Contributions of the Muslim Scholars
for the revival of the Muslims of India
in the 18th and 19th Centuries.
Islamic revival refers to regeneration and renewal of
the Islamic religion. The revivers are known in Islam
as Mujaddid.It is also motivated by a desire to "restore Islam to
ascendancy in a world that has turned away from God".
Within the Islamic tradition, tajdid has been an important
religious concept, which has manifested itself throughout
Islamic history in periodic calls for a renewed commitment to
the fundamental principles of Islam and reconstruction of
society in accordance with the Quran and the traditions of the
Islamic prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH). The concept
of tajdid has played a prominent role in Islamic revival.
In the Indian subcontinent, efforts to revive the authentic and
pristine Islam began with Sheikh Ahmad Sirhindi, and gained
momentum with Shah Waliyullah and Sayyid Ahmad Shaheed.
The stage was thus set, at the beginning of the 20th century,
for Allama Muhammad Iqbal to play his momentous role in
laying down the intellectual foundations of Islamic
Renaissance.
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Sheikh Ahmad Sirhindi
 He is also known as Mujaddid Alf Sani because he was the first
Muslim reformists of the second millennium as per Islamic calendar.
He emphasized the reformation of the individual as well as society.
The basic purpose was the implementation of Islamic laws and
Shariah. Sirhindi was born in the age of Mughal emperor Akbar. At
the time of Akbar’s death, Sheikh was 43 years old. Sirhindi has
labelled this age as “the age of the Islamic poverty". The
establishment of “Din-e-ilahi” was wrapped by the enmity against
Islam on the intended name of enlightenment and moderation.
 He trained groups of disciples and sent them to all the Muslim
countries and to the various cities of India to propagate what he
regarded as the spirit of Islam. He especially asked them to make
people realize the importance of the Sunnah and prepare them to
counteract the forces of heresy (bidat) and to observe and to make
others observe the tenets of Islam. His letters to the great men of the
Muslim world was given wide publicity. In them he discussed
problems connected with Islam and its revival. He pressed the
people to follow the Sunnah rigidly and to uproot heresy.

Shah WaliUllah
 The work of Shah WaliUllah was very important in the revival of
Islam in the subcontinent during 18th century. Shah Wali Ullah was
one of the first Muslim thinkers to state the decline of Mughal Empire
and the vulnerable position of the Muslims was due to the neglect of
the principles of Islam.
 The most important work of Shah WaliUllah was the teaching and
preaching of the basic, pure and true meanings of Islam in
‘Madarsah’. He continued his work through several generations. This
allowed him to spread his thoughts and beliefs, even when he was
dead. He sent several missionaries to different countries, and even
in parts of the subcontinent. He contributed literary fields as well like;
in 1738 he translated Quran into Persian despite of opposition he
faced by orthodox Ulemma. He worked to bring together Shiites and
Sunnis and Ulemma and Sufis. He proposed ways like Ijtihad in
Islam and denounced blind Taqlid. He believed in grooming of
Muslims as a society and educated them to live up as a society in
which economic and social justice would prevail. He educated
Muslims of India to emancipate Muslim society from economic
injustices and social biases. He wrote almost 50 books on various
subjects he trained a group of Ulemma to spread the true knowledge
of Islam.

Syed Ahmad Shaheed
 The work of Syed Ahmad Shaheed had been the very important factor in the
revival of Islam because of many reasons. He was greatly impressed by the
preaching and thoughts of Shah WaliUllah. Therefore, Syed Ahmad Shaheed
started preaching true Islam (as Shah WaliUllah did). However, he was of the
opinion that there should be a political power behind the preaching for the revival
of Islam and Muslim power in India. He founded the Jihad Movement for the
restoration and revival of Muslim power in India. His main objective was the
establishment of an Islamic state on proper Islamic principles. In addition, the aim
of the Jihad Movement was to liberate the Muslims of the Punjab and N.W.F.P
from the Sikh rule.
 In the beginning of 19th century, Punjab and N.W.F.P (now KPK) were under the
Sikh rule of Ranjet Singh. Muslims were facing great difficulty in following their
religion in this area. Therefore, Syed Ahmad chose Punjab and N.W.F.P for his
activities. He also expected help from the Afghan and Pathan tribes of N.W.F.P.
Syed Ahmad established his headquarters at Nowshera. His first encounters
against the Sikh forces took place at Akora in which the Mujahidin were
successful. The jihad movement ended in 1831, but it was a brave and
determined movement effort for the revival of Islam and Muslim power.
 He advised the Muslims to give up extravagance and wasteful expenditure on
marriages, deaths, births, and other occasions. Wealthy Muslims were asked to
look after the poor and the needy. He gave the concept of social justice and
advised the Muslims that due importance and value should be given to peasants
and artists.

Muhammad Allama Iqbal
 Muhammad Allama Iqbal is regarded as one of the
great thinkers of the Islamic Awakening. Allama Iqbal
was a strong proponent of the political and spiritual
revival of Islamic civilisation across the world, but
specifically in India; a series of famous lectures he
delivered to this effect were published as The
Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam.
 Iqbal emphasised that, unlike Christianity, Islam came
with legal concepts with civic significance, with its
religious ideals considered as inseparable from social
order: Therefore, displacement of the Islamic principle
of solidarity, the construction of a policy on national
lines, is simply unthinkable to a Muslim. Allama Iqbal
thus stressed not only the need for the political unity of
Muslim communities but the undesirability of blending
the Muslim population into a wider society not based on
Islamic principles.

Haji Shariatullah
 He was born in 1781 in Faridpur district in east Bengal.
His family was poor. In 1799 He went to Arabia on
pilgrimage and stayed there for nineteen years . He was
greatly influenced by the teaching of Sheikh
Muhammad Abdul Wahab.
 He believed that the miserable condition of the Muslims
in India led to the country being Dar-Ul-Harb (Country
under Foreign Rule). He told that Friday prayer and Eid
prayer cannot be offered here. He also believed that
Muslim community had moved away from Islamic
practice. He wanted them to return to what he thought
was the proper observation of Islamic duties called
Faraizi. This was why he started his movement was
called Faraizi Movement. The Faraizi Movement
supported the idea of Jihad against the non-Muslims
who were undermining the true principles of Islam.

 He started Faraizi movement to restore the Pride of the
Muslims and remove what he thought were the Hindu
practices. Emphasis was placed on praying for past sins and
promising to lead a righteous life in the future which had crept
into their worship. The success of this movement caused
British and Hindu Landlord’s and they did not want Haji
Shariat Ullah to create difficulty for them by uniting a desire to
improve their lives and purify their religion so they drove Haji
out of the reign to Nawabganj in Dhaka where he died in
1840. His work however was carried by his son Mohsin-ud-
Din who continued to improve the position of Muslim in East
Bengal and introduced important economic measures. He
divides East Bengal into circle under control of each Khalifa
to carry out religious activities. He helped the peasants to
oppose land taxes and he threatened to declare Jihad against
the British so he was captured and put in prison where he
died in 1860.

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Iman Fatima
7 Amber
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