SHAH WALIULLAH DEHLAVI

NAME: Ahmed ibn Abdur Rahim al-Umari ad-

Dehalvi
BORN: 21 February 1703, Phulat, Muzaffar Nagar,
(Mughal Empire)
DIED: 20 August 1762, Delhi (Mughal Empire)
DOMINATION: Sunni
JURISPRUDENCE: Hanafi/Shafi’i
MOVEMENT: Sufi reformism, Islamic revival in the
Indian Subcontinent
INTERESTS: Qur’an, Hadith, Tafsir, Fiqh, History,
Bibliography, Revolution, Pan-Islamism
NOTABLE WORKS: Translation of the Qur’an into
Persian, Hujjatullah-il-Baligha, Al-Fauzul Kabeer,
Al-Akidatul Hasanah, Majmua Rasail Imam Shah
Wali Ullah
OCCUPATION: Mufassir, Muhaddith,
Historiographer, Bibliographer, Theologian,
Philosopher, Academic, Linguist
TITLES: Shaykh ul-Islam, Imam ul-Hind, Mujaddid
LAQAB: Qutbuddin, Shah Waliullah
NISBA: Al-Umari, Ad-Dehlavi
INFLUENCED BY: Abu Hanifa, Ash-Shafi’I, Ahmad
ibn Hanbal, Ibn Taymiyyah
INFLUENCED: His sons Abdul Aziz, Abdul Qadir,
and Rafia
STUDENTS: Murtada al-Zabidi, Majduddin
INTRODUCTION:
The anti-Islamic forces which had raised their
head during the reign of the irreligious Emperor
Akbar and later found their champions in Jahangir
and Dara Shikoh, were, to a great extent, checked
by Aurangzeb, the most honest, conscientious,
and able Muslim monarch that ascended the
throne of Delhi. His passing away in 1707, started
the political chaos which later culminated in the
disintegration of the Muslim power in the
subcontinent. This political disintegration
resulting from spiritual confusion also
encompassed the socio-economic spheres.
Aurangzeb's successors were too weak and
incapable of facing the rebellious forces emerging
on all hands. At such a critical period of Muslim
history was born Shah Waliullah, one of the
greatest religious thinkers produced by Muslim
India who contributed immensely to the
reintegration of the structure of Islam.
Shah Waliullah Dehlawi (also Shah Wali Allah),
was an Islamic Sunni scholar and Sufi of the
Naqshbandi order, whom his followers see as a
renewer. He emphasized the importance of
following Sharia and believed in the unification of
Hanafi and Shafi'i schools of law, aiming to reduce
legal differences.
EARLY LIFE:
Shah Waliullah was born in 1703 AD four years
before the death of Aurangzeb. His grandfather,
Sheikh Wajihuddin, was an important officer in
the army of Shah Jahan who supported Prince
Aurangzeb in the war of succession. His father,
Shah Abdur Rahim, a Sufi and an eminent scholar
assisted in the compilation of "Fataawa-i-
Alamgiri” the voluminous code of Islamic law. He,
however, refused an invitation to visit the
Emperor and devoted his energies to the
organization and teaching at `Madrassa Rahimia'--
-a theological college which he had established
and which, later, played an important part in the
religious emancipation of Muslim India and
became the breeding ground of religious
reformers and `Mujahids' like Shah Abdul Aziz and
Syed Ahmad of Bareli.
Shah Waliullah received his early education from
his illustrious father, who was his teacher as well
as his spiritual guide. Being a precocious child
with a retentive memory he memorized the
Qur’an at the age of seven. On the death of his
father in 1131 AH when he was hardly 17 years
old, he started teaching in his father's `Madrassa-
i- Rahimiya' and carried on the work for 12 years
when he left for Arabia for higher studies. He was
a brilliant scholar; during his fourteen-month stay
in Makkah and Madina, he came into contact with
the outstanding teachers of Hijaz. His favourite
teacher was Sheikh Abu Tahir bin Ibrahim of
Madina, from whom he obtained his Sanad
(Degree) in Hadith. The Sheikh was an erudite
scholar, possessing encyclopaedic knowledge;
Shah Waliullah benefitted much from him too and
speaks highly of his piety, independence of
judgement and scholarly talents.
During his stay at Makkah, Shah Waliullah had a
dream in which the Prophet (PBUH) commanded
him to work for the organization and
emancipation of the Muslim community in the
subcontinent. He, therefore, returned to Delhi on
July 9th, 1732 and started his work in real earnest.
