Global Intifada

There seems to be a lot of discussion on the blogosphere concerning the connection between Sufis and Salafis in a hadeeth circle in Madinah in the 18th century. (Imam Suhaib Webb, Sidi AbulHussein, and Mujahideen Ryder). The following is my contribution to the discussion.

Introduction

In a previous work, “On Intellectual Revival”, I argued that an intellectual revolution restoring the classical traditions and deconstructing Western paradigms was a necessary prerequisite for the unification of the Ummah. This thesis can be supported by the historical record which clearly illustrates that every great Islamic movement was first preceded by a scholarly movement. This thesis is so strong that it can even be extended to Shias whose own successes can be attributed to scholarly revivals. For example, the only Muslim force to defeat Israel, Hezbullah, has its fair share of connections to Shi’a ‘Ulema both in Lebanon and abroad. The defeat of Israel in Lebanon by Hezbullah was not an isolated historical event, but part of a larger causal chain that is intimately connected to the Islamic Revolution of Iran [Iran provides a lot of funding to Hezbullah and trained them through the Revolutionary Guard]. The Islamic Revolution of Iran itself was a direct by-product of the success of the Usuli ‘Ulema over the Akhbari ‘Ulema within the Ithna Jafarai tradition. Of course, the Usuli’ movement itself was spawned by the interaction between Shia scholars and Sunni scholars in Ottoman Maddrassehs. But for the Sunni construction of the science of hadeeth, taqleed, and ijtehad, the Usuli movement would never have happened and the world we live in would be a very different place. A careful scrutiny of all the major revivalist movements, whether Sunni or Shia, can all be traced to scholars.

History is already a testament to the role of Sufis in the intellectual, military, and political protection of the Ummah [Sufi Mujahideen] However, it seems that the modern era in particular has been marked by neo-Sufi revivalist movements that produced a variety of novel solutions to the collapse of the Islamic political order following the decline of the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires.

Perhaps the best summary of all the Islamic revivalist movements can be found in the works of Ira Lapidus. In my opinion, he does the best job of all contemporary historians in linking together the revivalist movements. Although he doesn’t go into much detail about each of the movements, he provides a macroscopic picture of the Ummah as a whole which assists in understanding how many of the revivalist movements were linked to one another through hadeeth scholarship. [See here and Islamic Revival and Modernity” by Ira Lapidus.

The study of the revivalist movements all begin with Shaykh Ibrahim ibn Hasan al-Kurrani, the scholar who seemed to be at the center of this whole hadeeth revivalist movement that spanned four continents and over 300 years.

John Voll: Hadeeth Scholarship in Madinah

After getting the “big picture” from Lapidus, you should move on to the man who started it all, John Voll. Voll was probably the first Western academic to investigate the role of Hadeeth scholarship in Islamic revival.

In “Hadith Scholars and Tareeqahs: An ‘Ulema Group in the Haramayn and their Impact”, he traces the general chains of hadeeth scholarship and links them with revivalist movements spanning from Western Africa, Northern Africa, Egypt, Ottoman Lands, Arabia, Central Asia, India, and as far off as Indonesia. This is basically a more detailed explanation than what Lapidus provides in the links posted above. Nikki Keddi elaborates on Voll’s argument by extending the scope of study from the revivalist movements to the modern day movements in “The Revolt of Islam 1700 - 1993″.

For a detailed study of Ibrahim al-Kurrani, see the work “Tasawwuf and Reform in Pre-Modern Islamic Culture: Ibrahim al-Kurrani” by Basheer Nafi who investigates the Naqshbandi origins of the hadeeth scholarship movement in Madinah that triggered all of these revivalist movements. Shaykh Ibrahim ibn Hassan al-Kurrani’s students would lead the revival of Islam all over the world. For a study of how some of his students would lead the resistance against the Dutch in Indonesia, see the work ‘Kurdish ‘Ulama and their Indonesian Disciples” by Martin van Bruinessen. In addition to being resistance fighters, his students would, in turn, become teachers themselves and educate some of the greatest intellectuals and leaders the Ummah has ever seen. Two of his students in particular, Abu’l Hasan Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Hadi al-Sindi and his own son Abu’l-Tahir Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Kurani, played crucial roles as teachers in this global movement.

In “Muhammad Haya al-Sindhi and Muhammab ibn Abdul Wahhab”, Voll goes into a lot more detail about the scholarly connections that spawned these revivalist movements. Shaykh Muhammad Haya al-Sindhi was an Ashari Nasqhbandi Sufi who was the scholar who introduced the works of Shaykh Ibn Taymiyyah to Shaykh Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab. Regardless if one disagrees with the central tenets and methodology espoused by Salafis/Wahhabis/Muwahiddun, their contribution to the revival of Islam on a global level is undeniable. But of course, their links to Ashari Sufism is just as equally undeniable.

