Post by iqadeer on Feb 23, 2015 19:48:23 GMT
Part Two
Responding to Colonial Modernity
6
How Favourable is Puritan Islam
to Modernity?
A Study of the Ahl-i Hadis in
Late Nineteenth/Early Twentieth Century South Asia
MARTIN RIEXINGER
Based on observations in North Africa, Ernest Gellner (1981: 5ff., 58ff.,
170) argued that ‘... [t]he severe discipline of puritan Islam may be in
fact compatible with, or positively favourable to modern social
organisation.’ According to him, the break with intercessionary Sufism
places the burden of salvation on the individual believer who has to fulfil
his religious duties meticulously, which forces him to systematize his life
in a way the Calvinists in Early Modern Europe had done according to
Max Weber’s ‘Protestantism/capitalism’ thesis. Gellner, therefore, alleges
that Puritan Islam encourages the decline of the belief in miracles, and
thus ‘disenchants the World’. Furthermore, he sees an affinity between
the puritan lifestyle and urbanity: ‘Only urban life provides a good base
for the puritans—because their rigorism requires literacy’ (Gellner 1981:
147).1 According to him, the counterpart of puritan Islam—intercessionary
Sufism dominated by Sufi sheikhs—is rooted in rural society.
Gellner’s thesis was favourably received not only in studies on Islamic
fundamentalism in general (Riesebrodt 1990: 38) but also in literature
on Islamic movements in South Asia, although not always with explicit
reference (for example, Robinson 1997, 2000a; Nasr 2001: 44f.).2 This
chapter will question the applicability of this thesis to developments in
South Asian Islamic communities on the basis of results gained from
research on the Ahl-i Hadis in the Punjab under British rule. For this
purpose, three aspects, namely social background, religious teachings,
and social ethics, are taken into consideration.
148 Colonialism, Modernity, and Religious Identities
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The Ahl-i Hadis are one of the Sunni schools of thought in South Asia.
Their emergence can be traced back to the puritan trend initiated by
Shah Waliyullah Dihlawi (1703–63). However, the Ahl-i Hadis proper
did not come into being before the mid-nineteenth century. Based on
the teaching of Waliyullah, his grandson Shah Isma‘il Shahid (b. 1779)
and the military leader Sayyid Ahmad Barelwi (b. 1786?) formed the
religious-cum-political movement tariqa-yi muhammadiya. Their military
actions against the Sikhs on the Afghan borders, which ended with their
defeat in 1831, are not central to the issue currently under discussion.
More important in the religious context is the fact that, before starting
military operations, the tariqa-yi muhammadiya undertook a collective
hajj. Some of its members did not return to India immediately. Instead
they travelled to Yemen in order to study under the renowned ‘alim and
politician Muhammad b. ‘Ali al-Shawkani (1760–1834) whose religious
teachings betray the influence of the doctrines of the Andalusian Zahiri
Ibn Hazm (994–1064) and the Damascene neo-Hanbalite Ibn Taymiya
(1263–1328) (Haykel 2003: 127ff.; Riexinger 2004: 108ff.). Al-
Shawkani’s teachings reinforced the tendency away from Hanafism and
the madhhab-system in general (see below), which had already been
initiated by Waliyullah. Furthermore al-Shawkani’s anti-Sufism applies
to rituals and teachings. Therefore his influence caused Sufi metaphysical
concepts, which were still of central importance for Waliyullah and the
tariqa-yi muhammadiya (Gaborieau 2000), to disappear gradually among
the Ahl-i Hadis. Al-Shawkani’s attitude towards Sufism resembles those
of Muhammad b. ‘Abd al-Wahhab (1703–93) but are slightly less radical
(Haykel 2003: 127ff.). This did not keep their Muslim opponents, the
Arya Samaj, and the colonial authorities from polemically labelling the
Ahl-i Hadis as Wahhabis.
Whereas the majority of Sunnis believe that every Muslim is bound
to follow (taqlid) one of the four schools of law (madhhab, pl. madhahib),
the Ahl-i Hadis do not accept their authority. Furthermore they do not
acknowledge analogical reasoning (qiyas) as source of law and some of
them even reject the authority of the consensus of scholars (ijma‘). Instead
they urge an exclusive orientation on the primary sources of Islamic law,
the Qur’an and the Hadith, the unmediated word of God and the
Prophet, hence their designation as ‘followers of the Prophetic tradition’.
They assert that the legal scholar has to base his judgements on proof
How Favourable is Puritan Islam to Modernity? 149
texts from those two sources (ijtihad) and that he is obliged to explain
them to the laymen (‘ammi) who address him with a request.3
The practical outcome of these seemingly fundamental differences in
legal theory is rather meagre though: most of the differences concern
matters of ritual and purity.4 Nevertheless these issues often led to clashes
with the Hanafi majority (Metcalf 1982: 286ff.; Riexinger 2004: 164ff.).
However, some particularities are of greater social significance. First, some
of their ritual practices stress the equality of believers. This holds good in
particular for their demand that even in villages a congregational prayer
with a sermon (khutba) has to be held on Fridays (al-jum‘a fi l-qura).
Furthermore the sermon has to be held not in Arabic but in the local
vernacular in order to enhance the religious understanding of the laymen.
The Ahl-i Hadis do not accept the principle of kafa’a, which by
prohibiting the marriage of a man of lower social status was used to
legitimize the persistence of caste-like structures among South Asian
Muslims. Second, certain legal doctrines strengthen the position of
women. The Ahl-i Hadis reject talaq al-bid‘a, that is the repudiation of
a wife by exclaiming the formula on one occasion and not during a
period of three months. In addition, they make it easier for a wife to
buy herself out (khul‘ ) of a dysfunctional marriage by seeking the
mediation of a scholar and by forfeiting her dowry (mahr) (Riexinger
2004: 161f., 425ff.).
In concordance with other Islamic puritan reform movements between
the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, the Ahl-i Hadis abhor mystical
practices implying the adoration of someone else other than God—like
the ascription of God-like attributes to the Prophet and the veneration
of saints and their graves—as deviation from monotheism. This set them
in opposition to the dominant mystically inspired piety among South
Asian Muslims.
The Ahl-i Hadis first found their following in Delhi, Bengal, Bihar,
and the Benares area. From the 1880s onwards the Punjab emerged as a
further important stronghold, with Amritsar surpassing all older centres
except Delhi in importance.
SOCIAL BASE
The Ahl-i Hadis are an obvious case to challenge received wisdom on the
social background of Islamic puritanism. Existing studies tend to
characterize them as an upper-class sect (be it aristocratic or capitalist)
with strong urban roots (Metcalf 1982: 198, 268).5 This opinion gained
150 Colonialism, Modernity, and Religious Identities
plausibility from another cliché: the description of their Sufi opponents,
the Barelwis, as representatives of a backward and moribund, rural ‘folk’-
Islam (Smith 1946: 320).
The available data urge caution. With regard to the Punjab, a variety
of sources (census publications, biographical literature, articles in
contemporary magazines, and intelligence sources) show that the Ahl-i
Hadis indeed found their following in the more urban tracts of the
province. However, it was often not in the administrative and commercial
centres themselves but in their rural surroundings that the first people
converted to their teachings. In certain ‘Ahl-i Hadis villages’, this
community formed the majority of the Muslim population. Some of
these places, especially Bhojian (tehsil Taran Taran, district Amritsar) and
Lakhoke (district Ferozpur), developed into important centres of religious
instruction from which a sizeable number of scholars emerged (Riexinger
2004: 189ff., 199ff.).6 In the recent decades, this does not seem to have
changed considerably. A survey of religious scholars active in the 1980s
shows that most of them originate from the urbanized tracts of the Punjab
but from villages or small towns in these areas (Yusuf 1989).
Data from other regions corroborate the results of the observations in
the Punjab. With regard to Bengal, British observations on the
‘Hindustani fanatics’ show that so-called Wahhabis who flocked to the
mujahidin of Chamarkand on the Afghan border after World War I were
predominantly of rural origin (Baha 1979: 142ff.). In the UP, the qasbas
Mau Nath Banjan, Sahaswan, and Basti, which rather resembled villages,
brought forth a number of Ahl-i Hadis scholars that surpasses or almost
equals that of Benares, one of their centres. In reverse it is noteworthy
that major ‘modern’ cities like Allahabad and Kanpur with their strong
entrepreneurial population were anything but Ahl-i Hadis strongholds.
The majority of the Muslims there practised a rather unpuritan ‘folk’
Islam.7 In Bombay, India’s commercial centre and most ‘modern’ city of
the country, the Ahl-i Hadis were strikingly weak.8
The question whether the Ahl-i Hadis developed something of a
particular ‘work-ethic’ or ‘spirit of capitalism’ that would set them apart
from other Muslims is impossible to answer with regard to the period of
time under discussion, although empirical research on the respective
attitudes of contemporary Ahl-i Hadis would of course be very interesting.
