Deobandi


Deobandi is a revivalist movement within Sunni Islam that formed around the Darul Uloom Islamic seminary in the town of Deoband, India, where the name derives from, during the late nineteenth century. The seminary was founded by Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi, Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, and several other figures in 1866, eight years after the Indian Rebellion of 1857-58. The movement is centered mainly in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh; has spread to the United Kingdom; and has a presence in South Africa.

History

The Deobandi movement developed as a reaction to the British colonialism which was seen by a group of Indian scholars— consisting of Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, Muhammad Yaqub Nanautawi, Shah Rafi al-Din, Sayyid Muhammad Abid, Zulfiqar Ali, Fadhl al-Rahman Usmani and Muhammad Qasim Nanotvi—to be corrupting Islam. The group founded an Islamic seminary known as Darul Uloom Deoband, where the Islamic revivalist and anti-imperialist ideology of the Deobandis began to develop. In time, the Darul Uloom Deoband became the second largest focal point of Islamic teaching and research after the Al-Azhar University, Cairo. Through the organisations such as Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind and Tablighi Jamaat, the Deobandi ideology began to spread. From the early 1980s to 2000s, it was influenced by Wahhabism, due to fundings by Saudi Arabia.
Towards the time of the Indian independence movement and afterward in post-colonial India, the Deobandis advocated a notion of composite nationalism by which Hindus and Muslims were seen as one nation who were asked to be united in the struggle against the British.
In 1919, a large group of Deobandi scholars formed the political party Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind and opposed the partition of India. Deobandi scholar Maulana Syed Husain Ahmad Madani helped to spread these ideas through his text Muttahida Qaumiyat Aur Islam. A minority group later dissented from this position and joined Muhammad Ali Jinnah's Muslim League, forming the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam in 1945.
Graduates of Darul Uloom Deoband in India from countries such as Saudi Arabia, South Africa, China and Malaysia opened thousands of madaaris throughout the world.

Presence

In India

The Deobandi Movement in India is controlled by the Darul Uloom Deoband and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind. Only about 17% of Indian Muslims identify as Deobandi. Even though a minority, the Deobandis form the dominant group among Indian Muslims due to their access to state resources and representation in Muslim bodies. The Deobandis are referred to as 'Wahhabis' by their opponents — the Barelvis and the Shias. In reality, they are not Wahhabis, even though they share many of their beliefs. The true Wahhabis among Indian Muslims are said to be fewer than 5 percent.

In Pakistan

An estimated 15-25 percent of Pakistan's Sunni Muslims consider themselves Deobandi. According to Heritage Online, nearly 65% of the total seminaries in Pakistan are run by Deobandis, whereas 25% are run by Barelvis, 6% by Ahl-i Hadith and 3% by various Shia organizations. The Deobandi movement in Pakistan was a major recipient of funding from Saudi Arabia from the early 1980s up until the early 2000s, whereafter this funding was diverted to the rival Ahl al-Hadith movement. Having seen Deoband as a counterbalance to Iranian influence in the region, Saudi funding is now strictly reserved for the Ahl al-Hadith. Many Deobandi schools in Pakistan teach Wahhabi principles.

In the United Kingdom

In the 1970s, Deobandis opened the first British-based Muslim religious seminaries, educating Imams and religious scholars. Deobandis "have been quietly meeting the religious and spiritual needs of a significant proportion of British Muslims, and are perhaps the most influential British Muslim group." In 2015 Ofsted highlighted the Deobandi seminary in Holcombe as a good example of a school "promoting British values, preventing radicalisation and protecting children". The journalist, Andrew Norfolk, did not agree with this assessment.
According to a 2007 report by Andrew Norfolk, published in The Times, about 600 of Britain's nearly 1,500 mosques were under the control of "a hardline sect", whose leading preacher loathed Western values, called on Muslims to "shed blood" for Allah and preached contempt for Jews, Christians and Hindus. The same investigative report further said that 17 of the country's 26 Islamic seminaries follow the ultra-conservative Deobandi teachings which The Times said had given birth to the Taliban. According to The Times almost 80% of all domestically trained Ulema were being trained in these hardline seminaries. An opinion column in The Guardian described this report as "a toxic mixture of fact, exaggeration and outright nonsense."
In 2014 it was reported that 45 per cent of Britain’s mosques and nearly all the UK-based training of Islamic scholars are controlled by the Deobandi, the largest single Islamic group.
Most Muslim prison chaplaincies in Britain are Deobandi, and in 2016 Michael Spurr wrote to Britain's prison governors bringing to their attention that Ofsted had said that "the UK’s most influential Deobandi seminary promotes 'fundamental British values such as democracy, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance for those of different faiths'." Andrew Norfolk did not agree with this assessement.

