Related posts: Why are Pashtun nationalists mute on Deobandi ideology and identity of TTP-ASWJ terrorists? – See more at: https://lubpak.com/archives/306125

Role of Abdul Ghaffar Khan in the spread of Deobandi ideology in Pashtuns – See more at: https://lubpak.com/archives/306211

Shah Waliullah’s links with Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab – by Allama Muhammad Umar Icharwi – See more at: https://lubpak.com/archives/313032

Historical context and roots of Deobandi terrorism in Pakistan and India – See more at: https://lubpak.com/archives/306115

Shah Waliullah (a hero of Deobandi and Takfiri clerics) wrote letters to Ahmad Shah Durrani (or Ahmad Shah Abdali, a hero of many Deobandi Pashtuns) to come and kill both Hindu Marhattas (Marathas) and Shia Muslims in Delhi. (Reference: Sayyid Athar Abbas Rizvi, ‘Shah Waliullah and his times’, Ma’rifat publishing house 1980, page 306).

By the end of 1759, Ahmad Shah Abdali with his Afghan tribes and his Rohilla ally Najib Khan had reached Lahore as well as Delhi and defeated the smaller enemy garrisons. Many Shias and Hindu Marathas were killed in Delhi by the Durrani’s army. (
http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/2013/02/130223_shia_sunni_relations_subcont_zs.shtml)

History tells us that Ahmad Shah Durrani massacred thousands of Shia Muslims and Hindus in Kashmir because of local Sunni/Salafi population’s invitation to him to help them undermine the Shia rulers (remanant of Chak dynasty) and Shia population. In middle of the 18th century, when the Mughal Empire had begun its decline, a few Sunni/Salafi Muslim Kashmiri nobles invited Ahmed Shah Abdali, the brutal semi-Salafi ruler of Afghanistan, to liberate their country. Pathans/Pashtuns, like Moghals obliged and over ran Kashmir in 1752. In order to maintain their stranglehold over Kashmir, Abdali’s satraps not only doubled taxes of their impoverished subjects but specifically persecuted the Shia minority with a fanatical vigour as they saw in them a perpetual threat for their puritanical Salafi/Sunni beliefs. Fifty years of Afghan rule were rife with suppression and massacres of Shia Muslims. With Kashgari sowing the seeds of hatred among the Muslim community for political ends Shia’s in Kashmir in subsequent years had to pass through the most atrocious period of their history. Plunder, loot and massacres which came to be known as ‘Taarajs’ virtually devastated the community.

History records 10 such Taarajs also known as ‘Taraj-e-Shia’ in 1548, 1585, 1635, 1686, 1719, 1741, 1762, 1801, 1830, 1872 during which the Shia habitations were plundered, people slaughtered, libraries burnt and their sacred sites desecrated. Such was the reign of terror during this period that the community widely went into the practice of Taqya (temporary or permanent conversion to Sunni sect) in order to preserve their lives and the honour of their womenfolk. Village after village disappeared, with community members either migrating to safety further north or dissolving in the majority faith. The community has yet to recover fully from the shocks of these Taarajs, the last one suffered more than a century ago, and the fear of hidden lurking dangers continues to haunt it to date.(http://edition.presstv.ir/detail.fa/278797.html and http://kashmirobserver.net/news/features/shias-kashmir-socio-political-dilemmas)

Evidence of beheadings of Hindus, Sikhs and Shias by Pashtun Salafist ruler Ahmad Shah Durrani Abadali and his invading thugs. And this happened much before the Saudi, USA, Punjabi establishment’s Deobandi Jihad project in Pashtun areas. History is crue; denial and abuses are the only escape for insecure nationalists.

After his invastion of Delhi, Ahmed Shah Durrani, withdrew his army to Anupshahr, on the frontier of the Rohilla country, where he using the pan-Islamic discourse, successfully and shrewdly threatened and lured the Shia ruler, Nawab of Oudh Shuja-ud-Daula, to join his alliance against the Hindu Marathas. Shuja-ud-Daula felt threatened by the might of Durrani’s army, and decided to join him. This was in spite of the fact that Hindu Marathas time and again helped and showed sympathy towards Shuja-ud-daula. The Nawab Shuja’s mother was of the opinion that he should join the Marathas. The Marathas had helped Safdarjung (father of Shuja) in defeating Rohillas in Farrukhabad.

