Deobandi

Bibliography of
Deobandi movement
	Clockwise from top: Darul Uloom Deoband, Hussain Ahmed Madani, Taqi Usmani, Shah Ahmad Shafi, Shabbir Ahmad Usmani, Mahmud Hasan Deobandi
	References and footnotes

The Deobandi movement or Deobandism is a revivalist movement within Sunni Islam that adheres to the Hanafi school of law. It formed in the late 19th century around the Darul Uloom Madrassa in Deoband, India, from which the name derives, by Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi, Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, and several others, after the Indian Rebellion of 1857–58. They opposed influence of non-Muslim cultures on the Muslim of South Asia. The movement pioneered education in religious sciences through the Dars-i-Nizami associated with the Lucknow-based ulama of Firangi Mahal with the goal of preserving traditional Islamic teachings from the influx of modernist, secular ideas during British colonial rule. The Deobandi movement's Indian clerical wing, Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, was founded in 1919 and played a major role in the Indian independence movement through its participation in the Pan-Islamist Khilafat movement and propagation of the doctrine of composite nationalism.

Theologically, the Deobandis uphold the doctrine of taqlid (conformity to legal precedent) and adhere to the Hanafi school. Founders of the Deobandi school Nanautavi and Gangohi drew inspiration from the religio-political doctrines of the prominent South Asian Islamic scholar and Sufi reformer Shah Waliullah Dehlawi (1703–1762 / 1114–1175 AH). In its early years, Deobandi scholars engaged in theological debates with Christian and Hindu scholars; with the objective of defending Islamic faith, and to form a popular struggle to overthrow British colonialism. Deobandi theologians of Jamiat Ulema e-Hind, in particular, discussed multiculturalism and opposition to the partition of India, with a strategic vision to safeguard the religious freedom of Muslims in India.

In response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, Saudi Arabia decided to support the Deobandi movement due to its popularity in the Pashtun regions in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which influenced the movement with Salafi ideals.^{[according to whom?]}^{[dubious – discuss]} From the early 1980s to the early 2000s, Deobandis were robustly funded by Saudi Arabia.^{[according to whom?]}^{[dubious – discuss]} Pakistan also strongly supported Deobandi Mujahidin to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and India in the Kashmir insurgency, owing to their affiliation with the Pan-Islamist legacies of Shah Waliullah and the Silk Letter Movement in the subcontinent. Alongside Jamaat-e-Islami, Deobandi Islamist militias constituted the most committed volunteers for the anti-communist Afghan Jihad.

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 have 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.

Foundation and expansion

British colonialism in India^[1] was seen by a group of Indian scholars—consisting of Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, Muhammad Yaqub Nanautawi, Shah Rafi al-Din, Sayyid Muhammad Abid, Zulfiqar Ali, Fazlur Rahman Usmani and Muhammad Qasim Nanotvi—to be corrupting Islam.^[2] The group founded an Islamic seminary (madrassa) known as Darul Uloom Deoband,^[1]^[3]^[4]^[5] here the Islamic revivalist and anti-imperialist ideology of the Deobandis began to develop. In time, the Darul Uloom Deoband became the second largest focal point of Islamic teaching and research after the Al-Azhar University, Cairo. Towards the time of the Indian independence movement and afterward in post-colonial India, the Deobandis advocated a notion of composite nationalism by which Hindus and Muslims were seen as one nation who were asked to be united in the struggle against the British rule.^[6]

In 1919, a large group of Deobandi scholars formed the political party Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind and opposed the partition of India.^[6] Deobandi scholar Maulana Syed Husain Ahmad Madani helped to spread these ideas through his text Muttahida Qaumiyat Aur Islam.^[6] A group later dissented from this position and joined Muhammad Ali Jinnah's Muslim League, including Ashraf Ali Thanwi, Shabbir Ahmad Usmani, Zafar Ahmad Usmani and Muhammad Shafi Deobandi, who formed the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam in 1945.^[7]

Through the organisations such as Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind and Tablighi Jamaat,^[6]^[8]^[9] the Deobandi movement began to spread.^[10]^[11] Graduates of Darul Uloom Deoband in India from countries such as South Africa, China, and Malaysia opened thousands of madaaris throughout the world.^[12]

