imported>Ulubatli Hasan: +Abdullah Ghaznavi

2021-06-25T03:57:07Z

+Abdullah Ghaznavi

New page

{{short description|Indian Muslim scholar of the reformist Ahl-i Hadith movement (1805-1902)}}
{{Infobox religious biography
| era =
| image =
| name = Syed Nazeer Husain Dehlawi
| title = [[Muhaddith]], [[Shaykh al-Islām|Shaykh]], [[Maulana]], Miyan Sahib
| birth_date = 1805
| birth_place = [[Surajgarha]], [[Bengal Presidency]], [[Company rule in India|British India]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1902|10|13|1805}}<ref name="auto1">Tavārīk̲h̲-i ʿAjīb Yaʿnī Kālā Pānī by Muḥammad Jaʿfar Thānesarī, page 246 {{in lang|ur}}</ref>
| death_place = [[Chandni Chowk]], [[Delhi]], [[British Raj|British India]]
| ethnicity =
| region = [[India]]
| religion = [[Islam]]
| denomination = [[Sunni]]
| school_tradition =
| movement = [[Ahl-i Hadith]] ([[Salafi]])
| main_interests =
| notable_ideas =
| works =
| influences =
| influenced =
| jurisprudence = [[Salafi]]
| creed = [[Athari]]
| students = [[Abdur-Rahman Mubarakpuri]], [[Muhammad Ibrahim Mir Sialkoti]], [[Abdullah Ghaznavi]]
}}
'''Syed Nazeer Husain Dehlawi''' (1805–13 October 1902) was a leading scholar of the reformist [[Ahl-i Hadith]] movement and one of its major proponents in India. Earning the appellation ''shaykh al-kull'' (teacher of all, or the shaykh of all knowledge) for his authority among early Ahl-i Hadith scholars,<ref>Claudia Preckel. (2013, p.174), 'Screening Ṣiddīq Ḥasan Khān's Library: The Use of Ḥanbalī Literature in 19th century Bhopal' in B. Krawietz & G. Tamer (eds.), [https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Islamic_Theology_Philosophy_and_Law.html?id=d2WiuAAACAAJ&redir_esc=y ''Islamic Theology, Philosophy and Law: Debating Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya''], Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, pp.162–219</ref><ref name="BRILL">{{cite book|author1=Chanfi Ahmed|title=West African ʿulamāʾ and Salafism in Mecca and Medina: Jawāb al-Ifrῑqῑ – The Response of the African|date=2015|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-27031-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NjVzBwAAQBAJ|page=99}}</ref> he is regarded, alongside [[Siddiq Hasan Khan]] (1832–1890), as the founder of the movement<ref name="Cambridge University Press">{{cite book|author1=Sophie Gilliat-Ray|title=Muslims in Britain: An Introduction|date=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-83006-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CUFGGwAACAAJ|page=104}}</ref><ref name="Daniel W. Brown pg. 27">Daniel W. Brown, ''Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought'': Vol. 5 of Cambridge Middle East Studies, pg. 27. [[Cambridge]]: [[Cambridge University Press]], 1996. {{ISBN|9780521653947}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=M. Naeem Qureshi|title=Pan-Islam in British Indian Politics: A Study of the Khilafat Movement, 1918–1924|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=czKYZPyoyx0C|year=1999|publisher=BRILL|isbn=90-04-11371-1|page=458}}</ref> and has been described as "perhaps the single most influential figure in the spread of the Ahl-i-Ḥadīth".<ref name="Daniel W. Brown pg. 27"/>

==Biography==
[[File:Sheikh Nazeer Hussain of Delhi, address to Queen Victoria on her Golden Jubilee.jpg|thumb|Husain's [[ode]] to [[Queen Victoria]] on the occasion of her [[Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria|Golden Jubilee]] in 1887 written in Urdu.]]

