Exactly two hundred forty seven years back, on 20 August,1762, an outstanding Islamic thinker South Asia ever produced – Shah Wali Allah– passed away leaving behind a colossal legacy. Shah Waliullah had exceptionaltalent, ability of mind and spiritual purity. An outstanding scholar of Islamicsciences, who lived in the age of crisis and intellectual degeneration herevolutionized the philosophical, social and economic ideas within theframework of Islam. In South Asia,understanding Islam as a socio religious movement is incomplete withoutstudying the work of Shah Wali Allah. As the eminent Muslim Philosopher AllamaIqbal writes ” He was the first Muslim to feel the urge for rethinking thewhole system of Islam without breaking traditions of past.”(Reconstruction ofReligious Thought in Islam).
Shah Waliullah has enormous work – both academic as well asspiritual – to his credit. He inspired generation of ulama, scholars, and lefta great legacy. He shaped the Islamic thought in South Asia. Almost everyschool of thought and Islamic movement in Islam accepts him as an authority andtakes lineage in South Asia from his works. Ahli-hadeeth movement takesinspiration from him (on his work on hadith, supremacy of hadith, and hiscriticism on taqlid). Founders of top madrasas like Deoband, Nadwa anduniversities like Aligarh Muslim University were pass-outs from his madrassa –Madrassa Raheemiya – and had studied under him. They take lineage from hissources.
Founders of movements like Tablighi Jamaat (on teachingMuslims’ Islamic values and revivalism, Barelvis (on Sufism, his works onOntological monism and Phenomenological monism and on writing amulets), NeoMotazillis ( his work on realism and finding truth in the light of reason) andextreme Quranist movements run by people like Ghulam Ahmad Parwaz also takeinspiration from him and his works. Shibli and Iqbal also take inspiration fromhim on scholasticism and religious reconstruction. Founder of Jamaat-e- IslamiSyed Mawdudi also took inspiration from his work on pan Islamism. Not onlythis, but pioneers of Jehad movement in India Shah Shah Ismail Shaheed and SyedAhmad Barelvi were also inspired by his works. Prominent Muslim scholar and historian Shibli Naumani writes ” Thecontribution of Shah Wali Allah overshadows men like Ghazzali and Razi. Whilethe exposition of earlier mutakallim exclusively focuses on the questions ofbelief, Shah went beyond this narrow scope of theology” (Al Kalam)
Shah Wali Allah was a writer par excellence. He wrote seventyone books. He was the first person to translate Quran in any language fromAsia. He translated Quran in Persian (Fath Al Rahman), the common language ofthat time for which he was labeled infidel and also on the belief that Qurancan’t be translated in any language. Not only he, his son Shah Rafi Al Din didliteral translation of Quran and another son Shah Abdul Qadir did an idiomatictranslation of Quran. His other major works are Al Fauz Al Kabir on principlesof tafsir and magnum opus Hujjat Allah Al Baligah on the study of sociological,religious and ethical problems. Famous Muslim scholar Manzoor Naumani writes ina special issue of Al Furqan: “Hujjat is the commentary on whole of Islam…… to comprehend Islam as a well knit scheme of Islam .” Abul Hassan Nadwialso writes about it in the same issue ” Hujjat is unparalleled and was thefirst book on Islamic philosophical legal system.” Iqbal writes “Islamicsociology is stagnant post Shah”
Shah Wali Allah was not only a writer and scholar but an activistalso. He extensively worked on reconciliation between Shias and Sunnis when thetwo had confrontations. When physical violence between the two was at its peakand mystic, poet and scholar like Mirza Mazhar Janjanan was murdered heactively worked for reconciliation even though it was taken as weakness. He waslabelled as shia also on this issue. His book “Izalat Al Khilafa ” is witnessto his activism. In this book he wrote about the four caliphs of Islam,misunderstandings of shias and fanaticism of sunnis also.
He was a great administrator also who successfullyadministered his father’s madrassa Raheemiya. He re-oriented educationalpolicy. He made it a bridge between classic and modernist thought.Unfortunately this madrassa was downed by British in 1857. Post 1857, this landwas given to Lal Krishan Das.
He stressed on the need for ijtihad. He was of the opinionthat old rulings and findings are not as sacred as divine revelation; olderjurists were not infallible either and it is not obligatory for Muslims tofollow them, however, rulings of older jurists can be used with benefit. He wasof the opinion that attributes of Sufis are a great fortune but their someunislamic practices are like a disease which has affected the community. ShahAbdul Hay Al Hasani writes “In knowledge and natural philosophy Shah Wali Allahexcelled both Farabi and Ibn Sena” ( Islamiya Fi’l Hind).
Shah Wali Allah’s role in the age of crisis and intellectualdegeneration is exemplary. As Shibli Naumani writes, “During the last age Islamwas breathing last, was born a man like Shah, whose discernments made theachievements ofd Gazali, Razi and Rushd dwindle it’s insignificance”(Al Kalam).He was a multi dimensional personality an erudite scholar,writer,activist,administrator. As Nawab Sidiq Hassan Khan Bhopali writes, “If Shah hadflourished in the distant past, he surely would have been given the title ofand would have been called chief head of imams” (Mafhamaat). Such was the greatpersonality of Shah Wali Allah.