His was an uphill task in a period when Muslim
India was passing through the most critical phase
of its history and its entire social, political,
economic and spiritual fabric was torn to pieces.
On his arrival in Delhi, he started training pupils in
diverse branches of Islamic learning and entrusted
them with the missionary work of enlightening
people with the true nature of Islam. He
embarked upon the task of producing standard
works on Islamic learning and, before he died in
1762, completed a large number of outstanding
works on Islam.
He was a real genius, an intellectual giant who set
himself on the mission of educating the misguided
Muslim masses with the true spirit of Islam. He
took the task of the revival of Islam in the
subcontinent which had been clouded with mystic
philosophy and to bring it out in its pristine glory.
He was a humble devotee to this cause, who
resisted all temptations of personal glory.
Shah Waliullah was a prolific writer. It is in the
realm of Islamic learning that he made a lasting
contribution and within 30 years produced more
than 50 works of outstanding merit, both in
Arabic and Persian Languages. Some of these are
still unsurpassed in the whole domain of Islamic
literature. His most valuable service to the cause
of Islamic learning was that he codified the vast
store of Islamic teachings under separate heads.
Both in thought and prediction, his works occupy
an outstanding place.
He has left behind several works including Arabic
and Persian Commentaries on "Muw'atta", the
well-known collection of the traditions of the Holy
Prophet (PBUH) compiled by Imam Malik. He
attached great importance to this collection of
traditions by Imam Malik, even greater than
those of Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslim. He is an
outstanding Muhaddith (Traditionist) and links of
all modern scholars of Hadith in the subcontinent
may be traced to him. Foremost among these
modern Traditionalists was his son and successor
Shah Abdul Aziz and Syed Murtaza Bilgrami.
Shah Waliullah introduced several reforms in
religious and economic spheres. He was the first
to translate the Holy Quran into a popular
language, a practice that was later usefully
followed by others. His son, Shah Abdul Aziz,
translated the Holy Book into Urdu, the language
of Muslim masses in India.
He was born in an atmosphere deeply imbued
with the spirit of Sufism. His father was a well-
known Sufi. At an early age, he came under the
influence of Ibn Taymiyya, a great religious
reformer. During his stay in Hijaz, he came into
contact with scholars who were influenced by
Wahabism. This provided a check to his blind
following of Sufism. But he did not totally discard
Sufism. He was aware of the services rendered by
Sufis in popularizing Islam in the subcontinent and
the spiritual self-developed by the truly Islamic
form of Sufism. Shah Waliullah set upon the
mission of reforming the social and political order
of his day. Being a realist, he diagnosed the ills
that had entered into the body politic of Muslim
society and suggested remedies. He criticized the
un-Islamic customs which had crept into Muslim
society due to its contact with Hinduism. He was
particularly against excessive extravagance in
marriages, festivals, and other ceremonies. He
advocated the remarriage of widows. He carefully
analyzed the factors responsible for the economic
degeneration of the Muslim society during his
time and proposed radical changes in the
economy of the Muslim society.
In an illuminating chapter of "Hujjat-Ullah- il-
Baaligah" , he outlined the evils of capitalism
which brought about the fall of the Roman and
Sassanid Empires. He is highly critical of the
economic exploitation of the poor, which, in the
past, had brought about many revolutions and is
the root cause of all troubles and unrest in the
world. He even criticized the Mughal rulers and
nobility for their indolence and luxury.
Shah Waliullah believed that intellectual
revolution should precede political change. He did
not contemplate a change in the political or social
set-up through a bloody revolution. He wanted to
bring a revolutionary change in the society
through peaceful means. In his well-known book,
"Izaalat-ul- Khifaa", he discusses the ideology of
the political revolution which he envisages.
Shah Waliullah was, perhaps, the only Muslim
scholar of Medieval India who realized the
importance of economics in a social and political
set-up. He advocated the maintenance of
economic equilibrium in society and strongly
criticized the accumulation of wealth which leads
to all sorts of evils in the world.
His seminary, ‘Madrassa-i-Rahimiya’ became the
center of the Islamic Renaissance in the
subcontinent, where scholars flocked from the
four corners of the country and after being
trained, became the torchbearers of freedom
movement in the subcontinent. The "Madrassa"
in fact, had become the nucleus of the
revolutionary movement for the reconstruction of
religious thought in Islam. It produced many
zealous workers who carried on their preacher's
mission with missionary zeal. Among these were
Maulana Muhammad Ashiq, Maulana Norrullah,
Maulana Amin Kashmiri, Shah Abu Saeed of Rai
Bareli, and his son, Shah Abdul Aziz who was
initiated into the religious and political philosophy
of his father.
