Contribution to Hadith Studies by the Ulama of The Subcontinent

The reason I want to bring this to India is because A it's relevant to us that most Muslims here have a an origin which is Indian in essence. Obviously, our origin when we're talking about India here, we're talking centuries ago when it was all Hind when it was all Hindustan. It wasn't you know, there was nothing no Pakistan. There was nothing like that. So, it was all considered India.

The work that is done at that stage I think that it's it's almost too important that we address it. So, moving to Al-Hind. I think we need that playing in the background. All right, so Right, if you remember I began by in the previous lesson by going through some names of some people that had played a key role in the documentation

of Hadith in as they wrote them out as books. Key people. Now, amongst them there was a particular Basri scholar. Do you remember his name? No. No, Abu Muawiyah. I was like oh, no. Don't mention my name. Right.

Al-Rabi ibn Sabih. Al-Basri. You're lucky this is being recorded. Otherwise, there would have been a a response to that. Right, so that he is the person who Sheikh Khalifa says in his Kashf al-Zunun who awwal man sanif Islam.

That this he was the some people said that he was the first person to author in Islam. Like as in books because books they say he was one of the first people to document Hadith. If you're considering um you're bypassing the the type of you know what the Sahabah had put down as war about. They weren't like books.

It wasn't like um the understanding wasn't what the Sahabah wrote was Sahif considered like said Did literature which is Well, literature. Yeah, they wrote literature. Yeah, but yeah, so it's like they had certain scriptures with them, but it wasn't considered like it wasn't like in a book. Something that could be described as a book. So, was he a tabi'i then?

Yeah, he was from the tabi'in. Now, he Rabi' ibn Sabih al-Basri was one of the earliest people who wrote whether he wrote in Islam, that's what Khalifa says in his Kashf al-Zunun. However, even if he didn't as Abu al-Hasan al-Nadwi writes um that la shakka annahum min awwal al-mu'allifin fi 'ilm al-hadith. In lam yakun awwaluhum bi itlaq.

Okay, he's somebody who dies he was a lot he dies 10 years almost before Imam Malik. No, sorry, almost 20 years. He dies in 160 Hijri, just 10 years after Imam Abu Hanifah. He this person, one of the first authors in Hadith

where does he die? From the in India. No. In a way almost setting about a sign almost that he has planted the seeds of something that will emerge and blossom not now but maybe after a thousand years from him at a time when it will be most crucial.

I'll take you to the words of some scholars. Zahid al-Kawthari, Imam Zahid al-Kawthari who's known for his very uh you know, somebody passed away last century. Um very known for be his Hanafi-ness almost a hardcore muta'assib Hanafi um was but was a was undoubtedly a great scholar who was also committed to Hadith and the revival of Hadith studies.

Now, he writes in his Maqalat al-Kawthari. He says, "Wa kana hadhu min hadha al-mirath that the fortune or the portion of the lands of India in this inheritance in this prophetic inheritance of Hadith mundhu muntasaful qarn al-ashir since really the 10th century onwards

he says huwa huwa al-nashat fi ulum al-hadith that their portion was the energy, the enthusiasm in the sciences of Hadith. This was their portion. He says, "Fa aqbala ulama al-Hind alaiha iqbalan kulliyan that the ulama of Hind devoted themselves to this study.

Ba'da an kanu munsharifin ila al-fiqh al-mujarrad After they had been devoid of it by being strictly secluded to or confined to it and just another the the sciences of logic and things like this. He says well all in that again he says

which and he says which I mean he says if we were to take the efforts that will ensue from that stage and compare them relatively with the other you know, the major global spaces really major geographical locations within the Muslim world and see the efforts of the of him he says we would be in all and deep gratitude to these people.

So and in them serving the sunnah he says and I think this is important. He says and how many of their scholars have got amazing commentaries and uh very beneficial notes already upon the major six books of Hadith and other than them

and how many books they've authored when it comes to the rulings of Hadith or and how much work they've done in that again So Okay. So let's try and learn a bit about what what is he going on about?

What was all of this? Okay. Now it's in Yeah, but they would it would it would but expand on it as in not to invent it but to to mention certain critical points and to to contribute to it significantly as in like making substantial contributions to to the science.

You're right in the sense it is all it is it has generally been all done, but you can still come up with unique points as we'll see if people like Abdul Hayy Sheikh Abdul Hayy Lakhnawi has this amazing uh you know, his book on Ar-Raf' wal-Takmil on Jarh wa Ta'dil. And that's just an as an example. But um So now like here was some of some of these names I just want to I want to mention.

It is said that India fell into a huge stage of darkness. That for centuries although Islam was there and many of the rulers were Muslim rulers. And they were ulama present in India. However, it had been so overtaken by just fiqh.

They had become so immersed in their own just logic, just fiqh wal-usul. Ahadith had began to be abandoned almost. Almost altogether you could say in most parts. That seldom would you find somebody involved in such studies. Let alone also things like certain practices of bid'ats had become so overwhelming and maybe because of the closer links to the Hindu practices that were going

on. They were so difficult to eradicate. And by just alone you can never just eradicate these type of things. Then some then Allah blesses this subcontinent with legends that begin to emerge. And among some of the names and we'll go through them again in a moment.

Are people that you will see that start to attend it from all different parts of the world. And they say some of these and from different madhhabs as well. People like Sheikh Shihab Ahmad uh Badruddin al-Misri from Egypt. Sheikh Muhammad uh Ahmad al-Fakihi al-Hanbali. These people come to a Misri scholar who's a Maliki Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abdurrahman.

There's a name uh Sheikh Rafiuddin al-Chishti. Now these are some names I'm mentioning to you. What happens? A popular name emerges all of a sudden. This name is Sheikh Husamuddin Ali al-Muttaqi. Okay? Remember this name, Husamuddin? Husamuddin al-Muttaqi.

Like somebody with taqwa. That's that was his name. al-Burhanwi. Now he passes away in 975 Hijri. What he does is he gets the jamia. He's somebody who becomes incredibly devoted to Hadith. He travels.

He gets the Jamia of As-Suyuti. The Jam' al-Jawami, or he's got so many ahadith really. Put together from all the books, and he reorganizes them according to the fiqhi as a sunan in a in the fiqhi chapters. And he calls this Kanz al-Ummal. So, the book Kanz al-Ummal belongs to Shaykh Husam ad-Din al-Muttaqi.

Okay. Al-Burhanpuri. Now, to the extent and this this is a massive work that people said that in al-Suyuti minna alal alamin, that oh alal alamin almost that that Suyuti has a huge uh you know, he the that the ummah was indebted to him almost with his collection of Hadith.

Walil Muttaqin minnatun alayh. And Muttaqi has this huge grace upon him for what he did. Now, from his students comes somebody known as Muhammad ibn Tahir al-Fatani. And he was from uh from Gujarat.

From modern I mean, he was even then called Gujarat. He's somebody who passes away in 986 Hijri. What he does is he authors the book Majma al-Bihar al-Anwar, which still remains a very popular book today. It is uh what he compiles and gathers in it all the gharib al-Hadith. And what has been authored for as a commentary on words for the Sahih al-Sittah.

Okay. Now, these people they set the they set the scale for what is going to come. This This type of the what they start to do, these people start to with their passion infuse some life into India. By first of all collecting all of these Hadith, putting I mean, they were already collected by Suyuti, but organizing them in a way that made them accessible.