Of course, Voll is not without his critics. His entire thesis has been questioned by Ahmad Dallal in “Origins and Objectives of Islamic Revivalist Thought: 1750-1850″ who scrutinizes the ideas propounded by Shaykh Muhammad ibn AbdulWahhab, Shah Waliullah, Imam Sanusi, and Shaykh Uthman Dan Fodio to enunciate their different approaches in spite of possessing the same intellectual roots. Dallal points out that the very nature of the science of hadeeth scholarship is to create chains of transmission. However, merely being a link in such a chain did not necessarily result in a massive transmission of knowledge. Dallal argues that while it is true that many of these ‘Ulema held common chains of transmission, they did not engage in a detailed study from these scholars and had radically divergent paradigms of revival ranging from the scholarly tradition to politics to militant movements and differed on key core issues ranging from following a madhab, tasawwuf, bid’a, jihad, the role of Islam in politics, and even how to respond to European expansion and whether to respond at all. Thus, in his view, Hadeeth scholarship was just that and not the source of the revivalist movements which were merely localized responses that were so distinct that they cannot possibly be attributed to a single source.Hadeeth Scholarship in India

As is evident in the works of Voll, Lapidus, and others, the opening of the Arabian sea enabled commerce and trade to occur between Arabia and India that had been disrupted by the Portuguese and pirates. Thanks to the Ottoman navy, once the sea routes were open and safe again, a steady stream of hadeeth scholars migrated to and from India and Arabia. This connection was absolutely instrumental in the revival of the Ummah. Hadeeth scholars from Sindh, Gujarat, Hyderabad, and Punjab contributing to the global study of the science of hadeeth. This includes the two al-Sindhis, Shah Waliullah, and al-Zabidi. In order to properly understand the revival of the Ummah through the science of hadeeth, one MUST examine the history of scholarship in India.

A cursory overview of the role of scholarship in India can be seen in “The Role of the ‘Ulema in Indo-Muslim History” by Aziz Ahmad. The author traces the role that the ‘Ulema played in India. Shah Waliullah was a student of Shaykh Muhammad Haya al-Sindhi, the teacher of Shaykh Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab, who brought back the neo-Sufi strain of Islamic thought back to India. Under his leadership, as well as many other ‘Ulema, the hadeeth revival in India triggered many revivalist movements, the most persevering and dominating one being the Deobandi school. Barbara Metcalf provides the most detailed analysis of the formation of Deoband in “Traditionalist Activism - Deobandis Tablighis and Talibs”. An excellent supplement to this work is “The Political Struggles of the Ulama of Deoband” by Myra Hamid which highlights the role of Deobandi ‘Ulema in the political struggles of their day from the participation of the founders of the school in the Great Mutiny of 1857, to the Nationalist resistance against the British, the Khilafat movement, and the Pakistan movement. Maulana Ilyas, a Deobandi scholar, created another great revivalist movement in India deeply connected to Deoband: Tableeghi Jamat which currently has something like 3 million members worldwide. For an article solely focusing on Tablghi Jamat, see “Islamic Revival: Tablighi Jamat” by Jan Ali. An excellent summary of the history of other revivalist movements in India such as the Barelwis, Ahl ul Hadeeth, and Nadwat ul ‘Ulema, see “Commentaries, Print, and Patronage: Maddrassehs in India” by Muhammad Qasim Zaman.

The Indian-African Connection

The hadeeth scholarship connection from India shifts to Africa through scholars such as Shaykh Muhammad ‘Abd al-Hadi al-Sindhi and Murtada az-Zabidi, both of whom were the forefathers of the African intellectual tradition that culminated in the formation of the Sokoto Caliphate under Shaykh Uthman Dan Fodio. Two of the Shehu’s teachers can be directly linked to the Indian scholars of hadeeth. Perhaps the best work on Shaykh Uthman Dan Fodio is Abdullah Hakeem Quick’s dissertation “Uthman Fudi”. Dr. Quick points out that one of the earlier teachers of the Shehu was his uncle Muhammad bin Raaj, who studied under the other Naqshbandi Indian scholar of hadeeth, Abu’l Hasan Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Hadi al-Sindi, not to be confused with Muhammad Hayat al-Sindhi (the teacher of Shaykh Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab and Shah Waliullah). Recall that Shaykh Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Hadi al-Sindhi and

Abu’l-Tahir Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Kurani (the teacher of Shaykh Muhammad Hayat al-Sindhi who was the teacher of Shah Waliullah) were both students of lIbrahim ibn Hasan al-Kurani, the scholar discussed at the beginning of the article. Thus, Shaykh Uthman Dan Fodio’s intellectual lineage emanates from Shaykh Ibrahim ibn Hasan al-Kurani through two distinct but interrelated chains of transmission of knowledge.

Stefan Reichmuth has an excellent biography of “Murtada az-Zabidi” who was from Bilgram in India. At a young age, he met with Shah Waliullah before moving to the Hejaz to pursue hadeeth studies and joined the Qadiri and Naqshbandi tariqas before becoming a famous teacher of hadeeth himself whose students included Shaykh Haji Jibril (the most influential teacher of Shaykh Uthman Dan Fodio) and also another man who was the grandfather of the Algerian resistance hero, Shaykh Abdulqadir al-Jazairi.

