Al Muhaddith Shah Abdul Aziz Dehlavi (1745 – 1823) (Arabic: المحدث شاه عبدالعزيز دهلاوي‎) was one of the great Sunni Islamic scholar scholars of Hadith in India.

The eldest son of Shah Waliullah RA was only 17 years old when Shah Waliullah died. After the death of Shah Waliullah, his son, Shah Abdul Aziz gradually became an outstanding figure among the Indian Muslims. Shah Abdul Aziz, having completed his necessary education assumed the responsibility of the principalship of the Madrash Rahimiya (Delhi). Thereafter, Shah Abdul Aziz devoted his life to teaching, to spiritual guidance, to delivering sermons and to writing books. Every Tuesday and Friday, he used to give public sermons on the premises of the Madrasah which was attended by Muslims and non-Muslims both. The Madrasah was a centre of traditional Islamic learning. As was the custom in those days, he started his education at the age of five with the study of the Noble Quran. Every biographer of Shah Abdul Aziz seems to have agreed that he finished his education in Tafsir, Hadith, Sarf (accidence), Nahw (Syntax), Fiqh, Usul-i-Fiqh (Principles of Jurisprudence), Mantiq (logic), Kalam and Aqaid (theology), Astronomy and Mathematics at the age of about fifteen years. He was taught especially by his father and by two of his father’s disciples, Shah Muhammad Ashiq and Khwajah Aminullah. His father held authority (ijazah) in all four existing mystic orders, the Naqshbandi, the Qadiri, the Suhrawardi and the Chisthti. Shah Abdul Aziz too obtained such Ijazah in all these orders from his father. He was also a poet of high merit and used to write poems and Ghazals.

 

Apart from spiritual guidance and teaching, Shah Abdul Aziz wrote and dictated several books. Some of them related to contemporary religious issues, and some contained the biography of the Muhaddithin, and of the grandsons of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) and his other companions. He wrote a few books on the subjects of logic and rhetoric. Tafsir Fath al-Aziz or Tafsir-i-Aziz (in Persian) and Tuhfah-i-Ithna ‘Ashariyah are among his well-known books. Fatawa Aziz, another famous book, is the collection of Fatawa (questions and answers on religious issue). The other well-known and highly controversial book written by him is the Tuhfah. In this book, he has described the history, belief and teachings of the Shia’s.

He became the leader of the movement started by his father. Throughout his life he was busy in propagating the ideals and thought of his father. He wrote several books which were based upon Shah Waliullah’s ideas but were written in a language more easily intelligible to a man of average education. For Sixty years, Shah Abdul Aziz laboured at his mission until his death in 1823.

Although the Muslim power had ended, but the Muslims were still confused because the legal fiction of the Mughul emperor’s sovereignty was kept up. Shah Abdul Aziz removed this confusion by declaring unambiguously that the emperor was utterly helpless; the real power was in the hands of the British; they had only found it politic to refrain from establishing their administration in certain areas. The sub-continent was no longer dar-ul-Islam, a land where the Faith could consider itself in power or even free; the fact that the British did not interdict the practice of certain Islamic rites made no difference; the Muslims were now living in dar-ul-harb, an area where Islam had been deprived of its authority.

Shah Abdul Aziz tried to remain friendly with the British realizing the fact that the policy of military resistance was no longer feasible. Opposition in those circumstances meant committing suicide. He, therefore, adopted such a policy for which he could not be accused of hostility to the British and could thus proceed with his mission. His mission was to prepare the Muslims to face the changed political circumstances. Having realized the hopeless condition of Muslim political power, he asked the Muslims not to live in the world of dreams. It is safe to assume that he was probably sure that the country was no longer an abode of Islam, where Muslims could live according to their own law. The country had become Darul Harb. To Muslims, as it was understood, there were only two alternatives, Jihad or Hijrah, if they were to take the classical Fiqh-opinions on their face value. Otherwise they had to find out their own way in that new situation.

Hence it had become responsibility of Shah Abdul Aziz to find out a safe way. This he did. He came forward and, without allowing his character and personality to be harmed and without compromising his religious identity, he tacitly told the Muslims how to adjust themselves into the new situation.

Source:

1. I. H. Qureshi, A Short History of Pakistan (Book one to four) Edition, 1988, (S 48) University of Karachi, Karachi PP.200-202
2. Mushirul Haq (Ex. Prof. Islamic thought Jamia Milleyya Islamiyya, Delhi) (S28) Shah Abdul Aziz (His life and Time) Edition, 1995 Institute of Islamic Culture, Club Road, Lahore, Pakistan. pp. 17 – 27.
3. I. H. Qureshi. The Muslim community of the Indo-Pakistan Sub-continent(610-1947) (M30) Edition 1999. Bureau of Composition, Compilation and Translation University of Karachi, Pakistan pp. 220-222