But it would seem that this issue was not of particular importance for
their ‘ulama’, who, unlike Calvinist theologians in Early Modern Europe,
How Favourable is Puritan Islam to Modernity? 151
did not bother to write elaborate treatises on this subject. They
admonished their followers to abstain from extensive spending on
weddings and religious holidays and from indulging in frivolous pleasures
such as smoking, fireworks, or going to see movies.9 This ‘innerworldly
ascetism’ (Weber 1920: 192f.) might indeed have been favourable to
the accumulation of capital among the Ahl-i Hadis, if a particular kind
of conspicuous spending had not been widespread among them, namely,
extensive donations for missionary purposes.10
Quite a number of Ahl-i Hadis fit perfectly the popular image of a
‘sect of shopkeepers’ completed by urban professionals and officials. An
intelligence survey on ‘Wahhabis of note’ dating from 1876 identifies
12.7 per cent of prominent Ahl-i Hadis as traders and manufacturers,
7.4 per cent as officials, 5.7 as teachers, 1.9 as professionals, and 0.4 per
cent as lawyers.11 Thekedars often appear as benefactors financing the
building of mosques and religious schools (madrasa, pl. madaris).12 The
Anjuman Isha‘at ul-Islam, a short-lived organization of Ahl-i Hadis scholars
and laymen formed by Muhammad Husayn Batalwi at Lahore in 1880,
comprised several officials and secular teachers, two thekedars, a wholesale
trader, and a lawyer.13 The leading committee of the Ahl-i Hadis
congregation in Peshawar, which consisted mainly of migrants from Delhi
and the Punjab, was dominated by traders and manufacturers (Khanpuri
1985: 160, 165ff.).
Such singular observations seem to support received wisdom describing
puritan religiosity as an essentially urban upper-class phenomenon.
However, a crosscheck suggests that the correlation of the puritan/Sufi
dichotomy with the urban/rural and the upper-class/lower-class
dichotomy is less convincing. Liebeskind (1998: 282ff., 304f.) has
analysed the membership of the two councils controlling the
administration of north Indian darars. Their social composition would
perfectly fit the clichés about the Ahl-i Hadis membership because they
consist of officials, professionals, entrepreneurs, and traders. The fact
that quite a number come from faraway places indicates a strong vertical
and horizontal mobility. It is far from surprising that, whenever nonscholars
are integrated into religious activities, those with a high social
standing and professional experience in talking will prevail. The simple
fact that laymen played a greater role among the Ahl-i Hadis than in
other Islamic groups may account for the fact that among them such
notables are more visible. With regard to the role of traders in puritan
152 Colonialism, Modernity, and Religious Identities
Islamic movements it is necessary to stress that not only ideological but
also practical aspects account for their involvement. As a mobile group,
tradesmen are more likely to come into contact with religious ideas other
than those in their regional setting. Hence they may play a decisive role
when puritan Islam takes roots, whereas their importance may decline
later.14
To sum up, even if the background of the Ahl-i Hadis might in general
have been more urban and wealthier than that of other Islamic schools
of thought, the exceptions are so important that the designation as urban
upper-class movement conceals central components. In reverse, the same
applies to the Barelwis.
THE AHL-I HADIS AND SECULAR EDUCATION IN THE PUNJAB
In one respect the Ahl-i Hadis showed more affinity to modernity than
the adherents of other Sunni schools of thought. Many well-to-do lay
members and some scholars played a leading role in the local Muslim
associations for the promotion of welfare and secular education
(anjumans). The outstanding figure among the ‘ulama’ was Sana’ullah
Amritsari (1868–1948), the son of poor Kashmiri immigrants whose
brothers had risen from rags to riches in the textile business. He often
spoke at the annual gatherings of the Anjuman-i Himayat-i Islam in Lahore
and actively supported the Anjuman-i islamiya in his hometown. Often
he criticized the disdain of many religious scholars for secular education.
The lawyer Ilahi Bakhsh Malwada, a friend of Sana’ullah and headman
of the Arain-biradari in Lahore, was a leading member of the Anjumani
Himayat-i Islam and later formed the Anjuman-i islamiya in Hoshiarpur
after being transferred to an official post there.15 Salman Sulayman
Mansurpuri (1867–1930), another lawyer with a sound religious
education and a close associate of Sana’ullah, often turned up as speaker
at anjuman gatherings (Riexinger 2004: 177). Sana’ullah’s closest
collaborator, the scholar Ibrahim Mir Siyalkoti was among the founding
members of the Anjuman-i islamiya in his hometown.16 The affinity of
parts of the Ahl-i Hadis with these educational associations even found
its architectural expression. In the 1920s, the Ahl-i Hadis of Lahore
consciously erected their Masjid-i mubarak on the site adjoining the
Islamia College founded and directed by the Anjuman-i Himayat-i Islam.17
Based on these examples, it might be tempting to infer that the Ahl-i
Hadis were positively inclined towards secular education. As the following
section will show, this is only half of the truth.
How Favourable is Puritan Islam to Modernity? 153
RELIGIOUS TEACHINGS: HOW ‘DISENCHANTED’ WAS THE
WORLD VIEW OF PURITAN MUSLIMS IN BRITISH INDIA?
A conflict that arose among the Ahl-i Hadis from 1902 onwards shows
that the relation between puritan Islam and modernity was very
ambivalent. To understand this, one has to take theology into account,
and in particular the exegesis of the Qur’an, which is an important aspect
of Islam that those who stress the affinity of puritan Islam seldom consider.
In 1902, Sana’ullah Amritsari, editor of the magazine Ahl-i Hadis,
published a commentary on the Qur’an in Arabic, which immediately
provoked angry reactions from his colleagues. They reproached him for
his method as well as for the content. Sana’ullah did not take into account
the exegetical traditions (ahadith) that the majority of the Ahl-i Hadis
scholars saw as indispensable for the interpretation of the Qur’an.18 This
method did allow him to rationalize several reports of miracles, some of
them in the same manner as Sayyid Ahmad Khan, but this was not the
main bone of contention. The most disputed issue was that Sana’ullah
did not interpret the phrase ‘thumma stawa ‘ala l-‘arsh’ (verse 7:54 et al.)
in the sense that God is actually sitting (down) on the throne. Instead he
explained these words as an attribute of God’s power and sovereignty.
Thus Sana’ullah reopened one of the oldest theological debates (on the
relevance of the question of istiwa) in the history of Islam.19
In fact, the question may be old but that it gave rise to a new
controversy in India around 1900 has something to do with the social
background of the Ahl-i Hadis and the general socio-cultural setting of
British India. For an analysis, two aspects mentioned before have to be
considered: individual responsibility in puritan Islam and its attraction
for some members of the secularly educated elite. The demand of the
Ahl-i Hadis that legal judgements have to be based on the two primary
sources of Islamic law and not on the legal handbooks of the Hanafi
school of law implies that the mufti has to explain the relevant proof
texts to the laymen asking for a religious ruling (mustafti). This elevates
the status of the laymen. It is most likely that such an attitude appealed
to those who due to their social status and their expertise in other fields
expected to be taken seriously in matters of religion, a group of people
among whom we may expect to find the well-educated laymen in the
anjumans.
But here emerges the problem. For most Ahl-i Hadis scholars the
primacy of the Qur’an and the Hadith is not restricted to law and ethics
154 Colonialism, Modernity, and Religious Identities
but also shapes their theology and hence their world view in general. The
contentious question ‘does God sit on the throne?’ shows this problem
clearly. The anthropomorphist interpretation of the Ahl-i Hadis in the
Hanbali tradition implies the so-called ‘Sunna-cosmology’ based on the
exegetical Prophetic traditions.20 In this concept, the idea of a compact
heaven on which God’s throne is to rest is combined with the idea that
the sun bows down before the throne of God and the belief that lightning
and thunder are caused by the angel Ra‘d who drives the clouds like a
shepherd drives his flock.21 The world view of Hanbali theology held by
Sana’ullah’s opponents was the most conservative in the history of Islamic
thought. Around 1900 it simply represented an embarrassment for
someone who had encountered during his secular education that the
earth revolves around the sun and that the sky is not a dome but simply
an optical appearance caused by refraction. Furthermore it was an
embarrassment for those like Sana’ullah who confronted adherents of
other religions in public disputations (munazaras), especially the Arya
Samaj who picked on traditional Islamic cosmology with delight
(Amritsari 1916: 39). With his commentaries on the Qur’an, Sana’ullah
explicitly addressed this class of ta‘lim yaftas, for whom he wanted to
provide an alternative to outdated interpretations on the one hand and
the more radical modernism of Sayyid Ahmad Khan on the other.22
But for most of the Ahl-i Hadis scholars, the accommodation of
Qur’anical statements to world views promoted by secular institutions
of learning was not a primary concern. What counted for them was the
fact that the issue of ‘istiwa’ has been for centuries the shibboleth that
marked the difference between exponents of literalist and
anthropomorphist interpretations and advocates of a more rationalist
approach entailing the allegorical interpretation of verses relating to God’s
attributes. Following their foremost role model, Ibn Taymiya, those Ahli
Hadis frequently indulged in polemics against such jahmi and mu‘tazili
‘heretics’, terms with which they also denounced Sana’ullah (Ghaznawi
n.d.; Khanpuri n.d.).
The issue even affected the organization of the Ahl-i Hadis. In 1906,
Sana’ullah began to organize the ‘All India Ahl-i Hadis Conference’, which
convened for the first time in 1912. In this association he let laymen
play an important role. His intention was to diminish the influence of
the majority of ‘ulama’ who were hostile to him (Riexinger 2004: 513).
