Shah waliullah

t is interesting to note that Shah Waliullah is respected and revered greatly by all Muslims in the South Asia and beyond, including the Barelvi, Deobandi and Ahl-e-Hadeeth groups and movements of Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, who include both Sufis and Salafis Shah Waliullah was a prolific writer who wrote extensively on several Islamic topics. His works include an instrumental and one of the earliest translations of the Qur'an from Arabic into Persian, namely Fath-Ur-Rehman ,contrary to the will of many of his Muslim contemporaries who opined that the Qur'an should be left in its original language. Later Indian Islamic scholars, however, accepted such efforts and rather than criticise this, they welcomed it

In short, due to sincere and dedicated efforts of Shah Waliullah and his family the illustrious banner of Islam kept flying over the Indian sub continent despite the decline and fall of the Mughal empire. In Spain, the faith of Islam disappeared with disappearance of the Muslim rule. Many Muslims were killed and many were converted to Christianity. In India however the intention of the British Government did not realize and Muslim India did not convert to the faith of the ruling people despite missionary efforts of the British Government who spent millions of pounds on missionary activities and arranged lectures, debates and seminars to propagate their faith. The failure of the British Government in converting Muslim India was due to the dedicated efforts of Hazrat Shah Waliullah and his noble family VI. IJTIHAD IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY In the century, Shah Wali Allah of Delhiwho has been termed the Ghazali of Islam in the Indian subcontinent121initiated a new methodology in Islamic legal interpretation. He termed it tatbiq, meaning to bring into alignment or to make congruent.122 Tatbiq consists of looking beyond the surface features to the inner essence or the comprehensive principle underlying a particular issue. Shah Wali Allah argued that the requirements for the best interests (masalih) of the human race will vary from age to age and from nation to nation.123 These best interests, which for Islam are based on the ultimate purpose of the human race on earth, should be in accordance with nature or the natural state of the human being, the state of fitra. Of course, the Quran declares on a number of occasions that Islam is the natural way.124 For Shah Wali Allah, all rulings based on ijtihad or tatbiq ought to be founded on fitra.