Contributions of the Muslim Scholars for

the revival of the Muslims of India in the

18th and 19th Centuries.
Islamic revival refers to regeneration and renewal of
the Islamic religion. The revivers are known in Islam as Mujaddid.It is
also motivated by a desire to "restore Islam to ascendancy in a world
that has turned away from God".
Within the Islamic tradition, tajdid has been an important religious
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concept, which has manifested itself throughout Islamic history in
periodic calls for a renewed commitment to the fundamental principles
of Islam and reconstruction of society in accordance with the Quran
and the traditions of the Islamic prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH).
The concept of tajdid has played a prominent role in Islamic revival.
In the Indian subcontinent, efforts to revive the authentic and pristine
Islam began with Sheikh Ahmad Sirhindi, and gained momentum with
Shah Waliyullah and Sayyid Ahmad Shaheed. The stage was thus set,
at the beginning of the 20th century, for Allama Muhammad Iqbal to
play his momentous role in laying down the intellectual foundations of
Islamic Renaissance.
Sheikh Ahmad Sirhindi
He is also known as Mujaddid Alf Sani because he was the first Muslim
reformists of the second millennium as per Islamic calendar. He emphasized
the reformation of the individual as well as society. The basic purpose was
the implementation of Islamic laws and Shariah. Sirhindi was born in the
age of Mughal emperor Akbar. At the time of Akbar’s death, Sheikh was 43
years old. Sirhindi has labelled this age as “the age of the Islamic poverty".
The establishment of “Din-e-ilahi” was wrapped by the enmity against Islam
on the intended name of enlightenment and moderation.
He trained groups of disciples and sent them to all the Muslim countries and
to the various cities of India to propagate what he regarded as the spirit of
Islam. He especially asked them to make people realize the importance of
the Sunnah and prepare them to counteract the forces of heresy (bidat) and
to observe and to make others observe the tenets of Islam. His letters to the
great men of the Muslim world was given wide publicity. In them he
discussed problems connected with Islam and its revival. He pressed the
people to follow the Sunnah rigidly and to uproot heresy.
Shah WaliUllah 
The work of Shah WaliUllah was very important in the revival of Islam in the
subcontinent during 18th century. Shah Wali Ullah was one of the first Muslim
thinkers to state the decline of Mughal Empire and the vulnerable position of
the Muslims was due to the neglect of the principles of Islam.
The most important work of Shah WaliUllah was the teaching and preaching
of the basic, pure and true meanings of Islam in ‘Madarsah’. He continued his
work through several generations. This allowed him to spread his thoughts and
beliefs, even when he was dead. He sent several missionaries to different
countries, and even in parts of the subcontinent. He contributed literary fields
as well like; in 1738 he translated Quran into Persian despite of opposition he
faced by orthodox Ulemma. He worked to bring together Shiites and Sunnis
and Ulemma and Sufis. He proposed ways like Ijtihad in Islam and denounced
blind Taqlid. He believed in grooming of Muslims as a society and educated
them to live up as a society in which economic and social justice would
prevail. He educated Muslims of India to emancipate Muslim society from
economic injustices and social biases. He wrote almost 50 books on various
subjects he trained a group of Ulemma to spread the true knowledge of Islam.
Syed Ahmad Shaheed
The work of Syed Ahmad Shaheed had been the very important factor in the revival of Islam
because of many reasons. He was greatly impressed by the preaching and thoughts of Shah
WaliUllah. Therefore, Syed Ahmad Shaheed started preaching true Islam (as Shah WaliUllah
did). However, he was of the opinion that there should be a political power behind the
preaching for the revival of Islam and Muslim power in India. He founded the Jihad
Movement for the restoration and revival of Muslim power in India. His main objective was
the establishment of an Islamic state on proper Islamic principles. In addition, the aim of the
Jihad Movement was to liberate the Muslims of the Punjab and N.W.F.P from the Sikh rule.
In the beginning of 19th century, Punjab and N.W.F.P (now KPK) were under the Sikh rule
of Ranjet Singh. Muslims were facing great difficulty in following their religion in this area.
Therefore, Syed Ahmad chose Punjab and N.W.F.P for his activities. He also expected help
from the Afghan and Pathan tribes of N.W.F.P. Syed Ahmad established his headquarters at
Nowshera. His first encounters against the Sikh forces took place at Akora in which the
Mujahidin were successful. The jihad movement ended in 1831, but it was a brave and
determined movement effort for the revival of Islam and Muslim power.
He advised the Muslims to give up extravagance and wasteful expenditure on marriages,
deaths, births, and other occasions. Wealthy Muslims were asked to look after the poor and
the needy. He gave the concept of social justice and advised the Muslims that due importance
and value should be given to peasants and artists.
Muhammad Allama Iqbal
Muhammad Allama Iqbal is regarded as one of the great thinkers of
the Islamic Awakening. Allama Iqbal was a strong proponent of the
political and spiritual revival of Islamic civilisation across the world,
but specifically in India; a series of famous lectures he delivered to
this effect were published as The Reconstruction of Religious
Thought in Islam.
Iqbal emphasised that, unlike Christianity, Islam came with legal
concepts with civic significance, with its religious ideals considered
as inseparable from social order: Therefore, displacement of the
Islamic principle of solidarity, the construction of a policy on
national lines, is simply unthinkable to a Muslim. Allama Iqbal thus
stressed not only the need for the political unity of Muslim
communities but the undesirability of blending the Muslim
population into a wider society not based on Islamic principles.
Haji Shariatullah
He was born in 1781 in Faridpur district in east Bengal. His
family was poor. In 1799 He went to Arabia on pilgrimage and
stayed there for nineteen years . He was greatly influenced by
the teaching of Sheikh Muhammad Abdul Wahab.
He believed that the miserable condition of the Muslims in India
led to the country being Dar-Ul-Harb (Country under Foreign
Rule). He told that Friday prayer and Eid prayer cannot be
offered here. He also believed that Muslim community had
moved away from Islamic practice. He wanted them to return to
what he thought was the proper observation of Islamic duties
called Faraizi. This was why he started his movement was called
Faraizi Movement. The Faraizi Movement supported the idea of
Jihad against the non-Muslims who were undermining the true
principles of Islam.
He started Faraizi movement to restore the Pride of the Muslims and
remove what he thought were the Hindu practices. Emphasis was
placed on praying for past sins and promising to lead a righteous life
in the future which had crept into their worship. The success of this
movement caused British and Hindu Landlord’s and they did not
want Haji Shariat Ullah to create difficulty for them by uniting a
desire to improve their lives and purify their religion so they drove
Haji out of the reign to Nawabganj in Dhaka where he died in 1840.
His work however was carried by his son Mohsin-ud-Din who
continued to improve the position of Muslim in East Bengal and
introduced important economic measures. He divides East Bengal
into circle under control of each Khalifa to carry out religious
activities. He helped the peasants to oppose land taxes and he
threatened to declare Jihad against the British so he was captured
and put in prison where he died in 1860.
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Iman Fatima
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