Ahle hadeeth movement What and Why?

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The Jama‘at of Ahle hadeeth for ages

(جَمَاعَةُ أَهْلِ الْحَدِيْثِ فِىْ مَرِّ الْعُصُوْرِ)

Sahabis and Tabe‘iis were the Ahle hadeeth of the early age of Islam. All which places are conquered by them and all to whom they preached Islam and all such Muslims of the then world were Ahle hadeeth. After the 37th hijra, when the Bid‘atis began to appear, the Ahle hadeeth against them began to be known with different name with distinct features. Thereafter, in the 4th century hijra for creation of various Mazhabs on the basis of Taqleed, there appeared in the Muslim world other Mazhabs along with Ahle hadeeth. For example, the famous Muslim geographical explorer Shamsuddeen Muhammad bin Ahmad al-Maqdesi had go out to travel the Muslim areas of the world in the 4th century hijra. He has given some accounts of the then Ahle hadeeth inhabited areas of the world in his famous book of travel Ahsanut Taqaseem fi Ma‘rifatil Aqalim. He says, ‘the people of Hijaz i.e. Makka and Madina were Ahle Sunnah (P.96) and most of the Faqeehs and Qazis in Baghdad, the Abbasid capital were Hanafis (P.127). Practices of the people of Damascus, the Umayyad capital and that of Syria had been on the Mazhabof Ahle hadeeth (وَالْعَمَلُ كَانَ فِيْهِ عَلَى مَذْهَبِ أَصْحَابِ الْحَدِيْثِ) ‘There is no place for Mutazilites as well as Maleki and Daudi here (P.179-80).

Then at 375 A.H. Maqdesi came to Mansura at Sind, the then Muslim capital of India. He told about Mansura (Karachi) that most of the inhabitants (Muslim) there were Ahle hadeeth (أَكْثَرُهُمْ أَصْحَابُ حَدِيْثٍ) and there was an Imam of Daudi Mazhab there, named Qazi Abu Muhammad Mansuri, who have written many valuable books. The people of Multan were Shi‘aites. There were a few Hanafi Faqeehs in every city. None was there who is a Maleki or Mutazilites or Hambali in Mazhab.[1]

Historian Abu Mansoor Abdul Qahir al-Baghdadi (d.429 A.H.) after a half century later than Maqdesi, in narrating about the position of Ahle hadeeth in the then world wrote,

ثُغُوْرُ الرُّوْمِ وَالْجَزِيْرَةِ وَ ثُعُوْرُ الشَّامِ وَ ثُغُوْرُ آذَرْبَيْجَانَ وَبَابِ الْأَبْوَابِ كُلُّهُمْ عَلَى مَذْهَبِ أَهْلِ الْحَدِيْثِ مِنْ أَهْلِ السُّنَّةِ وَ كَذَالِكَ ثُغُوْرُ أَفْرِيْقِيَّةَ وَ أَنْدَلُسَ وَ كُلُّ ثِغَرِ وَرَاءِ بَحْرِ الْمَغْرِبِ أَهْلُهُ مِنْ أَصْحَابِ الْحَدِيْثِ وَ كَذَالِكَ ثُغُوْرُ الْيَمَنِ عَلَى سَاحِلِ الزَّنْجِ ، وَأَمَّا ثُغُوْرُ أَهْلِ مَاوَرَاءِ النَّهْرِ فِيْ وُجُوْهِ التُّرْكِ وَ الصِّيْنِ فَهُمْ فَرِيْقَانِ: إِمَّا شَافِعِيَّةٌ وَإِمَّا مِنْ أَصْحَابِ أَبِيْ حَنِيْفَةَ-

‘All the Muslim inhabitants of the borders of Rum, Algeria, Syria, Azarbaijan, Babul Abwab (central Turkistan) were on the Mazhab of Ahle hadeeth. Similarly all the Muslims of Africa, Spainand the people of the countries behind the Western Sea, were Ahle hadeeth. In the same way all the inhabitants of Yamen on the coastal belt of Abisinia (Ethiopia) were Ahle hadeeth. But among the people of the border area of central Turkistan towards Turkey and China, there were two groups: one was Shafe‘ii and the other was the followers of Abu Haneefah. [2]

It is proved by the above statements of Maqdesi and Abdul Qahir Baghdadi that in spite of strong political domination and Mazhabi oppression of the Mutazilites and Ahlur Rai empowered by the Caliphate of Baghdad, the staying majority in number of the Ahle hadeeth people in Makka, Madina including Syria and in Europe, Africa, Soviet Russia, Middle East, Near East and in important cities of the far East and at a distant land like Sindh up to the 5th century hijra, is really a matter of surprise.

A little after 375 A.H, the administration of Mansura went over to the Isma‘eeli Shi‘aites. On the other hand, from 602 A.H./1201 A.D, the Ahlur Rai Hanafi administration was started in Delhi and Bengal wherefrom the original Arabic rule had been ended up and the administration of the Sub-continent went over sometimes to the Ghaznavites, sometimes to the Afghans and sometimes to the Turks. As a result, due to political niggardliness at one hand and at the other hand the narrowness of Taqleedi Ulama, the ignorance of the people and scarcity of Ahle hadeeth Ulama, the Ahle hadeeth movement in India became gradually feeble.

In the 12th century hijra, by the special grace of almighty Allah, through strong arguments and sharp writings of Shah Waliullah Muhaddith Dehlavi (1114-1176 A.H.), a spirit of following Hadeeth impartially was created among the people and later on, by his sons and through the Jihadmovement initiated by his Mujahid grandson Shah Isma‘eel Shaheed (1193-1246 A.H.), a social revolution was started in the whole of India, which brought a flow tide in Ahle hadeeth movement. About six crores of Ahle hadeeth people at present, living in different corners of the Indian Sub-continent are the products of that movement. In whose flesh, blood, bones and marrows there are still alive the bloody memories of the wars of Balakot, Bansher kella, Mulka, Sittana, Ambala, Chamarqand, Asmast and Andaman along with the tortures of Jail, hanging, confiscation of properties, exilement for life, indescribable oppression of Kalapani and the unstained marks of blood of the martyrs and victors (Ghazis) are remained shining till today. So the unalloyed monotheistic Jama‘at of Ahle hadeeth, burnt with the flame of tortures and oppressions, is the name of the successors of eternal Jihad and the name of that eternal caravan of martyrs, who are determined to sacrifice everything for paying highest priority to the Quran and Sunnah. Allah says, وَلاَ تَهِنُوا وَلاَ تَحْزَنُوا وَأَنْتُمُ الْأَعْلَوْنَ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ مُؤْمِنِينَ- ‘do not be weak, nor be sorry, you are the best, if you are believers (A-le Imran 3/139).

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