Then his student gathering together the like a dictionary of all the words for the Sihah, putting them together, Majma al-Bihar al-Anwar, making it accessible. Make allowing people to access these things. And then comes somebody who is known as Shaykh al-Allamah Abdul Haq al-Bukhari al-Dehlawi.

Okay? Or sometimes it's called Muhaddith Abdul Haq al-Dehlawi. Now, he passes away in 1052 Hijri. He's somebody who had traveled to Hijaz, traveled outside of India. He gathers together a huge resource of Hadith ilm, the depths, the ins, the outs of rijal, of mustalah al-Hadith, of the actual mutun al-Hadith, and he brings that knowledge back to India.

Where he sets up and begins to teach. So, he starts and he writes commentaries as well. And he authors in usul al-Hadith, and he starts to set up my like actual classes, mandatory classes where he is teaching his students actual Hadith text, reviving this science. Because this wasn't a practice thing. People didn't used to teach Hadith in India. It wasn't something that was done.

Now, you could say almost on the later end of or what Sheikh Muhammad Abdul Haq al-Dahlawi was doing was setting the stage for who would become the pivotal point for India.

This so far was just a a muqaddimah. It was just an introduction. Just setting It was that there was some almost some These were tremors. Maybe a bit of an earthquake, you could say. What was yet to be launched was a tsunami that would redefine India till this very age.

This very day that we're in. Set about a huge a huge service to the Sunnah. And that was Any idea who that is? Absolutely. Sheikh Ahmed ibn Abdur Rahim al-Dahlawi. a.k.a.

Shah Wali Allah al-Dahlawi. Shah Wali Allah was a legend. Okay. He was an absolute legend when it came to Hadith. His father himself, Abdur Rahim, was somebody that had taken had a strong taking to Hadith.

So, before him, before he even arrives on the scene, his father, like contemporary also to Sheikh Muhammad Abdul Haq al-Dahlawi so on, was influenced now with this new emergence of Hadith and took a very strong liking to it. So, his father set up a madrasa in Delhi called a Madrasah Rahimiyah. This madrasa, or this what his father was doing, although he's a setting up a simple madrasa, like what Sheikh Muhaddith Abdul Haq al-Dahlawi was doing so on, set in the syllabus that people should study Hadith.

And at that time, what they were studying was more things like Mishkat al-Masabih. And maybe some places they were studying like Kanz al-Ummal, and they were studying things like this. Now, Sheikh Muhaddith Abdul Haq al-Dahlawi, they say had his own commentary on Mishkat al-Masabih that he set out. Sheikh Abdul Rahim has this interest where he starts to encourage his students to look at the books like the Sahih the Sahih, and other books, and of the Sihah al-Sittah, what the Ummahat al-Kutub, and take a look at them, and encouraging people, and so on, and so forth.

Now, along comes his son, Shah Waliullah. So, is Sheikh Abdul Rahim a brother of Sheikh Abdul Haq? No, he's not his brother. He's He was contemporary, but he's not his brother, no. Right, so But the But what I'm trying to The reason I I mentioned the contemporary thing that there's something in the air now. This this thing is in the air that look, we need to revive, we need to move back to Hadith that there hasn't been Hadith around for a while.

So, you see Shah Waliullah Dahlawi is somebody a a genius at a young age. They say by the age of seven, he'd memorized the Quran. He began studying at that time what was the normal method of ilm. He studied with his father, studied with other ulama locally, studied in Madrasah Rahimiyah. There were other people teaching Madrasah Rahimiyah as well, obviously.

Um studied the major Hanafi texts in fiqh, usul, lughah, tafsir, you know, this, that, that. Then studied the section of Hadith as well in Madrasah Rahimiyah. He graduates at the age of 15 from Madrasah Rahimiyah. Still becomes incredibly devoted. At that time, what was also very powerful in India as well was tasawwuf.

Was incredibly powerful in the sense that it was noth- Anything else was not really known. That you you had to to Like everybody was devoted to some particular tariqa, some particular thing. So, he also, Shah Waliullah Dehlawi, also gets pretty involved with the tariqa of his age. He gets pretty into into that thing where he can start accepting bay'ah from people and starts taking bay'ah from people and doing things like that as well.

All the while increasing his own knowledge and things, he starts teaching, he starts doing things. But this hasn't really changed massive. Nothing The tsunami hasn't come yet. It's like after the elections with Imran Khan.

So, the thing is that the tsunami hasn't come yet. Yes, he's going on. There's this little interest. It's in the air. Yes, there's this fascination with Hadith. There's a bit more study going on. But what happens at a later stage, when he reaches the age of 30, what Shah Waliullah Dehlawi does would change the course of history for India to come.

What he does in apparent apparently and quite ironically what would rescue and save India in the future. At that stage unbeknown to him was for him to leave India. Really? Wow. See, a step which seems so opposing.

It seems on one hand he's actually left the entire country and gone. Would actually serve as a salvific, something that would become the salvation of that land in the future. He leaves India and goes to the Hijaz. He becomes very fascinated with Hadith. As as was already known, as was in perhaps inculcated, was perhaps put into him by his father, this love for Hadith.

He goes to the Haramain. And obviously does his Hajj journey. He stays there and and he starts to learn. And he has these famous teachers, Abu Tahir al-Madani, al-Kurdi and and he has many other he has Maliki teachers and all sorts. He starts to study once again the He had already studied certain books of Hadith in India, but now he starts to study all these books with these people.

He studies the Musnad of Ahmad. He studies the Muwatta of Imam Malik with the Maghariba. He studies all He starts to learn. He starts to really get into and he loves what he's learning. He can't get enough of it. He is so immersed in this that he he makes an intention that he won't go back to India.

That he would stay now in the Hijaz. That this was you know, what they say in the Allah told me this was what he his lost property or this is what he had longed for and he was finally at. He was loving it, learning so much, getting into getting into the of God.

Learning also about diverse further he had some teachers taking understandings from them. They also say at this stage he began to take a liking to the works of the and also his teacher um Ibn Taymiyyah. That Shah Waliullah they say became quite fascinated with the works of Ibn Taymiyyah as well.

And so certain resemblances with what what he felt that what Ibn Taymiyyah had gone through in his age, he felt that those problems were very similar to the land of India in his time. That people had turned away, that there was immense there was people were you know, they'd really gone into all um all these other whether you want to say sciences and to mention anything like to mention Hadith people would you would be criticized.

That what what what do you think you're going to Hadith? This is what the fatwa says. This is this. So he felt that and the more he learned the more he felt sure that I won't go back to India. That this is this is fine where I am. And he says he thoroughly enjoyed uh every single day really of his study there. He he spent at least over two years in the Hijaz doing nothing but absorbing in.

Gaining several in Jazat um and all sorts. They say that he he always had in his heart something like he wanted to something though. You know, like you know that some people they have this desire to do some they're doers. They're not just complacent with I can just sit here. I want I want to achieve something in life as well.

That Shah Waliullah had this about him. Now they say that he had he writes actually that he had a dream. That he had a dream. That the land of India becomes engulfed by Kufar. And every point of it kind of is overtaken by this darkness.

In his dream to the extent that Kufar is there and it destroys and he mentions Ajmer. He mentions Ajmer. He says that the the the the Darbar or that the place of Ajmer is also destroyed and Kufar has enveloped the land of India.

