Shah Waliullah [1703-1762]

    Introduction

    Shah Waliullah was one of the most original and constructive thinkers of the period with a clear appreciation of political realities. He tried to create a new ideological basis for the reconstruction of the Muslim State.

    Shah Walliulah was born on 21 February 1703 in Delhi. He completed his formal education under the loving care of his father at the age of fifteen. Soon after, he was permitted to teach others at the Madrasah-i-Rahimiyah which had been established by his father. After his father’s death, Shah Waliullah continued teaching there for twelve years. This was a critical period in the history of Muslims in the sub-continent.

    Brief

    In the words of Allama Iqbal, Shah Walliulah was the first Muslim “to find the urge of a new spirit in him.” Shah Walliullah went on a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1730 and had the good fortune of studying at the feet of and associating with the leading Muslim divines of the period. What he saw of the Muslim people there deeply affected him and the social, political and spiritual decline of the Muslims at home and abroad confirmed him in his belief that it was high time to re-interpret Islam and popularise Islamic values amongst the Muslims.

    During 1737-38 he translated the Holy Quran into Persian much to the disgust of the orthodox ‘ulama’. He set himself the task of removing the differences and bridging the gulf that separated the Shi’as from the Sunnis and the ‘ulama’ from the ‘sufis’. He recommended the application of ‘ijtihad’ as against blind ‘taqlid’. Believing in the universalism of Islam he wanted to interpret Islam in terms of time and place. His entire teaching was directed towards reorienting the Muslim society on the basis of social justice and removing inequalities and iniquitous distribution of wealth and the inherent conflicts and tensions which split the society into hostile groups. When asked as to how the end was to be achieved he replied, “by discarding the outmoded socio-political order.” No other statesman or thinker had so carefully studied and scientifically analysed the cause of the social and economic malaise as Shah Walliullah did. He wrote his programme in Persian and Arabic and then spread and popularised it amongst the masses. He was a teacher and bearer of a message and not an agitator. He wrote about fifty books, trained a group of ‘ulema’. His greatness lies in the versatility of his genius, his profound understanding of Quran and Hadis, his unrivalled breadth of outlook and his keen desire to interpret and explain the Quran and ‘Hadis’ in the context of the times. He is more concerned with the present and the future. “He was a sensitive observer, not unaware that something quite serious had gone wrong, or was going wrong.” Shah Walliullah tried to reconcile the basic differences amongst the different sections of the Muslims and he considered the government as an essential means and the agency for the regeneration of his community. Shah Walliullah failed in his mission to vitalize the Muslim society or prevent collapse of the Mughul empire. His teachings, however, created a new awareness of the present dangers and what the future had in store for the Muslims of the sub-continent.

    Shah Walliullah was a realist in his political thinking, “who had a clear insight into the intimate relation between ethics, politics and economics. He made a passionate appeal to all classes of Muslim society to realise the danger which threatened them and prepare themselves to face it squarely.” He died in 1762 and his work was nobly carried on by his sons and disciples. Every subsequent political, social and religious movement may be traced back to him and it was he who laid the emotional and intellectual foundations of the movement for national independence.