bashir_hanafi legal theory and hadith- a study of the deobandi attempts

Washington University in St. LouisWashington University Open Scholarship

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations Arts & Sciences

Spring 5-1-2014

Hanafi Legal Theory and Hadith: A Study of theDeobandi Attempts at "Rectifying" the Image of theHanafi SchoolAamir BashirWashington University in St. Louis, [email protected]

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Recommended CitationBashir, Aamir, "Hanafi Legal Theory and Hadith: A Study of the Deobandi Attempts at "Rectifying" the Image of the Hanafi School"(2014). Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 5.

WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS

Department of Jewish, Islamic, and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures

anaf Legal Theory and adth: A Study of the Deoband Attempts at Rectifying the Image of the anaf School

by

Aamir Bashir

A thesis presented to the

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

of Washington University in

partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the

degree of Master of Arts

May 2014

St. Louis, Missouri

ii

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments iv

Abstract v

INTRODUCTION 1

Background 1

Problem Statement 4

Literature Review 6

Sources and Methodology 9

Organization of the Study 11

CHAPTER 1: THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT 14

1.1 The Deobands 14

1.2 Shh Wal Allh and His Legacy 16

1.2.1 Wal Allh as a Renewer (Mujaddid) 17

1.2.2 Wal Allh and adth & Fiqh 19

1.2.3 Wal Allhs Ambiguous Legacy 21

1.3 Deoband Responses to Ahl-e-Hads 25

CHAPTER 2: DEOBAND RE-ARTICULATION OF ANAF LEGAL

THEORY WITH RESPECT TO ADTH

27

2.1 Deobands Sources 28

2.2 Speculative Nature of Principles of adth-Criticism 30

2.3 Ta (Validation/Declaration of Soundness) and Tasn (Declaration of Fairness)

of a adth

32

2.4 Conditions for the Use of a Weak adth 36

2.5 Rejecting Solitary Report (Khabar al-wid) 38

2.6 Position of the Opinions of Companions and Followers 39

2.7 Principles of Narrator-Criticism, i.e. Commendation (Tadl) and Discreditation

(Jar)

41

2.8 Principles of Preference when Proofs Contradict (Taru bayna al-adilla wa al-

tarj)

48

2.9 Conclusion 51

CHAPTER 3: AFFIRMING ADTH CREDENTIALS OF AB ANFA AND

HIS COMPANIONS

52

3.1 Deobands Sources 52

3.2 Ab anfa 54

iii

3.2.1 Ab anfa, the Follower (Tbi) 54

3.2.2 Ab anfa, the Absolute Mujtahid 55

3.2.3 Ab anfa, the Great Muaddith 56

1. Personal Knowledge of adth 56

2. Ab anfas Status as a Reliable Narrator 58

a. Ab anfa Not an Innovator 59

3. Ab anfas Muaddith Companions 61

3.3 Other anafs 62

3.4 Conclusion 62

CHAPTER 4: TRAINING THE NEXT GENERATION OF ANAF

DEFENDERS

63

4.1 Deoband Curriculum 64

4.2 Deoband Pedagogy 65

4.3 Current Situation 66

4.4 Effects 68

CONCLUSION 70

BIBLIOGRAPHY 75

iv

Acknowledgments

The idea for this paper came while I was attending the Summer Program at the International

Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), Herndon, VA in 2013. Later, I was chosen to be a recipient of

the IIIT Research Fellowship to work on this project. My heartfelt gratitude is to the scholars and

researchers at IIIT who inspired this topic. In particular, I would like to thank Profs. Mahmoud

Ayoub and Abdulaziz Sachedina who helped with and approved the research proposal. At

Washington University in St. Louis, Prof. Hayrettin Yucesoy graciously agreed to supervise this

topic for my MA thesis. I am deeply indebted to him for his continued guidance throughout the

two semesters that I worked on this project. Had it not been for him, the project would not have

finished on time, and would not have been presentable. I would also like to thank the other two

members of my committee, Profs. John Bowen and Martin Jacobs for their insightful comments.

I would be remiss if I did not also thank my classmates, the members of JINELC Grad reading

group, Brett, Hannah and Lizzy. Our fruitful discussions greatly helped me streamline my

thoughts.

Above all, I owe more than I can express to my wife Maareah for supporting me

throughout this MA and putting up with my haphazarad work schedule. Thank you from the

bottom of my heart.

v

ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS

anafi Legal Theory and adth: A Study of the Deobandi Attempts at Rectifying the Image

of the anaf School

by

Aamir Bashir

Master of Arts in Islamic & Near Eastern Studies

Washington University in St. Louis, 2014

Associate Professor Hayrettin Yucesoy, Chair

Of the four main Sunn schools of law, the anaf school and its eponymous founder Ab anfa

(d. 767) have historically been labelled by their opponents as ahl al-ray (those who prefer

reason over adth (Prophetic reports)). This issue was quite charged in the early period of the

development of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). It was reignited in nineteenth century India by a

group of scholars who called themselves Ahl-e-Hads. In response, a group of anaf scholars,

later called Deobands, attempted to defend their school by re-articulating anaf legal theory to

explain the proper position of adth in it, and by trying to demonstrate the adth

competence of Ab anfa. In addition, Deobands also composed new adth collections and

commenatries on existing adth works, with a view to proving that the anaf school was as

grounded in adth as any other Sunn school. Moreover, they established a new curriculum in

their madrasas (traditional Islamic schools/colleges) in which major attention was given to the

relationship between anaf fiqh and adth. Through textual analysis of Deobandi works and

personal experience of the curriculum and pedagogy in a Deoband madrasa, I argue that

Deoband articulation of anaf legal theory with respect to adth was not mainly for the

vi

derivation of legal rulings but was meant to create acceptance of anaf adth proofs on the

part of their opponents, Ahl-e-Hads. Moreover, Deobands were not alone in trying to defend

Ab anfa and the anaf school. During the same period and earlier, in India and the Middle

East, other anafs were engaged in a similar defense of Ab anfa and the anaf school

against charges of indifference toward adth. I also argue that the Deobands approach toward

adth and anaf fiqh is a detailed and somewhat altered application of the ideas Wal Allh

had held earlier in his craeer, namely, selective appropriation of anaf jurists work to bring

forward those opinions from within the school that were closer to adth, and therefore, to the

Prophet sunna (practice).

1

Introduction1

Background

The largest concentration of Muslims today is found in South Asia, approximately 500 million,

out of a global total of about 1.5 billion.2 The majority of South Asian Muslims are Sunns and

the dominant school of thought among them is the anaf school.3 Within South Asian anafs,

two sub-schools dominate. These are the Barelvs and the Deobands. While both groups have

been relatively under-studied in modern scholarship, in the past decade or so, Deobands have

been receiving increasing attention. This is not only because of geopolitical reasons (Islamic

militancy in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Kashmir); Deobands are also the most influential

intellectual group from among the Sunn ulam (traditional Islamic scholars) of South Asia,

whose reach and impact goes far beyond South Asia.4 There is a network of Deoband madrasas

(traditional Islamic schools/colleges) that is spread throughout South Asia as well as in Southern

Africa, South East Asia, Europe, and North America.

1 Transliteration: All Arabic words, as well as those common to Urdu and Arabic, are transliterated using the IJMES

guidelines for transliterating Arabic. Words specific to Urdu are transliterated phonetically. Proper names of South

Asian persons that may be Arabic in origin are transliterated in Arabic where possible. Hence, Wal Allh. If there is a clear difference in pronunciation, then they are transliterated phonetically. Thus Fazlur Rahmn and not Fal al-Ramn, Ahl-e-Hads and not Ahl al-adth. 2 The Future of the Global Muslim Population, Pew Research Forum, http://features.pewforum.org/muslim-population/?sort=Pop2010 (accessed February 2, 2014).

3 The anaf school is one of four main contemporary Sunn schools, others being Mlik, Shfi and anbal. School is the English translation of the Arabic term madhhab, which literally means way. As a technical term, it may refer to the doctrine of any school of thought, be it in theology, Sufism, grammar, or law. With respect to law, it

may refer to a body of opinions/doctrine of a collection of jurists who follow the principles or methods propounded

by a scholar whom they consider to be the founder of their school (Imm). For the various definitions and usages of madhhab, see Christopher Melchert, The Formation of the Sunni Schools of Law: 9th-10th Centuries C.E. (Leiden:

Brill, 1997), xiii-xvii. Also see Bernard Weiss, The Madhhab in Islamic Legal Theory, in The Islamic School of Law: Evolution, Devolution, and Progress, ed. Peri Bearman, Rudolph Peters and Frank Vogel (Cambridge, MA:

Islamic Legal Studies Program, Harvard Law School, 2005), 1-9.

4 Francis Robinson describes the Deoband movement as the most constructive and most important Islamic movement of the past century. See Francis Robinson, Islam and Muslim History in South Asia (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000), 255.

