Screening Ṣiddīq Ḥasan Khān’s Library 175
ening of the Faith),^35 the second al-Ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm (The Straight
Path)^36 and the third Yak rūzī (One Dayer). All these works called
on the believer to keep to the principle of the unity of God (tawḥīd)
and to abstain from all kinds of polytheism (shirk). In the Taqwiyat
al-īmān, in particular, Shāh Muḥammad Ismāʿīl described the differ-
ent forms of polytheism (shirk) and their bad effects on the Islamic
community of India. The leaders of the Ṭarīqa-yi Muḥammadiyya also
tried to restrict all kinds of “un-Islamic practices” (bidaʿ) in the Mus-
lim community in India. In their eyes, the veneration of saints and
Sufis and pilgrimages to their graves, in particular, evoked the criticism
of the Ṭarīqa-yi Muḥammadiyya. They argued that the members of
the Sufi brotherhoods showed undue devotion to the saints, whereas
respect and veneration were reserved to God. Only God had ultimate
knowledge of the hidden things, like details of Doomsday, the time of
people’s death and the characteristics of a child in its mother’s womb.
Muḥammad Ismāʿīl further criticised that some Indians (whose
ancestors might have converted to Islam only some generations
before) still adhered to Hindu practices. Some of them even vener-
ated Hindu gods and goddesses like Kali,^37 considered stones or trees
to be holy places or asked for the opinions of astrologers or sooth-
sayers before making important decisions. According to Muḥammad
Ismāʿīl, all these practices had to be eradicated from Muslim society.
The strict adherence to tawḥīd was considered the only way out of
the crisis afflicting the Muslim society of India. As mentioned earlier,
the Ṭarīqa-yi Muḥammadiyya (like some Ahl-i Ḥadīth after them)
believed that the end of the world was to come at the end of the 14th
Islamic century, i. e. around year 1882/83. The movement also cher-
ished certain ideas of mahdism. The belief in the expected “rightly
guided one” (mahdī) as one of the major signs of the Day of Judgement
was common not only in Shiite movements, but also in several Sunni
groups like the Ṭariqa-yi Muḥammadiyya and the Ahl-i ḥadīth. They
35 Dihlawī, Shāh Ismāʿīl Shahīd: Taqwiyat al-īmān, English translation, Delhi
1998, and Arabic/English, Riyadh 1995.
36 Colvin, John Russell: Notice on the Peculiar Tenets Held by the Followers of
Syed Ahmed, Taken Chiefly from the Sirát-úl-Mústaqím, a Principal Treatise
of that Sect, Written by Moulaví Mahommed Ismaíl, in: Journal of the Asiatic
Society of Bengal 1 (1832), pp. 479–498.
37 Kali, “the black one”, is one of the most important goddesses in Hinduism. She
is normally portrayed as a mother goddess with a fearsome appearance, i. e. with
her sword in one hand and the head of a demon in the other, her face and breasts
covered with blood.
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