The dispute was finally settled at the Islamic World Conference in Mecca
1926 by the moderation of ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Ibn Sa‘ud, ruler of the Hijaz
How Favourable is Puritan Islam to Modernity? 155
and Najd, king of Saudi Arabia from 1928 onwards. He himself had to
come to grips with similar problems in his realm when he tried to push
through moderate reforms in the educational sector against the resistance
of the Wahhabi ‘ulama’ (Wahba 1964: 48ff.; Steinberg 2002: 291ff.).
The second theological issue that tore Ahl-i Hadis apart in the early
twentieth century was the question of miracles. The stress the majority
of scholars put on the affirmation of the reports of miracles in the Qur’an
and the Hadith contradicts the assumption that the world view of puritan
Muslims is really ‘disenchanted’. Against this one might argue that,
whereas puritan Islam does affirm reports of miracles in the Qur’an, it
at least diminishes the importance of the supernatural for the present.
But even this is not the case. The Ahl-i Hadis ascribe to their most pious
members qabuliyat-i du‘a. This term means that their prayers were
accepted by God with particular favour. Thus those scholars could bring
about unexpected healing and economic success with God’s help. Hence
their social role does not differ too much from Sufi sheikhs.23
Another example shows that theological considerations on miracles
affected the attitude of certain Ahl-i Hadis towards modern science and
education in general. Muhammad Husayn Batalwi, who originally was a
supporter of activities to advance secular education among Muslims, later
became increasingly conservative and rejected ‘un-Islamic’ teachings
propagated in modern schools. In particular, a chemistry textbook
provoked his anger. He denounced it for presenting the ‘nechari point of
view’ by stating that natural laws produce water from hydrogen and
oxygen. Muhammad Husayn instead defended the classical Sunni doctrine
according to which there are no natural laws but only God almighty who
governs and creates the world in every moment. Hence the regularity of
events is a divine grace but not an unchangeable rule.24
In the field of theology the core of the issue becomes apparent. The
strict orientation towards the Hadith instead of secondary interpretations,
which appealed to those with a secular education in the field of religious
law, leads to the most embarrassing results for these social groups, if
applied to the exegesis of the Qur’an. Thus the affinity of puritan Islam
with modernity in one field created severe problems in another.
Furthermore, it becomes obvious at this point that parallels between
Calvinism and puritan Islam should be drawn with considerable caution.
Calvin did not propagate literalism but he argued that the Scriptures
should be read allegorically in case their literal interpretation implied
conflicts with scientific findings (Hooykaas 1972: 111ff.).25
156 Colonialism, Modernity, and Religious Identities
THE IMPACT OF A NEW ALLY
From the mid-1920s onwards there was one issue that united the divided
Ahl-i Hadis: the state that was to become Saudi Arabia in 1928. Before
and during World War I, most leading Ahl-i Hadis denied any affinity
with the Wahhabis and the Âl Sa‘ud in order to stress their loyalty to
British rule.26 This consideration diminished in importance from 1919
onwards when many leading Ahl-i Hadis joined the Khilafat Movement
and the Indian National Congress. Thus political impediments could
not keep them any more from applauding the success of a like-minded
movement when the Wahhabi–Sa‘udi alliance under the later king ‘Abd
al-‘Aziz drove the pro-British Hashimis from the Hijaz.
Both Sana’ullah and his opponents travelled to the Islamic World
Conference in Mecca in 1926 and forged those strong organizational
ties, which have gained considerable strength during the following eight
decades. The fact that the only political issue able to unite the Ahl-i
Hadis was their support for a country with a pre-modern social fabric
and political structure hardly supports the notion of the affinity between
puritanism and modernity. To the contrary, especially after 1947, the
growing influence of Saudi Wahhabism on the Ahl-i Hadis weakened
those aspects in the teachings of the Ahl-i Hadis that are favourable to
modernity. Even if there might still be certain modernists with an Ahl-i
Hadis background, there is no scholar today who is particularly committed
to the reconciliation of inherited Islamic doctrines with science.
SOCIAL ETHICS
Robinson (1997: 118), though generally favourable to Gellner’s thesis,
expresses reservations with regard to the burden the meticulous fulfilment
of duties heaps on men and, even more, on women. The fact that
individual responsibility does not necessarily imply individual liberty is
exemplified by the rather restrictive regulations promoted by the Ahl-i
Hadis scholars. Even Sana’ullah—generally more open-minded than other
‘ulama’—expressed his disdain for liberal Western legal thought, which
restricts punishments to acts bringing about worldly harm to others, and
urged a strict implementation of morality by state agencies with the help
of the physical punishments decreed by the Qur’an (hadd, pl. hudud).27
The attitude of the Ahl-i Hadis maulwis to the women’s question
hardly provides evidence for an inclination to modernity. In apologetical
contexts Ahl-i Hadis scholars stressed that their regulations regarding
How Favourable is Puritan Islam to Modernity? 157
divorce were more practical and more favourable to women than those
of the Hanafis. However, they never bothered to develop a systematic
approach to improve the status of women, and, therefore, clung to other
doctrines that were less favourable than those of the Hanafis, for example,
the demand that all women, including those who have already had
intercourse (thayyiba), need a guardian (wali) for concluding marriage.
With regard to one issue there was a connection between the puritanism
of the Ahl-i Hadis and the status of women: their rejection of non-Islamic
customary laws, which had been officially acknowledged by the colonial
authorities in the Punjab in 1872 (Gilmartin 1988b). Ahl-i Hadis scholars
such as Muhammad Husayn and Sana’ullah continually rallied against
these regulations, which deprived daughters of all their inheritance rights.28
Although certain regulations proposed by the Ahl-i Hadis were more
favourable to women, the attitude of their scholars clearly ranks among
the most conservative ones in South Asian Muslim society in general. At
a time when Muslim women began to enter the public sphere, the Ahl-i
Hadis maulwis insisted that they should confine their activities to domestic
affairs. Most of them shunned even modest attempts to improve the
status of women under the Anglo-Muhammadan Law. This is exemplified
by their reaction to the ‘Child Marriage Restraint’, or ‘Sarda Bill’, which
was discussed from 1928 and finally became law in 1930. The proposal,
which was not brought forth by the government but by secular-minded
Hindus and Muslims, put up the minimum age for marriages to fourteen
years for girls and eighteen years for young men (Forbes 1996: 85ff.).
The majority of scholars denounced this as unlawful infringement on
religious rituals and beliefs. A few scholars including Sana’ullah dared to
oppose such a view. He argued that it was indeed permissible under
religious aspects to reform practices like child-marriage, which bring
about harm under contemporary circumstances. Because of this attitude
even some of his closest associates parted ways with him and expressed
their disdain in malicious polemics.29
However, the conservative attitude of the scholars contrasts with the
fact that a number of Ahl-i Hadis laymen made considerable efforts to
improve the educational standard of Muslim women. Rashid ul-Khayri
(1868–1936), scion of an old Ahl-i Hadis family in Delhi, started a
career as publisher and author. In his novel as well as in his magazine
‘Ismat’ he argued for a better education of women. At the same time he
was a leading lay member of Ahl-i Hadis organizations and he wrote in
Sana’ullah’s magazine, ‘Ahl-i Hadis’, in order to explain his aims to religious
158 Colonialism, Modernity, and Religious Identities
scholars (Khayri 1964; Minault 1998: 129ff.). Another friend of
Sana’ullah, ‘Abd ul-Haqq ‘Abbas (d. 1960), founded the Madrasat ul-
Banat in his hometown Jullundhur. Thus he intended to break the
duopoly held by Christian missionaries and Aryas in the field of education
for girls.30 Unfortunately sources documenting the reaction of religious
scholars to their activities have not turned up as yet. But at least in the
case of Rashid ul-Khayri the deviation from strict Ahl-i Hadis norms is
unmistakable. Whereas the scholars opposed the depiction of humans in
general, he illustrated the cover of his magazine with unveiled women.31
CONCLUSION
The thesis that puritan Islam is particularly favourable to ‘modernity’ is
a generalization that conceals important aspects (Eaton 2000).32 The
systematization of everyday life in the sense of Weber’s ‘inner-worldly
asceticism’ can clearly be observed, but its practical relevance has to be
evaluated in comparison with two other aspects of puritan Islam: its
mythological world view and its restrictive social ethics. Certain adherents
of puritan Islam managed to adapt themselves to modernity by discarding
the latter two aspects. In this context it is noteworthy that some leading
modernists, including Sayyid Ahmad Khan, hailed from a Ahl-i Hadis
background and used to pray in their fashion (Riexinger 2004: 167ff.).
Nawwab Muhsin ul-Mulk and Deputy Nazir Ahmad may be cited as
further examples (Metcalf 1982: 273, 282ff.; Siddiqi 1971: 41ff.). But
these figures do not represent a general tendency. The religious leadership
rejected their views.33 The fact that with the Taliban the most ‘antimodernist’
movement in recent Islamic history emerged out of the puritan
tradition of South Asian Islam, though not from the Ahl-i Hadis but
from the Deoband school, reminds us of the double-faced potential of
this religious tendency.