And he says in this dream he then becomes present and he has what he describes or he is being defined as what is called Qayyim al-Din. The one by whom the Din will stand. So where where he is going he is dispersing the darkness of Kufar.

So and he continues to go and he's with certain people in his dream. He's not on his own. And he is going and going until he kind of disperses and disposes of Kufar right up until Ajmer. And where he's going this light of Iman has kind of spread and permeated with him. He says that this dream kind of redefined his thought processes and his his way of thinking about the future.

Because he was pretty content on staying in in the Hijaz. But now all of a sudden he had this thought that maybe I should go back to India. And maybe this is part of my mission that I need to the khidma that I want to do because he wanted to do something. But what he was thinking of, I know, maybe I'll author some books or I'll do this or I'll do that in the Hijaz.

Maybe that's not where I'm meant to be. Maybe my desired maqam is in Hind. So he sets back and turns his sail towards India. Allahu Akbar. Setting in motion a series of events that would have changed and will change the face of Muslim India to our very age.

He returns to Delhi and begins to teach. They say he spends the next 30 odd years in teaching. Teaching Hadith upon Hadith upon Hadith. That he starts to combat these khurafat.

He still kind of associates himself with the Hanafi madhhab, although he begins to write about not sticking to what is like this blind and super rigid taqlid. He says that people should embrace the concept of Hadith. That they should be following Hadith. That we are following and the fiqh should follow Hadith and in certain circumstances if we find it doesn't then the Hadith is not like an enemy to us.

This is the source of our guidance. So, he starts setting out these waves. He starts like teaching. He starts authorizing, giving ijazat in Hadith. Authorizing other people to go off and teach. Decade after decade after decade. He starts to speak about the Maqasid of the Sharia. His very famous book Hujjat Allah al-Baligha.

This is what it's addressing, the Maqasid of the Sharia. He also really inf- you could say infuses the love of the Muwatta in India once again. Something he gains from his teacher in the Haram. Now, prior to him, although the Muwatta was known undoubtedly in India, but the love that Shah Wali Allah Dehlawi Dehlawi has for the Muwatta was unparalleled.

He places the Muwatta if not equal then above the Sahihayn. And that's the position because he sees this as obviously being the book of Imam Malik. Now, this effort of um Shah Wali Allah Dehlawi, what it gives rise to. You see, in his own age, it's now it's pushing huge is pushing numbers and numbers of students.

It's cementing this understanding that we need to be reconnected with Hadith. During Shah Wali Allah's absence and even prior to his absence as he was growing up and in maybe the years that preceded him, he saw in his environment not only were the Khurafat and the Bida that were overwhelming, but with them came the heresies of certain sects like the Shia.

And he found this problematic and he found that the reason that the Muslims weren't generally in a position to refute a lot of them was because of their disconnection to Hadith. You see, we in essence, the main body of Muslims are the people of Sunnah. Ahlus Sunnah. And that Sunnah is documented in the Hadith.

If we are not a people of Hadith, then we cannot truly be Ahlus Sunnah. Because how are we to revive or even argue or even present or even believe in something that we don't actually teach or propagate or even understand? So, what he also does, he's he teaches in the Madrasa Rahimiyyah, his father's institute.

He has four children who serve as pivotal people. Because you see, what a great Imam does isn't just have huge, you know, hoard huge amounts of knowledge which he passes on. He does that surely, but what he also does is he prepares people that can take the baton further.

If you haven't prepared people that can take it on, then you fundamentally failed. Because although you will be a bleep, you would have been some form of, you know, there will be, yes, some our little wave, but it will shortly die after you. So, something that although the people before you had Sheikh Hussam-ud-Din, um, you know, Al-Fattani, I mean, you had Al-Muttaqi, Sheikh Hussam-ud-Din Al-Muttaqi, you had Sheikh Al-Fattani,

you had these people creating certain waves. Sheikh Muhaddith Abdul Haq Al-Dehlawi. But what you didn't have was people setting proponents after them that would inherit and continue this legacy. So, what Shah Shah Waliullah Dehlawi, his four children, they Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Dehlawi is a very key person who continues the legacy of Shah Waliullah Dehlawi.

He is huge. He is the funnel really that from his father, this huge energy is directed mainly, obviously the other children are important too and they play a role, but Shah Abdul Aziz is Dehlawi is the projector of that. He is the father of Ismail Dehlawi. Yeah. Okay. Now, you've got his other brothers, you've got Sheikh Rafi-ud-Din.

Okay. Um, you have got Sheikh his, uh, Abdul Ghani Al-Dehlawi. Abdul Ghani is also, uh, an important I put I mean, they were all important, but what Shah, uh, Shah Abdul Ghani also is a key transmitter and plays a huge role in transmitting, um, the sciences.

His fourth son, there's, uh, Rafi-ud-Din, there's, uh, uh, Shah Abdul Aziz. I've forgotten the I think it may have been something like Rukn-ud-Din, but I mean but his fourth one Abdul Ghani is the important one. The key of his of his children the key players or the key role that is um that is kind of given to and led by is by Shah Abdul Aziz.

Shah Abdul Aziz after his father takes his role in Madrasah Rahimiyah. The people that Shah Abdul Aziz produces become legends. Legends. And obviously Shah Abdul Aziz couldn't have just come from thin air. He's stand- standing on the shoulders of his father Shah Waliullah Dehlawi.

The people he produces, Shah Abdul Aziz, and he teaches for decades. The people he produces are the likes of um his his other nephew Shah Muhammad Ishaq who eventually takes over after him. But he produces the likes of Mia or they call Mia Nazir Husain, Sheikh Nazir Nazir Nazir Husain.

Known as Sheikhul Kul fil Kul who becomes one of the key proponents of the Ahl-i Hadith movement. He produces who also from his students people like Sheikh Sheikh um Shamsul Haq al-Azim Abadi. From Azimabad, which is modern-day Patna by the way in in India. Used to be known as Azimabad back then. Uh who's also a key student of Sheikh Nazir Husain, but he also studies with him.

You see what he's setting in motion are not just these people are not just oh oh this is just a scholar in Hadith. These people them- in themselves become powerhouses. Shah Abdul Aziz also teaches uh Sheikh um uh Sheikh Awlad al-Kannauji who is the father of Nawab Siddiq Hasan Khan.

Sheikh Nazir Hussein or who is known as uh they used to call him uh Mia Sahab back then as well. This Mia Sahab, by the way, was a laqab that was given usually they would call at that time the household of Shah Waliullah Dehlawi. They would call them oh Mia Sahab Mia Sahab and and oh Shah Sahab at that time. They start to call Sheikh Nazir Hussein that as well just because he was so tight with Sheikh Shah Abdul Aziz at Dehlawi.

This Sheikh Nazir Hussein spends up to they say almost 60 years teaching Hadith. The likes that he pushes out I mean he cements and solidifies people like uh Sheikh Shamsul Haq al-Azimabadi who has a major commentary on Abu Dawud. People like uh Sheikh um Abdur Rahman al-Mubarakpuri who has a commentary on Tirmidhi.

These are all his students. Many others amongst uh Sheikh Nawab Siddiq Hasan Khan who has a huge influence and later on obviously in in the region of Bhopal in India in Hadith. All of those figures being key figures that contribute to um the Ahl-i Hadith movement. He also but he is a contemporary of he he's a direct student of Shah Abdul Aziz.