2

The Deoband movement arose in the middle of the nineteenth century as a Sunn

reformist movement. Its intellectual origins can be traced almost a century earlier to Shh Wal

Allh (d. 1762) of Delhi.5 Wal Allh was an erudite scholar who sought to reform Muslim

thought and practice, both popular and scholarly, in a comprehensive manner. The foundation of

his reform effort was his call for Muslims to forge closer links to the two bases of their religion,

viz. the Qurn and the sunna (the example or way of the Prophet Muammad). This, at times,

conflicted with the authority of established schools of law, prominent among them the anaf

school, which dominated the Muslim India of his time. It seems Wal Allh himself underwent

some evolution in his thought over the course of his career. According to one modern scholar, in

the early part of his life, he had sought to revise anaf law by selectively appropriating those

opinions which were closer to adth (Prophetic reports).6 Later, he moved to a larger project,

namely reconciling all four Sunn schools with adth.7

This evolution, whose chronology cannot always be traced, has lent a certain degree of

ambiguity to Wal Allhs thought and was the cause of the later split of Wal Allhs followers

into two camps, the Deobands and Ahl-e-Hads.8 The former subscribed to Wal Allahs views

5 For a detailed study of Wal Allhs life and work, see Saiyid Athar Abbas Rizvi, Shh Wal Allh and His Times (Canberra, Australia: Marifat Publishing, 1980). For a review of Wal Allhs religious thought, see J.M.S. Baljon, Religion and Thought of Shh Wal Allh Dihlaw 1703-1762 (Leiden: Brill, 1986). For a brief overview of the links between Wal Allh and the Deobands and other reform movements of the nineteenth century, see Francis Robinson Islamic Reform and Modernities in South Asia, in Islamic Reform in South Asia, ed. Filippo Osella and Caroline Osella (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 26-49.

6 The word adth means a saying that includes practice, opinion or silent confirmation ascribed to Prophet Muammad. In this paper, when I use it with a small , it will refer to a single Prophetic tradition. Its plural will be adths. I will use adth with a capital H to refer to adths in general. 7 Mirj Muammad, Shh Wal Allhs Attempts to Reconcile the Schools of Fiqh (MA thesis, McGill University, 1968), 3-4. This will be discussed in more detail in the next chapter.

8 Deobands are named after a town called Deoband, located north of Delhi, where the first madrasa of the movement, later called Dr al-Ulm, was established in 1866. Ahl-e-Hads is the Urdu version of ahl al-adth, which means people who follow Prophetic reports. The Ahl-e-Hads call themselves such since they consider themselves to be the true intellectual descendants of the ahl al-adth of early Islamic history. See Muammad Ibrhm Mr Silkot, Trkh Ahl-e-Hads (Lahore: Islamic Publishing Co. 1970). An excellent overview of the

3

of close connection of Muslims to the Qurn and the Sunna but tempered it with their strict

adherence to the anaf school. The Ahl-e-Hads, on the other hand, took his advice to what they

felt was its logical conclusion, and called for reliance solely on the Qurn and the sunna and

abandonment of strict adherence to legal schools (taqld). Perhaps, it is a testament to Wal

Allhs ambiguous legacy that his self-proclaimed followers, Deobands and Ahl-e-Hads, still

argue over whether he died a anaf or a ghayr muqallid, i.e. one who does not adhere to any

school of law.

Since, both Deobands and Ahl-e-Hads saw themselves as inheritors of Wal Allhs

reformist legacy, they sought to cleanse Muslim society of all those ideas and practices, which

they felt were not based on the Qurn and the Sunna. While their initial focus was reform of

popular Muslim ideas and practices, soon their attention turned towards each other. This was

because of their diametrically opposed approach to teaching and learning Islam. While the

Deobands insisted on adherence to the anaf school as the proper means for following the

Qurn and the Sunna, the Ahl-e-Hads saw this as tantamount to abandoning the Qurn and the

Sunna. Some of them even went to the extent of declaring it to be polytheism. The second issue

that the two sides argued over was the role that adth played in anaf jurisprudence.

According to some Ahl-e-Hads, the anaf school favored rational speculation over adth.

Moreover, some among them also accused Ab anfa (d. 767), the eponymous founder of the

anaf School, of being ignorant of adth.9

anaf vs. Ahl-e-Hads divide in the nineteenth century in Urdu is Ubayd Allh Sindh, Shh Wal Allh k siys terk, ed. Muammad Sarwar (Lahore, Sindh Sgar Academy, 2002). A more scholarly overview in Urdu is given in Mauj-e-Kausar by S.M. Ikram. See Shaykh Muammad Ikrm, Mauj-e-Kausar (Lahore: Idra saqfat-e-islmia, 1979), 13-72. In English, Metcalfs famous work on the Deoband movement provides a good overview of the particular historical circumstances in which Deobands and Ahl-e-Hads emerged as distinct movements. See Barbara Metcalf, Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband, 1860-1900 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004),

46-86 & 264-297.

9 For examples of Ahl-e-Hads charges against anafs, see Metcalf, Islamic Revival, 152, 212-213, 265, 270-271.

4

Problem Statement

Modern scholars tend to agree that Wal Allhs reform effort encompassed multiple areas of

Islamic thought and practice, and was quite comprehensive in its scope. They also agree that his

work has provided the foundation for virtually every major Sunn movement in India (modern

South Asia) since the early nineteenth century.10 His emphasis on Sunna and ambiguous attitude

toward the use of adth in legal reasoning affected both Deobands and the Ahl-e-Hads. While

this much has been acknowledged by scholars, the exact contours of this effect in the case of

Deobands have not been documented. In this thesis, I seek to do just that.

I begin by examining the immediate historical causes for the emergence of the Ahl-e-

Hads vs. anafs binary. Then, I explore the ways, theoretical/intellectual and practical, in

which Deobands sought to defend the anaf school and Ab anfa. Thus, I examine the

particularly Deoband articulation of anaf legal theory, which attempted to explain the

proper position of adth in it. This articulation also had a bearing on the Deoband defense of

Ab anfa. The latter had been accused by his opponents, during his own time and later, that he

was not a reliable transmitter of adths. Deobands used their discussions of legal theory

coupled with historical testimonies of Ab anfas contemporaries to demonstrate that Ab

Hanfa and other prominent anafs were reliable transmitters of adths, were well versed in the

adth literature and used it as a source of legal reasoning. An important part of my examination

of Deoband defense of the anaf school and Ab anfa is to identify the sources used by

Deobands to make these claims, to see how they use Hanaf and non-anaf works as primary

and secondary evidences. Identification and classification of the sources will also help to clarify

10 John Voll, Islam: Continuity and Change in the Modern World (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1994),

58. Aziz Ahmad has provided a detailed account of how Wal Allhs thought came to affect every major Muslim movement in India after him, including the traditionalist reform movements of the nineteenth century, viz. the Ahl-

e-Hads and the Deobands. See Aziz Ahmad, Islamic Modernism in India and Pakistan, 1857-1964 (London: Oxford University Press, 1967), 103-122. For further details on this link, see Metcalf, Islamic Revival, 3-86.

5

whether the Deobands arguments for defense of their school were completely novel or whether

they were linked in some way to earlier debates in South Asia and elsewhere. Lastly, to complete

the picture, I also examine the curriculum and pedagogy that the Deobands adopted in their

madrasas to disseminate these arguments.

It is a central argument of this thesis that the Deoband articulation of anaf legal theory

with respect to adth was meant not so much to derive legal rulings but to create a space in

which anaf adth proofs could be considered acceptable by their opponents. It is also my

contention that Deobands efforts at defending Ab anfa and the anaf school in the face of

charges of indifference towards adth was not an isolated event. There were other anafs

engaged in a similar effort in South Asia and beyond during the same period as well as before it.

An important earlier figure in this regard is Abd al-aqq al-Dehlaw (d. 1642). Just as in the

nineteenth century, debates between those scholars who disliked taqld and those who insisted on

following the anaf school had flared up in seventeenth century North India. In this climate,

Abd al-aqq sought to defend the anaf school by writing commentaries on the one adth

collection that was prevalent in India at that time, namely, Mishkt al-mab. He sought to

demonstrate the conformity of anaf fiqh (jurisprudence) to the Prophetic sunna using

evidences from within Mishkt al-mab and from other adth collections. The difference

between him and Deobands is that the former had focused mainly on just one text, Mishkt al-

mab, while the Deobands prepared commentaries on most major adth collections, and

also prepared newer collections. Moreover, the Deobands created a network of madrasas that

has helped popularize and perpetuate their ideas. Furthermore, as I discuss in the second chapter,

Deobands were not alone in their defense of the anaf school in the modern period. Prominent

6

among these fellow defenders were Abd al-ayy al-Laknaw (d. 1886) from Lucknow, India

and Zhid al-Kawthar (d. 1951) from Egypt.

It is also my contention that Deobands approach towards adth and anaf fiqh is a

detailed and somewhat altered application of the ideas Wal Allh had held earlier in his career,

namely selective appropriation of the anaf jurists work to bring forward those opinions from

within the school that were closer to adth, and therefore, to the Prophetic sunna.11 While Wal

Allh had considered this to be a part of his larger reform effort to bring scholarly and popular

Muslim thought and practice closer to the Qurn and the Sunna, the Deobands did not think so.

Their reform efforts focused mainly on reforming popular thought and practice to bring them

closer to the Qurn and the sunna as interpreted by the anaf school. Moreover, whatever work

they did with respect to anaf fiqhs relationship with adth, they presented it as being nothing

new; rather, a re-statement of the same old authentic anaf fiqh.

Literature Review

Among those who have written extensively about Deobands, certain names stand out, such as

Barbara Metcalf, Muhammad Qasim Zaman, Dietrich Reetz, and Yoginder Sikand. While they

have all dealt with different aspects of the broader Deoband movement, no one has directly

engaged with the subject of this thesis. There is extensive literature on Deoband madrasas but

the themes under study are quite often conservative traditionalism vs. modernism, Islamism vs.

apolitical Islamic activism, construction of authority, and so on. The closest that a work gets to

dealing with Deoband articulation of anaf legal theory is Zamans influential work The

Ulama in Contemporary Islam (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002). The second

11 This is, of course, based on the chronology of the evolution in Wal Allhs thought as put forward by Mirj Muammad, as cited above in f.n. 6.