The thesis of a positive inclination of puritan Islam to modernity was
based on a simplistic adaptation of Weber’s ‘Protestantism–capitalism’
thesis, which was based on the equation of puritan Islam with Calvinism
in spite of certain important differences in the religious teachings.
However one should not throw out the baby with the bathwater. Weber
saw religion as one important but relatively independent factor
determining social change. As such it interacts with aspirations of other
kinds and material factors (Riesebrodt 1990: 10, 24ff., 250f.), sometimes
in a smooth manner, sometimes in conflict. Whereas some of their
adherents try to adapt these doctrines to other factors, others will attempt
How Favourable is Puritan Islam to Modernity? 159
to mould the world according to their precepts. Furthermore, Weber
taught to give pre-eminence to the analysis of concrete historical
phenomena over the application of theories and he did not doubt that
the outcome of doctrines might be quite different from intentions.
Obviously, this approach is much more promising than black and white
functionalism or theories that seek the social formations and interests
behind the camouflage of religious teachings. The schematic application
of his theses will lead to wrong conclusions. Combined with a sharpened
focus on the particular aspects of certain traditions and their interaction
with contexts, Weber’s ideas may still help to reach deeper insights into
the developments of Islamic societies.
NOTES
1. On urban arrogance and middle-class bias, see also Gellner (1981: 163).
2. See also below with special reference to the Ahl-i Hadis.
3. Al-Shawkani (n.d.: 37, l. -13ff.). ‘Ijtihad of the laymen means asking for a
proof.’
4. The most important ones are that the Ahl-i Hadis keep their hands to the ears
while bowing down during prayer (raf ’ al-yadayn) and their earlier prayer times.
5. Metcalf stresses, however, that her thesis is preliminary and should be taken
with caution. See also Robinson (1997: 111, 127, 130, 133f.), Malik (1989:
355ff.; 1997: 212ff., 279f.), and Reetz (2001: 302).
6. For Bhojian, see Ansari (1984). For a list of madaris in the Punjab, see
Naushahrawi (1970: 172ff.). Further important examples are Zira (district
Ferozpur), Kot Kapora (Faridkot state), Sauhadra (district Gujranwala), Mamun
Kanjan (district Lyallpur) and Badhwana Khas (district Jhang).
7. Naushahrawi (1970) lists 51 Ahl-i Hadis scholars from Delhi, 35 from Mau
Nath Banjan, 18 from Benares, 15 from Sahaswan, 10 from Basti, plus 6 from
neighbouring villages. Kanpur did not bring forth a single Ahl-i Hadis scholar
of note, Allahabad only four. For the strength of sajjada nashins and ta‘ziyabrotherhoods
in Allahabad, see Bayly (1975: 79ff.).
8. The small congregation there mainly consisted of migrants from the Punjab,
Ahl-i Hadis, 27 January 1922, p. 7f.
9. Fatawa-yi sana’iya 195, 797; Ahl-i Hadis, 18 January 1924, p. 5; Bhatti (1998:
401f.).
10. According to Hamilton (1996: 101), the same was true for English nonconformists
in the eighteenth century. Therefore he urges caution with regard
to this argument.
11. According to Hardy (1964), 21.9 per cent of the Ahl-i Hadis propagandists
were maulwis, and 13.8 per cent were farmers. The fact that 30 of the 63
farmers listed hailed from the Ferozpur district further elucidates how strongly
the Ahl-i Hadis were rooted in the rural Muslim population of this particular
area.
160 Colonialism, Modernity, and Religious Identities
12. Police Abstract of Intelligence—Punjab 1886, p. 224; Police Abstract of
Intelligence—Punjab 1895, p. 62; Salafi (1994: 84f.); Bhatti (1996: 169; 1998:
401ff.).
13. Isha‘at us-Sunnat, Zamima (appendix) to Vol. III. fasc. 12 (December 1880),
1ff. This magazine published by Muhammad Husayn Batalwi from Lahore
since 1877 is one of the earliest, if not the earliest, magazines worldwide
dedicated to the propagation of a specific Islamic doctrine.
14. With regard to this aspect, it is worth drawing attention to the spread of
‘Wahhabism’ in Bamako (Mali) since 1945. This development, which has been
analysed by Amselle (1987), does bear striking resemblance to the emergence
of the Ahl-i Hadis in India although it took place in a completely different
context. Due to the fact that it occurred one century later, it is much better
documented. Merchants were flocking to Wahhabism because they could afford
to perform the hajj and hence came into contact with this movement. On the
ideological level it enabled them to delegitimize the leadership of the marabouts,
the West African equivalent of the pirs. The more Wahhabism spread, however,
the more socially diverse the movement became. With regard to secular
education they seem to have exposed an equally ambivalent position like the
Ahl-Hadis, and during the struggle for independence they too have been split
between supporters of the colonial order and nationalists.
15. Police Abstract of Intelligence—Punjab 1886, p. 210; Ahl-i Hadis, 18 December
1908, p. 11.
16. Police Abstract of Intelligence—Punjab 1912, p. 501.
17. Ahl-i Hadis, 5 May 1922, p. 12.
18. Sana’ullah usually refers to parallel verses instead, hence the title Tafsir al-
Qur’an bi-kalam ar-Rahman, ‘commentary on the Qur’an with the Merciful’s
own words’.
19. On the history and relevance of the question of istiwa’, see van Ess (1991ff.,
Vol. iv: 407ff.).
20. This world view has been systematized in a popular tract by the Egyptian
scholar as Suyuti (1445–1505). See Heinen (1982) and Radtke (1992).
21. Such beliefs were elaborated upon by one of their early exponents Siddiq Hasan
Khan (1834–90), consort of the Begum of Bhopal (Riexinger 2004: 132f.).
Certain Ahl-i Hadis defended such ideas well into the 1930s (Riexinger 2004:
382ff.).
22. Mahwari Risala-yi Anjuman-i Himayat-i Islam, February/March/April 1897,
p. 15f.
23. Rasul (n.d.: 99ff.). This biography of an early Ahl-i Hadis scholar, Ghulam
Rasul, from the village Qila Mahian Singh near Gujranwala contains reports
of dozens of karamat like a Sufi hagiography.
24. Isha’at us-sunnat xxii, p. 39ff. (ca. 1907).
25. For the very ‘enchanted’ world view of the leading puritan thinker of Islam,
see Krawietz (2002).
How Favourable is Puritan Islam to Modernity? 161
26. In fact, there were contacts between the Wahhabis and the Ahl-i Hadis before
1914, but they were functioning the other way round. Wahhabi scholars came
to study at Ahl-i Hadis madaris in India. A publishing house in Delhi belonging
to members of the Ghaznawi clan from Amritsar printed the works of
Muhammad b. ‘Abd al-Wahhab for the first time in 1894 (Riexinger 2004:
524f.).
27. In this pamphlet dating from his loyalist phase (first publication 1902) he
calls for corporal punishment for extramarital sex by mutual agreement (zina
bil-’amd) and theft according to the Qur’anic teachings (Amritsari 1948: 11ff.).
28. Isha‘at us-Sunnat iii, p. 114; Amritsari, Tafsir-i sana’i, vol. v, p. 178f.; Ahl-i
Hadis, 13 July 1923, p. 4.
29. Ahl-i Hadis, 20 September 1929, p. 13; 15 November 1929, pp. 1–9, 15.
30. ‘Ubayd ul-Haqq (n.d.); Minault (1998: 250ff.). The Madrasat ul-Banat was
one of only four Muslim colleges whose pupils were examined by the Punjab
University. See Salamat (1997: 387 n.142).
31. See the covers reproduced in Minault (1998: 141). On the attitude of the Ahli
Hadis scholars to depicting humans, see Riexinger (2004: 430).
32. Eaton (2000). Two case studies deserve interest in this context. Gaborieau
(1993: 141ff.) shows that in Kathmandu the rich Muslim traders are associated
with the veneration of shrines, whereas poor migrants tend to follow puritan
Islam in opposition. In his sociological study on the South East Asian puritan
Islamic movement ‘Kaum Muda’, Peacock (1978) demonstrates that the rural
adherents of this group exposed the most puritan value system, but also the
lowest inclination to entrepreneurial ethics and modern education.
33. To the question whether Muslims should utter the formula ‘Rahimahu Llah’
(may God have mercy with him) after mentioning the late Sayyid Ahmad
Khan, Sana’ullah answered, yes, for two reasons: on the one hand he continued
to pray regularly, on the other hand he is in dire need of divine mercy. Ahl-i
Hadis, 29 April 1910, p. 5, 17 May 1910, p. 5.
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How Favourable is Puritan Islam to Modernity? 165
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Responding to Colonial Modernity
6
How Favourable is Puritan Islam
to Modernity?
A Study of the Ahl-i Hadis in
Late Nineteenth/Early Twentieth Century South Asia
MARTIN RIEXINGER
Based on observations in North Africa, Ernest Gellner (1981: 5ff., 58ff.,
170) argued that ‘... [t]he severe discipline of puritan Islam may be in
fact compatible with, or positively favourable to modern social
organisation.’ According to him, the break with intercessionary Sufism
places the burden of salvation on the individual believer who has to fulfil
his religious duties meticulously, which forces him to systematize his life
in a way the Calvinists in Early Modern Europe had done according to
Max Weber’s ‘Protestantism/capitalism’ thesis. Gellner, therefore, alleges
that Puritan Islam encourages the decline of the belief in miracles, and
thus ‘disenchants the World’. Furthermore, he sees an affinity between
the puritan lifestyle and urbanity: ‘Only urban life provides a good base
for the puritans—because their rigorism requires literacy’ (Gellner 1981:
147).1 According to him, the counterpart of puritan Islam—intercessionary
Sufism dominated by Sufi sheikhs—is rooted in rural society.