Shah Abdul Aziz's other student, a contemporary of him, is Muhammad Ishaq al-Dehlawi. Muhammad Ishaq al-Dehlawi is the grandson is the grandson of Shah Waliullah Dehlawi. But from the daughter he's from um so he's a nephew of Abdul Aziz, but through his sister. Now, Sham Sheikh Muhammad Ishaq al-Dahlawi, he goes on to be the teacher of people like uh Sheikh uh Imdadullah al-Muhajir al-Makki, people like Sheikh Qasim Nanautavi, people like I mean, these people you can

see this what then sets off and even most of the ulama including Sheikh Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, the the leaders of the founders of the Deoband subschool, they find their traces here. Even Imdad Imdadullah al-Muhajir al-Makki is from the teachers of Raza Ahmad Khan Barelvi. You can see this whole link coming back to this household of Delhi.

From amongst the teachers of Shah Abdul Aziz, I'm sorry, from amongst the students of uh of Shah Abdul Aziz, I mean, who he's produced, Muhammad Ishaq are also the likes of uh who is a key person, Shah Ahmad ibn Irfan al-Barelvi. This Shah Sheikh Shah Ahmad um or Sheikh Ahmad ibn Irfan al-Barelvi isn't a Barelvi um I know they he he may be called a Barelvi because he was from the area of Bareilly, but he is known as a mujaddid in

himself. This person that they produced was a close ally of uh a very close friend of Shah Ismail al-Dehlavi. He was somebody that they he was a scholar that they produced had a huge concern about what was going on in India.

Huge concern with the By this time the colonial powers were there. Obviously in Shah Wali Allah Dehlawi's time, they weren't. Shah Wali Allah Dehlawi, he uh they arrived during his time, but they don't arrive with such power. Shah Wali Allah Dehlawi himself was born within the last few remaining years of Aurangzeb's uh rulership. So, he when when Aurangzeb passes away in the mid-1700s, he was uh they say about 4 years old.

So, although it was the decline of the Mughal Empire, but the colonial powers hadn't gained this type of vicious strength that they would in the years to come. But by the time of Shah Abdul Aziz, by the time of Shah Abdul Aziz, it becomes huge I mean they become they've become huge. The colonial powers, the the the English at that time had really taken over and really set ground.

This is why what Sheikh the the concerns of people had become um massively kind of weightsome really that they were so bearing on the people that thinking that what's going on that now all of a sudden they couldn't do a certain you know so many Islamic things were were banned and barred and they couldn't teach and they couldn't do this. Things had become so dangerous for years nobody had ever for for years people nobody had performed Hajj.

The fatwa of the people was Hajj isn't far. Just as the fatwa was many centuries ago in what part of the world? In Al-Andalus. Many centuries ago that Hajj wasn't far. Because to go there would mean to get killed. The ways were too dangerous that so therefore it was no longer a far. Sheikh Shah ibn Sheikh Ahmad ibn Irfan uh he he he had this concern in him that we need to do something.

That leaving Islam like this that it would we need to kind of set about some we need to get rid of A these khurafat but also this tyranny. Now his teacher Abdul Aziz al-Dehlawi uh and also Muhammad Ishaq had kind of set in him this this love for A the Sunnah and to revive it in its purest form.

In fact, Shah um Abdul Aziz al-Dehlawi when he when uh Sheikh Ahmad al-Barelvi had graduated after his graduation because although he did benefit also from Muhammad Ishaq but he did actually benefit directly from Shah Abdul Aziz when he graduated and was a scholar and they were having their type of uh conversations and they they was also teaching them tarbiyah.

They say that he was teaching him and at that time I told you tasawwuf was uh heavily prevalent over the entire subcontinent. And and that doesn't and and when we say tasawwuf sometimes there's you know there's people who may practice it within the guidance of the sharia and within the parameters and that's that's fine and that's a different topic all together. But as it was practiced then and as influenced by perhaps a lot of Hindu rituals and things like this it was considered to be overwhelmed by bid'at and khurafat and things which were contrary to the Sunnah.

Now Shah but when when this is so prevalent it becomes the norm. So here is Shah Abdul Aziz teaching Sheikh Ahmad and he teaches him this thing they're going over this concept of tasawwur of shaykh. That when you're doing dhikr, you should do uh you know, there's this thing of you can to facilitate dhikr, you can do tasawwur of shaykh.

Like you can picture your shaykh. And this is somehow an i'anah upon the dhikr of Allah. Helps the dhikr of Allah. They say at this point that Shaykh Ahmad said that that I refused to accept this. He said I see no difference in this and in shirk. And Shah Abdul Aziz first tried to discuss with him. He said, "Yeah, but this isn't shirk. This is a a form of uh assistance and this." And he said, "But have you not been teaching us all these ahadith?" He says, "Weren't these from you?

About reviving the Sunnah, about reviving what is pure tawhid, and moving away from these bid'ahs, and moving away from stuff like this." He says, "Don't you just see this as a gateway to the flooding of what would just lead to what we've got in India? Of people doing all sorts around tombs and graves and this and that." And they say at this that Shah Abdul Aziz, he kind of embraced Shaykh Ahmad and and he kissed him on his forehead.

And he said that, you know, that truly that you have like absorbed the teachings of the Sunnah and that and that its fruits will manifest in the future. That I see in you that great like a great promise for the for the Muslims of Hind, of Hindustan.

And Shaykh this Shaykh Ahmad, he is the one who set about what would become a huge resistance movement to the tyrannical um colonial uh colonialization that was taking place. Shaykh it was Sheikh Ahmad who once again revived this free this fight for freedom.

Ahmad was a follower? Who? Who are you No, Sheikh Ahmad Barelvi not Raza Ahmad Khan Barelvi. Sheikh Ahmad ibn Irfan al-Barelvi. He This is not Sayyid Ahmad Barelvi, is that a different one? Sayyid Ahmad Barelvi, same one, yes. Shah What they do in India and Pakistan, they the term Shah and Sayyid are interchangeable. So, they call anybody who's a Sayyid Shah. Um Shah Sahib. So, I mean So, Shah Ahmad or Sheikh Ahmad or Sayyid Ahmad is the same one.

Now, he What he did is he wanted to trigger off this movement of resistance to this oppression by the um by by the colonials at that time. And he and he thought about it and then what could be a greater way to set this off to mark the birth of it, the genesis rather than What could be a greater way than to break the taboo of not doing Hajj?

They say that he announced that this fatwa does not stand. The Hajj is not an obligation. That Hajj is an obligation upon the Muslims of Hindustan. They say he wrote far and wide to the people within India. That he announced and taught that we will Not only is it an obligation that I will lead this this obligation.

That come and join me. And he sent his his writings and his message as far as it could go within Hindustan. To the extent Allahu Akbar. That he said that any that comes to us to fulfill this obligation and doesn't have the means, he says, "I will take it upon myself to provide his means." Allahu Akbar.

This These were the legends of Hindustan. That this He says that anybody who can't who you don't have the means, if you're saying finances are a problem, I will finance your Hajj for you. What more do you ask for now? And they say he set off with him his close companions and they started off and first hundreds joined them and they continued to move through India.

They were going south and they were going to Calcutta and from Calcutta they would catch the the boat to cross. Now, every place they stopped at they would spend they would set up camp. They would stay at the villages, at the cities, at the towns, or whether there were cities, they would spend a short while, they would teach people. They would create students where they went.