India

The Deobandi movement in India is controlled by the Darul Uloom Deoband and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind.^{[clarification needed]}^{[citation needed]}

Pakistan

Of Pakistan's estimated 230 million Muslims, some 15-30% or 40-80 million Pakistani Muslims consider themselves Deobandi, forming majority in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. It is the most followed Movement among Pashtuns and Balochs^[13]^[14] According to Heritage Online, nearly 65% of the total seminaries (Madrasah) in Pakistan are run by Deobandis, whereas 25% are run by Barelvis, 6% by Ahl-i Hadith and 3% by various Shia organizations. The Deobandi movement in Pakistan was a major recipient of funding from Saudi Arabia from the early 1980s up until the early 2000s, whereafter this funding was diverted to the rival Ahl-i Hadith movement.^[15] Having seen Deoband as a counterbalance to Iranian influence in the region, Saudi funding is now strictly reserved for the Ahl-i Hadith.^[15]

Deobandi-affiliated groups such as the TTP, SSP, Let, etc. have a militant character^[16] and have attacked and destroyed Sufi sites holy to Sunni Muslims of the Barelvi movement, such as Data Darbar in Lahore, Abdullah Shah Ghazi's tomb in Karachi, Khal Magasi in Balochistan, and Rahman Baba's tomb in Peshawar.^[16]

Bangladesh

As with the rest of the Indian subcontinent, the majority of Muslims in Bangladesh are traditional Sunni, who mainly follow the Hanafi school of jurisprudence (madh'hab) and consequently the Maturidi school of theology.^[17]^[18]

Afghanistan

Deobandi Islam is the most popular form of pedagogy in the Pashtun belt on both sides of the Durand Line that separates Afghanistan and Pakistan.^[15]^[1] Moreover, prominent Afghan and Pakistani Taliban leaders have studied in Deobandi seminaries.^[19]

South Africa

The Deobandi Movement has an international presence today, with its full-fledged manifestation in South Africa, a country where the movement was initiated through the Indian Gujarati merchant class.^[20] The Islamic education system of the Deobandi movement, as well as the necessary components of social and political organizations such as Tablighi Jamaat, Sufism and Jamiat, are fully functioning effectively in South Africa, as they do in India. Madrasas in South Africa provide Islamic higher education and are now centers for Islamic education for foreigners who are interested in receiving a Deobandi-style education. Many of their graduates, especially from Western countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States, are Western students. Some of South African madrasas are recognized globally, providing fatwa services. South Africa is now known for producing exceptional Islamic literature through translation and compilation. Similarly, the Tabligh Jamaat is a hub in South Africa that spreads throughout South and East Africa. Graduates of South African madrassas spend their time in the path of the Tabligh Jamaat. Through the work of several spiritual personalities of the Deobandis, the tradition of Deoband's Tasawwuf (Sufism) has taken root in South Africa. Among them are Muhammad Zakariyya al-Kandhlawi, Masihullah Khan, Mahmood Hasan Gangohi^[3] and Asad Madni. South African Deobandi Muslims have many important and influential educational and socio-political organizations that educate the people and play an important role in religious and social activities. Among them are Jamiatul Ulama South Africa and the Muslim Judicial Council.^[21]

Iran

Students from various regions, including Sistan and Baluchestan in Iran, attended Deoband, which led to the spread of its founders ideas.^[22] This movement had a significant impact on some of the new generation of Iranian intellectuals in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.^[23] After entering Iran, the students of this school continued to expand this thinking and with the formation of missionary groups. These thoughts have been strengthened on one hand due to the cultural relationships between the Baloch tribes and on the other hand due to the connection of Sistan and Baluchestan's Iran and India's Hanafi religious leaders in Iran.^[24] Today, Deobandi thinking is one of the intellectual currents in Sistan and Baluchestan and preaching groups are active in different cities and villages. Its playing a crucial role in Iran's political landscape. The Deobandis aimed to homogenize religious schools and were opposed to certain popular practices. The Naqshbandi order played an important role in the Deobandi school of thought in the Persian-speaking world.^[25]