Gellner’s thesis was favourably received not only in studies on Islamic
fundamentalism in general (Riesebrodt 1990: 38) but also in literature
on Islamic movements in South Asia, although not always with explicit
reference (for example, Robinson 1997, 2000a; Nasr 2001: 44f.).2 This
chapter will question the applicability of this thesis to developments in
South Asian Islamic communities on the basis of results gained from
research on the Ahl-i Hadis in the Punjab under British rule. For this
purpose, three aspects, namely social background, religious teachings,
and social ethics, are taken into consideration.
148 Colonialism, Modernity, and Religious Identities
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The Ahl-i Hadis are one of the Sunni schools of thought in South Asia.
Their emergence can be traced back to the puritan trend initiated by
Shah Waliyullah Dihlawi (1703–63). However, the Ahl-i Hadis proper
did not come into being before the mid-nineteenth century. Based on
the teaching of Waliyullah, his grandson Shah Isma‘il Shahid (b. 1779)
and the military leader Sayyid Ahmad Barelwi (b. 1786?) formed the
religious-cum-political movement tariqa-yi muhammadiya. Their military
actions against the Sikhs on the Afghan borders, which ended with their
defeat in 1831, are not central to the issue currently under discussion.
More important in the religious context is the fact that, before starting
military operations, the tariqa-yi muhammadiya undertook a collective
hajj. Some of its members did not return to India immediately. Instead
they travelled to Yemen in order to study under the renowned ‘alim and
politician Muhammad b. ‘Ali al-Shawkani (1760–1834) whose religious
teachings betray the influence of the doctrines of the Andalusian Zahiri
Ibn Hazm (994–1064) and the Damascene neo-Hanbalite Ibn Taymiya
(1263–1328) (Haykel 2003: 127ff.; Riexinger 2004: 108ff.). Al-
Shawkani’s teachings reinforced the tendency away from Hanafism and
the madhhab-system in general (see below), which had already been
initiated by Waliyullah. Furthermore al-Shawkani’s anti-Sufism applies
to rituals and teachings. Therefore his influence caused Sufi metaphysical
concepts, which were still of central importance for Waliyullah and the
tariqa-yi muhammadiya (Gaborieau 2000), to disappear gradually among
the Ahl-i Hadis. Al-Shawkani’s attitude towards Sufism resembles those
of Muhammad b. ‘Abd al-Wahhab (1703–93) but are slightly less radical
(Haykel 2003: 127ff.). This did not keep their Muslim opponents, the
Arya Samaj, and the colonial authorities from polemically labelling the
Ahl-i Hadis as Wahhabis.
Whereas the majority of Sunnis believe that every Muslim is bound
to follow (taqlid) one of the four schools of law (madhhab, pl. madhahib),
the Ahl-i Hadis do not accept their authority. Furthermore they do not
acknowledge analogical reasoning (qiyas) as source of law and some of
them even reject the authority of the consensus of scholars (ijma‘). Instead
they urge an exclusive orientation on the primary sources of Islamic law,
the Qur’an and the Hadith, the unmediated word of God and the
Prophet, hence their designation as ‘followers of the Prophetic tradition’.
They assert that the legal scholar has to base his judgements on proof
How Favourable is Puritan Islam to Modernity? 149
texts from those two sources (ijtihad) and that he is obliged to explain
them to the laymen (‘ammi) who address him with a request.3
The practical outcome of these seemingly fundamental differences in
legal theory is rather meagre though: most of the differences concern
matters of ritual and purity.4 Nevertheless these issues often led to clashes
with the Hanafi majority (Metcalf 1982: 286ff.; Riexinger 2004: 164ff.).
However, some particularities are of greater social significance. First, some
of their ritual practices stress the equality of believers. This holds good in
particular for their demand that even in villages a congregational prayer
with a sermon (khutba) has to be held on Fridays (al-jum‘a fi l-qura).
Furthermore the sermon has to be held not in Arabic but in the local
vernacular in order to enhance the religious understanding of the laymen.
The Ahl-i Hadis do not accept the principle of kafa’a, which by
prohibiting the marriage of a man of lower social status was used to
legitimize the persistence of caste-like structures among South Asian
Muslims. Second, certain legal doctrines strengthen the position of
women. The Ahl-i Hadis reject talaq al-bid‘a, that is the repudiation of
a wife by exclaiming the formula on one occasion and not during a
period of three months. In addition, they make it easier for a wife to
buy herself out (khul‘ ) of a dysfunctional marriage by seeking the
mediation of a scholar and by forfeiting her dowry (mahr) (Riexinger
2004: 161f., 425ff.).
In concordance with other Islamic puritan reform movements between
the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, the Ahl-i Hadis abhor mystical
practices implying the adoration of someone else other than God—like
the ascription of God-like attributes to the Prophet and the veneration
of saints and their graves—as deviation from monotheism. This set them
in opposition to the dominant mystically inspired piety among South
Asian Muslims.
The Ahl-i Hadis first found their following in Delhi, Bengal, Bihar,
and the Benares area. From the 1880s onwards the Punjab emerged as a
further important stronghold, with Amritsar surpassing all older centres
except Delhi in importance.
SOCIAL BASE
The Ahl-i Hadis are an obvious case to challenge received wisdom on the
social background of Islamic puritanism. Existing studies tend to
characterize them as an upper-class sect (be it aristocratic or capitalist)
with strong urban roots (Metcalf 1982: 198, 268).5 This opinion gained
150 Colonialism, Modernity, and Religious Identities
plausibility from another cliché: the description of their Sufi opponents,
the Barelwis, as representatives of a backward and moribund, rural ‘folk’-
Islam (Smith 1946: 320).
The available data urge caution. With regard to the Punjab, a variety
of sources (census publications, biographical literature, articles in
contemporary magazines, and intelligence sources) show that the Ahl-i
Hadis indeed found their following in the more urban tracts of the
province. However, it was often not in the administrative and commercial
centres themselves but in their rural surroundings that the first people
converted to their teachings. In certain ‘Ahl-i Hadis villages’, this
community formed the majority of the Muslim population. Some of
these places, especially Bhojian (tehsil Taran Taran, district Amritsar) and
Lakhoke (district Ferozpur), developed into important centres of religious
instruction from which a sizeable number of scholars emerged (Riexinger
2004: 189ff., 199ff.).6 In the recent decades, this does not seem to have
changed considerably. A survey of religious scholars active in the 1980s
shows that most of them originate from the urbanized tracts of the Punjab
but from villages or small towns in these areas (Yusuf 1989).
Data from other regions corroborate the results of the observations in
the Punjab. With regard to Bengal, British observations on the
‘Hindustani fanatics’ show that so-called Wahhabis who flocked to the
mujahidin of Chamarkand on the Afghan border after World War I were
predominantly of rural origin (Baha 1979: 142ff.). In the UP, the qasbas
Mau Nath Banjan, Sahaswan, and Basti, which rather resembled villages,
brought forth a number of Ahl-i Hadis scholars that surpasses or almost
equals that of Benares, one of their centres. In reverse it is noteworthy
that major ‘modern’ cities like Allahabad and Kanpur with their strong
entrepreneurial population were anything but Ahl-i Hadis strongholds.
The majority of the Muslims there practised a rather unpuritan ‘folk’
Islam.7 In Bombay, India’s commercial centre and most ‘modern’ city of
the country, the Ahl-i Hadis were strikingly weak.8
The question whether the Ahl-i Hadis developed something of a
particular ‘work-ethic’ or ‘spirit of capitalism’ that would set them apart
from other Muslims is impossible to answer with regard to the period of
time under discussion, although empirical research on the respective
attitudes of contemporary Ahl-i Hadis would of course be very interesting.
But it would seem that this issue was not of particular importance for
their ‘ulama’, who, unlike Calvinist theologians in Early Modern Europe,
How Favourable is Puritan Islam to Modernity? 151
did not bother to write elaborate treatises on this subject. They
admonished their followers to abstain from extensive spending on
weddings and religious holidays and from indulging in frivolous pleasures
such as smoking, fireworks, or going to see movies.9 This ‘innerworldly
ascetism’ (Weber 1920: 192f.) might indeed have been favourable to
the accumulation of capital among the Ahl-i Hadis, if a particular kind
of conspicuous spending had not been widespread among them, namely,
extensive donations for missionary purposes.10
Quite a number of Ahl-i Hadis fit perfectly the popular image of a
‘sect of shopkeepers’ completed by urban professionals and officials. An
intelligence survey on ‘Wahhabis of note’ dating from 1876 identifies
12.7 per cent of prominent Ahl-i Hadis as traders and manufacturers,
7.4 per cent as officials, 5.7 as teachers, 1.9 as professionals, and 0.4 per
cent as lawyers.11 Thekedars often appear as benefactors financing the
building of mosques and religious schools (madrasa, pl. madaris).12 The
Anjuman Isha‘at ul-Islam, a short-lived organization of Ahl-i Hadis scholars
and laymen formed by Muhammad Husayn Batalwi at Lahore in 1880,
comprised several officials and secular teachers, two thekedars, a wholesale
trader, and a lawyer.13 The leading committee of the Ahl-i Hadis
congregation in Peshawar, which consisted mainly of migrants from Delhi
and the Punjab, was dominated by traders and manufacturers (Khanpuri
1985: 160, 165ff.).
