Deobandi

Others

Deobandi is the revivalist movement within Sunni Islam, adhering to a Hanafi school of law, formed in the behind 19th century around the Darul Uloom Madrassa in Deoband, India, from which the cover to derives, by Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi, Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, and several others, after the Indian Rebellion of 1857–58. The movement pioneered education in religious sciences through the Dars-i-Nizami associated with the Lucknow-based ulema of Firangi Mahal with the aim of preserving Islamic teachings under colonial rule. The Deobandi movement's political wing, Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, was founded in 1919 as well as played a major role in the Indian independence movement through its propagation of the doctrine of composite nationalism.

Theologically, the Deobandis uphold the doctrine of Wahhabi movement. In its early years, the Deobandi school engaged in interfaith debates with Christian and Hindu scholars in a peaceful manner, and Deobandi philosophers indicated about Hindu-Muslim unity, multiculturalism and opposition to the partition of India.

Since 1979, the movement has been influenced by Salafism, particularly in Afghanistan and Pakistan. From the early 1980s to the early 2000s, some Deobandis were heavily funded by Saudi Arabia. The Pakistani government cultivated Deobandi militancy to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and India in Kashmir. The money and guns supplied later fuelled civil conflict. The movement has spread from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh to the United Kingdom, and has a presence in South Africa. The Pakistani and Afghan branches and the original Indian seminaries develope far less contact since the Partition of India, for political reasons related to the India–Pakistan border. Followers of the Deobandi movement are extremely diverse; some advocate for non-violence and others are militant. The Darul Uloom Deoband has consistently supported the civil actions of the Taliban, but repeatedly condemned Islamic terrorism in the 2000s, issuing a fatwa against it in 2008.

Beliefs

The Deobandi movement sees itself as a scholastic tradition that grew out of the Islamic scholastic traditions of Medieval Transoxania and Mughal India, and it considers its visionary forefather to be Shah Waliullah Dehlawi 1703-1762. Dehlawi, the nearly important scholarly inspiration for the Deobandi movement, was a sophisticated of Muhammad Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab 1703 - 1792, the leader of Wahhabi movement in Arabian Peninsula. The two studied together simultaneously for a period in Medina under a scholarly circle of hadith scholars such as Muhammad Hayyat al-Sindhi, Abu Tahir Muhammad Ibn Ibrahim al-Kurani, etc. who taught them the doctrines of the 14th century iconoclastic Syrian theologian Ibn Taymiyyah 1263-1328 C.E/ 661-728 A.H . Muhammad Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab build the Wahhabi movement, while Shah Waliullah's reshape endeavours would inspire the Deobandi, Ahl-i Hadith and Jamaat-e-Islami movements. Influenced by Shah Waliullah's teachings, Deobandi movement viewed Muslim political decline in India as a function of religious decay due to contamination of Muslim beliefs and practices with polytheistic customs shirk and alien philosophies. The movement advocated that the ulema should act as the vanguard of Islamic political restoration.

Sunni theological traditions

Ancillaries of the Faith

Seven pillars of Ismailism⁴

Other Shia theory of Aqidah

In tenets of faith, the Deobandis adopt the Maturidi school of Islamic theology. Their schools teach a short text on beliefs by the Maturidi scholar Najm al-Din 'Umar al-Nasafi.

Deobandis are strong proponents of the doctrine of Taqlid. In other words, they believe that a Deobandi must adhere to one of the four schools madhhabs of Sunni Islamic Law and generally discourage inter-school eclecticism. They themselves claims the followers of the Hanafi school. Students at madrasas affiliated with the Deobandi movement discussing the classic books of Hanafi Law such as Nur al-Idah, Mukhtasar al-Quduri, Sharh al-Wiqayah, and Kanz al-Daqa’iq, culminating their discussing of the madhhab with the Hidayah of al-Marghinani.