7

chapter titled Constructions of Authority discusses a number of Deoband adth

commentaries, such as Il al-sunan, Lmi al-darr al Jmi al-Bukhr, and Fay al-Br

al a al-Bukhr. Unlike other works by him and others that mentioned Deoband

engagement with adth, this work is the only one where contents of these works are actually

engaged with. However, as the title of the chapter suggests, Zamans purpose is to examine how

these works served to construct authority. Furthermore, because of limited space, he only

engages with a few sections of each that relate to contemporary political issues as a way to

highlight how tradition is created and preserved, and how authority is constructed. Thus, he

discusses how the author of Il al-sunan, afar Amad Uthmn (d. 1973), uses commentary

on a single adth to argue against the idea of united nationalism and in favor of the two-

nation theory.12 However, the author stops short of engaging broadly with the Deoband

articulation of anaf legal theory with respect to adh.

With respect to anafi legal theory in general, a number of modern works have dealt with

various aspects of it. Among these is Mohammad Hashim Kamalis Principles of Islamic

Jurisprudence (Cambridge, UK: Islamic Texts Society, 2006), which provides an overview of

Islamic legal theory, including anaf perspectives. Although highly detailed and technical, it

does not deal with the position of adth in Hanaf legal theory. A similar limited view of anaf

legal theory is to be found in Imran Ahsan Nyazees Islamic Jurisprudence: Ul al-Fiqh

(Islamabad: Islamic Research Institute, 2000). Wael Hallaqs A History of Islamic Legal

Theories: An Introduction to Sunni Usul al-Fiqh (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press,

12 Among the Muslims of British India, two main political ideas held sway in the decade prior to the 1947 partition.

One of these, called united nationalism, argued that nations are formed by territories, and thus all people living in India, Muslims and Hindus, are one nation. They should work together to evict the British and not fight among

themselves. The other idea called two-nation theory argued that Muslims were a distinct nation by virtue of their religion. Hindus and the British were equally their enemies, and Muslims must work independently to safeguard

their rights vis--vis Hindus when the British finally leave India. For more on this, see Jamal Malik, Islam in South

Asia: A Short History (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 319-345.

8

1999) is more detailed in its treatment of anaf legal theory but has a limited discussion of

adths position in it. Deoband articulation of anaf legal theory is conspicuous by its

absence.

In the field of adth studies, Deoband attitudes toward adth are again understudied.

Hashim Kamalis A Textbook of Hadith Studies: Authenticity, Compilation, Classification and

Criticism of Hadith (Markfield, UK: Islamic Foundation, 2005) and Jonathan Browns adith:

Muhammads Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World (Oxford, UK: Oneworld Publications,

2009) are more narrowly focused on sources and reliability of adth and include distinctions

between various schools regarding their attitudes towards adth. However, they do not discuss

the Deoband articulation of anaf legal theory.

Among modern works on adth, the only reference to Deobands that I could locate was

a brief paragraph in Jonathan Browns Even If Its Not True Its True: Using Unreliable

adths in Sunni Islam (Islamic Law and Society 18 (2011):1-52). Brown mentions Uthmns

Qawid f ulm al-adth as embodying the permissive Sunni stance with respect to the use

of weak adths. According to Brown, Uthmns argument for the unconditional use of weak

adths was part of a larger argument that the anaf school has always heeded adths.13

However, beyond this brief mention, he has nothing else to say about the Deobands.

13 Jonathan Brown, Even If Its Not True Its True: Using Unreliable adths in Sunni Islam, Islamic Law and Society 18 (2011):1-52.

9

Sources and Methodology

I seek to explore the Deoband defense of the anaf school by engaging in textual analysis of

relevant works by Deobands.14 In response to Ahl-e-Hads charges, Deobandis sought to prepare

commentaries on major adth works to show that anaf fiqh opinions could be demonstrated

to be not in conflict with the adths in these collections. In this regard, they prepared

commentaries and marginalia on the i Sitta (the six major Sunn collections of adth viz.

a al-Bukhr of Ab Abdillh al-Bukhr (d. 870), a Muslim of Muslim ibn al-ajjj

(d. 875), Jmi al-Tirmidh of Ab s al-Tirmidh (d. 892), Sunan Ab Dwd of Ab Dwd

al-Sijistn (d. 888), Sunan al-Nas of Ab Abd al-Ramn al-Nas (d. 915), and Sunan Ibn

Majah of Ab Abdillh ibn Mjah (d. 887)), as well as the Muwa of Mlik ibn Anas (d. 795),

and Shar mani al-thr of Ab Jafar al-aw (d. 933). It should also be noted that some of

these commentaries were actually lecture notes that were later compiled by students.

The introductions in all of these commentaries deal with the history of codification of

adth, development of adth sciences, and so on. However, because these authors are anaf,

they usually use this opportunity to establish the credentials of their Imm (the eponymous

founder), Ab anfa. They also seek to prove the validity of the anaf school and that it is

grounded in adth. In addition to adth works, Deoband authors have also written

biographical works dedicated to Ab anfa, many of which are in Urdu while some are in

Arabic. Almost always these include a section on his qualifications as a adth expert and his

standing as a jurist. In addition to these, there are polemical works dedicated to refuting Ahl-e-

Hads charges that the anaf School is not grounded in adth. Deoband adth works can be

seen as polemical as well since refuting Ahl-e-Hads charges is the underlying theme. However,

14 For a detailed list of scholarly works by Deoband scholars including those related to adth, see Dawr ulam Deoband f majl al-tlf, Dr al-Ulm Deoband, http://www.darululoom-deoband.com/arabic/magazine/tmp/1326796357fix4sub2file.htm (accessed September 10, 2013).

10

since they do not directly engage in a polemical debate with the Ahl-e-Hads; therefore, I call

them non-polemical works.

For the purpose of this thesis, my particular focus will be on the non-polemical Deoband

works. One work among these stands out. This is the 22-volume collection of adths titled Il

al-sunan [Elevation of Sunnas] prepared by afar Amad Uthmn under the order and

supervision of Uthmns spiritual mentor (Sufi shaykh) and uncle Ashraf Al Thnv (d. 1943),

himself a very prominent Deoband scholar. The work is organized according to fiqh chapters

and provides adth proofs for most anaf opinions. It also has three introductions

(muqaddima), each spanning a separate volume. The first one titled Qawid f ulm al-adth

[Principles of adth Sciences] is a detailed exposition of the anaf principles of adth-

criticism as Deobands understood them. This work will serve as the main source for this thesis

second chapter. The second introduction titled Fawid f ulm al-fiqh [Notes on Fiqh Sciences]

was written by Uthmns colleague abb Amad Krnw (d. unknown). It is a detailed

refutation of those who seek to negate the validity of taqld. As such it is beyond the scope of

this thesis. The third introduction titled Ab anfa wa abuhu al-muaddithn [Ab anfa

and His Muaddith Companions] is a comprehensive defense of Ab anfa and his

companions knowledge and attitude towards adth. As such, it will serve as the main source

for this thesis third chapter. While there are many other works written by Deobands on these

subjects, I have chosen these two introductions as representative of Deoband ideas because they

themselves see these as prestigious and representative of their school.15

15 Personal interaction with various Deoband scholars.

11

Organization of the Study

The Introduction introduces the topic, the problem statement, literature review, my sources, an

outline of the thesis, and my methodology in research. The first chapter provides historical

background to the topic. It begins by providing a brief overview of the intellectual climate of

Muslim North India during and immediately preceding Wal Allhs time, followed by a

discussion of Wal Allhs overall intellectual project with a particular reference to his opinions

regarding the relationship between adth and fiqh. It argues that the ambiguity in Wal Allhs

thought with respect to adth and fiqh allowed his self-proclaimed followers to crystallize as

two distinct groups, namely Ahl-e-Hads and Deobands. Moreover, the Deobands were put on

the defensive vis--vis Ahl-e-Hads because of the intellectual environment created by Wal

Allh and his successors in which a Sunn could not be seen to be in opposition to adth.

The second and third chapters document in detail the Deoband non-polemical

intellectual responses to Ahl-e-Hads charges. Thus, the second chapter discusses the Deoaband

articulation of anaf legal theory. The starting point for Deobands is that principles of adth-

criticism are speculative and differed upon among adth scholars. Thus, one scholar may

declare a adth to be sound (a) or fair (asan) while another may consider it to be weak

(af) and vice versa. Moreover, while anafs share majority of terms and principles with the

generality of adth scholars, they disagree in some places. A prominent example of this is their

particular attitude towards discreditation (jar) of narrators and acceptance of a suspended report

(mursal). In the case of the former, anafs vigorously reject discreditation of narrators unless it

is supported with detailed description of that discreditation so that a muaddith can decide

whether the discreditation is acceptable or not. Similarly, they are more accepting of suspended

reports than other adth scholars.

12

The third chapter details Deobands arguments that Ab anfa and his companions

were well-versed in adth. The Deobands sought to demonstrate that Ab anfa was a

follower (tbi, someone who had seen a companion of the Prophet),16 and was an absolute

mujtahid, i.e. someone who is able to carry out ijtihd (independent reasoning) at the highest

level.17 For Deobands, being a follower not only meant greater prestige for Ab anfa, it also

implied that he had better access to the companions and through them to the Prophetic reports

(adth). Moreover, being an absolute mujathid implied that Ab anfa had good command of

adth because ijtihd of this order is not possible unless the mujtahid is well-versed in the

Qurn and the adth literature. Beyond these two indirect arguments for Ab anfas

knowledge of adith, Deobands also provided reports from Ab anfas contemporaries that

document his knowledge and command of adth. Deobands used the same argument, viz.

reports from contemporaries to demonstrate Ab anfas companions knowledge of adh.

