Ahmed Rida Khan - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Ahmed Raza Khan Fazil-e-Barelvi (1856–1921 CE) was a Sunni Islam

Sunni Islam

Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam. Sunni Muslims are referred to in Arabic as ʾAhl ūs-Sunnah wa āl-Ǧamāʿah or ʾAhl ūs-Sunnah for short; in English, they are known as Sunni Muslims, Sunnis or Sunnites....

ic scholar and sufi, whose works influenced the Barelvi

Barelvi

Barelvi is a term used for the movement of Sufi , Sunni Islam originating in the Indian subcontinent.The Movement is known as Ahle Sunnat movement to its followers....

movement of South Asia

South Asia

South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...

. Raza Khan wrote on numerous topics, including law, religion, philosophy and the sciences. He was a prolific writer, producing nearly 1,000 works in his lifetime.

Early life

His father was Naqi Ali Khan, and his great-grandfather Shah Kazim Ali Khan was a great Sunni scholar.

Ahmed's mother named him Amman Miyān. Raza Khan used the appellation "Abdul Mustafa" (slave [or servant] of Mustafa) prior to signing his name in correspondence. He studied Islamic science

Islamic science

Science in the medieval Islamic world, also known as Islamic science or Arabic science, is the science developed and practised in the Islamic world during the Islamic Golden Age . During this time, Indian, Iranian and especially Greek knowledge was translated into Arabic...

s and completed a traditional Dars-i-Nizami

Dars-i-Nizami

Dars-i Nizami is a study curriculum used in a large portion of Islamic religious school in South Asia. It was standardized Mullah Nizamuddin Sehalvi at Firangi Mahal, a famous seminary belonging to a family of Islamic scholars in Lucknow, India.The Dars-i-Nizami system orginated from early 18th...

course under the supervision of his father Naqī Áli Khān, who was a legal scholar. He went on the Hajj

Hajj

The Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is one of the largest pilgrimages in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so...

with his father in 1878.

Beliefs

Ahmed Raza Khan promulgated several beliefs regarding Muhammad:

Muhammad, although human, possessed a Noor (Light) that predates creation. This contrasts with the Deobandi view that Muhammad was insan-e-kamil ("the complete man"), a respected but physically typical human.
He is haazir naazir (can be present in many places at the same time, as opposed to God, who is everywhere by definition).
God has granted him ilm-e-ghaib (the knowledge of the unseen). and on this matter he states:

We do not hold that anyone can equal the knowledge of Allah Most High, or possess it independently, nor do we assert that Allah’s giving of knowledge to the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) is anything but a part. But what a patent and tremendous difference between one part [the Prophet’s] and another [anyone else’s]: like the difference between the sky and the earth, or rather even greater and more immense (al-Dawla al-Makkiyya (c00), 291).

God has made him mukhtaar kul (having the authority to do whatever he desired).

Quran and hadith studies

Ahmed Raza Khan translated the Quran into Urdu, which was first published in 1912 under the title of Kanz ul-Iman fi Tarjuma al-Qur’an. The original manuscript is preserved in the library of Idara Tahqiqat-i-Imam Ahmed Raza, Karachi

Karachi

Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...

, and an English translation of Kanzul Iman has also been published. Ahmed Raza Khan also wrote several books on the collection and compilation of hadith

Hadith

The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....

Fatwas

Raza Khan's main work was Fatawa Ridawiyya which runs in 30 volumes of over 1000 pages each. The Raza Foundation under the leadership of Abdul Qayyum Hazarwi revised the work, translating all the Persian and Arabic sentences in Urdu, and published it in 30 volumes, running across 90,000 pages.

Religious research

Raza Khan investigated numerous religious questions:

In 1915 he wrote a treatise describing 160 types of water which are acceptable for wudu
Wudu
Wuḍhu is the Islamic procedure for washing parts of the body using water often in preparation for formal prayers...

(ablution), and 146 types of proscribed water.
He identified 181 acceptable and 130 unacceptable materials for tayammum
Tayammum
Tayammum is the Islamic act of dry ablution using sand or dust, which may be performed in place of ritual washing if no clean water is readily available.-Circumstances when tayammum is necessary:...