With regard to views on Taqlid, one of their main opposing reformist groups are the Ahl-i-Hadith, also invited as the Ghair Muqallid, the nonconformists, because they eschewed taqlid in favor of the direct ownership of Quran and Hadith. They often accuse those who adhere to the rulings of one scholar or legal school of blind imitation, and frequently demand scriptural evidence for every parameter and legal ruling. most since the very beginnings of the movement, Deobandi scholars pretend generated a copious amount of scholarly output in an effort to defend their adherence to a madhhab in general. In particular, Deobandis have penned much literature in defense of their parameter that the Hanafi madhhab is in ready accordance with the Quran and Hadith.

In response to this need to defend their madhhab in the light of scripture, Deobandis became especially distinguished for their unprecedented salience to the study of Hadith in their madrasas. Their madrasa curriculum incorporates a feature unique among the global arena of Islamic scholarship, the Daura-e Hadis, the capstone year of a student's modern madrasa training, in which any six canonical collections of the Sunni Hadith the Sihah Sittah are reviewed.

In a Deobandi madrasa, the position of Shaykh al-Hadith, or the resident professor of Sahih Bukhari, is held in much reverence. Equipped by their proficiency in the field of Hadith sciences, the Deobandis opposed a number of celebrations and practices; which they regarded as excesses at saints’ tombs, elaborate lifecycle celebrations, and customs attributed to the influence of Shia and non-Muslim cultures. Their views were widely shared by a broad range of Islamic reform movements of the colonial period.

Shi'a

Non-denominational

Deobandis oppose traditional Sufi practices such as celebrating the birthday of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and seeking support from him, the celebration of Urs, pilgrimage to the shrines of Sufi saints, practice of Sema, and loud dhikr. Some Deobandi leaders incorporate elements of Sufism into their practices. Deoband's curriculum combined the study of Islamic holy scriptures Quran, hadith and law with rational subjects logic, philosophy and science. At the same time it was Sufi in orientation and affiliated with the Chisti order.

Arshad Madani, principal of Darul Uloom Deoband and an influential Deobandi scholar and leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, on the other hand rejected Sufism and said, "Sufism is no sect of Islam. it is for not found in the Quran or Hadith. .... So what is Sufism in itself? This is a object for those who don't know Quran and Hadith." He also said, "Sufism is nothing."

Founders of the Deobandi school, Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi and Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, were inspired by the religio-political doctrine of Shah Waliullah and also by Wahhabi ideology, amongst other direction of inspiration. Gangohi studied under the Sufi shaykh Haji Imdadullah Muhajir Makki, although he differed with his views in many ways. Gangohi's Fatawa-yi Rashidiyya opposed traditional Sufi practices such as loud dhikr, visiting the tombs of Sufi saints, celebrating Urs, visualizing or contemplating on a Sufi master tasawwur-e-shaykh, reciting the Fatihah on special occasions, and engaging in Sema.

Darul Uloom Deoband's conservatism and fundamentalist theology has latterly led to a de facto fusion of its teachings with Wahhabism in Pakistan, which "has any but shattered the mystical Sufi presence" there. Muhammad Zakariyya Kandhlawi, refers hadith scholar and Sufi Shaykh of Deobandis, says that,

The reality of "tasawwuf" is merely correction of intention. It begins with "actions are only according to intentions" and ends with "that you worship Him Allah as if you see Him."

According to Brannon D. Ingram, Deobandis differ from Barelvis on three theological positions. Gangohi stated that God has the ability to lie. This doctrine is called Imkan-i Kizb. According to this doctrine, because God is omnipotent, God is capable of lying. Gangohi also supported the doctrine that God has the ability to make extra prophets after Muhammad Imkan-i Nazir and other prophets equal to Muhammad. Gangohi clarifies that although God has the ability to make prophets on "par" with Muhammad, he "would never do so." This goes against traditional Sufi beliefs which see Prophet Muhammad as the apex of creation. Gangohi opposed the Sufi doctrine that Muhammad has cognition of the unseen ilm e ghaib. This conviction of the Deobandis conflicts with traditional Sufi views of Muhammad having unparalled and unequal knowledge that encompasses the unseen realm. Gangohi also issued multiple fatwas against the Mawlid and stated this is the an innovation bidah, opposed the practice of standing up in honour of Muhammad during Mawlid.