Screening Ṣiddīq Ḥasan Khān’s Library 213
buildings.^162 These rulings were kept during Ṣiddīq Ḥasan’s period of
rule, but not expanded. Thus, the elimination of bidaʿ was an important
element of the Ahl-i Ḥadīth’s teachings, but it never had the practical
consequences that it had in the Wahhabi state. Ṣiddīq Ḥasan remained
in India more a warner than a fierce enforcer.
6.5. Insistence on tawḥīd as Opposed to shirkThe genre of dogmatic creed was one of the most important elements
of Ṣiddīq Ḥasan Khān’s library. It contained twelve books of Ibn
Taimiyya in this group, the majority of which was on the insistence
on tawḥīd. In this regard, they followed the line of Ibn Taymiyya. For
instance in al-Qāʾida fī al-tawḥīd wa-ikhlāṣ (The Base of the Unity of
God and Purity), Ibn Taymiyya emphasised the role of tawḥīd and
described it in detail. He clearly differentiated between the “the one-
ness of the lordship of God” (tawḥīd al-rubūbiyya) and the tawḥīd
al-ulūhiyya, which is also called the “the oneness of God in worship-
ping him” (tawḥīd al-ʿibāda). The first kind of tawḥīd means that only
God can be regarded as Lord of all creation. God is the creator and sus-
tainer of all creatures on earth. The second category of tawḥīd means
that only God is entitled and worthy to be worshipped. Ṣiddīq Ḥasan
Khān later took up Ibn Taymiyya’s concepts of tawḥīd al-rubūbiyya
and tawḥīd al-ʿibāda, especially in his work al-Dīn al-khāliṣ (The Pure
Religion).^163 Interestingly, the first part of this work is partly identical
to Muḥammad Ismāʾīl’s Taqwiyat al-īmān. In this part, Ṣiddīq Ḥasan
describes the different forms of shirk, which became evident in the wor-
ship of God. Here, he criticizes people who ask soothsayers, astrolo-
gers or oracles about their future, because knowledge of the future is
God’s alone. He also considered the making of pictures and statues to
be shirk, since it is comparable to the veneration of stones and rocks.
The Ahl-i Ḥadīth also believed that people who performed shirk in all
fields of life were a constant danger to the tawḥīd. Thus, they held it to
be necessary to purify the religion by insisting on tawḥīd. This concept
of the “sincere devotion to tawḥīd” (ikhlāṣ al-tawḥīd) was adopted
162 ʿUbayd Allāh Khān, Sulṭān Jahān Bēgum: Ḥayāt-i Sikanderī (Life of Sikan-
der), Bhopal (Shāh Jahānī) 1921, pp. 144–146.
163 Ṣiddīq Ḥasan Khān, al-Dīn al-khāliṣ, pp. 236–240.
Brought to you by | Nanyang Technological University
Authenticated