Such singular observations seem to support received wisdom describing
puritan religiosity as an essentially urban upper-class phenomenon.
However, a crosscheck suggests that the correlation of the puritan/Sufi
dichotomy with the urban/rural and the upper-class/lower-class
dichotomy is less convincing. Liebeskind (1998: 282ff., 304f.) has
analysed the membership of the two councils controlling the
administration of north Indian darars. Their social composition would
perfectly fit the clichés about the Ahl-i Hadis membership because they
consist of officials, professionals, entrepreneurs, and traders. The fact
that quite a number come from faraway places indicates a strong vertical
and horizontal mobility. It is far from surprising that, whenever nonscholars
are integrated into religious activities, those with a high social
standing and professional experience in talking will prevail. The simple
fact that laymen played a greater role among the Ahl-i Hadis than in
other Islamic groups may account for the fact that among them such
notables are more visible. With regard to the role of traders in puritan
152 Colonialism, Modernity, and Religious Identities
Islamic movements it is necessary to stress that not only ideological but
also practical aspects account for their involvement. As a mobile group,
tradesmen are more likely to come into contact with religious ideas other
than those in their regional setting. Hence they may play a decisive role
when puritan Islam takes roots, whereas their importance may decline
later.14
To sum up, even if the background of the Ahl-i Hadis might in general
have been more urban and wealthier than that of other Islamic schools
of thought, the exceptions are so important that the designation as urban
upper-class movement conceals central components. In reverse, the same
applies to the Barelwis.
THE AHL-I HADIS AND SECULAR EDUCATION IN THE PUNJAB
In one respect the Ahl-i Hadis showed more affinity to modernity than
the adherents of other Sunni schools of thought. Many well-to-do lay
members and some scholars played a leading role in the local Muslim
associations for the promotion of welfare and secular education
(anjumans). The outstanding figure among the ‘ulama’ was Sana’ullah
Amritsari (1868–1948), the son of poor Kashmiri immigrants whose
brothers had risen from rags to riches in the textile business. He often
spoke at the annual gatherings of the Anjuman-i Himayat-i Islam in Lahore
and actively supported the Anjuman-i islamiya in his hometown. Often
he criticized the disdain of many religious scholars for secular education.
The lawyer Ilahi Bakhsh Malwada, a friend of Sana’ullah and headman
of the Arain-biradari in Lahore, was a leading member of the Anjumani
Himayat-i Islam and later formed the Anjuman-i islamiya in Hoshiarpur
after being transferred to an official post there.15 Salman Sulayman
Mansurpuri (1867–1930), another lawyer with a sound religious
education and a close associate of Sana’ullah, often turned up as speaker
at anjuman gatherings (Riexinger 2004: 177). Sana’ullah’s closest
collaborator, the scholar Ibrahim Mir Siyalkoti was among the founding
members of the Anjuman-i islamiya in his hometown.16 The affinity of
parts of the Ahl-i Hadis with these educational associations even found
its architectural expression. In the 1920s, the Ahl-i Hadis of Lahore
consciously erected their Masjid-i mubarak on the site adjoining the
Islamia College founded and directed by the Anjuman-i Himayat-i Islam.17
Based on these examples, it might be tempting to infer that the Ahl-i
Hadis were positively inclined towards secular education. As the following
section will show, this is only half of the truth.
How Favourable is Puritan Islam to Modernity? 153
RELIGIOUS TEACHINGS: HOW ‘DISENCHANTED’ WAS THE
WORLD VIEW OF PURITAN MUSLIMS IN BRITISH INDIA?
A conflict that arose among the Ahl-i Hadis from 1902 onwards shows
that the relation between puritan Islam and modernity was very
ambivalent. To understand this, one has to take theology into account,
and in particular the exegesis of the Qur’an, which is an important aspect
of Islam that those who stress the affinity of puritan Islam seldom consider.
In 1902, Sana’ullah Amritsari, editor of the magazine Ahl-i Hadis,
published a commentary on the Qur’an in Arabic, which immediately
provoked angry reactions from his colleagues. They reproached him for
his method as well as for the content. Sana’ullah did not take into account
the exegetical traditions (ahadith) that the majority of the Ahl-i Hadis
scholars saw as indispensable for the interpretation of the Qur’an.18 This
method did allow him to rationalize several reports of miracles, some of
them in the same manner as Sayyid Ahmad Khan, but this was not the
main bone of contention. The most disputed issue was that Sana’ullah
did not interpret the phrase ‘thumma stawa ‘ala l-‘arsh’ (verse 7:54 et al.)
in the sense that God is actually sitting (down) on the throne. Instead he
explained these words as an attribute of God’s power and sovereignty.
Thus Sana’ullah reopened one of the oldest theological debates (on the
relevance of the question of istiwa) in the history of Islam.19
In fact, the question may be old but that it gave rise to a new
controversy in India around 1900 has something to do with the social
background of the Ahl-i Hadis and the general socio-cultural setting of
British India. For an analysis, two aspects mentioned before have to be
considered: individual responsibility in puritan Islam and its attraction
for some members of the secularly educated elite. The demand of the
Ahl-i Hadis that legal judgements have to be based on the two primary
sources of Islamic law and not on the legal handbooks of the Hanafi
school of law implies that the mufti has to explain the relevant proof
texts to the laymen asking for a religious ruling (mustafti). This elevates
the status of the laymen. It is most likely that such an attitude appealed
to those who due to their social status and their expertise in other fields
expected to be taken seriously in matters of religion, a group of people
among whom we may expect to find the well-educated laymen in the
anjumans.
But here emerges the problem. For most Ahl-i Hadis scholars the
primacy of the Qur’an and the Hadith is not restricted to law and ethics
154 Colonialism, Modernity, and Religious Identities
but also shapes their theology and hence their world view in general. The
contentious question ‘does God sit on the throne?’ shows this problem
clearly. The anthropomorphist interpretation of the Ahl-i Hadis in the
Hanbali tradition implies the so-called ‘Sunna-cosmology’ based on the
exegetical Prophetic traditions.20 In this concept, the idea of a compact
heaven on which God’s throne is to rest is combined with the idea that
the sun bows down before the throne of God and the belief that lightning
and thunder are caused by the angel Ra‘d who drives the clouds like a
shepherd drives his flock.21 The world view of Hanbali theology held by
Sana’ullah’s opponents was the most conservative in the history of Islamic
thought. Around 1900 it simply represented an embarrassment for
someone who had encountered during his secular education that the
earth revolves around the sun and that the sky is not a dome but simply
an optical appearance caused by refraction. Furthermore it was an
embarrassment for those like Sana’ullah who confronted adherents of
other religions in public disputations (munazaras), especially the Arya
Samaj who picked on traditional Islamic cosmology with delight
(Amritsari 1916: 39). With his commentaries on the Qur’an, Sana’ullah
explicitly addressed this class of ta‘lim yaftas, for whom he wanted to
provide an alternative to outdated interpretations on the one hand and
the more radical modernism of Sayyid Ahmad Khan on the other.22
But for most of the Ahl-i Hadis scholars, the accommodation of
Qur’anical statements to world views promoted by secular institutions
of learning was not a primary concern. What counted for them was the
fact that the issue of ‘istiwa’ has been for centuries the shibboleth that
marked the difference between exponents of literalist and
anthropomorphist interpretations and advocates of a more rationalist
approach entailing the allegorical interpretation of verses relating to God’s
attributes. Following their foremost role model, Ibn Taymiya, those Ahli
Hadis frequently indulged in polemics against such jahmi and mu‘tazili
‘heretics’, terms with which they also denounced Sana’ullah (Ghaznawi
n.d.; Khanpuri n.d.).
The issue even affected the organization of the Ahl-i Hadis. In 1906,
Sana’ullah began to organize the ‘All India Ahl-i Hadis Conference’, which
convened for the first time in 1912. In this association he let laymen
play an important role. His intention was to diminish the influence of
the majority of ‘ulama’ who were hostile to him (Riexinger 2004: 513).
The dispute was finally settled at the Islamic World Conference in Mecca
1926 by the moderation of ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Ibn Sa‘ud, ruler of the Hijaz
How Favourable is Puritan Islam to Modernity? 155
and Najd, king of Saudi Arabia from 1928 onwards. He himself had to
come to grips with similar problems in his realm when he tried to push
through moderate reforms in the educational sector against the resistance
of the Wahhabi ‘ulama’ (Wahba 1964: 48ff.; Steinberg 2002: 291ff.).
The second theological issue that tore Ahl-i Hadis apart in the early
twentieth century was the question of miracles. The stress the majority
of scholars put on the affirmation of the reports of miracles in the Qur’an
and the Hadith contradicts the assumption that the world view of puritan
Muslims is really ‘disenchanted’. Against this one might argue that,
whereas puritan Islam does affirm reports of miracles in the Qur’an, it
at least diminishes the importance of the supernatural for the present.
