, calling on him to march on the Delhi region to check the expansion of Hindu groups and secure the Muslims. Ahmad Shah, allied with the Rohilla leader Najib al-Dawla, entered India in 1760 and won his war against the Hindus shortly before Shah Wali Allah's death.

He died in Delhi on 29 Muharram 1176 (20 August 1762) and was buried beside his father in the Munhediyan Cemetery of Old Delhi.

His Circle of Influence — He was already influential in his circle during his lifetime; after his death the members of the Rahimiyya Madrasa took up his views, and his fame spread first among the Muslims of India and then throughout the Islamic world. His sons, above all Shah 'Abd al-'Aziz, pupils such as Murtada al-Zabidi and Thana' Allah Panipati, and followers such as 'Ubayd Allah al-Sindi helped to spread his ideas. The Rahimiyya Madrasa was destroyed during the British occupation of 1857; in recent times a Shah Wali Allah Academy publishing his works was founded in Hyderabad. Different groups arose on the basis of his views: the Deoband school led by Muhammad Qasim Nanautawi, the Ahl-i Hadith school founded by his grandson Shah Isma'il Shahid and continued by Sayyid Nadhir Husayn, and the Aligarh school led by Sayyid Ahmad Khan; some of the Barelwis, too, were influenced by his Sufi temperament. According to the source none of them followed him exactly; each adopted those of his views that suited it. In the early XX century he had a marked influence on Shibli Nu'mani, Abu'l-Kalam Azad and Muhammad Iqbal; Iqbal names him the last great theologian.

His Poetry and Sufi Line — His poems were collected in a Diwan by Ishaq b. Muhammad 'Irfan. In his Sufi line he sought to reconcile Ibn 'Arabi's wahdat al-wujud with Imam Rabbani's wahdat al-shuhud, holding that there was no serious difference between the two theories and that similar views had been expressed in different words, and he explained this with the example of wax: shapes made of wax may look different, but their substance is wax. He accepted that between the worlds of the visible and the unseen there is a spiritual realm he called the 'alam al-mithal. He opposed those who read Sufism as withdrawal from social life and stressed the necessity of work, earning and service to society. He criticized false Sufis harshly: according to the source he said that venerating graves and seeking help from the dead was no different from committing grave sins, warned people against shaykhs who did not help them learn religion and against their claims of miracles, while approving genuine spiritual guidance. In his scholarly line he translated the Qur'an into Persian, the language of education in India; though accused of innovation by the local scholars for this, he persisted. He aimed to draw on all the Sunni schools of law, regarded the differing conclusions of the mujtahids as of equal worth, and held that thanks to the scholars independent reasoning had never been interrupted.

His Works — He wrote many works in Arabic and Persian, whose exact number has not been established. The most important are: in exegesis, the Persian translation of the Qur'an Fath al-Rahman fi tarjamat al-Qur'an (first printed in the author's lifetime, 1156/1743), al-Fawz al-kabir fi usul al-tafsir and Ta'wil al-ahadith; in hadith, the Persian commentary on the Muwatta', al-Musaffa, the Arabic commentary al-Musawwa, and Sharh tarajim abwab Sahih al-Bukhari; in creed, Qurrat al-'aynayn fi tafdil al-Shaykhayn and Izalat al-khafa' 'an khilafat al-khulafa'; in law, 'Iqd al-jid fi ahkam al-ijtihad wa'l-taqlid and al-Insaf fi bayan sabab al-ikhtilaf; in Sufism and Islamic philosophy, Hujjat Allah al-baligha on the wisdom behind religious rulings, al-Budur al-bazigha, al-Qawl al-jamil on the rules of spiritual wayfaring, al-Tafhimat al-ilahiyya, Altaf al-quds, Lamahat, Sata'at and Hama'at; and in biography and testament, Anfas al-'arifin, containing his autobiography, and his Persian testament in eight treatises, al-Maqala al-wadiyya.