United Kingdom

In the 1970s, Deobandis opened the first British-based Muslim religious seminaries (Darul-Ulooms), educating imams and religious scholars.^[26] Deobandis "have been quietly meeting the religious and spiritual needs of a significant proportion of British Muslims, and are perhaps the most influential British Muslim group."^[26] In 2015 Ofsted highlighted the Deobandi seminary in Holcombe as a good example of a school "promoting British values, preventing radicalisation and protecting children".^[27] The journalist, Andrew Norfolk, did not agree with this assessment.^[28]

According to a 2007 report by Andrew Norfolk, published in The Times, about 600 of Britain's nearly 1,500 mosques were under the control of "a hardline sect", whose leading preacher loathed Western values, called on Muslims to "shed blood" for Allah and preached contempt for Jews, Christians and Hindus. The same investigative report further said that 17 of the country's 26 Islamic seminaries follow the ultra-conservative Deobandi teachings which The Times said had given birth to the Taliban. According to The Times, almost 80% of all domestically trained Ulema were being trained in these hardline seminaries.^[29] An opinion column in The Guardian described this report as "a toxic mixture of fact, exaggeration and outright nonsense".^[30]

In 2014 it was reported that 45 per cent of Britain's mosques and nearly all the UK-based training of Islamic scholars are controlled by the Deobandi, the largest single Islamic group.^[31]

Most Muslim prison chaplaincies in Britain are Deobandi, and in 2016 Michael Spurr (chief executive of the National Offender Management Service) wrote to Britain's prison governors bringing to their attention that Ofsted had said that "the UK’s most influential Deobandi seminary promotes 'fundamental British values such as democracy, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance for those of different faiths'."^[28]

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).^[32] Dehlawi was a contemporary of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703 - 1792), and they studied in Medina under some of the same teachers, despite having different theological backgrounds.^[33] According to Muhammad Iqbal, Deobandiyat is neither a creed (mathab) nor a sect – terms by which its antagonists try to incite the masses against it – but it is a comprehensive picture and a complete edition of the tack of the Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama’ah in which all the offshoots of the Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama’ah are seen joined with their root.^[34]

Theology

In tenets of faith, the Deobandis follow the Maturidi school of Islamic theology.^[35]^[36]^[37] Their schools teach a short text on beliefs known as al-'Aqa'id al-Nasafiyya by the Hanafi-Maturidi scholar Najm al-Din 'Umar al-Nasafi.^[38]

The official Deobandi book, al-Muhannad 'ala al-Mufannad (The Sword on the Disproved), also known as: al-Tasdiqat li-Daf' al-Talbisat (Endorsements Repelling Deceits), is a work that summarizes the beliefs generally held by the Deobandis. It was authored by Khalil Ahmad al-Saharanpuri (d. 1346/1927) in order to defend and vindicate the Deobandis from the charge of kufr (unbelief or blasphemy) levied against them by their opponents.^[39]

Fiqh (Islamic law)

Deobandis are strong proponents of the doctrine of Taqlid.^[40]^[41]^[42] 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.^[43] They themselves claim to be the followers of the Hanafi school.^[35]^[44] Students at madrasas affiliated with the Deobandi movement study the classic books of Hanafi Law such as Nur al-Idah, Mukhtasar al-Quduri, Sharh al-Wiqayah, and Kanz al-Daqa’iq, culminating their study of the madhhab with the Hidayah of al-Marghinani.^[45]

With regard to views on Taqlid, one of their main opposing reformist groups are the Ahl-i-Hadith, also known as the Ghair Muqallid, the nonconformists, because they eschewed taqlid in favor of the direct use of Quran and Hadith.^[46] 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 argument and legal ruling.^[47] Almost since the very beginnings of the movement, Deobandi scholars have generated a copious amount of scholarly output in an attempt to defend their adherence to a madhhab in general. In particular, Deobandis have penned much literature in defense of their argument that the Hanafi madhhab is in complete accordance with the Quran and Hadith.^[48]

Hadith

In response to this need to defend their madhhab in the light of scripture, Deobandis became particularly 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 advanced madrasa training, in which all six canonical collections of the Sunni Hadith (the Sihah Sittah) are reviewed.^[49]

In a Deobandi madrasa, the position of Shaykh al-Hadith, or the resident professor of Sahih Bukhari, is held in much reverence. Their views were widely shared by a broad range of Islamic reform movements of the colonial period.^[1]^[50]^[51]

Sufism

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