region	Islamic philosopher/scholar
era	Mughal era
color	#B0C4DE
name	'''Imām Rabbānī Shaykh Ahmad al-Farūqī al-Sirhindī''' |
birth date	30 Nov 1561
death date	1624 (Lived 63 years)
school tradition	Sunni Islam,
main interests	Implementation of Islamic Law, Islamic Statehood
influences	Al-Ghazali, Muhammad al-Baqi Billah
influenced	Islamic philosophy, fiqh, Sufism Shah Waliullah, Muhammad Ma'soom Farooqui, Sayfuddeen Farooqui, Noor Muhammad Badyooni, Mirza Mazhar Jan-e-Janaan, Abdullah Dehlawi, Khalid al-Baghdadi, Abdullah Shamdeeni, Taha Al-Hakkari, Muhammad Saleeh, Dr. Allama Muhammad Iqbal, Sebgatullah Hezani, Faheem Arvasi, Abdulhakim Arvasi
notable ideas	Evolution of Islamic philosophy, Application of Sharia }}

Imām Rabbānī Shaykh Ahmad al-Farūqī al-Sirhindī (1564–1624) was an Indian Islamic scholar from Punjab, a Hanafi jurist, and a prominent member of the Naqshbandī Sufi order. He is described as Mujaddid Alf Thānī, meaning the "reviver of the second millennium", for his work in rejuvenating Islam and opposing the heterodoxies prevalent in the time of Mughal Emperor Akbar. He is said to have had considerable and longlasting influence in India and to have given "to Indian Islam the rigid and conservative stamp it bears today."

Most of the Naqshbandī suborders today, such as the Mujaddidī, Khālidī, Saifī, Tāhirī, Qasimiya and Haqqānī sub-orders, trace their spiritual lineage through Sirhindi, often referring to themselves as "Naqshbandī-Mujaddidī".

Sirhindi's shrine, known as Rauza Sharif is located in Sirhind, India.

Early life and education

Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi was born after midnight, on 14 Shawwal 971 H. in the village of Sirhind. From an ''ashraf'' family claiming descent from caliph Umar, he received most of his early education from his father, Shaykh 'Abd al-Ahad and memorised the Qur'an. He was then sent to Sialkot, at present in Pakistan, where he learned logic, philosophy and theology and read some advanced texts of tafsīr and hadīth before he returned home. Sirhindi also made rapid progress in the Suhrawardī, the Qadirī, and the Chistī turūq, and was given permission to initiate and train followers at the age of 17. He eventually joined the Naqshbandī order through the Sufi missionary Shaykh Muhammad al-Baqī, and became a leading master of this order. His deputies traversed the length and breadth of the Mughal Empire in order to popularize the order and eventually won some favour with the Mughal court.

Sirhindi's world view

Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi's preaching and revival was a reaction to what he saw as the 'anti-islamic' policies of Mughal emperor Akbar. He denounced Akbar's policy of ''sull-i kul'' (total peace), and Akbar's reign as one where "the sun of guidance was hidden behind the veil of error." Sirhindi believed that "what is outside the path shown by the prophet SallAllaahu Alaihi Wasallam (Sharia) is forbidden." He wrote, "Cow-sacrifice in India is the noblest of Islamic practices. The kafirs may probably agree to pay jiziya but they shall never concede to cow-sacrifice." However, Yohanan Friedmann has argued that there is no evidence that Sirhindi or his disciples spread "anti-Hindu sentiments wherever they went."

Importance of Sharia v. Sufism

According to Simon Digby, "modern hagiographical literature emphasizes [Sirhindi's] reiterated profession of strict Islamic orthodoxy, his exaltation of the sharia and exhortations towards its observance." On the other hand, Yohanan Friedmann questions how committed Sirhindi was to sharia, commenting: "it is noteworthy that while Sirhindi never wearies of describing the minutest details of Sufi experience, his exhortations to comply with the shariah remain general to an extreme." Friedmann also claims "Sirhindi was primarily a Sufi interested first and foremost in questions of mysticism."