(alternatives to water for ablution).
He was able to fill up the Naqsh-i-Murabba (a sixteen column quadrilateral) by 1152 methods.
He knew 800 names of Muhammad from books, and was able to gather 1400 more.
He analysed whether it was credible that Hussain was able to travel from Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...

to Kerbala on 3rd Zilhij and reach there on 2nd of Moharram. He investigated the types of horse, the loads they carried, the route of the caravan, the types of terrain, and other factors, and finally concluded that the caravan could feasibly have reached Kerbala by the 2nd.

Works in physics

Raza Khan opposed the belief in a heliocentric universe, instead stating that the sun and moon circulate around the Earth.

Works in economics

Raza through his book published in 1912, presented four points for the economic development of Muslims:

Barring the affairs wherein government is involved, Muslims should decide all their disputes mutually so that millions of rupees, which are being spent over litigations, may be saved.
The affluent Muslims of Bombay (Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

), Calcutta, Rangoon, Madras and Hyderabad should open banks for other poor Muslims.
Muslims should not purchase anything from anybody except Muslims.
The sciences of Islam should be propagated and publicized.

Antagonism towards Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and the Ahmadiyya Movement

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

Mīrzā Ghulām Aḥmad was a religious figure from India and the founder of the Ahmadiyya Community. He claimed to be the Mujaddid of the 14th Islamic century, the promised Messiah , and the Mahdi awaited by the Muslims in the end days...

of Qadian

Qadian

Qadian is a small town and a municipal council in Gurdaspur District, north-east of Amritsar, situated north-east of Batala city in the state of Punjab, India....

claimed to be the Mahdi

Mahdi

In Islamic eschatology, the Mahdi is the prophesied redeemer of Islam who will stay on Earth for seven, nine or nineteen years- before the Day of Judgment and, alongside Jesus, will rid the world of wrongdoing, injustice and tyranny.In Shia Islam, the belief in the Mahdi is a "central religious...

(messiah) awaited by the Muslims as well as a new prophet. These claims proved to be extremely controversial among many in the Muslim community, and he was branded a heretic

Heresy

Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...

and apostate by many religious scholars of the time, including Ahmed Raza Khan. Ghulam Ahmad's claims are controversial to this day, but his Mahdi status and prophethood is believed in by the Ahmadiyya

Ahmadiyya

Ahmadiyya is an Islamic religious revivalist movement founded in India near the end of the 19th century, originating with the life and teachings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad , who claimed to have fulfilled the prophecies about the world reformer of the end times, who was to herald the Eschaton as...

religion. Some Muslim countries, such as Pakistan in 1974, have officially declared the Ahmadiyya non-Muslims.

When Ahmed Raza visited Mecca

Mecca

Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...

and Medina

Medina

Medina , or ; also transliterated as Madinah, or madinat al-nabi "the city of the prophet") is a city in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, and serves as the capital of the Al Madinah Province. It is the second holiest city in Islam, and the burial place of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, and...

for pilgrimage in 1905, he prepared a draft document entitled Al Motamad Al Mustanad ("The Reliable Proofs") for presentation to the scholars of Mecca and Medina. Ahmed Raza Khan collected opinions of the ulama of the Hejaz

Hejaz

al-Hejaz, also Hijaz is a region in the west of present-day Saudi Arabia. Defined primarily by its western border on the Red Sea, it extends from Haql on the Gulf of Aqaba to Jizan. Its main city is Jeddah, but it is probably better known for the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina...

and compiled them in an Arabic language compendium with the title, Husam al Harmain ("The Sword of Two Sanctuaries"), a work containing 34 verdicts from 33 ulama (20 Meccan and 13 Medinese). The work concluded that Ghulam Ahmad's beliefs were blasphemous and tantamount to apostasy

Apostasy in Islam

Apostasy in Islam is commonly defined in Islam as the rejection in word or deed of one's former religion by a person who was previously a follower of Islam...

Quietism

During the period of the Indian Khilafat Movement

Khilafat Movement

The Khilafat movement was a pan-Islamic, political campaign launched by Muslims in British India to influence the British government and to protect the Ottoman Empire during the aftermath of World War I...

