Wahabi/Walliullah Movement

The teachings of Abdul Wahab of Arabia and the preachings of Shah Walliullah (1702-1763) inspired this essentially revivalist response to Western influences and the degeneration

which had set in among Indian Muslims and called for a return to the true spirit of Islam. He was the first Indian Muslim leader of the 18th century to organise Muslims around the two-fold ideals of this movement: (i) desirability of harmony among the four schools of Muslim jurisprudence which had divided the Indian Muslims (he sought to integrate the best elements of the four schools); (ii) recognition of the role of individual conscience in religion where conflicting interpretations were derived from the Quran and the Hadis.

The teachings of Walliullah were further popularised by Shah Abdul Aziz and Syed Ahmed Barelvi who also gave them a political perspective. Un-Islamic practices that had crept into Muslim society were sought to be eliminated. Syed Ahmed called for a return to the pure Islam and the kind of society that had existed in the Arabia of the Prophet’s time. India was considered to be dar-ul-Harb (land of the kafirs) and it needed to be converted to dar-ul-Islam (land of Islam). Initially, the movement was directed at the Sikhs in Punjab but after the British annexation of Punjab (1849), the movement was directed against the British. During the 1857 Revolt, the Wahabi’s played an important role in spreading anti-British feelings. The Wahabi Movement fizzled out in the face of British military might in the 1870s.