Oneness of being (''wahdat al-wujūd'')

Sirhindi strongly opposed the mystical doctrine known as ''wahdat al-wujūd'' ('unity of being') or ''tawhīd-i wujūdi'', a concept which emphasizes that in reality all things exist within God. Nonetheless, he did not hold a particularly unfavorable view of the sufi mystic and theoretician Muhyī 'l-Dīn ibn Arabī, who is often presented as the originator and most complete propounder of this philosophy. Sirhindi writes:

I wonder that Shaykh Muhyī 'l-Dīn appears in vision to be one of those with whom God is pleased, while most of his ideas which differ from the doctrines of the People of truth appear to be wrong and mistaken. It seems that since they are due to error in ''kashf'', he has been forgiven... I consider him as one of those with whom God is well-pleased; on the other hand, I believe that all his ideas in which he opposes (the people of truth) are wrong and harmful.

In refuting the monistic position of ''wahdat al-wujūd'', he instead advanced the notion of ''wahdat ash-shuhūd'' (oneness of appearance). According to this doctrine, the experience of unity between God and creation is purely subjective and occurs only in the mind of the Sufi who has reached the state of ''fana' fi Allah'' (to forget about everything except Almighty Allahu taala).

Works

Most famous of his works are a collection of 536 letters, collectively entitled ''Collected Letters'' or ''Maktubat'', to the Mughal rulers and other contemporaries. It consists of three volumes. An elaborate printing of the book was accomplished in 1973 in Nazimabad, Karachi, Pakistan. It was reproduced by offset process in Istanbul, Turkey. A copy of the Persian version exists in the library of the Columbia University. Maktubat was rendered into the Arabic language by Muhammad Murad Qazanî, and the Arabic version was printed in two volumes in the printhouse called Miriyya and located in the city of Makkah. A copy of the Arabic version occupies number 53 in the municipality library in Bayezid, Istanbul. It was reproduced by offset process in 1963, in Istanbul. A number of the books written by Ahmad Sirhindi were reprinted in Karachi. Of those books, ''Ithbât-un-nubuwwa'' was reproduced by offset process in Istanbul in 1974. The marginal notes on the book, which is in Arabic, provide a biography of Ahmad Sirhindi.This Holy Book has been translated into Bangla by Hazrat Shah Mohammad Muti Ahamed Aftabi Dinajpuri(R.)