===Early life===
Husain was born into an aristocratic ''[[ashraf]]'' family in the northern Indian city of [[Monghyr]], [[Bihar]].<ref name="books.google.co.uk">{{cite book|author1=Chanfi Ahmed|title=West African ʿulamāʾ and Salafism in Mecca and Medina: Jawāb al-Ifrῑqῑ – The Response of the African|date=2015|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-27031-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NjVzBwAAQBAJ|page=98}}</ref> He was raised a [[Shi'ite]], but later abandoned that faith.<ref name="socio">{{cite book|author1=Kenneth W. Jones|title=Socio-Religious Reform Movements in British India, Volume 3|date=1989|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521249867|page=56|edition=reprint}}</ref> He began his studies in Sadiqpur in Bihar where he first came into contact with the revolutionary preacher [[Sayyid Ahmad Barelvi]] (1786–1831) in the 1820s.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Charles Allen|title=God's Terrorists: The Wahhabi Cult and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad|date=2006|publisher=Abacus|isbn=978-0-349-11879-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dKK0_bM-4n8C|page=136}}</ref> He later moved to [[Delhi]] in 1826 where he studied under [[Shah Abdul Aziz]] (1746-1824), son of the revivalist theologian [[Shah Waliullah Dehlawi]] (1703–1762), and then Abdul Aziz's grandson and successor [[Shah Ishaq Al-Dihlawi]] (1778–1846), the renowned ''[[muhaddith]]'' in India.<ref name="socio"/> When [[Shah Ishaq Al-Dihlawi]] emigrated to the [[Hijaz]], Husain took his place as a teacher.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Chanfi Ahmed|title=West African ʿulamāʾ and Salafism in Mecca and Medina: Jawāb al-Ifrῑqῑ - The Response of the African|date=2015|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-27031-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NjVzBwAAQBAJ|page=98}}</ref> Self-consciously identifying himself with Shah Waliullah, and viewing himself as spiritual heir to his legacy, Husain took on the title ''miyan sahib'', a title closely associated with Shah Waliullah's successors.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Daniel W. Brown|title=Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought|date=1996|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-57077-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6RPcYgx5u_MC|page=27}}</ref> At Delhi's prestigious [[Madrasah-i Rahimiyah]] seminary, which had broken up into a number of interlinked schools following [[Shah Ishaq Al-Dihlawi]]'s death in 1846, Husain led the most [[Wahhabi]]-oriented school.<ref name="Abacus">{{cite book|author1=Charles Allen|title=God's Terrorists: The Wahhabi Cult and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad|date=2006|publisher=Abacus|isbn=978-0-349-11879-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dKK0_bM-4n8C|page=137}}</ref>

===Attitude towards the British===
Nazeer Husain advocated political quietism and was among a large number of Muslim scholars from both the Sunni and Shia sects, who supported British rule and rejected calls for armed [[jihad]] against it.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ayesha Jalal|title=Partisans of Allah|url=https://archive.org/details/partisansofallah00ayes|url-access=registration|year=2008|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-02801-2|pages=[https://archive.org/details/partisansofallah00ayes/page/115 115]–116, 129–131}}</ref><ref name="auto">{{cite book|author=M. Naeem Qureshi|title=Pan-Islam in British Indian Politics: A Study of the Khilafat Movement, 1918–1924|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=czKYZPyoyx0C&pg=PA178|year=1999|publisher=BRILL|isbn=90-04-11371-1|pages=178–180}}</ref> He was also among a number of Muslim scholars, including the ''[[muftis]]'' of [[Mecca]], who declared [[British Raj|British India]] to be [[Divisions of the world in Islam#Dar al-Islam|''dar al-Islam'']] (abode of peace) and not [[Divisions of the world in Islam#Dar al-Harb|''Dar al-harb'']] (abode of war).<ref name="auto"/> During the [[Indian Rebellion of 1857]], he resisted pressure from the mutineers to call for a jihad and instead declared in favour of British rule, viewing the Muslim-British relationship as a legal contract which could not be broken unless their religious rights were breached.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ayesha Jalal|title=Partisans of Allah|url=https://archive.org/details/partisansofallah00ayes|url-access=registration|year=2008|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-02801-2|pages=[https://archive.org/details/partisansofallah00ayes/page/130 130]–131|quote=Maulana Sayyid Nazir Husain Dehalvi was the most influential of the Ahl-Hadith ulema in Delhi at the time of the revolt. The rebels coerced him into issuing a fatwa declaring a jihad...he ruled out armed jihad in India, on the grounds that the relationship with the British government was a contract that Muslims could not legally break unless their religious rights were infringed.}}</ref> Despite having denied any involvement in the rebellion in its aftermath and having strongly opposed the declaration of jihad as sinful and a faithless breach of covenant,<ref name="Abacus"/> Husain was widely believed to have been among a group of Delhi ''ulema'' pressured into signing a jihad [[fatwa]].<ref>{{cite book|author1=Charles Allen|title=God's Terrorists: The Wahhabi Cult and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad|date=2006|publisher=Abacus|isbn=978-0-349-11879-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dKK0_bM-4n8C|page=157}}</ref> He was arrested in 1868 by the British on suspicion of being the leader of the Wahhabi insurgents in Delhi and detained for six months but was eventually released without charge after it had emerged that he had not supported the rebels.<ref name="https">{{cite book|author1=Charles Allen|title=God's Terrorists: The Wahhabi Cult and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad|date=2006|publisher=Abacus|isbn=978-0-349-11879-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dKK0_bM-4n8C|pages=197, 205}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Ayesha Jalal|title=Partisans of Allah|url=https://archive.org/details/partisansofallah00ayes|url-access=registration|year=2008|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-02801-2|pages=[https://archive.org/details/partisansofallah00ayes/page/131 131]}}</ref> Husain consistently denied any links with the Wahhabis as well as any role in the Delhi uprising in 1857.<ref name="https"/>