Shah Waliullah possessed a many-sided and
versatile personality. His real greatness lies in the
cumulative effect produced by his writings, by the
contribution of persons trained by him, and by the
achievements of the school of thought founded
by him. In religious matters, he struck a mean
between extremes; in social affairs, he strove to
introduce in the Muslim society the simplicity and
purity of early Islam; in the sphere of economics,
he advocated revolutionary Islamic socialism and
in the political field he forged a united Muslim
front against the non-Muslim forces which were
threatening to storm Muslim India.
HIS CONTRIBUTION IN THE FIELD OF HADITH:
He was especially recognized as Muhaddith and
wrote many books on Hadith and subjects relating
to it as he included some valuable articles on this
matter in his Hujjatullah al-Baligha.
The study of Hadith was available in the Indian
sub-continent from the very beginning of Muslim
expeditions to this territory and many scholars of
Hadith arrived in India from other countries and
many scholars went to other Muslim countries
from India and many centers of the study of
Hadith had been established in different parts of
India. Many works on Hadith also had been done
by many Hadith scholars. However, they could
neither establish a complete system nor adopt a
time-befitting method and syllabus for Hadith
study. So their teaching was unsystematical,
partial, incomplete, and scattered and many times
influenced by conventional rigidity.
Shah Waliullah made a revolutionary change in
the study of Hadith. He introduces an excellent
method, syllabus, and system of teaching of
Hadith. He took the initiative to train the
teachers, and run the institution with good
discipline, well plan and program. His teaching of
Hadith is distinguished by deep thought,
completeness, and including all major books of
Hadith and its science in the syllabus. He adopted
the policy of non-conventionalism and non-
rigidity in his teaching. His method of study of
Hadith was to study it as Hadith with broadmind
and patience and to prefer one to another
according to its soundness and strongness
aparting from supporting any particular mazhab,
and respecting all Sunni mazhabs and scholars. In
his teachings and writings he used all kinds of
references of all mazhabs to acquaint the
students and readers of the Indian sub-continent
with them and tried to make their minds broad
and their eyes farsighted. He took the study of
Hadith out of the prevailing classical system and
made it dynamic, vital, and active.
Shah Waliuilah's endeavour to propagate Hadith
through revival of its teaching and writing
monumental works on the subject, set afoot the
process of Islamic revival in the Indian sub-
continent or rather in the whole Islamic world. It
was such a great achievement that overshadowed
all of his literary and intellectual attainments, and
he came to be known as Muhaddith Dehlwi,
which became an adjunct to his name.
Shah Waliullah as a great muhaddith, faqih, and
scholar of the science of Hadith {usul al-Hadith or
ulum al-Hadith) has discussed the position of
Hadith in Islamic Shari’ah and given his verdict on
this important and complicated matter with full
confidence and bravery, as well as discussed
various terms (mustalahat) relating to the science
of Hadith and has given his own opinion on its
many points scholarly.
It is generally said that Shah Waliullah preferred
the Muwatta to Sahih al-Bukharu But this opinion
is not proved, the fact is that Shah Waliullah has
mentioned three books on Hadith-the Muwatta,
Sahih al-Bukhari and Muslim in the first category,
and started with the Muwatta because of its
seniority in compiling age. He placed every book
of the first category in its position without
preference. It is right that he has paid glowing
tribute and special attention to the Muwatta.
Shah Waliullah's most important works on Hadith
are “Al-Musauwa Sharh al-Muwatta” in Arabic,
“Musaffa Sharh Muwatta” in Persian and “Sharh
Tarajim Abwab al-Bukhari”. Shah Waliullah has
done his explanations of the Muwatta based upon
the transmission of Yahya bin Yahya. He has
rearranged and re-chaptered it according to his
own thinking and planning and added the suitable
Ayahs of the Holy Quran with the chapters and
Hadiths, as it has been done by Imam al-Bukhari
in Sahih al-Bukhar.
In his “Sharh Tarajim Abwab al-Bukhari,” Shah
Waliullah has discussed on the most difficult and
subtle matters of the science of Hadith. As he
studied minutely Imam Bukhari's adopted system
in his Al-Jami’ al-Sahih, his method of
chapterization, as well as the meaning of those
chapters and the relations among the chapters
and Hadiths placed under them.