Selections from the Maktubat of Ahmad Sirhindi

Naqshbandi chain

# Sayyadna Muhammad SallAllaahu Alaihi Wasallam d.11AH, buried Madinah SA (570/571 - 632 CE) # Sayyadna Abu Bakr Siddiq, ''radiya-l-Lahu`anh'' d.13AH, buried Madinah, SA # Sayyadna Salman al-Farsi, ''radiya-l-Lahu`anh'' d.35AH buried Madaa'in, SA # Imām Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abu Bakr d.107AH buried Madinah SA. # Imām Jafar Sadiq, ''alayhi-s-salam'' (after which moves to Iran) d 148AH buried Madinah SA. # Shaikh Bayazid Bastami, ''radiya-l-Lahu canh'' d 261AH buried Bistaam, Iraq (804 - 874 CE). # Shaikh Abu al-Hassan al-Kharaqani, ''qaddasa-l-Lahu sirrah'' d 425AH buried Kharqaan, Iran. # Shaikh Abul Qasim Gurgani, ''qaddasa-l-Lahu sirrah'' d.450AH buried Gurgan, Iran. # Shaikh Abu Ali Farmadi, ''qaddasa-l-Lahu sirrah'' (after which moves to Turkmenistan) d 477AH buried Tous, Khorasan, Iran. # Khwaja Abu Yaqub Yusuf Hamadani, ''qaddasa-l-Lahu sirrah'' d 535AH buried Maru, Khorosan, Iran. # Khwaja Abdul Khaliq Ghujdawani, ''qaddasa-l-Lahu sirrah'' d 575AH buried Ghajdawan, Bukhara, Uzbekistan. # Khwaja Arif Reogari, ''qaddasa-l-Lahu sirrah'' d 616AH buried Reogar, Bukhara, Uzbekistan. # Khwaja Mahmood Anjir-Faghnawi, ''qaddasa-l-Lahu sirrah'' d 715AH buried Waabakni, Mawralnahar. # Shaikh Azizan Ali Ramitani, ''qaddasa-l-Lahu sirrah'' d 715AH buried Khwaarizm, Bukhara, Uzbekistan. # Shaikh Muhammad Baba Samasi, ''qaddasa-l-Lahu sirrah'' d 755AH buried Samaas, Bukhara, Uzbekistan. # Shaikh Sayyid Amir Kulal, ''qaddasa-l-Lahu sirrah'' d 772AH buried Saukhaar, Bukhara, Uzbekistan. # Shaikh Muhammad Baha'uddin Naqshband, ''qaddasa-l-Lahu sirrah'' d 791AH buried Qasr-e-Aarifan, Bukhara, Uzbekistan (1318–1389 CE). # Shaikh Ala'uddin Attar Bukhari, ''qaddasa-l-Lahu sirrah'' buried Jafaaniyan, Mawranahar, Uzbekistan. # Shaikh Yaqub Charkhi, ''qaddasa-l-Lahu sirrah'' d 851AH buried Charkh, Bukhara, Uzbekistan. # Shaikh Ubaidullah Ahrar, ''qaddasa-l-Lahu sirrah'' d 895AH buried Samarkand, Uzbekistan. # Shaikh Muhammad Zahid Wakhshi, ''qaddasa-l-Lahu sirrah'' d 936AH buried Wakhsh, Malk Hasaar # Shaikh Durwesh Muhammad, ''qaddasa-l-Lahu sirrah'' d 970AH buried Samarkand, Uzbekistan. # Shaikh Muhammad Amkanaki, ''qaddasa-l-Lahu sirrah'' (after which moves to India) d 1008AH buried Akang, Bukhara, Uzbekistan. # Shaikh Razi ūd-Dīn Muhammad Baqī Billah, ''qaddasa-l-Lahu sirrah'' d 1012AH buried Delhi, India. # Imām Rabbānī Shaikh Ahmad al-Farūqī al-Sirhindī, ''qaddasa-l-Lahu sirrah'' d 1034AH buried Sarhand, India (1564–1624 CE)

See also

Mujaddid

Ali Hujwiri

References

Classical Islam and the Naqshbandi Sufi Tradition, Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, Islamic Supreme Council of America (June 2004), ISBN 1-930409-23-0.

Shari'at and Ulama in Ahmad Sirhindi's ''Collected Letters'' by Arthur F. Buehler

NFIE Research

External links

Biography of Hadrat Imâm Rabbânî

Naqshbandi-Haqqani Sufi Order)">Biography of Imam Rabbani Ahmad al-Faruqi as-Sirhindi (from the Naqshbandi-Haqqani Sufi Order).

Translations of Imam Rabbani's Letters in various languages

Category:1560s births Category:1624 deaths Category:Indian Sufis Category:Naqshbandi order Category:People from Fatehgarh Sahib Category:Sufis Category:Sunni Sufis Category:Muslim philosophers Category:Muslim scholars Category:Hanafis Category:Mujaddid

ar:أحمد السرهندي es:Ahmad Sirhindi ml:ശൈഖ് അഹമ്മദ് സർ‌ഹിന്ദി ru:Имам Раббани sv:Sirhindi tr:Ahmed Sirhindi ur:احمد سرہندی

Shaykh Ahmad ibn Zayn al-Dín ibn Ibráhím al-Ahsá'í () was (1753–1826) was the founder of a 19th century Shi`i school in the Persian and Ottoman empires, whose followers are known as Shaykhís.

He was a native of the Al-Ahsa region (Eastern Arabian Peninsula), educated in Bahrain and the theological centers of Najaf and Karbala in Iraq. Spending the last twenty years of his life in Iran, he received the protection and patronage of princes of the Qajar dynasty.

