Wallahu Alem,

May Allah forgive me for my impatience, and my anger.

RAMADAN KAREEEM!!!!

what I am saying is this: That we have a serious problem in the ummah of people recognizing themselves first as Deobandi, Braelwi, or w/e. Its ok to recognize a group - but when you take it to the point where you call eachother kaafirs - that’s really messed up. And when you take it to the point where you only listen to the works of a certain group, then thats where you have division that leads to hatred, and classification - and basically these are the steps to arrogance, that hated sin of Iblees.

I’m not saying Jinn Zaman is like that, i love this brother - alhamdulillah he has a very good blog, and he is extremely intelligent. But THERE ARE MANY other people out there who will shudder if they just hear the word barelwi, and shoo you away if you say deobandi in a positive tone. That needs to stop right now. And that’s only going to happen if we keep our preferences within, and call ourselves muslims first (atleast for a little while), and love a muslim for the weight of his actions, and not what group he follows.

Brother Usman, the mode you will read about it, the more you will agree with jinnzaman inshaAllah.

May Allah guide us to the straight path.

Jinnzaman, I’m not conversant with Muslim researchers and intellectuals. What are some books on or by ibn Khaldun?

haha, actually, I was reading on a Hegelian view of history when I came up with this post.

In terms of historical method, I haven’t made up my mind yet. I’m using Ibn Khaldun as my primary reference point, but he’s got a lot of severe limitations.

masalama

Proving me to that if you cannot tolerate others different then their is no chance for holding the glue together of the community.

MashaAllah, it is a healthy discussion.

I would like to reiterate the point that you have already raised and highlighted. That is, the spreading propaganda that Deobandi school of thought is a desi reform movement in reaction to the British rule of India. This is not correct. Yes there is a reform element but it is in response to the poor religious condition of the Muslims of India in those times.

The serious students of history are well aware of these facts. For those knowing Urdu a quick reference can be the well written introduction to the book ‘Maqamat e Mazhari’ (Biography of Hazrat Mawlana Mazhar Jan e jana ra by Shah Gulam Ali Dehalwi ra 1743-1824 ) by Prof Ghulam Mohammad Mujaddidi (he is from Baraelwi school). He very well illustrates the reality of the significance of falling Mughal Empire on Muslims. The poverty leading to corruption, moral degradedness and religious ignorance was increasing. For example, in Delhi there were special institutes to teach the art and science of male homosexual romance. The mujra, i.e classical dance of prostitutes at the tombs of pious saints like Mehboob e Illahi ra was a special tribute at the ura/hawl. The communal practices of celebration of mawlid, urs, death anniversaries, etc. got precedence over the essential (fardh) obligations. Etc., etc.

Some sort of change, reshuffling of priorities and call for moral sensibility & accountability was inevitable. It was a very natural response, the rising crest after the lowest trough. It was under these circumstances that conscientious and concerned Muslim scholars of Deoband formulated a strategy for revival.

Hence it is grossly incorrect to say that Deobandi school is a reform movement in response to British rule. It only reflects the poor historic knowledge and/or a bias.

It should be very clear that Deobandis are traditionalist, ahle as Sunna wal jamah, followers of Imam Abu Hanifa in fiqh, Imam Maturidi in aqida, and Chishti, Naqshabandi, Qadiri or Suharwardi tariqa in Tasawwuf. And all praise to Allah they are very particular and well informed in all of these sciences and their applications.

This isn’t to anyone in particular, but I also wanted to make the following comment.

The notion that “Deobandism” is merely a “desi” thing has already been shown to be inaccurate. However, assuming for the sake of the argument this is true, how did it become the dominant scholarly movement in the Indian subcontinent? The school itself wasn’t formulated until after the 1857 mutiny. That means, within a roughly hundred and fifty year period, it become the dominant school within the subcontinent. It not only survived partition and anti-state stances, but has also been able to export itself into the English speaking world. The argument that it spread among desis is non sequitur. Of course it spread through desis since most Deobandis are desi, but if you look at the maddrassehs in the West, not all of the ‘Ulema and students are desi.

Tableeghi jamaat has penetrated the upper strata of Desi culture. Musicians and Pakistani cricket team members have become affiliated with the movenet.

What is it about the Deobandi school that enabled it to surpass Barelwis and Salafis? State support isn’t a valid argument since many of the Salafis and Ahl ul Hadeeth within India have had financial support from non-Indian sources. Nor have Deobandis been more closely linked to the state in other areas. While it is true that the Grand Muftis of Pakistan have been Deobandi, the argument that state support has lead to its dominance isn’t applicable to other regions, such as India, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh where state support is minimal.

If India was a microcosm of the Ummah (foreign occupation, partitioning by foreign powers, crisis of authority and identity) and the Deobandi school became the dominant force in spite of this environment embedded in conflict and opposition to Islam generally, then this might be a good indicator of the spread of Deobandism in non-Muslim states as well.

Again, I’m not saying that everyone has to become Deobandi, I’m just pointing out the dynamics of Muslim communities.

I think you’re right there’s a lot of work that needs to be done before any vestiges of unity can be brought about.

Also, if you all could make du’a for me that I pass my exam next week, I would greatly appreciate it.

I love all of you for the sake of Allah (subhana wa ta’ala).

masalama