However, Shuja decided to join Abdali (Durrani), and was subsequently very much ill-treated in the Abdali camp. Abdali was an Afghan Sunni (semi-Salafi) Muslim and Shuja was a Shia Muslim of Persian origin. Shah Shuja was to regret his decision to join the Afghan forces. In time, his forces became embroiled in clashes between the orthodox Sunni/Salafi Afghans and his own Shia followers. He is alleged to have later secretly sent letters to Bhausaheb through his spies regretting his decision to join Abdali (Vishwas Patel, Panipat, book about Third Battle of Panipat, http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10147601-panipat)

While Hazara Shia men along with tribes of other ethnic groups had been recruited and added to the army of Ahmad Shah Durrani in the 18th century (just like Pakistan army’s use of Shias of Gilgit Baltistan in NLI in the Kargil war), by the mid‑18th century Hazara Shias were forced out of Helmand and the Arghandab District of Kandahar Province. Ahmad Shah Durrani forced the Mohammad Khwaja and Jaghatu Hazaras under central control and the Behsud Hazaras southwest of Kabul soon followed suit. The Sheikh Ali, Dai Zangi, Dai Kundi, and Jaghuri were pacified and left under the control of their own mirs, the elders of the tribe.

http://www.tribalanalysiscenter.com/PDF-TAC/The%20Hazara%20Wars.pdf

By and large, Muslim intellectuals in Pakistan and India have eulogized Waliullah that he was deeply hurt with the plight of his community particularly after “Nadir Shah’s sack of Delhi and the Maratha, Jat and Sikh depredation” (The Muslim Community of Indo-Pakistan subcontinent by Istiaq Hussain Qureshi, 1985, page 199). But they ignored the communal bias of Waliullah, for whom Maratha, Jat and Sikh revolts were “external danger to the community”. Waliullah hated Nadir Shah for his barbarous invasion but he was more so because of him being a Shia Muslim.

In his letter to Ahmad Shah Durrani/Abdali, Shah Waliullah advised him for “orders prohibiting Holi and Muharram festivals should be issued” exposed his hostility towards both Hindus and Shias. (Shah Wali Allah and his times by Saiyid Athar Abbas Rizvi, 1980, pp. 209-304)

Reminding the Muslim rulers of the dominant role of Muslims even in a multi-religious society Wali Ullah said, “Oh Kings! Allah urges you to draw your swords and not put them back in their sheaths again until Allah has separated the Muslims from the polytheists (Sunni Sufis) and the rebelious Kafirs (Shias, Hindus) and the sinners are made absolutely feeble and helpless” (Ibid. page 299) http://saag.org/paper629

BBC Urdu’s Wusatullah Khan thus writes on Shah Waliullah’s violent, takfiri and sectarian tendencies and also notes how Ahmad Shah Durrani played a key role in the massacres of Shia Muslims in Delhi:

شاہ ولی اللہ اور محمد بن عبدالوہاب سترہ سو تین عیسوی ہیں جزیرہ نما عرب میں محمد بن عبدالوہاب اور ہندوستان میں شاہ ولی اللہ کی پیدائش ہوئی۔ دونوں نے اگلے تین سو برس میں مسلمان دنیا پر گہرے نقوش چھوڑے۔ شاہ ولی اللہ کی تعلیمات نے ان کی وفات کے سو برس بعد دیوبند مکتبِ فکر کی صورت اختیار کی اور محمد بن عبدالوہاب کی دین کو تمام علتوں سے پاک کرنے کی تحریک و تشریح نے ایک طرف خاندانِ سعود کی فکری تعمیر کی اور دوسری طرف خالص پن کے نظریے نے شدت اختیار کرتے کرتے سلفی رخ لے لیا جس نے آگے چل کر تکفیری فلسفے کی شکل میں القاعدہ کو جنم دیا اور پھر اس دھارے میں دیگر شیعہ مخالف دھارے بھی ملتے چلے گئے