Because he was seen by the [[British Raj|British]] as the only scholar of the Ahl-i Hadith who could allay the conflict between the movement and followers of the prevailing [[Hanafi]] school of thought, which often resulted in civil disturbances that the Government sought to prevent, and because he also knew [[English language|English]] which was very rare among Indian Muslim scholars at the time, Husain's turbulent relations with the British at Delhi had improved.<ref name="books.google.co.uk"/> He was granted a letter of recommendation by the government to the British Vice Consul in [[Jedda]] when he travelled there in 1883 to perform the [[Hajj]] pilgrimage. However, he was already denounced as a Wahhabi by Indian Hanafis to the [[Hejaz Vilayet|Ottoman governor of Jedda]] who had him arrested and imprisoned before he could present the letter. He was later released with the intervention of the British Vice Consul.<ref name="BRILL"/>

===Founding of ''Jamaat Ahl-i Hadith''===
Within a couple of years of his release from prison in 1868, Husian, together with [[Siddiq Hasan Khan]] of [[Bhopal]] and [[Molvi Muhammad Hussain Batalvi|Muhammad Husain Batalvi]] (c.1840–1920), two influential fellow alumni of the Madrasah-i Rahimiyah, formally founded the politico-religious organisation known as the ''Jamaat Ahl-i Hadith'', the Party of the People of the Hadith.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Charles Allen|title=God's Terrorists: The Wahhabi Cult and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad|date=2006|publisher=Abacus|isbn=978-0-349-11879-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dKK0_bM-4n8C|pages=205–206}}</ref> However, their zealous opposition against co-religionists and non-Muslims alike, to the extent of using violence against mosques and shrines, and their strong anti-polytheist, anti-innovation, anti-Shia and anti-Christian message in close resemblance to the followers of [[Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab]] (1703–1792), did not stop other Muslim groups from denouncing them as Wahhabis. Neither did the British Government of India cease using this term for them until the Ahl-i Hadith leaders published, in 1885, a book denying any links with Wahhabism and called for the Government to cease employing this term in reference to them.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Charles Allen|title=God's Terrorists: The Wahhabi Cult and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad|date=2006|publisher=Abacus|isbn=978-0-349-11879-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dKK0_bM-4n8C|page=206}}</ref>

Husain taught ''[[hadith]]'' at Delhi for half a century,<ref name=ann207>Annmarie Schimmel, ''Islam in the Indian Subcontinent'', pg. 208–9. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 1980. {{ISBN|9004061177}}</ref> gaining international renown in this field and attracting students from different parts of India, Afghanistan, Central Asia,<ref name="BRILL"/> the [[Hijaz]] and [[Najd]].<ref>Guido Steinberg. (2004; p.95), 'Ecology, Knowledge, and Trade in Central Arabia (''Najd'') during the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries' in M. Al-Rasheed & R. Vitalis (eds.), [https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Counter_Narratives.html?id=GU3HAAAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y ''Counter-Narratives: History, Contemporary Society, and Politics in Saudi Arabia and Yemen''], New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.77–102</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Charles Allen|title=God's Terrorists: The Wahhabi Cult and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad|date=2006|publisher=Abacus|isbn=978-0-349-11879-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dKK0_bM-4n8C|page=197}}</ref> Almost all of the major scholars of the early Ahl-i Hadith movement studied under him.<ref>Claudia Preckel. (2013; p.174), 'Screening Ṣiddīq Ḥasan Khān's Library: The Use of Ḥanbalī Literature in 19th century Bhopal' in B. Krawietz & G. Tamer (eds.), [https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Islamic_Theology_Philosophy_and_Law.html?id=d2WiuAAACAAJ&redir_esc=y ''Islamic Theology, Philosophy and Law: Debating Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya''], Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, pp.162–219</ref> Husain held together a network of scholars who aligned themselves to the teachings of [[Ahmad Sirhindi]] and [[Shah Waliullah Dehlawi]], but were more uncompromising in their rejection of what they believed were blameworthy innovations in the faith and the legitimacy given to the four Sunni [[Madhhab|schools of law]].<ref name="socio"/> The solicitude of the British also gained Husain favour among modernist Muslims associated with the [[Aligarh Muslim University|Aligarh Institute]], whose ''[[Aligarh Institute Gazette]]'' dedicated an obituary praising him when he died in 1902 at the age of ninety-seven.<ref name="books.google.co.uk"/>