The companions discussed in this chapter are Ab Ysuf (d. 798) and Muammad ibn al-asan

al-Shaybn (d. 805).

In the fourth chapter, I examine how Deobands have sought to spread their school,

particularly through establishment of madrasas around the world. I analyze the curriculum and

pedagogy adopted in these madrasas, and how they differ from the ones prevalent in eighteenth

16 In Sunn thought, great importance is attached to the first three generations of Muslims. These are defined as follows: 1) companion (ab): someone who saw the Prophet Muammad while a believer and died as such.; 2) follower/successor (tbi): someone who saw a companion while a believer and died as such; and 3) follower of the follower/successor to the successor (tab tbi): someone who saw a follower while a believer and died as such. 17 Ijtihd literally means to exert oneself to the fullest. As a technical term, it refers to the jurists act of exerting himself/herself to the utmost to find Gods command in a given matter when the Quran and the sunna do not provide clear guidance. The one who engages in this act is called a mujtahid. For anafs, ijtihd has various levels. The highest of these is called itjihd mulaq (absolute ijtihd), hence mujtahid mulaq (absolute mujtahid). It refers to a jurists ability to directly derive rulings from the Qurn and the sunna in all matters of law. It also entails his ability to create a methodology/legal thoery (ul al-fiqh) for this derivation. It is mujtahids such as these that give their name to the various schools of law. Examples include Ab anfa (d. 767), Mlik ibn Anas (d. 795), Muammad ibn Idrs al-Shfi (d. 820) and Amad ibn anbal (d. 855).

13

century north India. I use my personal experience as a student in one such madrasa, Jmia

Ashrafia in Lahore, Pakistan, to help document this.

The last chapter concludes the thesis by stating that the Deoband efforts at rectifying

the image of the anaf School seems to be only the latest in a line of anaf defenses of their

school over the centuries. Based on this, I also suggest a future line of inquiry, namely,

comparison of Deoband articulation of anaf legal theory with that articulated by other anaf

scholars from other eras and regions, to see if there is evolution or divergences in anaf legal

theory with respect to adth.

14

Chapter 1: The Historical Context

In this chapter, I examine the historical circumstances which led to the emergence of the

Ahl-e-Hads and Deoband schools. An important component in this regard is the ambiguous

intellectual legacy of Shh Wal Allh. Both groups claim him to be their intellectual

predecessor. Their claims notwithstanding, this is not a linear link. The circumstances in which

he operated were quite different from the circumstances in which Deobands and Ahl-e-Hads

operated, as will be seen shortly. I begin by taking a brief look at the Deobands, followed by a

discussion of Wal Allhs thought and its links with the modern Deoband movement. In the

process, I will also explore the reasons for the emergence of Ahl-e-Hads, whose polemical

attacks against the anafs precipitated the Deobands response that is the subject of this study.

1.1: The Deobands

As mentioned in the previous chapter, the Deoband movement arose in the middle of the

nineteenth century as a Sunn reform movement. The movement is named after Deoband, a mid-

sized town located north of Delhi, where a madrasa, later called Dr al-Ulm, was set up in

1866. The main founder of Dr al-Ulm was Mawln Muammad Qsim Nnautv (d. 1880).

Nnautv envisioned a chain of similar madrasas spread all over India to serve the religious

educational needs of the Muslims of India. Within months, he was laying the foundations of

other madrasas in Saharanpur, Moradabad, Amroha, Delhi, and other cities and towns. However,

amongst all these, the madrasa at Deoband occupied a unique position. It was the first and had

the most prominent scholars associated with it. Soon, all those scholars who were associated with

these madrasas came to be known as Deobands. These ulam did not choose this name for

15

themselves and were at pains to explain that they were not a new sect but the same old ahl al-

sunna wa al-jama (people of the Prophetic way and the community, Sunns for short).18

However, the name stuck and after some time, these ulam also tacitly accepted it as indicating

their particular approach to Islam within the overall framework of ahl al-sunna wa al-jama.

In terms of their intellectual/scholarly orientation, Qr Muammad Tayyib (d. 1983), the

former rector (muhtamim) of Dr al-Ulm described it as follows:

[The term] ulam of Deoband does not only refer to the people who are based in the Dr al-Ulm at Deoband for teaching, giving legal opinions, preaching, writing, or for some other purposes. Rather, it refers to all those ulam whose mental outlook and thought is connected to the thought of Mujaddid Alf-e-Sn Shaykh Amad Sirhind and that of Imm Shh Wal Allh of Delhi All the ulam of the hundreds of madrasas in the (various) districts of India are Deoband.19

It is important to note here that ayyib has clearly identified Deobands with Amad

Sirhind (d. 1624) and Shh Wal Allh, both of whom are major Sunn reformers of the Mughal

period.20 Thus, Deobands consider themselves to belong to a chain of reformers that extends

down from Sirhind to Wal Allh and through his ideological descendants to the early leaders of

the Deoband movement.21 This tradition represents the reformist streak within the Sunns of

18 Thus, Qr Muammad ayyib (d. 1983), the grandson of Muammad Qsim Nnautv, and the former rector (muhtamim) of Dr al-Ulm Deoband defined Deobands as follows: As far as their religious orientation and particular outlook is concerned, the ulam of Deoband are fully ahl al-Sunna wa al-jama. This is not a new sect nor is it a group with new set of beliefs, which time and circumstances may have created. See Qr Muammad ayyib, Ulam Deoband k dn rukh aur maslak mizj (Lahore: Idra-e-islamit, 1988), 23. 19 Tayyib, Ulam Deoband, 22. 20 Sirhind was called Mujaddid Alf-e-Sn (renewer of the second millennium) by his followers, and is seen by them as ushering in a new era in South Asian Islam, one whose effects can still be felt. For more on that, see

Yohanan Friedmann, Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi: An Outline of His Thought and a Study of His Image in the Eyes of

Posterity (Montreal: McGill-Queen University Press, 1971).

21 The links between the Deoband movement and Wal Allh are well documented in modern scholarship. Moreover, most scholars of South Asian Islam agree that the Deobands and the Ahl-e-adth are the intellectual descendants of Wal Allh. This includes all the modern scholars that I have consulted so far. See, for example, Nehemiah Levitzion and John Voll, eds., Eighteenth-Century Revival and Reform in Islam (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse

University Press, 1987), 19. Also, see Voll, Islam: Continuity and Change, 113.

16

South Asia. While Sirhinds intellectual work is not relevant to this study since he did not

engage with the position of adth vis--vis anaf legal theory, Wal Allhs thought and

intellectual legacy is, and it is to him that we now turn.

1.2: Shh Wal Allh and His Legacy

Born in 1701 in Delhi, Wal Allh grew up in a household known for its religious achievements.

He completed the then prevalent curriculum of education, in both traditional (manqlt) and

rational sciences (maqlt) by the age of 17. After his fathers death, he succeeded him as the

principal of Madrasat Ramiyya, which his father had founded in Delhi. Here, he taught for

more than ten years until he decided to go for the annual pilgrimage to Makka in 1731. He spent

14 months in the ijz, performed the pilgrimage twice and studied with the scholars of Makka

and Madina. In Madina, he furthered his adth studies with the foremost adth scholar of that

city Muammad Ab hir al-Krn al-Kurd al-Madan (d. 1733).22 After having spent

fourteen months in the ijz, Wal Allh returned to Delhi and re-started teaching at Madrasat

Ramiyya.

Although trained in the anaf school, Wal Allh came to be convinced of the

superiority of adth over fiqh. Some writers have taken the view that this happened only after

his visit to the ijz.23 According to Mirj Muammad, that is not the case. Rather, during the

course of his early training, he had developed this conviction under the influence of his father

Abd al-Ram and his other prominent teacher Afzal Silkot (d. 1750). In fact, he had

22 It would be useful to note here that Ab hirs father Ibrhm al-Krn al-Kurd (d. 1689), who was an erudite scholar himself, has been described as Salaf in matters of creed and someone who used to defend Ibn Taymiyya while also making allowance for the Sufis whose statements could be taken to mean incarnation and physical union

with God. See Sayyid Ab al-asan Al Nadv, Trkh-e-dawat-o-azmat (Karachi: Majlis nashrit-e-Islm, n.d.), 5:111-112.

23 Notably Zhid al-Kawthar in his usn al-taq, as cited in Mirj Muammad, 96.

17

developed strong anti-taqld tendencies during the period before his visit to the ijz. During

this period, he studied major works of the four Sunn schools of law, along with their evidences.

As a result of the discrepancies he found between the rulings of these schools and adth texts,

he began to oppose taqld. During this period, he openly attacked anaf scholars for their lack

of attention to adth, and suffered because of that. It was only after his visit to the ijz that he

decided to tone down his rhetoric. Most of his works were composed after his return from the

ijz, including his magnum opus ujjat Allh al-bligha [The Conclusive Argument from

God]. During this time, he trained a number of students, most prominent among them his eldest

son Shh Abd al-Azz (d. 1823).