The Significance of the Sunnah in Revival and Unity

Some might wonder what the connection is between the science of hadeeth and Islamic revival. Perhaps Shaykh Uthman Dan Fodio said it best when he pointed out that the only way to unify the Ummah was through the Sunnah of the Prophet (sallahu alayhi wa sallam):

“Realize that which saved the Umma from discord was the Messenger of Allah , may Allah bless him and grant him peace, being among them. And nothing will save them from the appearance of discord after him except the revival of the Sunna. Thus, the revival and adherence to his Sunna is obligatory upon you forever. And you should avoid innovation because all good is contained in adherence, while all evil is contained in innovation.”

The notion that the Sunnah through the science of hadeeth is the best path of reviving and unifying the Ummah is found in hadeeth themselves.

The Sunnah is instrumental in our salvation in the Akhirah, as the Prophet (sallahu alayhi wa sallam) said:

“My Ummah will face the same conditions faced by the Bani Isra’il. The kind of evil practices in which they got involved will also affect the people of my Ummah. The Bani Isra’il had split into seventy two sects. My Ummah will break up into seventy three sects - all of them will go to Hell, except one. The Sahabah asked about the group which would be so blessed with salvation. He said: That on which I and my companions - that is, the collective body of people which follows my way and the way of my Sahabah will be blessed with salvation.”

In addition to spiritual salvation, the Sunnah is important in this life as well in order to promote unity, tranquility, and subservience to Allah (subhana wa ta’ala). The Prophet (sallahu alayhi wa sallam) said:

“Those who live after me will see many differences. Therefore, (I order you that) you should, abiding by my Sunnah (way) and the Sunnah of my rightly-guided successors (Khulafa ar-Rashidin) strictly, keep doing what you do while adhering to nothing but these, avoid the temptation of falling for new methods because everything introduced anew into the religion is Bid’ah, and every Bid’ah is error and straying.”

In particular, the Prophet (sallahu alayhi wa sallam) commanded us to follow as-Sawad al-Azam:

“Follow the great mass (as-Sawad al-Azam) for he who kept himself away from it, in fact would be thrown in Hell Fire.” (Ibn Majah)

While there is some difference of opinion as to what the term Sawad al-Azam implies. The overwhelming majority of the scholars are of the view that As-Sawad al-Azam means the largest group of the learned scholars and pious persons whose opinions are held in high esteem in Islam.

This can be reinforced by the following narration concerning the victorious group. The Prophet (sallahu alayhi wa sallam) said:

 

“… Uqba said, ‘He knows, so far as I am concerned, I heard the Prophet (Peace be upon him) say: A group of people from my Ummah will continue to fight in obedience to the Command of Allah , remaining dominant over their enemies. Those who will oppose them shall not do them any harm. They will remain in this condition until the Hour over takes them.’ …” (Bukhari, Muslim)

Who is the Victorious Group? The ‘Ulema!

 

Imam Nawawi (d. 676/1277, Rahimahullah) said in his Sharh Muslim (vol. 2, pg. 143):

– “The group of people (mentioned in the above Hadith) consists of scholars, jurisprudents, authorities on Hadith, those who enjoin Good (Maroof) and forbid Evil (Munkar) and all such persons who do good deeds. Such righteous persons may be found spread all over the world.“

Imam al-Tirmidhi (Rahimahullah) said:

– “The explanation of al-Jama’ah according to the people of knowledge: They are the people of fiqh, knowledge and Hadith.” (Sunan al-Tirmidhi, 4/2167; Ahmad Shakir ed’n)

Imam Bukhari (Rahimahullah) stated in his Sahih (vol. 9, chapter. 10, English ed’n),

– “The statement of the Prophet (Peace be upon him): ‘A group of my followers will remain victorious in their struggle in the cause of the Truth.‘ Those are the religious(ly) learned men (Ahl ul-Ilm).“

Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (Rahimahullah) said about this group:

– “If it is not the people of Hadith, then I do not know who they may be.” (Sahih Muslim Sharif-Mukhtasar Sharh Nawawi, vol. 5, pg. 183, W. Zaman)

The indication in these hadeeth that the victorious group will be the scholars of hadeeth and the ‘Ulema generally can be substantiated by the historical record. The best illustration of the veracity of these hadeeth is in the study of the hadeeth scholarship revival in the modern era.

Conclusion

My sincere advice to Muslim youth is not to get over involved in any other movement (Ikhwan al Muslimeen, Hizb e Tehrir, Tanzeem i Islam, MSAs, CAIR, Tableeghi Jamat, and social work) and focus instead on acquiring ‘ilm (especially the knowledge of hadeeth) and perfecting the application of the inward and outward Sunnah. I am not advocating people abandon their participation in those organizations, but do not make that the sole focus of your activities. They should realize that the only true way of uniting the Ummah is through the Sunnah of the Prophet (sallahu alayhi wa sallam).

If we seek the liberation of the Ummah from Western hegemony and to unify all Muslim lands, then we must first push for an intellectual revolution rooted in a dynamic study of the classical texts by sitting at the feet of the ‘Ulema, particularly the scholars of hadeeth. It is only through the Sunnah that victory in this life and the next can be attained.

 

May Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) grant victory to this Ummah and preserve our ‘Ulema. Ameen.

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