Spread this teaching of we need to return to the Sunnah. We need to teach the books of Sunnah. They would actually teach the books of Hadith where they were. They would correct the the type of bid'ah that were taking place, the khurafat that had spread, the the the the the absence of reliance or the void when it came to tawakkul upon Allah. They would once again fill that void with yaqin.

Cement people's aqidah. When they reached Calcutta, they say they were over 7 and a half thousand people that were with him going to Hajj. And he came back successfully. And from there he announced his harakah, his movement for resistance against what was the barbaric colonial powers at the time.

This movement where he says we would revive jihad within the land of Hindustan. To free us from what was these oppressive foreign powers. And when he comes back to India, his movement has such an impact. He becomes so I mean with him was Shah Muhammad Ismail al-Dehlawi, obviously the grandson or the son of Abdul Aziz and the grandson of Shah Waliullah Dehlawi.

They set about, they write to people, they gain uh uh they they gain a sense of authority, a a sense of presence. Their movement starts to expand. At the time, the British were ruling significant parts of India and the central part places within parts of Kashmir and parts of uh Punjab heavily were ruled by Raja Ranjit Singh.

Who I mean his history kind of shows that he was ruthless towards the Muslims. And they say that uh Sayyid Ahmad or Sheikh Ahmad ibn Irfan, he that he took it upon himself to kind of liberate some of these lands. And initially when he couldn't get the support he wanted in places like Calcutta and other places, they say he went to what is what was at that point um what would fall today as the Northwest Frontier of Pakistan.

That what they call generally like the Ilakha Ghair or Pakhtunkhwa today in Pakistan. Those that region at that time wasn't conquered by the British. And it was a land that fell between Afghanistan and Hindustan. And heard good things about the people. So, he went there with with a Shah Ismail. Shah Muhammad Ismail, what he does is he accompanies Sheikh Sheikh Ahmed or Sayyid Ahmed and they go with a huge following.

This movement, you know, some people had questioned how successful was this movement. They go and set up in the Northwest Frontier. And it they you know, that that that they are there's there's there's a kind of there was a certain uh you could say certain battles or certain type of they have uh they run in with Roger Ranjit Singh's forces.

To any people who had cast it doubt on the valid to to the efficacy, how effective was Sheikh Sheikh Ahmed? He was that effective that within a short while Raja Ranjit Singh himself offers a truce to Sheikh Ahmed. Now, you wouldn't just be offering a truce if you were if if somebody was was meaningless to you.

He himself, not just a truce, he says, "I will give you a certain amount of land that falls by Balochistan and these that these parts and you can rule whatever you want there." You can have that. But just just just call it quits. He actually sends a waft a delegation to uh Sheikh Ahmed. Amongst them several people, there's there's he has in it his famous what's his his own son as well.

Uh I forgot his son's name. He has somebody called Sher Singh in there. He has another um there's a famous person he sends as well, one of his wazirs, who actually converts to Islam because he's so he's so impressed with with the belief and the conviction that uh Sheikh Ahmad has. That he finds it so well, I mean because they go there to discuss and they say, "Look, we'll give you this and we'll give you a certain amount.

Okay, is it finances you want or you want this or you want And they say that he honors the delegation so like in in so respectfully. They have a Muslim amongst them as well. They have actually a uh a Frenchman amongst them and a British uh an Englishman amongst them as well in that delegation that has come from Raja Ranjit Singh. He honors them and takes care of them and like obviously gives them food and personally sees to their needs.

But yet when they ask him to quit his his fight for freedom, he says that look, I think you've misunderstood. He says that we're not here for money or we're not here risking this for that. He says that this is about serving Allah. That is that removing tyranny, removing oppression. That this is our belief. He says otherwise, we don't have a problem.

You know, we're not here like I don't have a problem with you and I'm personally serving them. That this and the way he would serve people and this was reported about him that um Sheikh Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi writes about him expansively and he he says that even he was that this was known about him. The way he would do khidma of people. Even when during their struggle for for their fights and things like this, the way he would personally see to people and he would make it a uh a collective duty upon all that everybody has to do khidma.

And that initially Sheikh uh Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi writes that some people when they came to join his movement found this quite shocking. That they they saw themselves above this. That I'm not I'm not going to be washing somebody's clothes or I'm not going to be doing this for people. I mean, you know, okay, I'll do my own, but why other people but that but this was what he had set there. That we all serve each other.

So this was the type of influence that he has and he and he does gain an incredible momentum where he was. They he was even some of Roger and Jeet Singh had an attempt to have him poisoned which was unsuccessful. Uh following which eventually there was uh a sense of betrayal. Where he was betrayed that what had happened was the areas he was in in the Northwest.

Some of the people there the tribal people had many customs which were very anti-Islam. Like they would sell their daughters for marriage, they would do things like um a lot of them were to do with marital matrimonial ceremonies and and there were other things as well. Certain uh several bid'ah that were taking place where for example when a person died, there was a certain custom that took place in where you place the Quran and everybody passes the Quran around in a particular circle and then they pass the money around and so and then they donate this money and then and there were certain people who were known as the they were the the the mustashar.

They were the people that who were like an authority in religion and they were just strict fuqaha who had learned a certain amount of Hanafi fiqh and that's all they knew. And they kind of were they would kind of frown upon this this thing of Hadith. They saw it as a So all so so this culture was prevalent as well in this Northwest Frontier where Sheikh Ahmad was. So he started to challenge some of these issues that were going on and started to say this isn't how the Sunnah should be and they you know, you should the Sunnah is like this.

You can't sell your daughters. You can't do things like this. You can't kind of It can't be about having huge prices on daughters' heads. And it can't be about this, and it can't be about that, and you can't have these bid'ahs, and you can't What happened? This disturbed, they say, a lot of people. Whether those people colluded with Raja Ranjit Singh's forces or not, I suppose is uh is there's theories, and you know, people have There's no conclusive evidence.

But what happened was there was a particular day on which some of those people from that province area had a coordinated attack on the people of Syed Ahmad. At different places, but coordinated simultaneously. So, at one go, several attacks took place on far, you know, on different different um you know, localities.

And And this killed several several hundred people that belonged to and huge And people that were influential that were part of this this movement, this liberation movement of Syed Ahmad. This really damaged the morale of his of his people, of his movement.

And they say that he was really taken aback by what had happened, that he thought, "Okay, this isn't a safe place to be anymore. And we need to leave this place." That he set off to migrate to Kashmir. They say he was en route to Kashmir, and he was going to Muzaffarabad, or towards that part.

And it was at this point that where he got him and his and his people, his supporters of this movement, they they were setting migrating that they were setting off, that they were ambushed by Raja Ranjit Singh's people. And who were they attacked by? Uh the attack initially was by actual Muslims. It was by the by the tribal people of uh you know of that area of where where he was but he was in different localities and uh vicinity.

It wasn't in It wasn't an attack in one place. It was a coordinated attack that took place in several places at once. Were these people well established? And it was so devastating to them because they cuz they didn't expect it at all from the Muslims, you see. So when it happened, it shook them to that extent that they said, "We can't We're no longer safe here. So we need it to go to a new place where we can where we can set up and and he obviously realized it He realized he had too many antagonist forces working dynamics against him.

So it's when he set off with his people to uh to Kashmir that en route he got ambushed by Raja Ranjit Singh's people, his troops. And he was martyred. And as was um you know um Muhammad Shah Ismail. But it wasn't This movement didn't stop there.