But even this is not the case. The Ahl-i Hadis ascribe to their most pious
members qabuliyat-i du‘a. This term means that their prayers were
accepted by God with particular favour. Thus those scholars could bring
about unexpected healing and economic success with God’s help. Hence
their social role does not differ too much from Sufi sheikhs.23
Another example shows that theological considerations on miracles
affected the attitude of certain Ahl-i Hadis towards modern science and
education in general. Muhammad Husayn Batalwi, who originally was a
supporter of activities to advance secular education among Muslims, later
became increasingly conservative and rejected ‘un-Islamic’ teachings
propagated in modern schools. In particular, a chemistry textbook
provoked his anger. He denounced it for presenting the ‘nechari point of
view’ by stating that natural laws produce water from hydrogen and
oxygen. Muhammad Husayn instead defended the classical Sunni doctrine
according to which there are no natural laws but only God almighty who
governs and creates the world in every moment. Hence the regularity of
events is a divine grace but not an unchangeable rule.24
In the field of theology the core of the issue becomes apparent. The
strict orientation towards the Hadith instead of secondary interpretations,
which appealed to those with a secular education in the field of religious
law, leads to the most embarrassing results for these social groups, if
applied to the exegesis of the Qur’an. Thus the affinity of puritan Islam
with modernity in one field created severe problems in another.
Furthermore, it becomes obvious at this point that parallels between
Calvinism and puritan Islam should be drawn with considerable caution.
Calvin did not propagate literalism but he argued that the Scriptures
should be read allegorically in case their literal interpretation implied
conflicts with scientific findings (Hooykaas 1972: 111ff.).25
156 Colonialism, Modernity, and Religious Identities
THE IMPACT OF A NEW ALLY
From the mid-1920s onwards there was one issue that united the divided
Ahl-i Hadis: the state that was to become Saudi Arabia in 1928. Before
and during World War I, most leading Ahl-i Hadis denied any affinity
with the Wahhabis and the Âl Sa‘ud in order to stress their loyalty to
British rule.26 This consideration diminished in importance from 1919
onwards when many leading Ahl-i Hadis joined the Khilafat Movement
and the Indian National Congress. Thus political impediments could
not keep them any more from applauding the success of a like-minded
movement when the Wahhabi–Sa‘udi alliance under the later king ‘Abd
al-‘Aziz drove the pro-British Hashimis from the Hijaz.
Both Sana’ullah and his opponents travelled to the Islamic World
Conference in Mecca in 1926 and forged those strong organizational
ties, which have gained considerable strength during the following eight
decades. The fact that the only political issue able to unite the Ahl-i
Hadis was their support for a country with a pre-modern social fabric
and political structure hardly supports the notion of the affinity between
puritanism and modernity. To the contrary, especially after 1947, the
growing influence of Saudi Wahhabism on the Ahl-i Hadis weakened
those aspects in the teachings of the Ahl-i Hadis that are favourable to
modernity. Even if there might still be certain modernists with an Ahl-i
Hadis background, there is no scholar today who is particularly committed
to the reconciliation of inherited Islamic doctrines with science.
SOCIAL ETHICS
Robinson (1997: 118), though generally favourable to Gellner’s thesis,
expresses reservations with regard to the burden the meticulous fulfilment
of duties heaps on men and, even more, on women. The fact that
individual responsibility does not necessarily imply individual liberty is
exemplified by the rather restrictive regulations promoted by the Ahl-i
Hadis scholars. Even Sana’ullah—generally more open-minded than other
‘ulama’—expressed his disdain for liberal Western legal thought, which
restricts punishments to acts bringing about worldly harm to others, and
urged a strict implementation of morality by state agencies with the help
of the physical punishments decreed by the Qur’an (hadd, pl. hudud).27
The attitude of the Ahl-i Hadis maulwis to the women’s question
hardly provides evidence for an inclination to modernity. In apologetical
contexts Ahl-i Hadis scholars stressed that their regulations regarding
How Favourable is Puritan Islam to Modernity? 157
divorce were more practical and more favourable to women than those
of the Hanafis. However, they never bothered to develop a systematic
approach to improve the status of women, and, therefore, clung to other
doctrines that were less favourable than those of the Hanafis, for example,
the demand that all women, including those who have already had
intercourse (thayyiba), need a guardian (wali) for concluding marriage.
With regard to one issue there was a connection between the puritanism
of the Ahl-i Hadis and the status of women: their rejection of non-Islamic
customary laws, which had been officially acknowledged by the colonial
authorities in the Punjab in 1872 (Gilmartin 1988b). Ahl-i Hadis scholars
such as Muhammad Husayn and Sana’ullah continually rallied against
these regulations, which deprived daughters of all their inheritance rights.28
Although certain regulations proposed by the Ahl-i Hadis were more
favourable to women, the attitude of their scholars clearly ranks among
the most conservative ones in South Asian Muslim society in general. At
a time when Muslim women began to enter the public sphere, the Ahl-i
Hadis maulwis insisted that they should confine their activities to domestic
affairs. Most of them shunned even modest attempts to improve the
status of women under the Anglo-Muhammadan Law. This is exemplified
by their reaction to the ‘Child Marriage Restraint’, or ‘Sarda Bill’, which
was discussed from 1928 and finally became law in 1930. The proposal,
which was not brought forth by the government but by secular-minded
Hindus and Muslims, put up the minimum age for marriages to fourteen
years for girls and eighteen years for young men (Forbes 1996: 85ff.).
The majority of scholars denounced this as unlawful infringement on
religious rituals and beliefs. A few scholars including Sana’ullah dared to
oppose such a view. He argued that it was indeed permissible under
religious aspects to reform practices like child-marriage, which bring
about harm under contemporary circumstances. Because of this attitude
even some of his closest associates parted ways with him and expressed
their disdain in malicious polemics.29
However, the conservative attitude of the scholars contrasts with the
fact that a number of Ahl-i Hadis laymen made considerable efforts to
improve the educational standard of Muslim women. Rashid ul-Khayri
(1868–1936), scion of an old Ahl-i Hadis family in Delhi, started a
career as publisher and author. In his novel as well as in his magazine
‘Ismat’ he argued for a better education of women. At the same time he
was a leading lay member of Ahl-i Hadis organizations and he wrote in
Sana’ullah’s magazine, ‘Ahl-i Hadis’, in order to explain his aims to religious
158 Colonialism, Modernity, and Religious Identities
scholars (Khayri 1964; Minault 1998: 129ff.). Another friend of
Sana’ullah, ‘Abd ul-Haqq ‘Abbas (d. 1960), founded the Madrasat ul-
Banat in his hometown Jullundhur. Thus he intended to break the
duopoly held by Christian missionaries and Aryas in the field of education
for girls.30 Unfortunately sources documenting the reaction of religious
scholars to their activities have not turned up as yet. But at least in the
case of Rashid ul-Khayri the deviation from strict Ahl-i Hadis norms is
unmistakable. Whereas the scholars opposed the depiction of humans in
general, he illustrated the cover of his magazine with unveiled women.31
CONCLUSION
The thesis that puritan Islam is particularly favourable to ‘modernity’ is
a generalization that conceals important aspects (Eaton 2000).32 The
systematization of everyday life in the sense of Weber’s ‘inner-worldly
asceticism’ can clearly be observed, but its practical relevance has to be
evaluated in comparison with two other aspects of puritan Islam: its
mythological world view and its restrictive social ethics. Certain adherents
of puritan Islam managed to adapt themselves to modernity by discarding
the latter two aspects. In this context it is noteworthy that some leading
modernists, including Sayyid Ahmad Khan, hailed from a Ahl-i Hadis
background and used to pray in their fashion (Riexinger 2004: 167ff.).
Nawwab Muhsin ul-Mulk and Deputy Nazir Ahmad may be cited as
further examples (Metcalf 1982: 273, 282ff.; Siddiqi 1971: 41ff.). But
these figures do not represent a general tendency. The religious leadership
rejected their views.33 The fact that with the Taliban the most ‘antimodernist’
movement in recent Islamic history emerged out of the puritan
tradition of South Asian Islam, though not from the Ahl-i Hadis but
from the Deoband school, reminds us of the double-faced potential of
this religious tendency.
The thesis of a positive inclination of puritan Islam to modernity was
based on a simplistic adaptation of Weber’s ‘Protestantism–capitalism’
thesis, which was based on the equation of puritan Islam with Calvinism
in spite of certain important differences in the religious teachings.
However one should not throw out the baby with the bathwater. Weber
saw religion as one important but relatively independent factor
determining social change. As such it interacts with aspirations of other
kinds and material factors (Riesebrodt 1990: 10, 24ff., 250f.), sometimes
in a smooth manner, sometimes in conflict. Whereas some of their
adherents try to adapt these doctrines to other factors, others will attempt
How Favourable is Puritan Islam to Modernity? 159
to mould the world according to their precepts. Furthermore, Weber
taught to give pre-eminence to the analysis of concrete historical
phenomena over the application of theories and he did not doubt that
the outcome of doctrines might be quite different from intentions.