, Gandhi was advised that he should meet with Raza Khan. When he was told that Gandhi wished to meet and speak to him, Raza Khan said, "What would he speak about? Religion or worldly affairs? If it is worldly affairs, what can I partake in, for I have abstained from the world and have no interest in it."

Opposition to heterodox practices

Raza Khan condemned many practices he saw as bid'at (forbidden innovations), such as:

Qawali (religious music)
Women going to visit mazaar (tombs)
Tawaf
Tawaf
Tawaf is one of the Islamic rituals of pilgrimage. During the Hajj and Umrah, Muslims are to circumambulate the Kaaba seven times, in a counterclockwise direction...

(ceremonially walking in circles around a holy site) of tombs.
Sajda (prostration) to those other than God
Ta'zieh
Ta'zieh
Ta'zieh means Condolence Theater and Naqqali are traditional Persian theatrical genres in which the drama is conveyed wholly or predominantly through music and singing...

, plays re-enacting religious scenes

Positive Views and Admirers

Shaykh Muhammad al-Ya’qoubi of Syria recently declared on national television his belief that the mujaddid
Mujaddid
A Mujaddid , according to the popular Muslim tradition, refers to a person who appears at the turn of every century of the Islamic calendar to revive Islam, remove from it any extraneous elements and restore it to its pristine purity...

of the Indian subcontinent
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...

was none other than Imam Ahmed Raza Khan Bareilly, going so far as to say that a person of the Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah
Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah
Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah, Ahle Sunnat Wal Jama'at and other variants may refer to:* Sunni Islam, the majority sect of Islam* Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah , an Islamic organisation operating in the United Kingdom...

can be identified by his love of Imam Ahmed Raza Khan, and that those outside the Ahlus Sunnah are identified by their attacks on him.

Criticism

He issued fatwas against other religious group such as Deobandis and Wahabbis, accusing them of being disrespectful towards Muhammad. Deobandi and Wahabi scholars believe that Ahmed Raza Khan has made these accusations due to his "exaggeration" in loving the prophet, which they claim violates hadith which proscribe deifying Mohammad.
He advocated the practice of tawassul
Tawassul
Tawassul is the Islamic understanding of intercession. It is a religious practice in which a Muslim seeks nearness to Allah. A rough translation would be: "To draw near to what one seeks after and to approach that which one desires." The exact definition and method of tawassul is a matter of...

(asking to deceased Muslims), which his opponents declared to be shirk
Shirk
Shirk may refer to:* "Shirk", to avoid work or other responsibilities* Shirk , in Islam, the sin of idolatry or associating beings or things with Allah* "Shirk break", a synonym for coffee break*Susan Shirk, US academic...

(polytheism):

If you are embarrassed in your affairs, seek help from the inmates of the tombs,having beliefs that Allah is the one who is helping and the person in the tomb is just wasila.

Raza opposed labeling then-British held India to be Dar-ul Harb ("land of war"), thus opposing any justification of jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...

(struggle) or hijrat (mass emigration to escape) under patronage of Gandhi. This stance was opposed by Deobandi scholars such as Muhammad Qasim Nanotvi
Muhammad Qasim Nanotvi
Muhammad Qasim Nanotvi was a world famous Islamic Scholar and one of the main people responsible for establishing the Deobandi movement. Nanotvi was born in 1833 in Nanota, a village near Saharanpur, India. He completed his primary education in his hometown and then he was sent to Deoband, where he...

.

Sources

Baraka, A - A Saviour in a Dark World (Article) The Islamic Times, March 2003 Stockport, UK
Haroon, M The World of Ahmed Raza Kazi Publications, Lahore 1974
Sanyal, Usha, Ahmed Riza Khan Barelwi: In the Path of the Prophet (Makers of the Muslim World), Oneworld, 2005.

External links

Alahazrat.net
Online Quran Project includes the Qur'an translation of Ahmed Rida Khan.
The True Life Picture of Hazrat
A Complete Encyclopedia about Ahmed Raza Khan.
The Life and Works of the Muslim Revivalist, A'La Hadrat
Research works on Ahmed Raza Khan
Books and works of Ahmed Rida Khan
Fatawa and works by Ahmed Rida Khan
A detailed website about the Raza's life and works

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