1.2.1: Wal Allh as a Renewer (Mujaddid)24

Most Sunn groups in South Asia regard Wal Allh as the renewer (mujaddid) of the twelfth

Islamic century who initiated an intellectual movement for a comprehensive reform of Muslim

thought and practice.25 According to Voll, Wal Allh was not primarily concerned with the

challenges coming from the modernizing West; rather, his reformism arose out of the

interactions between the changing local conditions.26 Thus, he felt that the general decline of

24 Mujaddid is the active participle from the verbal noun tajdd (renewal). The theological basis for tajdd in Sunn thought is the adith narrated by Ab Dwd in his Sunan, Every hundred years, Allah will send for this nation someone who will renew for it, its religion. See Ab Dwd al-Sijistn, Sunan Ab Dwd, ed. Muammad Muy al-Dn Abd al-amd (Beirut: Dr iy al-turth al-arab, n.d.), 4:109. The premise behind this adth is that while decay is an intrinsic characteristic of human society, the Islamic umma is different in that a core group of people will

always carry the true message. Thus, when the larger Muslim society gets corrupted, someone from this group will rise to reform (il) Muslim thought and practice and hence, renew the religion for the umma. For a brief overview of the two Sunn concepts of tajdd and il, see John Voll, Renewal and Reform in Islamic History: Tajdid and Islah, in Voices of Resurgent Islam, ed. John Esposito (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983), 32-47.

25 Amd al-Zamn Qsm Krnv, Shh Wal Allh k tajdd khidmt: chand pehl, in Imm Shh Wal Allh aur un kay afkr aur naarit, ed. A al-Ramn Qsm, (Lahore: Maktaba Khall, 2005), 90. 26 Voll, Islam: Continuity and Change, 58. It should be noted here that while British colonialism was already

making its mark on coastal regions of India during this period, the north-central region had not been directly

impacted by the British.

18

Muslim fortunes in India was as much a result of political divisions as of intellectual/scholarly

divisions and conflicts. The latter included the rivalry between various schools of thought and

between those who followed a school vs. those who did not follow any school (the latter can be

considered the forerunners of the group that later came to be called Ahl-e-Hads).27

In this environment, Wal Allh attempted an integration (tabq) of the entire Islamic

intellectual system, something which according to Fazlur Rahman, was unprecedented in the

entire history of traditional Islam.28 Wal Allhs reform efforts, thus, spanned the whole

spectrum of Islamic faith and practice beginning with matters of creed especially tawd

(oneness of Allah), and extending to the Qurn, adth, fiqh, political theory, economic reform,

etc.29

Wal Allhs massive reform project was two-pronged. One was the establishment of the

outward khilfa (the political dimension); the other was the establishment and renewal of internal

khilfa (the social, spiritual and intellectual dimension).30 With respect to the latter, Wal Allh

focused on revitalizing the concepts of tawd (oneness of God) and sunna in the lives of

Muslims. This meant forging a closer connection between the ordinary Muslim and Qurn and

adth.

27 To better understand the environment in which Wal Allh was operating, it will be helpful to take an overview of the then prevalent intellectual currents in India. A useful resource is Mirj Muammad, Shh Wal Allhs Attempts, 1-36. In Urdu, useful overviews can be found in Al Nadv, Tazkira Hazrat Shh Wal Allh Dehlav, 135-140; Shaykh Muammad Ikrm, Rd-e-Kausar, 528-534 & 551-567; and Sayyid Muammad Min, Ulam Hind k shndr mz (Karachi: Maktaba Rashdia, n.d.), 2:1-6. 28 Fazlur Rahman, The Thinker of Crisis: Shah Waliy-Ullah, in Pakistan Quarterly 6, no. 2 (1956): 44. 29 Voll describes Wal Allh as a prime example of the particular approach to Islamic revivalism as it appeared in the eighteenth century, with its emphasis on bringing together adth and neo-Sufism. For more on that, see Voll, Islam: Continuity and Change, 29-30.

30 Daniel Brown, Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press,

1996), 23. Also see Krnv, Shh Wal Allh k tajdd khidmt, 93.

19

1.2.2: Wal Allh and adth & Fiqh

With respect to the study of adth in South Asia, the dominant view among South Asian Sunns

for the past century has been that until Wal Allh popularized it in the eighteenth century,

adth had a marginal place in South Asian intellectual/academic circles.31 This view has been

challenged quite strongly by the likes of Manir Asan Gln (d. 1956) in his Pk-o-Hind main

Musalmnon k Nim-e-Talm-o-Tarbiyyat [The Muslim Educational System in Indo-Pak

Subcontinent]. Nevertheless, the former view has remained dominant. This has to do with two

factors. One is the towering personality of Wal Allh himself whose contributions to Islamic

thought overshadowed those of his predecessors in South Asia because of their

comprehensiveness. The other reason is that his self-styled followers sought to present him as the

mujaddid par excellence who brought light to the darkness that was Muslim India (modern

South Asia) of the time. The prolific literary output of these followers/supporters shaped the

narrative in a way that extolled Wal Allh at the expense of those before him.

When it comes to Wal Allh and adth, modern scholars tend to have the same opinion

as the one dominant among South Asian Sunns. To be sure, some of them have questioned

certain views about Amad Sirhind, an important predecessor of Wal Allhs, whose modern-

day Sunn supporters extol him for his political activism much the same way as they extol Wal

Allh for his political activism and contributions to Islamic scholarship, including adth. Thus,

Yohanan Friedmann has argued that Sirhind did not have a robust political agenda. He comes

across as a political player because of the interpretations of his later followers, which skew our

31 Shaykh Muammad Ikrm, Rd-e-Kausar (Lahore: Idara saqfat-e-islmia, 1984), 556-557.

20

understanding of his overall thought.32 One could apply the same general reasoning to the case of

Wal Allhs contributions to the study of adth in South Asia.

Thus, according to Mirj Muammad, Wal Allh was not the first one to popularize

adth in North India.33 In fact, during the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries, Gujarat in

western India had emerged as a major center of adth scholarship. Gradually, links began to

develop between the ulam based in northern India and those in Gujarat and the ijz. As

interest in Hadth increased among the ulam of northern India, more and more anafs began

to feel threatened by the popularization of adth literature, which seemed to negate many

aspects of anaf fiqh. Gradually, two opposite tendencies emerged.

One tendency was a growing emphasis on sunna and Hadth, and disinclination to follow

any school of law. The other was to defend the anaf School by showing it to be in conformity

with the adth texts. A notable effort in this vein was made by the Naqshband Sufi scholar

Abd al-Haqq al-Dehlaw (d. 1642).34 Realizing the tension between adth texts and anaf

fiqh, he sought to remedy it by writing a commentary on Mishkt al-mab of al-Khab al-

Tabrz (d. 1340 or 1341), which was the main adth text used in India at that time. In this

Persian commentary titled Ashiat al-Lamat, Abd al-aqq tried to support anaf fiqh rulings

by using adths found in other adth collections as evidences.

As Mirj Muammad has pointed out, these efforts did not succeed in bridging the

divide that had developed between strict adherents of the anaf school and those scholars who

were demanding strict adherence to the Qurn and Hadth only and abandonment of schools of

32 This is the main argument in Friedmanns previously cited Shaykh Amad Sirhind. 33 Mirj Muammad, Shh Wal Allhs Attempts, 15-18. 34 For a brief overview of Abd al-aqqs life and work, see Scott Kugle, Abd al-aqq, An Accidental Revivalist: Knowledge and Power in the Passage from Delhi to Makka, in Journal of Islamic Studies 19, no. 2 (2008): 196-246.

21

fiqh. That task it seems fell to Wal Allh. His solution was to undertake a review of anafi fiqh.

An important element of this review process was to selectively appropriate those opinions of the

early anafi scholars (Ab anfa, Ab Ysuf, and Muammad al-Shaybn) which appeared to

be closest to adth texts. Moreover, in those matters in which these three scholars had been

silent, Wal Allh proposed that the opinions of those later anaf scholars should be preferred

who were well versed in adth as opposed to those who were not.35 While this may have been

Wal Allhs plan, he seems to have abandoned it for a more ambitious project, namely

integration/harmonization (tabq) between the four Sunn schools of fiqh and adth. His

magnum opus ujjat Allh al-bligha bears testimony to that. Furthermore, his two

commentaries on Mliks Muwa, al-Musaww [The Straightened] (in Arabic) and al-Muaff

[The Purified] (in Persian) are also an example of such an endeavor. In these works, he makes

use of the opinions of not just the four living Sunn schools but also of extinct Sunn schools. His

main focus, however, remained the anaf and the Shfi schools, the former he had inherited

and the second he had learned to respect during the course of his studies.

1.2.3: Wal Allhs Ambiguous Legacy

As mentioned earlier, Wal Allhs thought seems to have evolved over time. However, since we

cannot fully trace the chronological development of his thought in his works, his intellectual

35 Baljon, Religion and Thought of Wal Allh, 155; and Mirj Muammad, Shh Wal Allhs Attempts, 104. Zafar Ishaq Ansari has reached a different conclusion. According to him, Wal Allhs approach to juristic disagreements was to reject the idea that a jurist should adhere to one school. Moreover, he felt that ordinary

Muslims did not need to identify themselves as belonging to a particular school. Rather, they should follow the

advice given by muftis (juris-consults). His main sources for reaching this conclusion are ujjat Allh al-blighah and al-Iqd al-jd. See Zafar Ishaq Ansari, Shah Wali Allah and Fiqhi Disagreements in Iqbal 15, no. 3 (Jan 1967): 44-52. I give more credence to Mirj Muammads arguments since his research is much more comprehensive and takes into account, as far as is possible, the historical evolution of Wal Allhs thought in his various works.