Um there's an one of the sons of Rafiuddin al-Dehlawi. One of you know the grandson another grandson of Shah Waliullah came and eventually he kind of takes over and breathes life into this movement. And this movement then also gains uh huge support from there was a family known as the Ali Shah family from from India um I believe they may have been from Hyderabad.

But they they kind of they were already involved with Sayyid Ahmad before. But with his death, they become massively involved. In fact, they had two uh there were two brothers uh sons of the household known as um Inayat Ali and Wilayat Ali. I can't quite rhyme the names there. Right, so So, the thing is Inayat Ali and Wilayat Ali, these two figures become a huge force uh for driving forward.

And they they also uh finance this whole liberation movement as well. To the extent that they lead devastating blows to Raja Ranjit Singh. And even quite successful on many accounts, they take back huge amounts of Kashmir. They take back several regions from uh Raja Ranjit Singh. And then obviously the British do get involved again and and and that goes on. And that is that continues as a uh as a type of movement.

But coming back to the Delhi household, that this whole thing is set in motion by who? On the other hand, you've got people like um um people like Muhammad Ishaq who also teach, like I said, who end up uh influencing people like Qasim and Nanautvi, Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, who then influence many people like Anwar Shah Kashmiri and whether it's going to be uh I mean um it's it's going to be someone, you know, Sheikh Sheikhul Hind and whether it's going to be also uh Ashraf Ali Thanwi and many other people

who also con- contribute significantly to the science of Hadith. You know, whether it's going to be commentaries on Sahih al-Bukhari or whether it's the likes of um Also, um Sheikh In the Sheikh Idris Kandhlawi is influenced by these people who go on to set up the whole Tablighi movement.

And Maulana Zakariyya Kandhlawi is also uh massively influenced. Here he is taught his commentary on Sahih on on Imam Muslim on on the of Imam Muslim sorry on the of Imam Malik Al Jami Al Musnad from India is unprecedented. I mean obviously you've got centuries ago that that the Muslims of especially the Maliki I don't know populated world had contributed huge commentaries but nobody in India had done something like that.

A huge movement is set up. Even if you're going to look at the likes of you know people that I mentioned already that come from Nazir Ahmad sorry from Nazir Hussein people that I mean they call him Sheikhul Kul Fil Kul. That's how huge they say his knowledge was but he produces like I mentioned Shamsul Haq Al Azim Abadi who has one of the most profound commentaries on Abu Dawud that is available in the Muslim world ever.

Um even Badhlul Majhud is from India. The So you're seeing this whole this whole legacy of scholarship being created. Nawab Siddiq Hasan Khan I mean somebody that goes on to write his own works and although he doesn't and that that is more of the Ahl al-Hadith movement but still they breathe huge life into reviving what was the Sunnah in India.

They don't These people they had diverse methodologies then. You know it's not that So for example um where you've got these people like Nawab Siddiq Hasan Khan and let's say if you've got at the time other people like Muhammad Ishaq his students let's say from Qasim Nanotvi or other people it wasn't that these people saw eye to eye on everything.

But it wasn't that they now had some type of hatred towards each other. You know, they he produced uh Imdadullah Muhajir al-Makki who is the teacher of Ahmad Khan Barelvi. You're seeing that these people they it's not necessary many of them including the Hadith were heavily still immersed in elements of Tasawwuf that other Fuqaha or Ulama amongst them may have rejected.

But they personally didn't. So it's interesting. It's not You see, this movement wasn't what later people kind of label this as some type of a Wahhabi movement and some type of a movement of people against the These were diverse people. What the movement was it was a movement of Sunnah and reviving Hadith and Sunnah.

Led by diverse people. Some who stuck to a Madhhab. Some who didn't stick to a Madhhab. Some who have hardcore very trenched in the Hanafi I mean I would say many of the the Ulama like you know, that Sheikhul Hind or or you're going to say Anwar Shah Kashmiri or Ashraf Ashraf Ali Thanwi all all these people were very Qasim Nanotvi entrenched in Hanafi Fiqh. They go on to you know, produce people like Yusuf Binori with his Maarifus Sunan and and these type of But the point is who obviously who you would say you would see these influential people like Muhammad Shafi and then coming down to

our own day and age and all these Madaris that are around today. All of these every single place people studying um Dawratul Hadith studying the books of Hadith from cover to cover. Although in many places people may not have the full spirit. But in some places they do. The source of all of this goes back to Shah Waliullah Dehlawi in the household of Delhi.

All of these movements, these whether it came off and whether the work that was done in fiqh, especially more important because fiqh was already there. The work that was done in Hadith, the commentaries on almost every Look at that amount of commentaries that were done on Bukhari, Sahih Bukhari. I mean, Shah Anwar Shah Kashmiri has a commentary on Sahih Bukhari. Commentary on Sahih Muslim by Mufti Shafi and Mufti Taqi.

Commentary on Tirmidhi by uh Abdur Rahman Mubarakpuri. Commentary on Abu Dawud by Shamsul Haq al-Azimabadi. Commentary on uh you know um Ibn Majah or the notes by Abul Hasan al-Sindi. The The point is that these works were being commentary on the Muwatta by Sheikh Zakariyya.

These are a massive contribution. We We didn't even mention that from the the students of really people like Nazir Ahmad Husain, from their students you get people who taught the likes of Abd al-Hayy al-Lucknawi. A huge once again and somebody that contributes massively to to not only Hadith but critiques.

He He has his commentaries work on the Muwatta, but also to Ilm al-Rijal. He He comments significantly. He has his also his Rafa al-Takmil where he raises invaluable points. Points that people highlight that well, the works of people like Sheikh Abd al-Hayy al-Lucknawi are, you know, they indispensable. People like Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghudda speaking about them, Zahid al-Kawthari highlighting them.

All of the this has been done in the land of Hindustan. This was India. This is what it had produced. Yet, people kind of lost all of that and got caught into ridiculous, you know, just factions and this type of sectarianism. Forgetting about look that their roots were actually just one. During the time of you know, the movement that we spoke about of Sayyid Ahmad and and and the successes that continued it and that continued to kind of like spread and struggle for that freedom uh fight.

You see it's during their time that the rise of people like uh you know, Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani came about. Where he initially first of all sets about in his uh and this comes back to what we're talking about at the beginning of the dust where he first of all sets about saying that oh, he's the Mahdi. In the in the late uh 1890s and by 1901, he declares himself a rasul, a nabi.

Debunking much of what was in the Sunnah. Saying that we don't need to follow the Hadith. Since I'm a new legislator, I don't I overrule this I overrule the concept of this, the concept of that, the ruling of this or whether it was jihad or whether it was other things or elements of zakat or whatever he kind of ruled in. You can see that this threat once again pushes its head.

This fitna attempts to emerge. Once again echoed again in India. Decades later, a few decades later by by Parvez. Trying to say that we don't need not of nabuwwah but saying we don't need Hadith. Or or we doubt its authenticity. That it's fine to go ahead with the Quran. So, you see that the ulama of India rising to this challenge.

The work and the commitment that they did in the preservation of Hadith for it to reach us today to the extent that people have said when you look at their efforts that all of that that was done. I mean, I didn't even go into mentioning how that triggered off you know Sheikh Saharanpuri and how it triggered off many others who contributed their works and what led to Nadwatul Ulum one of a significant Institute of learning today recognized worldwide.

