Shah Waliullah
Islamic law serves rational purposes and fits the stage a society has reached, so it can be renewed by fresh reasoning.
Placement
Scholar of Delhi in the age of Mughal decline: grounded Islamic law in rational purposes and stages of social development, and reconciled rival Sufi metaphysics.
Key ideas
- Rational purposes of the law
- Stages of civilisation (irtifaqat)
- Renewal through ijtihad
Influence
Influenced by 3
al-Ghazali
influenced by
In the introduction to The Conclusive Argument from God Shah Waliullah named al-Ghazali with respect among the forerunners who had explained the reasons behind the revealed law. Shah Wali Allah, Hujjat Allah al-baligha, introduction, tr. M. K. Hermansen, The Conclusive Argument from God (1996)
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
al-Ghazali › 1058–1111
Ibn Arabi
influenced by
Shah Waliullah argued that Ibn Arabi’s unity of being and Ahmad Sirhindi’s unity of witnessing differ only in wording, in a letter known as al-Maktub al-madani. Shah Wali Allah, al-Maktub al-madani; S. A. A. Rizvi, Shah Wali-Allah and His Times (1980)
Evidence: AI draft
Ibn Arabi › 1165–1240
Ahmad Sirhindi
influenced by
Shah Waliullah sought to reconcile Sirhindi’s “unity of witnessing” with the “unity of being”, arguing that the two differ more in expression than in substance. Shāh Walī Allāh, Fayṣala-yi waḥdat al-wujūd wa-l-shuhūd; J. M. S. Baljon, Religion and Thought of Shah Wali Allah Dihlawi (1986)
Evidence: AI draft
Ahmad Sirhindi › 1564–1624
Influenced 2
Muhammad Iqbal
influenced
In The Reconstruction (1930) Iqbal cited Shah Waliullah’s view that a prophet’s law takes special account of the customs of the people to whom he is sent. M. Iqbal, The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (1930); Shah Wali Allah, Hujjat Allah al-baligha
Evidence: AI draft
Muhammad Iqbal › 1877–1938
Fazlur Rahman
influenced ✓
Fazlur Rahman saw Shah Waliullah as a forerunner of modern Islamic reform, above all for explaining the revealed law through its purposes (Islam, 1966). F. Rahman, Islam (1966); Revival and Reform in Islam, ed. E. Moosa (2000)
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Fazlur Rahman › 1919–1988
Works
Explains the rational purposes behind Islamic law and ritual and traces human society through stages of development.
Position
Shah Waliullah held that Islamic law is not arbitrary: it serves purposes reason can grasp – individual and social welfare (maslaha). His Conclusive Argument from God traces human society through stages of development (irtifaqat), from household to city to a universal order, which the law perfects. He urged a return to Qur’an and hadith and independent reasoning (ijtihad) over rigid loyalty to one school. In Sufi metaphysics he reconciled Ibn Arabi’s “unity of being” with Ahmad Sirhindi’s “unity of witnessing”. A letter attributed to him, urging the Afghan ruler Ahmad Shah Abdali to fight the Marathas, is controversial. Deoband, the Ahl-i Hadith and modernists like Iqbal and Fazlur Rahman claimed him.
Life & context
Shah Waliullah was born in 1703 in northern India, the son of Shah Abd al-Rahim, a Naqshbandi Sufi and founder of the Rahimiyya madrasa in Delhi, whom he succeeded as its head in 1719. Around 1731–1732 he made the pilgrimage and studied hadith in Mecca and Medina. Back in Delhi he taught and wrote in Arabic and Persian amid Mughal decline until his death in 1762.
Further main works
- The Victory of the Merciful (Fath al-Rahman, Persian translation of the Qur’an, 1730s)
- The Great Victory (al-Fawz al-kabir, on the principles of Qur’an interpretation, 18th century)
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