Shah Waliullah of Delhi
It is sufficient to follow past precedents or traditional thinking when one engages in the work of preservation. However, to engage in intellectual leadership, one must possess a deeper understanding of the times and the capacity to engage in ijtihad, creative interpretation of Islamic sources and their application in changed circumstances.
Another phase in the role of the Ulama is symbolized by the figure of the well-known Shah Waliullah of Delhi (1703-1762). Undoubtedly, Shah Waliullah did some valuable work—for instance, translating the Quran into Persian, establishing the Madrasa Rahimiya in Delhi, promoting the study of Hadith, penning such important works as Hujjatullah al-Balighah (‘The Excellent Proof of God’), and so on. However, his contributions were defensive. Scholarly contributions of the nature of preservation or safeguarding are, without doubt, valuable contributions. However, there is a fundamental difference between both these roles. The former has to do with the work relating to the preservation of the past, while the latter has to do with the creative intellectual leadership related to the building of the future.
His work, Hujjatullah al-Balighah, had been, as its name implies, the conclusive argument of God. This work could have contributed to the nature of creative leadership. However, in its style and presentation, this book is a traditional expression of the divine religion rather than a rational explanation or interpretation of religion.
When someone engages in a scholarly work of the nature of preservation, it is sufficient for him to have full knowledge of the legacy of the past. However, so far as playing the role of intellectual leadership is concerned, what is required is to possess the vision or foresight into the future. The leadership role is played in the present, but the result is produced in the future. That is why for the former, it is sufficient to follow the past precedents or traditional thinking. However, for the latter, one must possess a more profound understanding or awareness of the times and the capacity of a high order to engage in ijtihad, that is, creative interpretation of Islamic sources and their application in changed circumstances.
Shah Waliullah writes about himself in his book Fuyuz al-Haramayn, “I saw myself in a dream as Qaimuzzaman or Master of the Age” (p. 89), which means that when God Almighty wanted to establish a system of goodness and benevolence, He made him a tool and a medium for the fulfilment of that noble cause.
I think Shah Waliullah’s dream was true. However, it does not mean that he was Qaimuzzaman, but that he should become Qaimuzzaman or the pillar of the time.
The importance of Shah Waliullah is that he was born at the dawn of the modern age. He was indeed born at a historical juncture and understood the revolutionary changes that were taking place in the world. As such, he could have established a tradition of Islamic activism that could have continued for centuries after him. In that way, the “modern age” could have truly become an age of revival for Islam. He was indeed at the juncture where he could have become the Qaimuzzaman, but sadly enough, he failed to play this historic role.
Shah Waliullah lived in the 18th century. Long before his times, in the 17th century, the seeds of a new age had already been sown in Europe, which was later to bring about a massive change across the world. That was the age of science, which replaced the age of taqlid or traditional thinking. In earlier times, when polytheism and idolatry were prevalent, natural phenomena were explained in terms of religious belief. However, for the first time in human history, these phenomena were explained purely in terms of material causes with the dawning of a new age. This was to lead to a fundamental transformation in human thought. However, Shah Waliullah was more concerned with local developments, in which he became deeply embroiled. He did not plan a course of action based on far-sightedness, which was what could have been expected of a Qaimuzzaman.
In ancient times various natural phenomena were explained in terms of faith, for it was believed that God was the doer behind all events. Before Islam, when polytheism was rife, people generally believed several gods were responsible for these various phenomena. With the advent of Islam or the dawning of the age of Tawheed, these phenomena began to be explained in terms of the actions of a single God. In the age that followed, various natural phenomena began to be explained purely in terms of cause and effect for the first time.
In the 16th century, the phenomena of Nature were subjected to scientific investigation. Galileo (1564-1642) studied the moon, the planets and other celestial bodies. He realised that Nature works according to such firmly established laws that its movements could be explained with mathematical precision. According to him, the Book of Nature is written in mathematical form.
Despite opposition from the Church, this trend of thought gathered momentum. By the 17th century, numerous scholars in Europe were seeking to provide a mechanical or materialistic interpretation of natural phenomena. This mechanical philosophy came to be the dominant theme of 17th century science.
In the 18th century, Isaac Newton took this intellectual process to its culmination. His Principia was published in Latin in 1687, about 75 years before Shah Waliullah’s death. The book appeared in English in 1729. While scholars had long discussed space, time, gravity and force, Newton took these debates to new heights. In his book, Principia, Newton presented the law of universal gravitation with prodigious mathematical reasoning.
So, by Shah Waliullah’s time, there was ample evidence of an intellectual revolution sweeping Europe. The scientific aspect of this revolution held great importance for Islam. It was tearing apart traditional ways of thinking about the world. It accepted only those explanations that measured up to modern scientific standards. However, Shah Waliullah seemed to have been entirely unaware of these enormous changes at the global level. He viewed things from the narrow prism of the Delhi of his times and tried to address them by employing simple strategies. Had he travelled about widely and viewed the developments that were taking place from a global perspective, he would have realised that the real challenge was that of a veritable global storm, and not, as he thought, that of saving the tottering Mughal Empire—which, in any case, was a futile effort. He did not realise that this Empire was already dying, with the authority of the Emperor restricted to just Delhi and its suburbs.
The fact is that the Mughal Empire that Shah Waliullah was so concerned to revive had already become so weak that there was no possibility of its survival for any significant length of time. Despite this, Shah Waliullah continued to have great expectations of it. In his Al-Tafhimat al-Ilahiyyah, he addressed the Muslim Sultans of his times, telling them that it is God’s will that they must draw out their swords and not put them back in their sheaths until God ‘establishes a distinction between Muslims and polytheists’ and until ‘unbelievers’ had been so suppressed that they were rendered wholly powerless. He claimed that God had commanded that the Muslim Sultans wage war against non-Muslims until fitnah or strife was abolished and religion remained entirely for God. (Al-Tafhimat al-Ilahiyyah, 1936, Vol. 1, pp. 215-16)
In reality, the nominal Muslim powers that Shah Waliullah turned to had by his own time become so weakened as to be almost non-existent. The Mughal Empire was wracked with internecine strife, with rival claimants to the throne killing each other. To lecture about ‘jihad through the sword’ to such a Sultanate was tantamount to singing a martial song to a corpse.
Shah Waliullah is credited with saving the tottering Mughal Empire in the popular Muslim imagination. Through Nawab Najibud-Daulah, he invited Ahmad Shah Abdali, ruler of Kabul, to invade India. Abdali defeated the Marathas, formidable enemies of the Mughals, at Panipat in 1761. However, if one looks at this development from the proper perspective, rather than being an outstanding achievement of Shah Waliullah, it reflects a lack of foresight and clarity of thought on his part. Shah Waliullah could have made a much better contribution had he studied the celebrated Muqaddimah of the noted Muslim scholar Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406). In it, Ibn Khaldun has perceptively noted that every Sultanate survives only for a limited period, just like an individual (p. 170) and that when it grows old, it cannot stand up again (p. 293).
Had Shah Waliullah been cognizant of this law, he would have known that the task before him was not to seek to protect the pillars of the tottering Mughal Empire that had, as it were almost wholly gnawed away by termites and that, in line with the laws of Nature, were bound sooner or later to collapse. Instead, he would have known that he needed to turn to understand the prevailing conditions and, accordingly, help the Muslim ummah to chart a new course in its history.