22

works come across as ambiguous and at times contradictory.36 Thus, in one place, he forcefully

argues for abandonment of taqld and strict adherence to the Qurn and sunna alone, while in

another place, he speaks of the virtues of following one school of fiqh.37 It is because of these

ambiguities that his legacy remains contested to this day.38

After Wal Allhs death, his sons took up the mantle of scholarship left vacant by their

father. Among them, Shh Abd al-Azz (d. 1823) was the most prominent and lived the longest.

He is credited with spreading his fathers knowledge especially with regards to adth

throughout South Asia. Abd al-Azzs contributions notwithstanding, Wal Allhs reform

movement found its fullest expression in early nineteenth century, when Muslim political power

in India had fragmented and weakened considerably. In this climate, Wali Allahs biological,

spiritual and intellectual descendants spearheaded a major reform and revival movement called

Tehrk-e-Mujhidn. The movement was led by Sayyid Amad of Rae Barel and Shh Isml,

Wal Allhs grandson.39 The reformist rhetoric and actions of this movement soon led to a

hardening of sectarian positions. In the beginning, it was the anaf ulam of Badaun and

Khayrabad who took issue with the formers attempts to oppose popular practices. This

36 Mirj Muammad, Shh Wal Allhs Attempts, 4-9. 37 See, for example, Fuy al-aramayn, 319, as cited in Mirj Muammad, Shh Wal Allhs Attempts. 38 The main Ahl-e-Hads works that paint Wal Allh as essentially an adherent of the Ahl-e-Hads school of thought are as follows: Muammad Isml Salafs Tehrk-e-zd-e-fikr aur Shh Wal Allh k tajdd mas [Movement for Freedom of Thought and Shh Wal Allhs Renewal Effort]; Muammad Ibrhm Mr Silkots Trkh Ahl-e-Hads [History of the Ahl-e-Hads], and Ab Yay Imm Khn Naushahrvs Tarjim ulam-e-ads Hind [Biographies of the Ahl-e-Hadth Scholars of India]. For a representative Deoband work, see ayyib, Ulam Deoband, 23.

39 For a brief overview of this movement and its leaders, see Encyclopaedia of Islam, 3rd ed., s.v. Barelw, Sayyid Ahmad. The author, Marc Gaborieu has shown the links between Barelw and Wal Allh and Sirhinds Naqshband Mujaddid Sufi order.

23

opposition later on crystallized in the form of the Barelv movement of Amad Raz Khn of

Bareilly.40

After the death of Sayyid Amad and Shh Isml on the battlefield in 1831, their

movement split into two factions. The dividing factor was the members attitude towards taqld.

It seems reasonable to assume that diverging tendencies existed within the movement before

1831 as well. However, perhaps because of the charismatic personality of Sayyid Amad, the

movement did not split. After the defeat in 1831, because of the absence of a unifying

charismatic figure, these diverging tendencies came to the fore.41 Thus, during this period, one

group of scholars openly began to attack taqld in general and anafs in particular. Many among

them were also actively teaching adth and writing commentaries on adth texts, in the

process shaming anafs indirectly by showing them to not be as engaged in adth as much

as the Ahl-e-ads and by not living up to Wal Allhs legacy.42 This camp later called itself

Ahl-e-ads.

In opposition to this camp, the other camp insisted on strict adherence to one school,

specifically the anaf school because it was the dominant school in India at the time. Although

this camp shared the former camps emphasis on tawd and opposition to bida, their focus on

direct access to the Quran and sunna was moderated by their adherence to traditional anaf

40 Bareilly and Rae Bareilly are two separate towns. The former is in the western part of Uttar Pradesh in a region

called Rohilkhand inhabited by a large Pashtun Muslim population. The latter is in the central part of the state near

the capital Lucknow. Amad Raz Khn Barelv was from Bareilly while Sayyid Amad Barelw was from Rae Barel. 41 Ikrm, Mauj-e-Kausar, 29-32. 42 For a listing of the various works in adth and fiqh that appeared during this period at the hands of Ahl-e-Hads scholars, see Ab Yay Imm Khn Noshehrv, Hindustn main Ahl-e-Hads k ilm khidmt (Chichawatn, Pakistan: Maktaba Nazria, 1970). For examples of polemical attacks, see Muammad Isml Salaf, Tehrk-e-zdi-e-Fikr aur Shh Wal Allh k tajdd mas (Chichawatni, Pakistan: Maktaba Nazria, 1969). For an example of a adth commentary that has anti-anaf material in it as well, see Shams al-aqq Ambd, Awn al-Mabd Shar Sunan Ab Dwd (Madina: al-Maktaba al-Salafiyya, 1968).

24

scholarship. These anaf scholars later crystallized as the Deoband jamat (community/group)

or jamat ulam-e-Deoband (community of Deoband scholars).

Since both Deobands and Ahl-e-ads had emerged from the larger Wal Allh jamat,

they shared the legacy of Wal Allhs project to review received fiqh literature to bring it closer

to the Qurn and the sunna. As Robinson has pointed out, in the case of the Deoband

movement, this review merely meant a shift in emphasis in the madrasa curriculum from

theology and philosophy to Quran and Hadth, while in the case of Ahl-e-Hads, it meant

ignoring the medieval legal legacy and appropriating Quran and adth directly to engage in

ijtihd as and when needed.43

Because of their different emphases, it was natural that the two groups would engage in

direct and indirect debates. For the Ahl-e-Hads, the anafs were guilty of deliberately ignoring

adth. For Deobands and other anafs, Ahl-e-Hads were guilty of being literalists. Moreover,

since the majority of Indian Muslims were anafs, Deobands felt that Ahl-e-Hads efforts at

propagating their ideas were a disruptive force that sowed confusion among ordinary Muslims.

For many Ahl-e-Hads scholars, there was enough information in the works of classical

and medieval adth scholars, which could be used against the anafs. This was because of the

historical animosity that many adth scholars had had towards Ab anfa and his

students/followers. During his lifetime, Ab anfa himself had been labelled as someone who

favored reason (ahl al-ray) over adth. This attitude has persisted throughout history to

varying degrees.44 A typical example is Tarkh Baghdd by the Shfi scholar al-Khab al-

Baghdd (d. 1071) in which he devotes about hundred and forty pages to discussing various

43 Robinson, Islamic Reform and Modernities, 28-29. 44 I will deal with this issue at some length in the next two chapters.

25

reports about Ab anfa.45 Of these, about forty pages mention positive reports, while about

eighty mention negative reports. Interestingly, al-Baghdd does not give his assessment of these

reports, thus leaving the field open for others to use them as they deem fit. In fact, Tarkh

Baghdd has continued to serve as a useful source for those seeking to vilify Ab anfa, as well

as for those seeking to defend him.

1.3 Deoband Responses to Ahl-e-Hads

In the face of Ahl-e-Hads polemical attacks, Deobands sought to defend their school and its

eponymous founder, Ab anfa. Their responses can be divided into two main categories,

polemical and non-polemical. The polemical responses included public debates as well as

publication of polemical materials that demonstrated the superiority of the anaf school vis--

vis the Ahl-e-Hads methodology of directly accessing Qurn and adth without recourse to

juristic scholarship.

The non-polemical responses can be divided into two further sub-categories: scholarly

works and education. Among scholarly works, Deobands probably devoted most attention to

writing commentaries on major adth collections such as the i sitta. Moreover, they

prepared a new collection titled Il al-sunan which sought to provide adth proofs for all

rulings within the anaf school. Along with these works, Deobands also prepared biographies

of Ab anfa and other prominent anafs with a view to demonstrating their knowledge of

adth. Lastly, Deobands sought to articulate the proper position of adth in anaf legal

theory as well as the anafs principles of adth- and narrator-criticism. While these works are

45 The edition that I have used for this paper is published by Dr al-Gharb al-Islm. See Ab Bakr Amad ibn Al al-Khab al-Baghdd, Tarkh Madnat al-salm wa akhbr muaddithh wa dhikr qunih al-ulam min ghayr ahlih wa wridh, (Beirut: Dr al-Gharb al-Islm, 2001), 15: 444-586. The long title is often shortened to Tarkh Baghdd. Throughout this paper, I will refer to it thus.

26

ostensibly non-polemical, an underlying purpose behind all of these works is to answer Ahl-e-

Hads charges against the anafs. These scholarly works were written in both Arabic and Urdu.

The second category of non-polemical responses included the creation of a network of

madrasas where a new curriculum was adopted. Even though, it retained the old name dars-e-

nizm, it was a far cry from the dars-e-nizm prepared by Mull Nim al-Dn Sihlv (d.

1748). Unlike the original dars-e-nizm, which had focused more on rational sciences, the

Deoband curriculum tried to find a balance between rational and transmitted sciences. The last

year of the new curriculum, called dawrat al-adth, was dedicated to a study of the major

adth collections including the i sitta, the two Muwas of Mlik and Muammad, and

Shar mani al-thr of al-aw. An important pedagogical element of the dawrat al-adth

was to resolve the conflicts between rulings of the anaf school and adths contained in these

collections.

In the following chapters, I examine each of these responses one by one. Thus, in the

second chapter, I explore the Deoband articulation of anaf legal theory with respect to adth,

and in the third chapter, I explore their defense of Ab anfa and other prominent anafs. The

scholarly works mentioned above will serve as sources for these two chapters. The fourth chapter

will provide a brief overview of the Deoband non-polemical response to Ahl-e-Hads through

education. As for the polemical responses, they will not be the subject of this study.