Obviously, this approach is much more promising than black and white
functionalism or theories that seek the social formations and interests
behind the camouflage of religious teachings. The schematic application
of his theses will lead to wrong conclusions. Combined with a sharpened
focus on the particular aspects of certain traditions and their interaction
with contexts, Weber’s ideas may still help to reach deeper insights into
the developments of Islamic societies.
NOTES
1. On urban arrogance and middle-class bias, see also Gellner (1981: 163).
2. See also below with special reference to the Ahl-i Hadis.
3. Al-Shawkani (n.d.: 37, l. -13ff.). ‘Ijtihad of the laymen means asking for a
proof.’
4. The most important ones are that the Ahl-i Hadis keep their hands to the ears
while bowing down during prayer (raf ’ al-yadayn) and their earlier prayer times.
5. Metcalf stresses, however, that her thesis is preliminary and should be taken
with caution. See also Robinson (1997: 111, 127, 130, 133f.), Malik (1989:
355ff.; 1997: 212ff., 279f.), and Reetz (2001: 302).
6. For Bhojian, see Ansari (1984). For a list of madaris in the Punjab, see
Naushahrawi (1970: 172ff.). Further important examples are Zira (district
Ferozpur), Kot Kapora (Faridkot state), Sauhadra (district Gujranwala), Mamun
Kanjan (district Lyallpur) and Badhwana Khas (district Jhang).
7. Naushahrawi (1970) lists 51 Ahl-i Hadis scholars from Delhi, 35 from Mau
Nath Banjan, 18 from Benares, 15 from Sahaswan, 10 from Basti, plus 6 from
neighbouring villages. Kanpur did not bring forth a single Ahl-i Hadis scholar
of note, Allahabad only four. For the strength of sajjada nashins and ta‘ziyabrotherhoods
in Allahabad, see Bayly (1975: 79ff.).
8. The small congregation there mainly consisted of migrants from the Punjab,
Ahl-i Hadis, 27 January 1922, p. 7f.
9. Fatawa-yi sana’iya 195, 797; Ahl-i Hadis, 18 January 1924, p. 5; Bhatti (1998:
401f.).
10. According to Hamilton (1996: 101), the same was true for English nonconformists
in the eighteenth century. Therefore he urges caution with regard
to this argument.
11. According to Hardy (1964), 21.9 per cent of the Ahl-i Hadis propagandists
were maulwis, and 13.8 per cent were farmers. The fact that 30 of the 63
farmers listed hailed from the Ferozpur district further elucidates how strongly
the Ahl-i Hadis were rooted in the rural Muslim population of this particular
area.
160 Colonialism, Modernity, and Religious Identities
12. Police Abstract of Intelligence—Punjab 1886, p. 224; Police Abstract of
Intelligence—Punjab 1895, p. 62; Salafi (1994: 84f.); Bhatti (1996: 169; 1998:
401ff.).
13. Isha‘at us-Sunnat, Zamima (appendix) to Vol. III. fasc. 12 (December 1880),
1ff. This magazine published by Muhammad Husayn Batalwi from Lahore
since 1877 is one of the earliest, if not the earliest, magazines worldwide
dedicated to the propagation of a specific Islamic doctrine.
14. With regard to this aspect, it is worth drawing attention to the spread of
‘Wahhabism’ in Bamako (Mali) since 1945. This development, which has been
analysed by Amselle (1987), does bear striking resemblance to the emergence
of the Ahl-i Hadis in India although it took place in a completely different
context. Due to the fact that it occurred one century later, it is much better
documented. Merchants were flocking to Wahhabism because they could afford
to perform the hajj and hence came into contact with this movement. On the
ideological level it enabled them to delegitimize the leadership of the marabouts,
the West African equivalent of the pirs. The more Wahhabism spread, however,
the more socially diverse the movement became. With regard to secular
education they seem to have exposed an equally ambivalent position like the
Ahl-Hadis, and during the struggle for independence they too have been split
between supporters of the colonial order and nationalists.
15. Police Abstract of Intelligence—Punjab 1886, p. 210; Ahl-i Hadis, 18 December
1908, p. 11.
16. Police Abstract of Intelligence—Punjab 1912, p. 501.
17. Ahl-i Hadis, 5 May 1922, p. 12.
18. Sana’ullah usually refers to parallel verses instead, hence the title Tafsir al-
Qur’an bi-kalam ar-Rahman, ‘commentary on the Qur’an with the Merciful’s
own words’.
19. On the history and relevance of the question of istiwa’, see van Ess (1991ff.,
Vol. iv: 407ff.).
20. This world view has been systematized in a popular tract by the Egyptian
scholar as Suyuti (1445–1505). See Heinen (1982) and Radtke (1992).
21. Such beliefs were elaborated upon by one of their early exponents Siddiq Hasan
Khan (1834–90), consort of the Begum of Bhopal (Riexinger 2004: 132f.).
Certain Ahl-i Hadis defended such ideas well into the 1930s (Riexinger 2004:
382ff.).
22. Mahwari Risala-yi Anjuman-i Himayat-i Islam, February/March/April 1897,
p. 15f.
23. Rasul (n.d.: 99ff.). This biography of an early Ahl-i Hadis scholar, Ghulam
Rasul, from the village Qila Mahian Singh near Gujranwala contains reports
of dozens of karamat like a Sufi hagiography.
24. Isha’at us-sunnat xxii, p. 39ff. (ca. 1907).
25. For the very ‘enchanted’ world view of the leading puritan thinker of Islam,
see Krawietz (2002).
How Favourable is Puritan Islam to Modernity? 161
26. In fact, there were contacts between the Wahhabis and the Ahl-i Hadis before
1914, but they were functioning the other way round. Wahhabi scholars came
to study at Ahl-i Hadis madaris in India. A publishing house in Delhi belonging
to members of the Ghaznawi clan from Amritsar printed the works of
Muhammad b. ‘Abd al-Wahhab for the first time in 1894 (Riexinger 2004:
524f.).
27. In this pamphlet dating from his loyalist phase (first publication 1902) he
calls for corporal punishment for extramarital sex by mutual agreement (zina
bil-’amd) and theft according to the Qur’anic teachings (Amritsari 1948: 11ff.).
28. Isha‘at us-Sunnat iii, p. 114; Amritsari, Tafsir-i sana’i, vol. v, p. 178f.; Ahl-i
Hadis, 13 July 1923, p. 4.
29. Ahl-i Hadis, 20 September 1929, p. 13; 15 November 1929, pp. 1–9, 15.
30. ‘Ubayd ul-Haqq (n.d.); Minault (1998: 250ff.). The Madrasat ul-Banat was
one of only four Muslim colleges whose pupils were examined by the Punjab
University. See Salamat (1997: 387 n.142).
31. See the covers reproduced in Minault (1998: 141). On the attitude of the Ahli
Hadis scholars to depicting humans, see Riexinger (2004: 430).
32. Eaton (2000). Two case studies deserve interest in this context. Gaborieau
(1993: 141ff.) shows that in Kathmandu the rich Muslim traders are associated
with the veneration of shrines, whereas poor migrants tend to follow puritan
Islam in opposition. In his sociological study on the South East Asian puritan
Islamic movement ‘Kaum Muda’, Peacock (1978) demonstrates that the rural
adherents of this group exposed the most puritan value system, but also the
lowest inclination to entrepreneurial ethics and modern education.
33. To the question whether Muslims should utter the formula ‘Rahimahu Llah’
(may God have mercy with him) after mentioning the late Sayyid Ahmad
Khan, Sana’ullah answered, yes, for two reasons: on the one hand he continued
to pray regularly, on the other hand he is in dire need of divine mercy. Ahl-i
Hadis, 29 April 1910, p. 5, 17 May 1910, p. 5.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ARCHIVAL SOURCES
Police Abstracts of Intelligence (Punjab).
HISTORICAL MAGAZINES
Ahl-i Hadis, Amritsar, 1904–47.
Isha‘at us-sunnat, Lahore, 1874–ca. 1920.
Mahwari Risala-yi Anjuman-i Himayat-i Islam, Lahore, 1884 ff.
BOOKS AND ARTICLES
Ali, Imran (1988), The Punjab under Imperialism 1885–1947, Princeton: Princeton
University Press.
162 Colonialism, Modernity, and Religious Identities
Amritsari, Sana’ullah (1348 AH.), Tafsir-i Sana’i, Amritsar: Sana’i Barqi Pras.
——— (n.d.), Fatawa-yi sana’iya, Sargodha: Maktaba-yi sana’iya.
——— (1902), Tafsir al-Qur’an bi-kalam ar-Rahman, Amritsar: Sana’i Barqi Pras.
——— (1916), Ba‘is-i surur dar mubahasa-yi Jabalpur, Lahore: Tajuddin.
——— (1948), Islam aur British la’, Karachi: Maktaba-yi Shu‘ayb.
Amselle, Jean Loup (1987), ‘A Case of Fundamentalism in West Africa: Wahhabism
in Bamako’, in Lionel Caplan (ed.), Studies in Religious Fundamentalism,
Basingstoke: Macmillan, pp. 79–94.
Ansari, ‘Abdul‘azim (1984), Tazkira-yi ‘ulama’-i Bhojiyañ, Qasur: ‘Umar Faruq
Bhojiyani.
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