Obviously key like Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi who were given international awards by Muslims for for their contribution for what they for their perception and analysis. I mean his book "Madha Khasiral Alam bin Hitati'l Muslimeen" what has the world lost with the with the with the downfall of the Muslims. Had I mean it was given international awards by several Muslim bodies.

That's how renowned his work was. He was invited to to speak as a thinker, as an analyst. It continues today Nadwatul Ulum to produce people who are experts in language, experts in Hadith studies even till today. All of this going back finding its traces, its roots going back to that one man Shah Waliullah Dehlawi. All of our chains in Hadith today, our chain, my chain in Hadith it goes through Shah Waliullah Dehlawi.

All of the chains today in India and Indo-Pak today and today in Pakistan as well. What led to the formation of Pakistan itself you know with the with the with the foresight by people like Allama Iqbal and these people was the efforts by several people like Sayyid Ahmad and and the movements that they had led which was which finds its roots with Shah Waliullah Dehlawi.

How much happened and what changed the entire face the face of India as we know it goes back to that one decision of Shah Waliullah Dahlawi returning to India. So there is a huge a huge legacy So do you think you can have you can read us your chain of Hadith? Uh At least one of them.

Yeah inshallah but Okay inshallah I can I can go I'll have to get it but I mean you can go through it inshallah. So I mean this this is what I wanted to really just highlight that well this that we especially and why this is important for us is that we most of the Muslims here today are of that heritage. I mean in essence we're all from Hind.

Hindustan as it was then. Now this wasn't a land in the last when when most of the Muslim world kind of went quiet when it came to the work of Sunnah and Hadith. This was a land that once again rose at that time. Revived the works of people like Rabi ibn Sabih. Right? That that these type of the first one of the first person people to author in Hadith substantially where he dies becomes a land where in the last centuries of Islam begins to author substantially

in this science. Today unfortunately some of us we've become so distracted by all the you know the the type of sectarianism of whether it's going to be Raza Ahmed Khan Barelvi and the Deobandis and this and and this is really in itself just nonsense. All of them their roots go back to people like Muhammad Ishaq al-Dahlawi who who teaches all of them share common teachers.

In essence, in legacy, whether it's uh you know, Sheikh Imdadullah Muhajir Makki or whether it's his teacher Muhammad Ishaq al-Dahlawi, whether it's his teacher Abdul Aziz al-Dahlawi, whether it's his teacher Shah Waliullah Dahlawi. And one thing that you learn then Sheikh, was there like as like you mentioned that all these movements all trace back to the same teachers, common teachers.

Was there a particular event which caused them to drift apart or was it over time? I mean, if you're saying all these You see, these movements were separate, but they weren't never like they didn't see each other as like adversaries. Like they some people may have gone into this, other people have gone into that. But what it awakened people was a concern to do something for the ummah of Hindustan at the time.

Now, this this deep-rooted concern is what was triggered by the household of Delhi. Now, it's not about that they were different like Nazir Nazir Hussain Sheikh Nazir Hussain wasn't you know, like he did obviously he was like the founding father of the Ahl-e-Hadith movement in India. But he didn't have this issue with uh let's say people who were Hanafi and the shuyukh of his time like the way it is today.

He had many people who were very near and dear to him that were Hanafi. Just his own teachers would be Hanafi. Just as some of his students were Hanafi. Just as some of the Hanafiyyah took from people who were maybe not so Hanafi and and they gave to people like that as well. So, the differences were there. The intensity of the hatred didn't exist.

The hatred really I mean, what we see today and and I'm and I'm I'm listing it. I mean, the key split between the whether it's going to be the Deobandi or the Barelvi, or what is today the Al-Hadith in in the Indo-Pak. These three key differences trace their roots back to the same people that taught them. And the differences did exist then. Or some differences. Okay, later differences emerge again, but some differences, the seeds of the differences were there.

It wasn't that like key example was like Sayyid Ahmad disagreeing with his Sheikh Sheikh Abdul Aziz about Tasawwuf Sheikh and saying that I to me this seems like shirk. Yet his Sheikh Shah Abdul Aziz is the one that is doing it. But he's not You see they're they're disagreeing.

They're discussing. Whether Sheikh Abdul Aziz continued to do it, Allahu Alam, but many people probably did. But the point is that it's it wasn't about He didn't say, you know, Sayyid Ahmad would say, "Oh, I think you're a mushrik and I'm boycotting this and I'm going like this and I don't want anything to do with you guys because or or when he when he thought about why have people abandoned Hajj and I'm disagreeing with this fatwa." He didn't think, "Oh, all of you guys are murtad for disagreeing with this or your fasiqs or your zalim or dalil for, you know, debunking Hajj fardiyat Hajj." He wrote in defense of it, encouraged, lectured, called people towards Hajj, and then said, "You know what?

I'll take it upon myself to finance you and help you." The point is how you go about indifferent. Now, what's happened unfortunately in the last century has really severed and split the divergence so far and wide that people today it's become an iman and and kufr issue. That you're Muslim or you're not Muslim. Subhanallah, if imagine if Sheikh Muhammad Ishaq or Abdul Aziz al-Dehlawi or Shah Waliullah was to hear that.

I mean, I I don't I he'd be he'd be a beside himself in disbelief. He wouldn't accept that no way that this that that they would amongst themselves it would become an issue of Iman and Kufar. So, this is why I highlighted it in saying that look that India has produced huge efforts and in the hope that it can be an encouragement for us to think yeah, why don't we carry on? Why don't we take an interest in Hadith and Sunnah today?

Because really what defines Ahlus Sunnah is our association with the science of Sunnah. So, I mean really that was what I wanted to really share with us today. Um it was a bit I mean the whole purpose of these studies is that they are um isolated in themselves. It's not necessarily a particular text. We're going through different aspects of Usul Hadith and one of the things we're taking a look at is evolution and the impact it's had.

One thing we could see is that look up until the 10th century, there's a huge effort that takes place and it crystallizes. After the 10th century till our age, it almost becomes quite um I mean regressive isn't the word, but it becomes quite dormant. But one thing we start to see is from the 10th century onwards, we start to see a practical side of it emerging in the Indian subcontinent that is unparalleled anywhere else in the world.

From the 900s onwards with the people we saw Husamuddin al-Muttaqi onwards his student al-Fatani and we see a Sheikh Muhaddith Abdul Haq al-Dahlawi giving and the father of uh Abdul Rahim al-Dahlawi and his son Shah Waliullah who really at his hands this whole thing, you see what he sets in motion in a butterfly effect is a tsunami that would change the entire uh face of India as they knew it.

And in my understanding, Allahu Alam, that that dream that where he returns light to the places that had been engulfed and enveloped by darkness and Kuffar. In my understanding was the connection with the Sunnah and the Hadith again. Because everywhere throughout Hindustan today and throughout and I'm saying that broadly speaking covering Pakistan as well that we have wherever you have the chain of the Hadith of the Prophet Alaihi Wasallam it goes through Sheikh Shah Waliullah Dehlawi.

So inshallah may Allah subhana Yeah. Yeah, sh- shall I go? Oh, if I if I go get it. Yeah, is that right? All right, should we start? Bismillah Rahman Rahim. All right, so speaking about Isnad and speaking about the the the fruitful and highly beneficial work of the Ulama al-Hind, the scholars of Hadith with regards to the Sunnah and the Hadith of the Messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.

