hindustani fanatics, india's pashtuns, and deobandism – connections

that Shah Waliullah’s ancestors were Pashtuns or influenced religiously by them.Hindustani Fanatics, India’s Pashtuns, and Deobandism – ConnectionsShah Waliullah was taught by Muhammad Hayat, a Naqshbandi Sufi, who was a contemporary – if not a fellow student – of Abd al-Wahhab.Charles Allen explains this connection:“In the case of Abd al-Wahhab the facts are not quite so well documented, but we know that he studied Hadith in Medina in his late twentiesunder the Indian Muhammad Hayat al-Sindi, a Naqshbandi sufi and a Shafi jurist who was an admirer of Ibn Taymiyya and a student of Ibrahim al-Kurani—the teacher who taught Hadith to Shah Waliullah and introduced him to the ideas of Ibn Taymiyya. So we have the intriguing possibility thatthe two greatest Sunni reformers of their age not only sat at the feet of the same teachers but may even have sat in the same classes. We can also beconfident that some of these teachers encouraged their students to follow Ibn Taymiyya’s hard line and to regard militant jihad as a prime religiousduty—which is what both Abd al-Wahhab and Shah Waliullah then went home to implement.” 103Muhammad Hayat’s specific area of origin is hard to document, but this is easy to accomplish with his teacher, Sheikh Ahmad Sarhindi, alsoan admirer of Ibn Taymiyya. Sheikh Ahmad Sarhindi al-Farooqi an-Naqshbandi, was born in Sarhind on June 26, 1564. 104 Sarhind was located ina region under the control of Pashtuns, particularly the Lodis and Surs, 105 and it was destroyed by the Sikhs in 1761. Ahmad Sarhindi also lived andstudied in Sialkot, another Pashtun town that was located in a part of India that was under the control of Pashtuns. 106 Ahmad Sarhindi may or may nothave been a Pashtun, himself, but he spent most of his early life in towns in which Pashtuns were the dominant portion of the population. He passedthe concept of militant jihad he shared with Abd al-Wahhab to his students, a group that included Muhammad Hayat. Hayat passed this belief to ShahWaliullah who shared it with his son, Shah Abdul Aziz, and with Sayed Ahmad Shah of Bareily. These were the common experiences they shared:Naqshbandi Sufism, acceptance of the teachings of Ibn Taymiyya, a belief that militant jihad was a religious duty, and strong connections with India’sPashtuns, particularly the Rohillas that had their state destroyed by a Shi’a leader originating from Persia and the British East India Company. Thecombination of a belief in militant jihad as a religious duty and Pashtunwali’s badal 107 now entered into the religious beliefs of a large population thatalso believed that Islam was also endangered by foreign invaders.Charles Fox provides the impact the tragedy of the Rohillas has had on modern history as their resistance to British colonialism developedinto the “Hindustani Fanatics” and the six major campaigns over half of a century that were fought to control them, repetitive insurgencies that maybe continuing today:They will carry their melancholy tale into the numerous tribes and nations among whom they are scattered, and you may depend upon it theimpression which it will make, will, sooner or later, have its effect. 108103. http://www.worldpolicy.org/journal/articles/wpj05-2/allen.html104. http://islamic-world.net/baca2.php?ArtID=139105. Husain, pg. 1.106. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sialkot (accessed 28 September 2008)107. Badal is translated as honor-related revenge.108. Fox, Charles James, The Speeches of the Right Honourable Charles James Fox in the House of Commons: With a Biographical Memoir, and Introductions and Explanatory Notes,Aylott and Co., 1853, pg. 256.sTribal Analysis Center, 6610-M Mooretown Road, Box 159. Williamsburg, VA, 23188