History

Early life

Little is documented about the early life of Shaykh Ahmad, except that he was born in Ahsa, in the northeast of the Arabian peninsula, to a Shi'i family of Sunni origin in either the year 1166 A.H. (1753 C.E.), or 1157 A.H. (1744 C.E.). Nabíl-i-A`zam, a Baha'i historian, documents his spiritual awakening in his book ''The Dawn-Breakers'' as follows:

:''He observed how those who professed the Faith of Islam had shattered its unity, sapped its force, perverted its purpose, and degraded its holy name. His soul was filled with anguish at the sight of the corruption and strife which characterised the Shí'ah sect of Islam.... Forsaking his home and kindred, on one of the islands of Bahrayn, to the south of the Persian Gulf, he set out,... to unravel the mysteries of those verses of Islamic Scriptures which foreshadowed the advent of a new Manifestation[revelation].... There burned in his soul the conviction that no reform, however drastic, within the Faith of Islam, could achieve the regeneration of this perverse people. He knew,... that nothing short of a new and independent Revelation, as attested and foreshadowed by the sacred Scriptures of Islam, could revive the fortunes and restore the purity of that decadent Faith.''

While it is unclear how much of Nabil's interpretation is consistent with Shaykh Ahmad's true feelings, the underlying motivations for reform, and ultimately for messianic expectation, become somewhat clearer.

Education and Mission

Shaykh Ahmad, at about age forty (1784 or 1794 - circa), began to study in earnest in the Shi'i centres of religious scholarship such as Karbala and Najaf. He attained sufficient recognition in such circles to be declared a mujtahid, an interpreter of Islamic Law. He contended with Sufi and Neo-Platonist scholars, and attained a positive reputation among their detractors. Most interestingly, he declared that all knowledge and sciences were contained (in essential form) within the Qur'an, and that to excel in the sciences, all knowledge must be gleaned from the Qur'an. To this end he developed systems of interpretation of the Qur'an and sought to inform himself of all the sciences current in the Muslim world.

He also evinced a veneration of the Imams, even beyond the extent of his pious contemporaries and espoused heterodox views on the afterlife, the resurrection and end-times, as well as medicine and cosmology. His views on the soul posited a "subtle body" separate from, and associated with the physical body. It was this body that ascended into Heaven, he posited, when Muhammad was said to have bodily ascended, and this also altered his views on the occultation of the Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi. His views resulted in his denunciation by several learned clerics, and he engaged in many debates before moving on to Persia where he settled for a time in the province of Yazd. It was in Yazd that much of his books and letters were written.

Founding the Shaykhi School

Juan Cole summarizes the situation at the advent of the Shaykhi School, and the questions that were unfolding as his views crystallized and he acquired an early following: : ''When Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i wrote, there was no Shaykhi school, which only crystallized after his death. He saw himself as a mainstream Shi'ite, not as a sectarian leader. Yet he clearly innovated in Shi'i thought in ways that, toward the end of his life, sparked great controversy. Among the contentious arenas he entered was that of the nature of religious authority. He lived at a time when his branch of Islam was deeply divided on the role of the Muslim learned man. Was he an exemplar to be emulated by the laity without fail, or merely the first among equals, bound by a literal interpretation of the sacred text just as was everyone else? Or was he, as the Sufis maintained, a pole channeling the grace of God to those less enlightened than himself? How may we situate Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i with regard to these contending visions of Shi'i Islam? ''

Momen in his Introduction to Shi'i Islam(George Ronald, Oxford, 1985)states that many mujtahids were afraid that the Shaykh's preference for intuitive knowledge, which he claimed to obtain directly by inspiration from the Imams, would seriously undermine the authority of their position. Momen has some interesting and useful commentary on Shaykh Ahmad's doctrines and his succession during which the conflict with Shi'i orthodoxy intensified.

Successor

Shaykh Ahmad appointed Sayyid Kazim Rashti as his successor, who led the Shaykhí movement until his death. He taught his students how to recognize the Mahdi and the "Masih" (the return of Christ). After his death in 1843, many of his students spread out around Asia, Europe and Africa to search them.

See also

Babism

Bahá'í Faith

Islam

References

''Published Works of Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i.''

''Sharh al-Fawa'id''. Lithographed. N.P. (Tabriz: 1856).

''Jawami' al-Kalim''. Lithographed. N.P. (Tabriz: 1856-59).