In light of that I'd like to go through my own Ijazah bil Isnad, my own Isnad share that with you guys. This goes through the great household of Delhi as you'll see. Um Shah Waliullah, the legend who we just spoke about and his legacy that he left behind which still is with us and in fact permeates through the entire um sub- Indian subcontinent today that you will not find any Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that is being taught and documented except it goes through a chain going through

Shah Waliullah Dehlawi. So let's This one I'm just going to share one Isnad. Obviously as it gets further up the names depending on the book, will always vary because they may go through different people. The pivotal point is Sheikh Shah Waliullah Dehlawi in all of the chains. Now, this particular one is for Sahih al-Bukhari since we spoke a bit about it in one of the the lessons. So, this one I had been given ijazah.

It does mention that I had the the Sheikh speaking here was Sheikh Abdul Hamid who was Sheikh al-Hadith in Jamia Binoria. And that was he was one of the teachers of Sahih al-Bukhari. Now, although many of them gave us ijazahs in all their books, but he's just one person that I'm reading from. So, it says that he completed with me Sahih al-Bukhari a completion with understanding of fiqh.

It says so he asked me so from me that I give him ijazah, so I did. And you hadith that he may teach hadith where you teach the riwayah from me that he and I can teach from the riwayah from him. Uh in a mahal or in any country that he is in with the conditions that are in the hadith and the athar. That but with any or wherever he may go far and wide with the conditions that the ulama of hadith that have laid out.

Right now, he says I read his Sahih al-Bukhari from the Sheikh al-Mufti Wali Hasan at-Tonki. So, Sheikh Wali Hasan was amazing scholar that taught hadith in in Pakistan. Obviously, one somebody that himself is from pre-partition, but I mean from that generation really and he passes away in I I believe it's in Karachi he passes away as well.

But, he was a um somebody that one of our teachers, Sheikh Abdullah al-Hazrami, spoke amazingly about. I mean, he he was in awe of this person. And and it's interesting, actually, when he spoke about him, because he said that he was somebody that he says in his lifetime, he says, "I saw people would flock to him and be around him." And um they would always, you know, he says that he says, "When he would leave his class, he would be surrounded by a whirlpool of students." And of people, admirers, and so on.

And And he says that in his later stage of his life, hardships befell him. And he says, "And at that time, I never saw anybody around him." He says, "Right up until he he would passes away." And he says that Allah he says he passed away in in a bit of a destitute situation in one of the hospitals that wasn't really catered for. And he was And it it's just interesting when he kind of reminisced about him. But, he said he was such an amazing person that if he wanted, he said he could have hoarded so much wealth.

And so much, but he he never chose that path. But, um from him the ijazah is he says he took this from Husain Ahmad Madani, somebody very popular from from India. Once again, has huge contributions and some interesting works on um coexistence within multi-faith societies, as well.

He used his book is called um Do you remember what the English title is? It's actually in English, as well. But, um But, anyway, uh who takes his ijazah from Sheikhul Hind, Mahmud al-Hasan at Deobandi, who uh Sheikhul Hind, Mahmud al-Hasan, was somebody who they used to call him Sheikhul Arab wal-Ajam, somebody who, once again, led a key role in the the fight for freedom against the colonial powers and was actually imprisoned as well and sent I believe exiled as well for a while and then brought back or allowed to come back.

Who took his ijaza from his as a Sheikh Han from the two Rashid Ahmed Gangohi and Maulana Muhammad Qasim Nanotwi both of who take the ijaza from Abdul Ghani and uh Ahmad Ali Saharanpuri So from both of these and Ahmad Ali Saharanpuri as well a key person who who devoted himself to the science of Hadith and Sunnah.

Kila Huma both of them take from Sheikh Muhammad Ishaq al-Dahlawi. And we and we spoke about Muhammad Ishaq al-Dahlawi and how he produced all these huge and amazing people uh from all schools really and that whether that was going to be the likes of Imdadullah Muhajir Makki or it was going to be people like Nazir Hussein Sheikh ul-Kul fil-Kul or it was going to um be like the the the likes that go on to produce um uh Rashid Ahmed Gangohi and Qasim Nanotwi.

And also on the other side people that would produce uh the likes of Raza Ahmed Khan Barelvi. So you can see all of these already coming back through to uh Muhammad Ishaq al-Dahlawi who takes from uh Sheikh Shah Abdul Aziz al-Dahlawi who is the major powerhouse really a huge powerhouse uh produced amazing people obviously like uh his own um nephew here Muhammad Ishaq but also many other people like Sheikh Sayyid Ahmed that we spoke about al-Barelvi um and and several others as well.

All right. So sh- uh who takes from his father Shah Waliullah al-Dahlawi and the Muhaddith of India really the legend and the pivotal point who says Allah Abu Tahir Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Kurdi his teacher Abu Tahir al-Madani this is who he's referring to who takes this just a problem and he says who was who took from his father Sheikh Ibrahim al-Kurdi he says al-Qur'an al-Sheikh Ahmad al-Qashashi who says he took from Ahmad ibn Abdul Quddus who took from Shamsuddin al-Raml famous Shamsuddin al-Raml Shafi who took

from Zainuddin Zakariya al-Ansari who we covered when we were looking at the evolution of usul al-mustalah how it developed and the commentary Sheikh Zakariya al-Ansari had done who took from Allah al-Sheikh al-Hafiz Shahabuddin Ahmad ibn Hajar al-Asqalani obviously somebody who's indispensable really his works when it comes to usul al-hadith and its development who took from Ibrahim ibn Ahmad al-Tanukhi who took from Sheikh Abu al-Waqt Abdul Awwal al-Harawi who took from Sheikh Abu

al-Hasan Abdul Rahman al-Dawudi from Abu Muhammad Abdullah al-Sarakhsi and I'm trying to not read out the whole that they give sometimes a long lineage for their names but I'm just trying to make it pertinent and from Abu Abdullah who took from Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Farabri this is one of the key transmitters Farabri is from from al-Imam Bukhari and somebody who whose transmission

of the Sahih went far and wide and and I'd like to do something on the transmissions of Bukhari, inshallah, in one of the coming lessons, okay? Speaking about who Although many people took the Sahih, but who were the key transmitters? Um there are only a handful, and out of them who took it in what direction and where it became quite popular. So, who transmits and Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari?

So, All right. There it is. So, I mean, this This is is an example. And we do Why we want to associate ourselves with this There's um There's a riwayah in the Mu'jam of Tabarani al-Awsat and in the Sunan of Darimi, where the Prophet says, "Allahumma arham khulafa'i." Uh And they say, "Who Who are your khulafa'?" He says, "Uh Allah bless my Have mercy on my uh vicegerents, on my deputies." And when the Sahabah asked, "Who are they?" He said, "Alladhina ya'tuna min

ba'di, yarwuna ahadithi wa yu'allimunaha an-nas." Those who come after me transmit my hadith and teach them to people. Have mercy on them. And the isnad, the chain, is the silah al-mu'min. As Sufyan al-Thawri said, it is the weapon of the believer. And if you don't have the isnad, in essence, you don't have the deen. And it's what some of the Andalusi dons, like uh I believe it Abu Ali al-Jiyani and others as well had said that part of the things that this ummah that this ummah specifically has been singled

out with as a blessing. And he he He on to mention a few things. Amongst them, he says, "Isnad is one of the things that Allah has graced and blessed this ummah with on its own." And that is absolutely true. If you look objectively, there are no civilizations that have a concept of isnad and the preservation of it in the method that we do today.

So, it's it's unparalleled in any of the sciences.