شاہ ولی اللہ دہلوی شاہ عبدالرحیم کے صاحبزادے تھے اور شاہ عبدالرحیم اورنگ زیب عالمگیر کے فتاویِ عالمگیری کے مرتبین میں شامل تھے۔جب شاہ ولی اللہ نے آنکھ کھولی تو ہندوستان میں مغل سورج ڈوب رہا تھا۔ شاہ ولی اللہ نے لگ بھگ دس برس کا عرصہ عرب میں گذارا۔ اگرچہ انکی محمد بن عبدالوہاب سے براہِ راست ملاقات نہیں ہوئی تاہم دونوں کے کچھ اساتذہ مشترک ضرور رہے۔ شاہ ولی اللہ ہندوستان میں مسلمانوں کے سیاسی و حکومتی زوال پر خاصے مضطرب تھے ۔انہوں نے اہلِ سنت کے چاروں مکاتیب میں فکری و فقہی ہم آہنگی کی پرزور وکالت کی تاہم فقہِ جعفریہ اس ہم آہنگی سے خارج رکھا گیا۔ انہوں نے مختلف مذہبی موضوعات و مسائل پر اکیاون تصنیفات رقم کیں۔ ایک کتاب قرت العینین میں اہلِ تشیع کو کمزور عقیدے کا فرقہ ثابت کیا گیا

شاہ ولی اللہ نے احمد شاہ ابدالی کو ہندوستان پر حملہ آور ہونے کی جو دعوت دی اس کا مدعا و مقصد نہ صرف بڑھتی ہوئی مرہٹہ طاقت کا زور توڑنا بلکہ دہلی سے رافضی اثرات ختم کرنا بھی تھا۔چنانچہ جب ابدالی حملہ آور ہوا تو اس نے دہلی میں اہلِ تشیع کو بطورِ خاص نشانہ بنایا۔ شاہ ولی اللہ کے صاحبزادے شاہ عبدالعزیز محدث دہلوی بھی بلند پایہ عالم تھے لیکن اثنا عشری عقائد کے بارے میں انکے خیالات اپنے والد کی نسبت زیادہ سخت تھے ۔اس کا اندازہ انکی تصنیف تحفہِ اثنا عشریہ پڑھ کے بھی ہوسکتا ہے

جہاں تک ہندوستان میں وہابی عقائد کی ترویج کا معاملہ ہے تو ان کی اشاعت بہت بعد میں شروع ہوئی اور پہلا اہم مرکز ریاست بھوپال بنا جب محمد بن عبدالوہاب کے افکار سے متاثر ایک سرکردہ عالم صدیق علی خان کی انیسویں صدی کی آخری چوتھائی میں بھوپال کی حکمراں شاہجہاں بیگم سے شادی ہوئی اور وہابی فکر کو ریاستی سرپرستی میسر آگئی تاہم بریلوی اور دیوبندی مکتبِ فکر کو ہندوستان کی سرزمین جتنی راس آئی ویسی مقبولیت وہابی نظریات کو حاصل نا ہوسکی۔ البتہ آزادی کے بعد شیعہ سنی تعلقات کے تناظر میں وہابی و دیوبندی مکتبِ فکر نے عمومی زہن پر مخصوص اثرات مرتب کیے وقت گذرنے کے ساتھ ساتھ آج تک وہ اثرات کس کس شکل میں ظاہر ہوئے ہیں۔یہ کوئی راز نہیں ہے۔

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/2013/02/130223_shia_sunni_relations_subcont_zs.shtml

