308 chapter seven
Shah Wali-allah
Born in Delhi in the Indian subcontinent in 1702, where he lived
until he died in 1763, Qutb al-Dìn (the pivot of Islam) Abd al-
Rahman, known as Shah Wali-Allah, had been a prominent figure
in the intellectual history of Indian Muslims from the nineteen into
the twentieth century.
From Shah Akbar’s ideas of the unification of religions to the social
and economic ideas of the flùfìreformer Shah Walli-Allah there was
a considerable development that was not always favourable. The
opposition to the idea of religious universality began to be heard
and made itself distinctly obvious by the teachings of yet another
flùfì, Ahmad Sirhindì(d. 1625). Sirhindìcalled for the return to the
Sharì"ah and in addressing the core of Ibn-al-Arabi’s philosophy, the
inspiration to Shah Akbar’s policies, he advocated that the unity with
God can only be achieved through observing His rules through the
application of the Sharì"ah. He called for the return to the basic teach-
ings of Islam as clarified in the Sharì"ah and to the purge of Islam
from the intruding philosophical ideas particularly those of mystic
flùfìsm and Shi"ìrituals. Sirhindì’s views found support in the poli-
cies of Shah Aurengzebe (1658–1707) who reversed his grandfather’s
policies of religious pluralism with strict severity. Shi"ìrituals were
curbed, Hindu festivals were met with less enthusiasm from the
emperor, the Jizyah tax was re-instated, and a wave of hatred erupted
and sectarianism spread in the Indian empire (Armstrong, 2000).
Although the intention of Aurengzebe in returning to the Sharì"ah
may be understood, his application of the rules seemed to have been
taken to an unjustifiable extreme. The results were devastating. By
the death of Aurengzebe, the empire was in a state of disintegration
with Hindus and Sikhs beginning to look for a state of their own.
Muslims who were the ruling minority were put under pressure
internally and externally. Indigenously, the pressure came from the
Hindu and Sikh uprising, while exogenously, it came from the increas-
ing political influence of the well established British trade in the
region. Faced with a possibility of being controlled by non-Islamic
forces, Hindus and Sikhs from within and, or, the British from out-
side, and with the consequence of being reduced to a minority caste,
Muslims began to question their roles and identity. How Muslims, and
Islam, could be returned to its glory and restore its fading influence,
was a question that was more often than not asked by many Muslim