27

Chapter 2: Deoband Re-articulation of anaf Legal Theory With Respect to adth

Among the many charges that the Ahl-e-Hads had levelled against the anafs, perhaps

the most important one was that the latter chose to deliberately ignore adths. In the intellectual

environment of nineteenth century North India, this was a serious charge because it implied that

the anafs were consciously ignoring the Prophets commands. This logical implication had

led some Ahl-e-Hads to declare anafs to be non-Muslims. While such pronouncements were

few, a milder version of this criticism was more prevalent among the Ahl-e-Hads, namely,

anaf adth proofs were weak because many of them were not to be found in the i sitta.

Moreover, Ahl-e-Hadis alleged that those proofs that were to be found in the i sitta were

only rarely to be found in the two as of al-Bukhr and Muslim and hence could not be

considered as sound as the ones in these two collections.46

The Deoband response to these charges was to try to explain the proper position of

adth in anaf legal theory, which they felt would absolve anafs of Ahl-e-Hads charges.

The starting point for Deobands was their argument that principles of adth-criticism are

speculative (ann) and differed upon among adth scholars. Thus, one scholar may declare a

report to be sound (a) or fair (asan) while another may consider it to be weak (af) and

vice versa. Moreover, while anafs share majority of terms and principles with the generality of

adth scholars ((jamat al-muaddithn)), they disagree in some places.

Of the many works that Deoband scholars penned to explain anaf legal theory with

respect to adth, one of the most important and representative work is Qawid f ulm al-

adth of afar Amad Uthmn. Considering that this work serves as the main Deoband

46 Muammad Taq Uthmn, Dars-e-Tirmiz, ed. Rashd Ashraf Sayf (Karachi: Maktaba Dr al-Ulm Karachi, 2004), 1: 80.

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articulation of anaf legal theory with respect to adth, one would imagine that anaf works

would serve as main sources. However, that is not always the case. More often than not, it is a

non-anaf adth work. As mentioned in the previous chapter, Ahl-e-Hads polemicists had

chosen to rely on works of medieval non-anaf adth scholars to prepare their charges against

the anafs. Therefore, Deobands also chose to refer to older works by those authors whom the

Ahl-e-Hads held in high esteem.

I begin with a discussion of the sources used by Uthmn in his Qawid f ulm al-

adth to get a better understanding of how Deobands derived authority and sought legitimacy.

I will follow that by a broad overview of their articulation of anaf legal theory with respect to

adth

2.1: Deobands Sources

The main non-anaf sources that Uthmn refers to are as follows: Tadhkirat al-uff and

Mzn al-itidl f naqd al-rijl of Shams al-Dn al-Dhahab (d. 1348), Fat al-Br sharh a

al-Bukhr, its introduction Hady al-sr, Tahdhb al-tahdhb, Nuzhat al-naar shar Nukhbat al-

fikr and Lisn al-mzn of Ibn ajar al-Asqaln (d. 1448), Fat al-Mughth bi shar Alfiyyat al-

adth of Shams al-Dn al-Sakhw (d. 1497), and Tadrb al-rw of Jall al-Dn al-Suy (d.

1505). Among the less cited non-anaf works are al-Ilal of Ab s al-Tirmidh (d. 892),

Shar a Muslim of Sharaf al-Dn al-Nawaw (d. 1277), Raf al-malm an al-aimma al-

alm and Minhj al-sunna al-nabawiyya of Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328), and Ilm al-muwaqqin

of Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (d. 1350).

It is clear from the list given above that barring books like al-Tirmidhs al-Ilal,

Uthmn has mostly relied on books by authors who are mainly Shfi, while a few are

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anbals. They are all from the medieval period when Sunn adth sciences had reached

relative maturity. This is why works by these authors continue to serve as major references in

modern Sunn adth scholarship.47

Works by anafs include the following: Nab al-rya of Uthmn ibn Al al-Zayla (d.

1342), al-Dbj al-mudhahhab of al-Sharf al-Jurjn (d. 1413), Umdat al-qr shar a al-

Bukhr of Badr al-Dn al-Ayn (d. 1453), Qafw al-athar f ulm afw al-athar of Ra al-Dn

ibn al-anbal al-anaf (d. 1563 or 1564), Ashiat al-Lamat of Abd al-aqq Muaddith

Dehlaw (d. 1642), Kashshf iilht al-funn of Muammad Al Thanv (d. c. 18th century),

Fawth al-Raamt shar Musallam al-thubt of Abd al-Al al-Anr (d. 1810), al-Raf wa

al-takml and al-Ajwiba al-fila of Abd al-ayy al-Laknaw (d. 1886), Fay al-Br al a

al-Bukhr of Anwar Shh Kashmr (d. 1933), and Fiqh ahl al-Irq wa adthihim of Zhid al-

Kawthar (d. 1951). Among these, the most often used sources are Qafw al-athar and al-Raf wa

al-takml.

As can be seen, along with medieval works, a number of works from the modern period

are also included among the anaf sources, which suggests that Deoband debates with Ahl-e-

Hads formed part of a larger debate taking place between Salafs and Ahl-e-Hads on the one

hand and anafs on the other, across regions (South Asia and the Middle East). The author of

al-Raf wa al-takml, Abd al-ayy al-Laknaw, who belonged to the famous family of ulam of

Farangi Mahall, had himself debated with Ahl-e-Hads scholars on the trustworthiness of Ab

47 For a brief overview of the development of adth sciences and their position in Sunn thought, see the chapter titled The Formation of Sunn Traditionalism in Jonathan Berkey, The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 141-151. Also see Richard

Bulliet, Islam: The View from the Edge (New York: Columbia University, 1994), 126-127; and Jonathan Brown,

The Canonization of al-Bukhr and Muslim: The Formation and Function of the Sunn adth Canon (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 367-368.

30

anfa and the position of qiys (analogical reasoning) in Islamic jurisprudence.48 Similarly, al-

Kawthar, who was a former Ottoman official and had settled down in Egypt, had also engaged

in extensive debates with his Salaf detractors in the Middle East.49

Having looked at the sources Uthmn referred to in his Qawid ulm al-adth, we

now look at the salient features of his articulation of anaf legal theory with respect to adth.

2.2: Speculative Nature of the Principles of adth-Criticism50

The starting point for Deobands, as mentioned above, was to assert that all principles of adth-

criticism are speculative.51 Moreover, the principles of declaring a adth to be sound or

otherwise are differed upon and vary according to the taste (dhawq) of each muaddith or

mujtahid. For example, Muslim and al-Bukhr differ over anana (a particular type of adth in

which the narrator does not use an expression that would indicate that he/she actually met the

person from whom they are narrating). Al-Bukhr stipulates that such a narrator must have met

the person from whom he is narrating with anana, at least once in his lifetime. On the other

hand, Muslim merely stipulates that the two should be contemporaries and there should be a

possibility that the two may have met. Despite this difference of opinion, both are accepted as

legitimate authorities in the field of adth-criticism.52 Similarly, Ibn ibbn (d. 965), a famous

48 For a brief overview of the Farangi Mahall family of scholars, see Francis Robinson, The Ulama of Farangi

Mahall and Islamic Culture in South Asia (London: Hurst and Co., 2001).

49 Unfortunately, no academic study of Zhid al-Kawthars life and work seems to have been undertaken. For a brief hagiographical biography, see G. F. Haddad, Imam al-Kawthari (May Allah be well-pleased with him), Living Islam, http://livingislam.org/o/kawth_e.html (accessed March 24, 2014).

50 Sections 2.2 onwards are primarily descriptions of the principles enunciated by Uthmn. My comments, as and when they appear, are only those that are clearly stated as such.

51 afar Uthmn, Qawid f ulm al-adth, ed. Abd al-Fatt Ab Ghudda (Karachi: Idrat al-Qurn wa al-ulm al-islmiyyah, n.d.), 20. 52 afar Uthmn, Qawid f ulm al-adth, 20-21.

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adth scholar, has differed from the majority of adth scholars regarding the acceptance of the

report of an anonymous (majhl) person. According to him, such a adth is acceptable as long

as the person he is narrating from and the latters teacher are both reliable (thiqa), and the adth

is not munkar, i.e. the adth does not contradict the report of someone who is more trustworthy.

Majority of the adth scholars do not accept such a adth.53

After giving these examples, Uthmn goes on to assert that since the principles of

adth-criticism are speculative and differed upon, therefore, declaring a narrator to be reliable

(thiqa) or weak (af), and declaring a adth to be sound (a) or weak (af) is also differed

upon. In the context of making this general argument, Uthmn cites numerous early and

medieval works by prominent adth scholars including al-Ilal, Tadhkirat al-uff, Shar

a Muslim, and Fat al-Br. However, more important than these is his quotation from Ibn

Taymiyyas Raf al-malm an al-aimma al-alm.

According to Ibn Taymiyya, as cited by Uthmn, none of the Imms (leading

scholars/eponymous founders) [of fiqh schools] that have been accepted by the umma can be

accused of intentionally opposing the Prophet in any of his sunnas, be they minor or major.

Therefore, if an Imm seems to be in conflict with a sound adth, it could be for a number of

legitimate reasons. Among the many reasons given by Ibn Taymiyya, Uthmn cites the

following two: one, this Imm may have considered the adth in question to be weak while

others considered it to be sound. The second is that the conditions for the soundness of a adth

may be different for this Imm as opposed to other scholars. Thus, for example, this Imm may

also consider it a condition to compare the text (matn) of the adth with the Qurn and the

53 afar Uthmn, Qawid f ulm al-adth, 21. For a brief overview of the various adth terms, see Ibn ajar al-Asqaln, Nukhbat al-Fikr, trans. Musa Furber, in Sunna Notes: Studies in Hadith and Doctrine (UK: Aqsa Publications, 2005), 1: 169-194. A similar list is also found in afar Uthmn, Qawid f ulm al-adth, 22-48.

