Al-Dihlawi brought about a revolution in Muslim minds by his writings on various Shari‘ah sciences, and all of which have continued to inspire his readers till this date. He stands in the history of Indian subcontinent as a link between medieval and modern Islamic thought. His noble students, fortunately the most important of them being his sons, Shah Abd al-Aziz (d. 1239/1824), Shah Abd al-Qadir (d. 1228/1813), Shah Rafi‘ al-Din (d. 1233/1818), Shah Abd al-Ghani (d. 1203/1789) and his grandson Shah Isma‘il Shahid (d. 1246/1831) carried on his message. Dar al-Ulum, the great seat of learning at Deoband in India, is considered a descendant of the Madrasah Rahimiyah. The famous scholar Muhammad Siddiq Hasan Khan al-Qannuji (d. 1307/1889) and noted reformer of the 19th century Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (d. 1316/1898) were very much influenced by al-Dihlawi. The profound
influence of his writings can also be seen on the great lights of the 20th century, namely, Allamah Shibli Nu‘mani (d. 1332/1914), Dr. Muhammad Iqbal (d. 1357/1938), and Mawlana Ashraf Ali Thanawi (d. 1362/1943), Mawlana Abu’l-A‘la Mawdudi (d. 1399/1979), Mawlana Abu’l-Hasan Ali Nadwi (d. 1419/1999), etc. Obaydullah Sindhi (d. 1364/1944) made it his life-long mission to propound and propagate the revolutionary ideas of al-Dihlawi.
In the Arab world, al-Dihlawi’s Hujjat-Allah al-Balighah has influenced most of the great scholars of the modern period, such as Abu Zahrah, Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi, Muhammad Zahid al-Kawthari, Muhibb al-Din al-Khatib and Abd al-Mun‘im al-Namir etc. (Siddiqi, 1983, pp. 1576-77).
The birth of al-Dihlawi during the declining phase of Mughal rule in India is considered a miracle by many. This because for centuries the world had not seen a great Muslim scholar who could match the towering personalities of al-Ghazali, Ibn Taimiyah and Ibn Khaldun, etc, in radical thinking and original ideas. Essentially, al-Dihlawi brought about a revolution in Muslim minds by his writings on various branches of Shar‘iah science, ideas that have relentlessly inspired his readers till this date.
Al-Qannuji (d. 1307/1889) observed that if al-Dihlawi had lived in the early centuries of Islam he would have been regarded as an imam, comparable to Abu Hanifah or Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (Schimmel, 1980, p. 157).
Shah Wali-Allah al-Dihlawi’s reformative endeavors resemble those of Ibn Taymiyah in both their conviction and methodology; both were based on the Qur’an, Sunnah and pattern of the early right people. Siddiqi considers him a parallel to Ibn Taymiyah9. Like Ibn Taymiyah, al-Dihlawi also had a lasting impact on the generations that followed, especially in the Indian subcontinent.
In the opinion of Moinul-Haq (1979, p. 426): ‘Shah Wali-Allah was a versatile genius. He was undoubtedly the greatest Muslim thinker of the Subcontinent; his philosophy provides a connecting link between medieval Islamic thought and trends of modern interpretation of the fundamental teaching of Islam’.
According to Schimmel (1980, p. 159): ‘A most unusual personality among the mystically trained thinkers of the 18th century, he was ahead of his time in many respects, combining sublime mystical speculations, rationalism, prophetic energy and common sense in a strange way’.
Endnotes
1. For more details, one may refer to the Introduction by K.A.Nizami to the collection of al-Dihlawi's Persian letters entitled Shah Wali-Allah ke Siyasi Maktubat (The Political Letters of Shah Wali-Allah al-Dihlawi) edited and translated by K.A.Nizami, Aligarh, 1955.
2. In one of his works, he writes: ‘We are Arab people whose fathers have fallen in exile (ghurbah) in the country of Hindustan, and Arabic genealogy and Arabic language are our pride’ (Tafhimat 2: 296).
3. It may be noted that before al-Dihlawi’s visit to Madinah, Ibn Abd al-Wahhab also spent four years studying in Madinah from 1128/1715 to 1132/1719. Thus, both had studied in the same environment and mostly under the same scholars. 4. The title of the book Fuyud al-Haramayn (The Emanationa of the Two Holy
Cities) reveals that he received a great deal from his stay in Islam’s two holy cities.
5. The Hindu form of mysticism, which is based on the Vedas, their religious books.
6. Located in the centre of Delhi, the Red Fort was built by Emperor Shahjahan (R. 1627–58) which became the seat of rule for subsequent kings. Palam is a village on the western border of Delhi state where presently Delhi’s international airport is located.
7. An amount of one crore is equal to ten million (10,000,000).
8. Mughal Emperor Shahjahan (R. 1627 – 58), the builder of the famous Taj Mahal, at Agra.
9. Professor Muhammad Nejatullah Siddiqi observed this in his Introduction to Economic Concepts of Ibn Taimiyah (Islahi, Abdul Azim, 1988, p.13).
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CHAPTER FIVE
Al-Dihlawi’s Economic Thought
Shah Wali-Allah al-Dihlawi did not discuss economic ideas as one finds presented in textbooks. Rather, he was motivated by those economic issues faced by the society he lived in and within his country as a whole. Strictly Islamic in scope, al-Dihlawi’s economic concerns reached around a classification of wants, business ethics, prohibited and promoted contracts, prices, cooperation and division of labour, opportunity cost, property rights, money and interest, and a balanced variety of occupations. He also discussed issues relating to public finance and mankind’s socio-economic development. In this chapter, his economic thought in general is discussed. Public finance and socio-economic development will be dealt with in the two chapters that follow.