See more at: https://lubpak.com/archives/245395

Ahmed Shah Durrani is also notorious for holocaust of Sikhs in Punjab. When Ahmad Shah Durrani returned for a sixth campaign of conquest (his fifth being in 1759-61), tens of thousands of Sikhs including women and children were mercilessly slaughtered by his forces. In the twilight of dawn, Durrani and his allies surprised the Sikhs, who numbered about 50,000, most of them noncombatants. It was decided that the Sikh fighters would form a cordon around the slow-moving baggage train consisting of women, children and old men. They would then make their way to the desert in the south-west by the town of Barnala, where they expected their ally Alha Singh of Patiala to come to their rescue. An eye witness account describes the Sikhs. “Fighting while moving and moving while fighting, they kept the baggage train marching, covering it as a hen covers its chicks under its wings.” More than once, the troops of the invader broke the cordon and mercilessly butchered the women, children and elderly inside, but each time the Sikh warriors regrouped and managed to push back the attackers. By early afternoon, the large fighting cavalcade reached a big pond, the first they had come across since morning. Suddenly the bloodletting ceased as the two forces, man and beast, resorted to the water to quench their thirst and relax their tired limbs. From that point on, the two forces went their separate ways. The Afghan forces, who had inflicted terrible human losses on the Sikh nation, and had in turn suffered many killed and wounded, were exhausted, having not had any rest in two days. While the living remainder of the Sikhs proceeded into the semi-desert toward Barnala, Ahmad Shah Durrani’s army returned to the capital of Lahore with hundreds of Sikhs in chains. From the capital, Durrani returned to Amritsar and blew up the Harimandir Sahib which since 1757 the Sikhs had rebuilt. As an act of intended sacrilege, the pool around it was filled with cow carcasses It was estimated that 25,000 to 30,000 Sikhs were killed on that horrific day of 5 February 1762. As it is doubtful their entire population would have numbered 100,000, it means one third to a half of all Sikhs perished. The Sikhs were not the only people who were targeted.

(Sardar Singh Bhatia, “Vadda Ghallughara”, The Encyclopedia of Sikhism, Volume IV, Patiala, Punjabi University, 1998; Syad Muhammad Latif, The History of Punjab from the Remotest Antiquity to the Present Time, New Delhi, Eurasia Publishing House (Pvt.) Ltd., 1964, p. 283; Khushwant Singh, A History of the Sikhs, Volume I: 1469-1839, Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1978; Khushwant Singh, A History of the Sikhs, Volume I: 1469-1839, Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1978, p. 154-55; Sardar Singh Bhatia, “Vadda Ghallughara”, The Encyclopedia of Sikhism, Volume IV, Patiala, Punjabi University, 1998, pp. 396; Syad Muhammad Latif, The History of Punjab from the Remotest Antiquity to the Present Time, New Delhi, Eurasia Publishing House (Pvt.) Ltd., 1964, p. 283.)

The puritanical, revivalist Deobandi movement was inspired by the pan-Sunni and semi-Salafi ideology of Shah Waliullah (1703–1762), while the foundation of Darul Uloom Deoband was laid on 30 May 1866. Shah Waliullah was, in turn, influenced by Ibn Taymiyyah, who also inspired Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahab, the founder of Wahabism in Saudi Arabia. Deobandi scholars adopted Shah Waliullah (1703-1762) as their spiritual patron and were particularly inspired by his Darul Harb (place of war) violent Jihadi ideology.

Annemarie Schimmel in her book, Islam in the Indian Subcontinent, tells us that that Shah Waliullah, the spititual forefather of the Deobandis, in his youth was greatly inspired by the anti-innovation, anti-Shiite thought of Sheikh Ahmad Sirhindi (aka Mujaddid Alf Sani). It seems that the antecedents of Shah Waliullah were derived from a Salafist and Naqshbandi inspiration while his followers were inclined by his teachings to Wahabism. Shah Waliullah also invited Pashtun ruler of Afghanistan Ahmed Shah Abdali encouraging him to do violent Jihad against Hindus and Shias of India. This sowed the seeds of a tripartite Deobandi-Wahabi-Naqshbandi alliance that has now come into being. In Pakistan, the alliance is particulary manifested in the Deobandi-Wahhabi alliance. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Islam-Indian-Subcontinent-Handbuch-Orientalistik/dp/9004061177

https://lubpak.com/archives/280211

Noted historian Dr. Tara Chand remarks:

“He (Wali Ullah) appealed to Najib-ud-Daulah, Nizamul Mulk and Ahmad Shah Abdali – all three the upholders of condemned system – to intervene and restore the pristine glory of Islam. It is amazing that he should have placed his trust in Ahmad Shah Abdali, who had ravaged the fairest provinces of the Mogul empire, had plundered the Hindus and Muslims without the slightest compunction and above all, who was an upstart without any root among his own people” (History of the Freedom Movement of India, volume I, 1970, page 180).

Even though the defeat of Hindu Marathas by Abdali could not halt the sliding decline of Mogul Empire, it made Wali Ullah the hero of Indian Muslims and he emerged as main inspiring force for Muslim politics in this country. His Islamic thought was regarded as saviour of the faith and its impact left a deep imprint on Indian Muslim psyche, which continues to inspire them even today. Almost all the Muslim organisations in this country directly or indirectly draw their political inspiration from Wali Ullah.

Wali Ullah died in 1762 but his son Abd al Aziz (1746-1823) carried his mission as a result India faced violent communal disorder for decades. Considering Indian subcontinent no longer Dar-ul-Islam (A land, where Islam is having political power) and British rule as Dar ul-Harb (A land, where Islam is deprived of its political authority), he laid emphasis on jehadi spirit of the faith. Saiyid Ahmad (1786-1831) of Rai Bareli a trusted Salafist disciple of Abd al Aziz launched jehad on the Sikh kingdom but got defeated and killed in battle of Balkot in May 1831. Tired with their failures in re-establishing Muslim rule the followers of Wali Ullah preferred to keep their movement in suspended animation for decades, when the Britishers established their firm grip on this country.

The Sepoy mutiny of 1857 was a turning point in the history of Islamic fundamentalism in India. With its failure Indian Muslims lost all hopes to restore Muslim power in India. But successive Ulama in their attempt to keep the movement alive turned towards institutionalised Islamic movement. Some prominent followers of Salfi/Wahhabi movement like Muhammad Qasim Nanutvi and Rashid Ahmad Gangohi drew furter inspiration from the religio-political concept of Waliullah and set up an Islamic Madrassa at Deoband in U.P. on May 30, 1866, which grew into a higher Islamic learning centre and assumed the present name of Dar-ul-Uloom (Abode of Islamic learning) in 1879. Since then, Dar-ul-Uloom, which is more a movement than an institution has been carrying the puritanical tradition of Shah Waliullah and is a semi-Salafi/Wahabi movement inspired by Saudi Salafis.

His insistence for not diluting the cultural identity of Arab in a Hindu-majority environment shows that his so-called reform of Islam was only for a political motive. His obsession to extreme Sunnism, modern Deobandism/Wahabism, is welll known.

Contrary to his projected image of a reformer, Wali Ullah like other militant group of Islamic intellectuals did not appreciate any cultural and social reconciliation with non-Muslims in an integrated society. His communal bias against the political rise of non-Muslim powers like Maratha, Jat and Sikh goes against the theory that Wali Ullah was a Muslim thinker for Islamic moderation. His exclusivist theory favouring political domination of his community all over the world with starting point in India vindicates this point. In the background of his hate-Hindu political move, Wali Ullah may not stand the scrutiny of being a Muslim thinker for rational evaluation of Islam and its moderation.

Combination of Deobandi and Salafi/Wahabi extremism and religio-political strategy of Wali Ullah has become the main source of inspiration for Islamic terrorism as we see today in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. So long the Muslim leaders and intellectuals do not come forward and re-evaluate the eighteenth century old interpretation of faith (Deobandi and Salafi ideology), any remedy for resolution of on going emotional disorder in society is a remote possibility. It is the social obligation of intellectuals to bluntly identify and confront the Deobandi and Salafi roots of terroism and awaken the moral and economic strength of entire society without any religious or sectarian prejudice.

http://saag.org/paper629

According to Khaled Ahmed, Shah Waliullah urged Ahmad Shah Durrani (Abdali) to invade India to save Muslims from Hindus and Shias.