==Teachings==
{{Salafi|Founders}}
The teachings of Nazeer Husain and Siddiq Hasan Khan were shaped amidst broader reformist developments in South Asia which saw the Muslims of India as having drifted away from 'authentic' Islamic beliefs and practices that compromised the Islamic concept of the indivisible oneness of God and bordered on idolatry. For guidance on religious matters, however, in contrast to other reformist currents in India, they advocated direct use of the central Islamic scriptures: the [[Quran]] and ''hadith'' – which they interpreted literally and narrowly – rather than looking to the classical lawmakers and the legal traditions of Islam that developed around them.<ref name="Cambridge University Press"/> Accordingly, Husain was known for his emphasis on the primacy of the Prophetic traditions as the source of Islamic law over deference (''[[taqlid]]'') given to the Sunni legal schools and for the opposition to popular rituals and folk practices associated with the [[Sufis]] which were deemed to be illegitimate innovations in the faith.<ref name="I.B.Tauris">{{cite book|author1=David Commins|title=The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia|date=2006|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=184-511-080-3|url=https://archive.org/details/wahhabimissionsa0000comm|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/wahhabimissionsa0000comm/page/144 144]}}</ref> Although Husain himself has been seen as less literalist and more favourably inclined towards Sufism than later exponents of the Ahl-i Hadith, demanding an oath of allegiance (''[[bay'ah]]'') from his disciples, a practice commonly associated with Sufism, and even praising [[Ibn Arabi]], a colossus among Sufis.<ref>Martin Riexingr. (2013; p.501), 'Ibn Taymiyya's Worldview and the Challenge of Modernity: A Conflict Among the Ahl-i Ḥadīth in British India' in B. Krawietz & G. Tamer (eds.), [https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Islamic_Theology_Philosophy_and_Law.html?id=d2WiuAAACAAJ&redir_esc=y ''Islamic Theology, Philosophy and Law: Debating Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya''], Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, pp.493–518</ref> Nevertheless, overall, these teachings resulted in the development of close ties with Wahhabi scholars but strong controversy between the Ahl-i Hadith and the [[Deobandis]] who upheld strict adherence to the Hanafi school.<ref name="I.B.Tauris"/>

