Ahl-i-Hadith or Ahl-e-Hadith (, "people of hadith"), also rendered Ahl al-Hadith (), is a comparatively small but vigorous Salafi Islamic reform movement that developed in the Indian subcontinent. It presents itself as continuing the tradition of the prophetic and early caliphal period and professes the same outlook as the early Ahl al-Hadith school. Its modern roots are associated with the 18th-century tradition of Shah Waliullah Dehlawi, the Wahhabi movement, and the 19th-century Indian Tarīqah-i Mūhammadiyyāh, while its development and subsequent prominence were particularly associated with the teachings of Sayyid Ahmad Shahid, Syed Nazeer Husain, and Nawab Siddiq Hasan Khan.Daniel W. Brown, Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought: Vol. 5 of Cambridge Middle East Studies, p. 27. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. "In India rejection of taqlīd and preoccupation with hadīth became focused in a single reformist sect, the Ahl-i-Hadīth, which drew directly on the tradition of Ismail Dehlawi and al-Shawkänī. Almost all of the group's early and influential representatives had direct connections with the line of Ismail Dehlawi and especially with the Indian mujāhidin movement, led by Sayyid Ahmad Barēlvī, which carried to an extreme the purificationist tendencies within Shāh Waī Allāh's school."M. Naeem Qureshi, Pan-Islam in British Indian Politics, p. 458. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 1999. Sources variously place its emergence as a distinct modern movement around 1864, in the early 1870s, or toward the end of the 19th century.
Initially largely coterminous with those described in British India as "Wahhabis", the movement adopted the designation Ahl-i Hadith to emphasize both its commitment to the corpus of ḥadīth, understood as statements attributed to Muhammad and authenticated through chains of transmission, and its political quietism. Its adherents have also described themselves as Muwahideen, Ahl-us Sunnah wal Jamaah, and Ahl e-Hadith. The movement's religious principle has been summarized as the conviction that "whatever the Prophet Muhammad taught in the Qurʾān and the authentic traditions, that alone is the basis of our religion". It accordingly gives particular emphasis to tawḥīd, the unity of Allah, and rejects claims that created beings possess occult powers or knowledge of hidden things. This position is directed especially against claims of supernatural powers attributed to mystics and saints and against what the movement regards as excessive saint-veneration. It likewise seeks to eradicate practices understood as religious innovation, bidʿa, or as deriving from non-Islamic influences.
In jurisprudence, Ahl-i-Hadith rejects taqlid, or binding adherence to established legal precedent, in favour of ijtihad, independent interpretation based directly on scripture and authenticated traditions. Its legal puritanism has consequently been described as exceeding that of the Wahhabi movement: it rejects binding adherence to the four orthodox Sunni schools of law and maintains that a sufficiently learned believer may interpret the Qurʾān and traditions independently. It likewise does not regard the ijmāʿ, or consensus, of preceding generations as necessarily binding. This position brought the movement into conflict particularly with the orthodox Hanafi school, whose adherents constitute the majority of Muslims in Pakistan and India. In contemporary usage, 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, while many adherents have identified themselves with the Zahiri school, although some accounts distinguish it in significant respects from predominantly Arab Salafism.Dilip Hiro, Apocalyptic Realm: Jihadists in South Asia, p. 15. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012. Muneer Goolam Fareed, Legal reform in the Muslim world, p. 172. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1994.
Ahl-i-Hadith acquired considerable influence in urban Islamic intellectual circles in South Asia and organized itself institutionally through the All India Ahl-i-Hadith Conference in 1906. In Pakistan, a political wing, Jamiat Ahle Hadith, was formed in 1986. The movement has also received support and funding from Saudi Arabia.
History
Origins
Imam Shah Waliullah Dehlawi (1703 – 1762 C.E) 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 (d. 728 A.H/ 1328 C.E) 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 (religious innovations), 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 (abode of war). 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 ("Muhammadiyya Order"). 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 (d. 1834) 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 (1237 A.H) 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 Yaghistan 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 (commander of faithful) by religious scholars and tribal chiefs. Soon war broke out between Sikhs and "Wahhabi" Mujahideen.Dr. Mubarak Ali, "Almiyah-e-Tarikh", Chapter 11, pp. 107–121, Fiction House, Lahore (2012).
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.