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[otherwise established] sunna, or that the narrator has to be a jurist (faqh) if the adth opposes

qiys, or that the adth should have been more well known if its text concerns a matter which is

commonly-occurring.54 The interesting thing to note here is the Ibn Taymiyya seems to be

answering the charges that the Ahl-e-Hads were to later make against the anafs.

Having made the general argument in support of the possibility that Ab anfa and other

anafs may have graded adiths based on criteria different from other adth scholars,

Uthmn goes on to state various anaf principles of adth- and narrator-criticism as follows:

2.3 Ta (Validation/Declaration of Soundness) and Tasn (Declaration of Fairness) of a

adth

In chapter two of his Qawid f Ulm al-adth, Uthmn has listed thirteen principles for

determining whether a adth is sound or fair.55 Some of the important ones among these are as

follows:

1. When a muaddith uses a certain adth as evidence, then this action by itself amounts to

his validation (ta) of it. By the same token, if a mujtahid uses a certain adth as

evidence, then this also amounts to his validation of it. Thus, every adth that al-

Shaybn or al-aw mention in their books as evidence is sound because they were

both muaddiths and mujtahids.56 The logical implication of this principle is that even if

other adth scholars were to declare these adths to be weak, it would be irrelevant.

2. When some qarna (context) indicates soundness of an otherwise weak adth, then it is

considered a sound adth. An example is the anaf ruling regarding a utensil, which a 54 afar Uthmn, Qawid f ulm al-adth, 49-50. 55 afar Uthmn, Qawid f ulm al-adth, 56-91. 56 afar Uthmn, Qawid f ulm al-adth, 57-59.

33

dog has licked (wulgh al-kalb fi al-in). According to anafs, such a utensil has to be

washed three times for it to become ritually clean. The anaf proof is a adth from Ab

Hurayra to that effect. The adth has a weak chain but because there is another report,

which states that Ab Hurayra himself always used to wash a utensil three times if a dog

had licked it; therefore, his adth from the Prophet would now be considered sound.57

3. If a certain adth gains acceptance among the ulam, then that is its validation even if

the adth does not have a sound chain.58 An example of this is the Prophets renewing

the marriage of his daughter Zaynab to her former husband Ab al- ibn al-Rab with

a new dower and a new contract when the latter converted to Islam. This adth has a

weak chain and opposing it is a adth with a stronger chain, which states that the

Prophet did not renew their marriage.59 Majority of the jurists have adopted the adth

with a weak chain and discarded the one with the strong chain.60 Because of the jurists

acting upon this adth, it can now compete with sound adths.

4. When a certain adth gains acceptance among the umma, then it is considered to be in

the same category as a mass transmitted adth (f mana al-tawtur). An example is the

narration from isha that the Prophet said that the irrevocable divorce of a slave-girl is

[achieved with] two divorces, and her waiting period is two menstrual cycles. Because

57 afar Uthmn, Qawid f ulm al-adth, 56-60. 58 afar Uthmn, Qawid f ulm al-adth, 60-62. 59 This adth is cited by al-Tirmidh in the chapter on two spouses who are polytheists and then one of them converts to Islam. See Taq Uthmn, Dars-e-Tirmiz, 1: 84-85. 60 Apparently, the weak adth is supported by other evidences, which Taq Uthmn does not cite.

34

the umma has accepted this adth, therefore it will be considered mass transmitted even

though it is weak with respect to its chain.61

5. Sound adths are not limited to the two as of al-Bukhr and Muslim but are found

outside of them as well. Here, Uthmn cites these two authors themselves expressing as

much. His conclusion from this is that one could therefore oppose a sound adth found

in one or both of the two as by another sound adth narrated by someone else in

another collection. He goes on to cite al-Asqaln from Fat al-Br saying that if two

sound adths are in contradiction, then the one in a al-Bukhr does not get

automatic precedence; rather, each will be judged based upon the narrators who appear in

the chain. Whichever has a stronger chain will be deemed more sound, irrespective of

whether it is in a al-Bukhr or not. Moreover, Uthmn cites both al-Asqaln and

al-Suy to assert that the superiority of a al-Bukhr over all other collections is in

general terms not in the sense that every adth in it is sounder than any that is found

outside of it.62

An extension of this principle is that reference to the i sitta is needed only

after the second and third Islamic centuries. Ab anfa flourished before these works

were compiled. It is possible that a adth reached him through a sound chain and the

chain became weaker after him, which is why it was not included in these collections.

Moreover, since al-Bukhri and Muslim have themselves acknowledged that they did not

61 afar Uthmn, Qawid f ulm al-adth, 62. 62 afar Uthmn, Qawid f ulm al-adth, 63-66.

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include all sound adths in their collections; therefore, a adths occurrence outside of

these two as does not automatically render it weak.63

6. A fair adth is like a sound adth when being used as evidence even though the

formers chain is weaker compared to the latter. This is why some scholars such as al-

kim al-Nsbr (d. 1012) and Ibn ibbn (d. 965) count a fair adth among sound

adths. Moreover, a adth which is fair by itself (asan li dhtihi) can rise to the level

of a sound adth when it has more than one narration. Similarly, a weak adth can rise

to the level of a fair adth if it has more than one narration. In such a case, it can be used

as evidence just like a fair adth.64

7. That adth which Ab Dwd has not commented on (sakata anhu) in his Sunan is

qualified to be used as evidence. Similarly, whatever adths al-Asqaln has quoted in

his Fat al-Br that are not in a al-Bukhr, and has not commented on them, will

be considered to be either sound or fair in al-Asqalns estimation.65

8. Finally, a adth scholars statement about a certain adth that it is the most sound

adth on the subject does not mean that it is actually sound by itself; rather, it merely

means that all other adths on the subject have weaker chains than it. This adth could

be weak by itself but others would then be weaker according to this scholar.66

63 This is a point often made by Deoband scholars in their adth lectures. Personal experience during adth lectures at Jmia Ashrafia, Lahore, Pakistan, 2006. 64 afar Uthmn, Qawid f ulm al-adth, 78. Uthmns sources in this regard include Tadrb al-rw, Shar al-nukhba and Fat al-Br of al-Asqaln, M thabata bi al-sunna of al-fi al-Irq, and al-Mzn al-kubr of Abd al-Wahhb al-Sharn. 65 afar Uthmn, Qawid f ulm al-adth, 89. Uthmn cites Nayl al-awr of al-Shawkn, Nab al-rya of al-Zayla, al-Targhb wa al-tarhb, and Tadrb al-rw to support this assertion. 66 afar Uthmn, Qawid f ulm al-adth, 91.

36

2.4: Conditions for the Use of a Weak adth

Uthmn has devoted the third chapter of his Qawid f ulm al-adth to principles governing

the use of a weak adth. Some of these are as follows:

1. Weak adths can be used for fail al-aml (supererogatory works). The wisdom

behind acting upon such a weak adth is that if such a adth is actually (f nafs al-amr)

sound, then its right has been fulfilled; otherwise, if nothing forbidden has been made

permissible and nothing permissible has been made forbidden, and no other persons

right has been taken, then there is no harm in acting upon it. Furthermore, according to

al-Suy, a weak adth can also be acted upon in matters of akm (legal rulings) as

long as such a weak adth entails caution (itiy).67

2. A condition for acting upon a weak adth is that it should not be extremely weak, that it

should fall under some general principle (al mm), and that one should not consider this

act to be sunna. Extreme weakness refers to a case when every narration of the adth has

someone who is either a liar (kadhdhb) or is accused of lying (muttaham bi al-kadhib).68

3. If a adth has a weak chain then this adth must be described as weak with respect to

the chain and not with respect to the text because it is possible that there may be another

chain which is sound. Only when an Imm [of adth?] has declared that this adth is

not narrated with any sound chain, or when the weakness of the adth has been

specified, then the adth can be described as weak without reference to the chain. In

short, one should refrain from declaring a adth to be weak merely because of one chain

67 afar Uthmn, Qawid f ulm al-adth, 92-93. His sources include al-Durr al-Mukhtr of al-akaf (d. 1677) and Ibn bidns (d. 1836) commentary on it titled Radd al-mutr ala al-Durr al-mukhtr aka shiyat Ibn bidin. The latter cites al-Asqalns Shar al-arban. 68 afar Uthmn, Qawid f ulm al-adth, 94-95. His sources include al-Durr al-mukhtr, shiyat Ibn bidn and al-Suys Shar al-taqrb.

37

until its proper context is known. A mujtahid can figure out the proper ruling for a

weak adth by seeing if it accords with qiys, or with statements of the companions or

followers, etc.69

4. One must differentiate between a weak adth and a muaaf adth. The latter is one

whose weakness is differed upon. This difference of opinion could be with respect to the

chain or the text. Such a hadth is of a rank higher than weak. Uthmn goes on to cite

al-Suy and al-Asqaln concluding that adths whose soundness is differed upon are

of many ranks. Such adhs are found in the two as of al-Bukhr and Muslim. His

bashir_hanafi legal theory and hadith- a study of the deobandi attempts

Documents

adth fiqh

weak adth

deoband attempts

ab anfas muaddith companions

hanafi legal theory

ab anfas status

personal knowledge of

cultures anaf legal