Mawlana Muhammad Sarfraz Khan Safdarr By Abu Asim Badrul Islam

its ijtihādi nature the issue has never been treated as a divisive contention.
Indeed this is the case with all the legal differences that exist within, and
between, the four established schools of sacred law. Sadly, some quarters of
the Indian ‘Ahl al-Ḥadīth’ (or ‘Salafīs’) launched a campaign, publishing and
distributing literature condemning all those Muslims who do not recite Sūrat
al-Fātiḥa when praying behind an imām and claiming that the prayers of such
Muslims were invalid. This implied that the prayers of all those great imāms of
the Holy Qurʾān and Sunnah, who have passed in the history of Islām, and who
were of the opinion that the one who prays behind an imām must not (or may
not) recite Sūrat al-Fātiḥa were null. Tens of books were written by the leading
Ḥanafī ʿulamā of the Indian subcontinent in response to this. Imām Ṣafdar
wrote this unparalleled two-volume rebuttal of the false ‘Ahl al-Ḥadīth’
propagandists. In the first volume he establishes the firm evidences of the
Ḥanafī school of sacred law and in the second volume he rebuts the deception
of the propagandists one by one.
Ṣirf Ēk Islām - ba Jawāb-e-Dō Islām (first impression: 1375 AH/1955 CE): Dr.
Ghulām Jīlānī Barq had joined the heretic movement of the rejecters of ḥadīth
and had written two books entitled Dō Islām and Dō Qurʾān. The former book
was received by Imām Ṣafdar during his incarceration in Multan Central Jail for
his involvement in the Khatm-e-Nubuwwat campaign. He read the book and
wrote this rebuttal in prison, which was published upon his release. After
reading this book Dr. Ghulām Jīlānī Barq realised the fallacy of his views and
repented. He later wrote a book exposing the heresy of those who reject the
authority of ḥadīth.
Al-Minhāj al-Wāḍiḥ (Rāh-e-Sunnat - first impression: 1377 AH/1957 CE): After
shirk (associating partners with Allāh) the greatest sin in Islām is bidʿah
(innovation in matters of the Dīn in contravention of the Holy Qurʾān, Sunnah,
ijmāʿ of the Imāms of ijtihād and qiyās based on the Holy Qurʾān and Sunnah –
see ʿAllāmah Sayyid Murtaḍā al-Zabīdī’s Tāj al-ʿArūs, 20:309). Considered by
many ʿulamā as one the best books ever written on the topic, this work
parallels Imām Abū Isḥāq al-Shāṭibī’s monumental al-Iʿtiṣām. In the 311 pages
of this work Imām Ṣafdar has explained the concept of bidʿah in light of the
Holy Qurʾān and ḥadīth in an excellent and highly comprehensive style. After
establishing the principles of the Holy Qurʾān and Sunnah in this regard, he
has critically analysed some prevalent practices of bidʿah in the Indian
subcontinent. In his highly powerful style Imām Ṣafdar mentions the
arguments of some of the leading promoters and preachers of bidʿah in the
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