''Sharh al-Masha'ir''. Lithographed. N.P. (Tehran: 1861).

''Sharh al-'Arshiyya''. Lithographed. N.P. (Tehran: 1861).

''Sharh al-Ziyara al-Jami'a al-Kabira''. ''Chapkhaneh Sa'adat'' (Kirman: 1972), 4 Volumes.

''Rasa'il al-Hikma''. ''Al-Da'ira al-'Alamiyya'' (Beirut: 1993).

''Scholarly European Language Sources on Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i''.

A-L-M Nicolas. ''Essai sur le cheikhisme''. Paul Geuthner (Paris: 1910), 2 Volumes.

Henry Corbin. ''L'ecole Shaykhie en Theologie Shi`ite''. ''Taban'' (Tehran: 1967).

Henry Corbin. ''En islam iranien''. Galimard (Paris: 1972), vol. 4.

Vahid Rafati. ''The Development of Shaykhi Thought in Shi`i Islam''. (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1979).

Denis Maceoin. S.V. "''Ahsa'i, Shaikh Ahmad b. Zayn al-Din''," in ''Encyclopaedia Iranica'', 3 vols. - (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1983 - ).

Juan Cole. "''The World as Text: Cosmologies of Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i''," in ''Studia Islamica'', No. 80. (1994), pp. 145–163.

Idris Samawi Hamid. ''The Metaphysics and Cosmology of Process According to Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i''. (Ph.D. dissertation: State University of New York at Buffalo, 1998).

Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi. "''Une absence remplie de présences. Herméneutiques de l'occultation chez les Shaykhiyya (Aspects de l'imamologie duodécimaine VII)'' ," in ''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies'' Vol. 64, No. 1. (2001), pp. 1–18.

External links

Alahsai

''Sheykh Ahmad Ahsa'i'', Iranica

alabrar.com for more information about Shaykhi teachings. (This site is in the Arabic language.)

Early Shaykhism - Some biographical notes, translations and studies

Collected Works of Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i at H-Bahai Discussion Network

Category:1753 births Category:1826 deaths Category:Shi'a clerics Category:Shaykhism Category:Bahrani people Category:Bahraini ayatollahs

ar:أحمد بن زين الدين الأحسائي az:Şeyx Əhməd Əhsai ca:Àhmad al-Ahsaí de:Ahmad al-Ahsā'ī es:Ahmad al-Ahsa'i fa:احمد احسائی nl:Ahmad pt:Ahmad-i-Ahsa'i ru:Шейх Ахмад Ахсаи

name	Manzoor Ahmed
residence	Karachi
nationality	20px| Pakistani
field	Philosophy
work institution	International Islamic University, Islamabad
alma mater	University of Karachi, University of London
known for	Philosophy
religion	Sunni Islam }}

Manzoor Ahmed (Urdu: منظور احمد) (born 22 September 1931) is a Pakistani philosopher and scholar.

Born in Rampur UP, and brought up in Karachi, Manzoor is well versed in many languages including, Arabic, English, Persian and Urdu. He earned his doctoral degree from the University of London and been head of many national and international organizations. He is also member of the Council of Islamic Ideology in Pakistan.

Ahmad held the vice chancellorship of Hamdard University twice and holds the Chairmanship of Usman Institute of Technology (UIT), Hamdard University. He is the Rector of Islamic International University, Islamabad and Chairman of the Board of Governors for the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (IVS) in Karachi.

Manzoor has written more than 50 research articles for international peer reviewed journals and periodicals. He has written books on philosophy, religion and social sciences.

Selected works

''History of Philosophy''

''Morality and Law''

''Pakistan: Prospects and Perspectives''

''Iqbal Shanasi''

''Islam: Chand Fikri Masail''

''Religious Wisdom''

External links

Islamic Nazaryati Council

History of UIT

Interview Transcript from UITEC

Category:1931 births Category:Living people Category:Muslim philosophers Category:Pakistani scholars Category:Muhajir people Category:Pakistani writers Category:Pakistani philosophers Category:South Asian philosophers Category:People from Rampur, Uttar Pradesh Category:Alumni of the University of London