Ahl-i Hadith
Politics portal Others In terms of Ihsan: Ahl-i-Hadith or Ahl-e-Hadith (Urdu: اہلِ حدیث, people of 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.
"[6] 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 ḥadīth—statements attributed to Muhammad, validated through chains of transmission—and its political quietism.
[26] 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".
[28]: 174 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.
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.
A Pashtun chieftain named Zabardast Khan who made a secret deal with the Sikh commander Sher Singh withheld promised reinforcements.
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 (innovations), shirk (polytheism), heresies and superstitions.
[40] 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.
[28] 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.
[28]: 190–191 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
[43] 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.
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]).
[54][55] Ahl-i Hadith condemned practices such as visiting the Prophet's grave and various customs related to saint veneration fervently, in a tone which rivaled in intensity to that of the Arabian Muwahhidun movement.
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.
[28]: 165–166 Breaking with the dominant Hanafi and Sufi customs, they also emphasise the fraternity and equality of all Muslims; such as permitting Muslim women to pray in Masjids, addressing the Khutbah (Friday sermons) to both villagers and city-dwellers in the native languages, making divorce procedure easy and accessible to women, rejecting triple Talaq, authorising marriage contracts between poor and affluent classes of the society, etc.
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.
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.
[64][65] Both the Wahhabis and Ahl-i-Hadith shared a common creed, opposed Sufi practices such as visiting shrines, seeking aid (istigatha) from dead 'Awliya (Islamic saints), etc.
He would send his eldest son, Sa'd ibn Atiq, to India to study under Siddiq Hasan Khan as well as Sayyid Nazir Hussain for over nine years.
The Salafiyya Ulema shared with the Ahl-i-Hadith, a common interest in opposing various Sufi practices, denounce Taqlid (blind following), reviving correct theology and Hadith sciences.
[77][78] Leading proponents of the movement joined forces against the opposition they faced from established ulama (religious scholars) and in 1906 formed the All India Ahl-i-Hadis Conference.
[80] One member organization of the All India Ahl-i-Hadis Conference is the Anjuman-i-Hadith, formed by students of Sayyid Miyan Nadhir Husain and divided into Bengal and Assam wings.
[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.
The Ahl-i Hadith militant organizations such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, an armed wing of Markaz al-Dawah Irshad (MDI), have targeted Indian security forces as well as Barelvis, Shias and Ahmadis.
Another organisation, Tehreek e-Mujahideen (an armed Wing of Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadith), has targeted Indian security forces in the contested state of Kashmir.
The Indian Ahle Hadith movement has largely remained apolitical, focusing primarily on religious issues and also encourage participation in the democratic process.
