[9] He is largely credited alongside Syed Nazeer Husain with founding the revivalist Ahl-i Hadith movement, which became the dominant strain of Sunni Islam throughout the immediate region.

[15][16] As one of the central figures of the early Ahl-i Ḥadīth networks, Siddiq Hasan Khan was also a major South Asian exponent of the teachings of the classical theologian Ibn Taymiyya (661–728 A.H /1263–1328 C.E).

[15] The reformist influence on Khan's thinking only increased with his performance of Hajj (Muslim pilgrimage) to Mecca, during which he became familiar with the works of the 14th century Syrian polemicist Ibn Taymiyyah.

[25] Siddiq Hasan Khan took up a job as an archivist and state historian in 1859 under Shah Jahan, who at the time was notable as a woman in the Kingdom of Bhopal who was heir apparent to the throne.

[9][25][26] According to Lepel Griffin, the marriage was in part to quash the rumor mongering, and officials made it clear that Khan was merely the Sultan's husband and would not function in any executive role.

Numerous madrasahs teaching Ahl-i Hadith doctrines were set up, hundreds of religious treatises of Khan were published and mass distributed across South Asia through the state-run printing press.

Siddiq Hasan's enemies in Bhopal State and other Muslim religious circles had often accused him of being a "Wahhabi", a label commonly employed by the colonial authorities to denote "anti-British" rebels, "fanatic", "puritan" etc.

"Wahhabi" label was detested within both the British and Ottoman Empires due to the political challenge posed by the Arabian reformer Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab's Muwahhidun movement to the dominance of the two states in the Middle East.

Furthermore, when they detected that 17 Wahhabi scholars from Najd had come to study in Bhopal under Khan's tutelage, the British suspected him of being part of a pan-Islamic anti-British conspiracy; extending across India, Egypt, Istanbul, and Mahdist Sudan.

"[16] Despite being accused of sedition against the state, Governor-General of India Lord Dufferin found no evidence of seditious acts on Khan's part at all after official inquiries.

[36][28] Both before and after his removal from the royal court by the British in 1885, Shah Jahan defended her husband to the very end as shown in the meeting minutes of a heated, vehement exchange between herself and Sir Griffin.

Resident Francis Henvey, Griffin's replacement, dispatched a medical officer but refused to administer medicine for fear that, given the terminal nature of Khan's illness, the British would be accused of poisoning him.

[42] Eventually, British officials admitted that they had overreacted based on rumors and intrigues among Bhopal's political elite and that Khan had been falsely accused;[15] regardless, the Indian nationalist movement still regarded him as a hero in the anti-colonialist struggle.

As an Islamic scholar who was able to attain a position of high political authority, Khan began facing numerous rivals as well as threats from the British government who accused him of spreading Wahhabi doctrines, which were criminalised.

Since Khan was unable to defend Muhammad Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab and his doctrines, his main concern was to protect the Muwahhidin (Ahl-i Hadith) in India, who were accused of being Wahhabis.

[44] Giving a resume of the life and reform efforts of Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, Khan traced the political rise and subsequent defeat of the Muwahhidun movement in the Arabian Peninsula in 1818.

[49] After Shah Waliullah, Siddiq Hasān Khan had emerged as the most prominent advocate of Ibn Taymiyya's legacy in South Asia by undertaking the publication of a number of treatises that either elucidated his doctrines or provided theological arguments defending his ideas.

[26] As an Athari theologian who embraced their doctrines, Khan strongly condemned Taqlid (blind-following) and believed in the literal interpretation of God's Attributes as part of upholding Tawhid.

[1][51][52] Siddiq Hasan Khan played a major role in reviving and mainstreamising Ibn Taymiyya's theological polemics among 19th century Ahl-i Hadith circles; and denounced those who differed from the literalist understanding of Divine Attributes as "Jahmites" and "Mu'tazilites".

Through the publication of his works as well as classical creedal manuscripts across South Asia and the Arab world, Khan considered the spread of Taymiyyan theology as one of the central aspects of his religious programme.

While the Ahl-i Hadith favoured the literalist, anti-speculative Atharite approaches, they also considered Ash'aris as part of Sunni Islam and did not seek to deteriorate relations with the Ash'arite scholarship in the Bhopal State.

At the same time, Khan attacked the foundational premises of both logic and Kalam through his treatises like Abjad al-ʿulūm; basing himself on the works of past scholars like Al-Shawkani, Al-San'ani and Ibn Taymiyya.

[54][14] Siddiq Hasan Khan's writings had a striking tone of pervasive pessimism, a fear of the End of the World, which propelled him towards an emotional commitment to herald drastic reforms.

The theological and intellectual attitudes of Khan and his Ahl-i Hadith students were based on their pursuit of doctrinal uniformity through textual literalism and refuting the ideas of all other Muslim sects.

[60] Khan also compiled a Qurʾānic commentary titled Fatḥ al-bayān fī maqāṣid al-Qurʾān, a seminal work in the field of Tafsir which inspired numerous Islamic revivalist movements.