==Notable students and influence==
According to author [[Charles Allen (writer)|Charles Allen]], among Syed Nazeer Husain's students were [[Imdadullah Muhajir Makki]],<ref>{{cite book|author1=Charles Allen|title=God's Terrorists: The Wahhabi Cult and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad|date=2006|publisher=Abacus|isbn=978-0-349-11879-6|pages=158, 300}}</ref> [[Muhammad Qasim Nanotvi]]<ref>{{cite book|author1=Charles Allen|title=God's Terrorists: The Wahhabi Cult and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad|date=2006|publisher=Abacus|isbn=978-0-349-11879-6|page=160}}</ref> and [[Rashid Ahmad Gangohi]],<ref>{{cite book|author1=Charles Allen|title=God's Terrorists: The Wahhabi Cult and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad|date=2006|publisher=Abacus|isbn=978-0-349-11879-6|pages=160, 302}}</ref> the founding figures of the [[Deobandi]] movement; although prominent Deobandi scholars including [[Mufti]] [[Muhammad Taqi Usmani]] have issued fatwas against him.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Muhammad Na'eem|title=The Deviated Sects and theStraight Path of Islaam|date=2016|publisher=Al-Qamar Publications| url=https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xSJpEYNF7CUnCiVsFHhQLwKbiB1oYbiy/view|pages=625}}</ref> Husain is also considered by some scholars to have had an influence on [[Mirza Ghulam Ahmad]],<ref>{{cite book| author = Adil Hussain Khan| title = From Sufism to Ahmadiyya: A Muslim Minority Movement in South Asia| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=C2DxBwAAQBAJ&q=from+sufism+to+ahmadiyy| year = 2015| publisher = Indiana University Press| isbn = 978-0253015297| page = 180 }}</ref> the founder of the [[Ahmadiyya]] movement, whose second marriage Husain had performed in 1884,<ref>{{cite book| author = Adil Hussain Khan| title = From Sufism to Ahmadiyya: A Muslim Minority Movement in South Asia| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=C2DxBwAAQBAJ&q=from+sufism+to+ahmadiyy| year = 2015| publisher = Indiana University Press| isbn = 978-0253015297| page = 172 }}</ref> though Ghulam Ahmad never studied under him.<ref>{{cite book| author = Adil Hussain Khan| title = From Sufism to Ahmadiyya: A Muslim Minority Movement in South Asia| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=C2DxBwAAQBAJ&q=from+sufism+to+ahmadiyy| year = 2015| publisher = Indiana University Press| isbn = 978-0253015297| page = 25 }}</ref> Prior to pledging his allegiance to Ghulam Ahmad and becoming his foremost disciple, [[Hakeem Noor-ud-Din|Hakim Nur-ud-Din]] had also briefly studied under Husain.<ref>{{cite book| author = Adil Hussain Khan| title = From Sufism to Ahmadiyya: A Muslim Minority Movement in South Asia| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=C2DxBwAAQBAJ&q=from+sufism+to+ahmadiyy| year = 2015| publisher = Indiana University Press| isbn = 978-0253015297| page = 133 }}</ref> Other students of Husain included the Afghan-Indian scholar [[Abdullah Ghaznavi]]; the two major Ahl-i Hadith proponents in the Punjab: [[Molvi Muhammad Hussain Batalvi|Muhammad Husain Batalvi]] and [[Sanaullah Amritsari|Sana'ullah Amritsari]];<ref>{{cite book| author = Adil Hussain Khan| title = From Sufism to Ahmadiyya: A Muslim Minority Movement in South Asia| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=C2DxBwAAQBAJ&q=from+sufism+to+ahmadiyy| year = 2015| publisher = Indiana University Press| isbn = 978-0253015297| page = 31 }}</ref> and the Indian ''hadith'' scholar [[Muhammad Shams-ul-Haq Azimabadi|Shams-ul-Haq Azimabadi]].The modernist founder of the [[Aligarh Movement]] and [[Aligarh Muslim University|Muslim University]], [[Syed Ahmad Khan]], also studied under Husain in the 1850s.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Charles Allen|title=God's Terrorists: The Wahhabi Cult and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad|date=2006|publisher=Abacus|isbn=978-0-349-11879-6|page=205}}</ref>

==Works==
Syed Nazeer Husain's [[Fatwas]] were collected posthumously by some of his students into two large volumes called ''fatawa Naziriyya''. Other written works by him include the following:
*''Mi'yar al-haq'' (Criterion for Truth; Urdu)
*''Waqi'at al-fatwa wa dafi'at al-balawi'' (Event of the Fatwa and Defence Against the Affliction; Urdu)
*''Thabut al-haq al-haqeeq'' (Proof of the Veritable Truth; Urdu)
*''Risalah fi tahli al-nisa bi al-dhahab'' (Treatise on the Adornment of Women with Gold; Urdu)
*''Al-masa'il al-arba'a '' (The Four Issues; Urdu)
*''Falah al-wali ba 'itiba' al-nabi'' (Felicity for the Saint in Following the Prophet; Persian)
*''Risalah fi ibtal 'amal al-mawlid'' (Treatise on the Erroneousness of the Practice of ''[[Mawlid]]''; Arabic)

==See also==
*[[Siddiq Hasan Khan]]
*[[Ahl al-Hadith]]
*[[Salafi movement]]
*[[Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani|Nasiruddin al-Albani]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Husain, Syed}}
[[Category:1805 births]]
[[Category:1902 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Bihar]]
[[Category:Indian Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam]]
[[Category:Converts to Sunni Islam from Shia Islam]]
[[Category:Indian Salafis]]
[[Category:Indian wahhabists]]
[[Category:19th-century Muslim scholars of Islam]]
[[Category:Hashemite people]]
[[Category:Ahl-i Hadith]]
[[Category:Indian people of Arab descent]]

Syed Nazeer Husain - Revision history

imported>Ulubatli Hasan: +Abdullah Ghaznavi