Muslim Movement In 19th Century >> Shah Waliullah (1703-1762)
October 27th, 2007 | by Qurratulain |Qutbuddin Ahmad, popularly known as Shah Waliullah, was born on february 21, 1703 AD, four year before death of Aurangzeb Alamgir, in small village named Pulth in Muzaffar Nagar district, United Province (India) and died in Delhi 1762AD.his father, Shah Abd-ur-rahim, was a lineal descendent of Hazarat Umar and his mother came from the hose of Imam Musa Kzim.
Shah Abd-ur-Rahim was a scholar and a Sufi of renown in his own right, who preferred to lead a life of retirement and, in spite of unrivalled opportunities for being associated with the government of such an orthodox monarch as ‘Alamgir1’refrained from availing himself of them. He did, however, cooperate with the Emperor in the compilation of the well-known Al-Fatawa-e-Alamgiriyah. He was the founder of a college, Madrasah-e-Rahimiyah, where he himself lectured. Since he was born both a theologian and a Sufi, his effort was to remove the conflict between theology and mysticism. The spirit of compromise he bequeathed to his son, Shah- Waliullah, who received his early education, both theological and mystical, under him. The son was a young man of promise: at a comparatively early age he not only graduated from his father’s college, but also started lecturing there. After having been engaged in teaching for twelve years in that college, he left for Arabia for further his studies and to perform the pilgrimage. He studied at Medina for about fourteen months; here he was greatly influenced by Shaikh Abn Tahir bin Ibrahim, who was a competent and careful scholar. He was capable of taking broad views of problem and tired to remove conflicts in differing views where ever his could be achieved. This confirmed Shah Waliullah in the attitude that he had inherited from his father. He returned to Delhi on 9th July 1732;then began the most fruitful period of his life.
On his return to India he found the condition of the people and government still worse. He realized that the decline of the Muslim Empire and society was the result of ignorance of the basic principle of Islam. So in the beginning of his work he emphasized upon the teaching of Islam.
- Translation of Holy Quran: Shah waliullah believed that to regain the honourable status Muslims have to relearn the Quran and the Hadith. The word of these books should not remain the properties of the Mullas who alone should not interpret them but they should be relearnt by one and all, to become equal interpreters of those truths, which the Quran has given them. For this purpose he translated the Quran in the common language, Persian. The translation in Persian paved the way for translation other language. His two sons, Shah Rafi-ud-din and Shah Abdul Qadir translated the Holy Quran into Urdu.
- Efforts for Revival of Islamic Society: Shah Waliullah made his greatest mark on the moral and intellectual training of the contemporary Muslim society. He believed that the establishment of good relations between the different sects of Islam was the only remedy; there had grown up differences because of economic and political maladjustments as well. Shah Waliullah made a deep study of these maladies and reached the conclusion that society was suffering from a lack of equilibrium; the imbalance between the functions and the performance of the different organs had brought about such a deterioration in its working that there was little relationship left between production and consumption. The growth which should have been the custodians of its well-being had become parasites; instead of rendering any service in return for what they consumed, they had reduced themselves to the state of mere idlers or rapacious exploiters. He castigated everyone who was a burden either upon the public funds or upon the public economy. He rightly laid great emphasis upon the economic well-being of the peasantry and the craftsmen, because this was the basic of a sound economy in those days; at the same time he did not want them to be impervious to moral considerations. To be good members of society, they also had to cultivate habits of hard work, honesty, and efficiency. He considered it of the greatest importance that everyone should do productive work to earn his livelihood. He laid the utmost emphasis upon the principles of adl and tawazun, Justice and equilibrium, without which a society cannot, endure.
- Efforts for Socio-Political Integration: The principle of adl, Waliullah explains, is the very life of all political and social organizations; freedom, government and good life all depend upon it. The maintenance of tawazun or equilibrium is, according to him; mainly depend upon healthy economic condition. The health of an economy can be secured only by a proper distribution of wealth; an unequal distribution which leads to its concentration in the hands of a few and reduces others to extreme poverty creates a serious disequilibrium and produces conflicts within the society which affects its well-being adversely; it sometimes leads a nation to aggression for the sake of acquiring by force what others have earned through their thrift and industry. Shah Waliullah laid great emphasis upon the necessity of removing all forms of economic injustice and tyranny, because when a group is reduced to a level where it must like animals to earn a livelihood, it loses its social virtues. Shah Waliullah, however, gave a more logical of the social and political integration. He builds up his theory of irtifaqat (Stages of human evolution) as the true explanation of the social evolution. He conceives four stages of development in the social structure namely (1) families (2) villages (3) city-states, and (4) the great caliph. In his view the establishment of the Khilafah is the highest development of the political society.It is interesting to note that Shah Waliullah, unlike Ibn Khaldum, regards the emergence of the Khilafah as the culminating point of social evolution. At the same time they emphasizes that Khilafah emerges out of the anarchy of the city-state.
- Efforts for the survival of Mugahal Empire: When Shah Waliullah to India 1732 AD from Arabia, he saw the disintegration of the Mughal Empire due to rapid change of the kings The Marhattas,the Sikhs, the syed brothers, the Jats, the rivalry of Saadat Khan and Asaf Jah and the invasion of Nadir Shah had brought the country to disaster. He grievously felt the sad plight of the people and put his hand on every possible source for help. He wrote letters to powerful rulers to unite, and generously praised the government officials who upheld the case against odd circumstances and prayed for their further successes. He exhorted Ahmad Shah Abdali and Najibul Daula to put an end to the Marhatta menance. In one of his letters addressed to Ahmad Shah Abdali he told that it was his duty to crush Marhattas who were after the very existence of the Muslims in this country. At last, Shah Waliullah succeeded in persuading Ahmad Shah Abdali and Najibul Daula to take up arms against the Marhattas. In the third battle of Panipat, 1761 AD, the Marhattas had a crushing defeat and were not able to rise again.