Khaled Ahmed does a systemic review of Shia-Sunni conflict, from the start of this conflict, and makes special special mention of anti-Shia attitudes of Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi, Shah Waliullah and Ahmad Shah Abdali. http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199065936.do

In context of Indian subcontinent, Mughal Emperor Alamgir crystallised anti-Shia sentiment in the psyche of Indian Muslims. Fatwa-e-Alamgiri compiled during the reign of Mughal emperor Alamgir under the supervision of Shah Waliullah and several hundred Sunni and Salafi jurists from all over the world was the first comprehensive volume which collected several hundred fatwas declaring the Shia infidels. It went as far as to say that anyone who does not accept the Muslim caliphs is an infidel. It also made it binding upon Muslims to call Shia Rafidah, a derogatory term meaning defectors, deserters, and traitors. All fatwas used against the Shia since then refer back to this collection. A close examination of the fatwas used by Sipah Sahaba and similar anti-Shia militant groups makes it clear that the source of them is Fatwa-e-Alamgiri collection.

—–

The three conditions that Sayyid Ahmad and the Deobandi Taliban fulfill are: fighting enemy number one (the British, the Americans) through a secondary enemy (the Sikhs, Pakistan); mixing local Islam with hardline Arab Islam; and using the tribal order as matrix of Islam. The Taliban derive their radical Islam from the Wahhabi severity of the money-distributing Arabs; the mujahideen of Sayyid Ahmad derived their puritanism from Shah Waliullah’s ‘contact’ with the Arabs in Hijaz in 1730.

In the battle of Balakot, Sikh commander Sher Singh finally overwhelmed Sayyid Ahmad after he was informed about his hideout by his Pashtun allies. Ahmad fought bravely but was soon cut down. To prevent a tomb from being erected on his corpse, the Sikhs cut him to pieces but ‘an old woman found the Sayyid’s severed head which was later buried in the place considered to be his tomb’ (p.105).

Ayesha Jalal notes that in the battlefield of Balakot, where Sayyid Ahmad of Rai Bareilly (not to be confused with Barelvi/Sufi sect of Sunni Islam) was martyred in 1831, another kind of ‘cross-border’ deniable jihad is being carried out by other mujahideen. She writes: ‘To this day Balakot where the Sayyid lies buried is a spot that has been greatly revered, not only by militants in contemporary Pakistan, some of whom have set up training camps near Balakot, but also by anti-colonial nationalists who interpreted the movement as a prelude to a jihad against the British in India’ (p.61).

Not far from Balakot, the votaries of the Sayyid are fighting on the side of Al Qaeda against ‘imperialist’ America and its client state, Pakistan, and killing more Muslims in the process than Americans, just as the Sayyid killed more Muslims than he killed Sikhs. According to Sana Haroon (Frontier of Faith: Islam in the Indo-Afghan Borderland; Hurst & Company London 2007), Ahmed Shah Abdali had induced descendants of Mujaddid Alf Sani to move to Kabul after his raid of Delhi in 1748. In 1849, Akhund Ghafur set up the throne of Swat and put Syed Akbar Shah on it as Amir of Swat, the Syed being a former secretary of Sayyid Ahmad of Rai Bareilly. It was a Salafi Wahhabi war in the eyes of mild Indian Muslims. It was therefore a virulently Sunni Salafi Wahhabi war which pointedly did not attract the Shia. Like Al Qaeda’s war against America, Sayyid Ahmad’s jihad was a Salafi Deobandi jihad, an aspect that must be made note of. Al Qaeda today kills Shias as its side business. (Partisans of Allah: Jihad in South Asia – By Ayesha Jalal, Review by Khaled Ahmed, Jihad and retribalisation in Pakistan by Khaled Ahmed, Daily Times, July 12, 2008). http://www.amazon.com/Partisans-Allah-Jihad-South-Asia/dp/0674047362

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