Beliefs

The Deobandi movement sees itself as a scholastic tradition. It grew out of the Islamic scholastic tradition of Medieval Transoxania and Mughal India, and it considers its visionary forefather to be Shah Waliullah Dehlawi.

Fiqh (Islamic law)

Deobandis are strong proponents of the doctrine of Taqlid. In other words, they believe that a Deobandi must adhere to one of the four schools of Sunni Islamic Law and generally discourage inter-school eclecticism. They themselves claims the followers of the Hanafi school. Students at madrasas affiliated with the Deobandi movement study the classic books of Hanafi Law such as Nur al-Idah, Mukhtasar al-Quduri, Sharh al-Wiqayah, and Kanz al-Daqa’iq, culminating their study of the madhhab with the Hidayah of al-Marghinani.
With regard to views on Taqlid, one of their main opposing reformist groups are the Ahl-i-Hadith, also known as the Ghair Muqallid, the nonconformists, because they eschewed taqlid in favor of the direct use of Quran and Hadith. They often accuse those who adhere to the rulings of one scholar or legal school of blind imitation, and frequently demand scriptural evidence for every argument and legal ruling. Almost since the very beginnings of the movement, Deobandi scholars have generated a copious amount of scholarly output in an attempt to defend their adherence to a madhhab in general. In particular, Deobandis have penned much literature in defense of their argument that the Hanafi madhhab is in complete accordance with the Quran and Hadith.
In response to this need to defend their madhhab in the light of scripture, Deobandis became particularly distinguished for their unprecedented salience to the study of Hadith in their madrasas. Their madrasa curriculum incorporates a feature unique among the global arena of Islamic scholarship, the Daura-e Hadis, the capstone year of a student's advanced madrasa training, in which all six canonical collections of the Sunni Hadith are reviewed. In a Deobandi madrasa, the position of Shaykh al-Hadith, or the resident professor of Sahih Bukhari, is held in much reverence.

Theology

In tenets of faith, the Deobandis follow the Maturidi school of Islamic theology.
Their schools teach a short text on beliefs by the Maturidi scholar Najm al-Din 'Umar al-Nasafi.

Sufism and Wahhabism

Deobandis oppose traditional Sufi practices such as the celebration of birth of the Muslim prophet Muhammad, the celebration of Urs, pilgrimage to the shrines of Sufi saints, practice of Sema, loud dhikr, and seeking help from the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Some Deobandi leaders incorporate elements of Sufism into their practices. Deoband's curriculum combined the study of Islamic scriptures with rational subjects. At the same time it was Sufi in orientation and affiliated with the Chisti order. Its Sufism however, was closely integrated with Hadith scholarship and the legal practice of Islam, as understood by scholars of the movement.
Arshad Madani, an influential Deobandi scholar and leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, on the other hand rejected Sufism and said, "Sufism is no sect of Islam. It is not found in the Quran or Hadith..... So what is Sufism in itself? This is a thing for those who don't know Quran and Hadith." Madani also said "Sufism is nothing."
Founders of the Deobandi school, Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi and Rashid Ahmad Gangohi were inspired by Wahhabi ideology, amongst other sources of inspiration.
A founder of the Deobandi movement, Rashid Ahmad Gangohi studied under the Sufi shaykh, Haji Imdadullah Muhajir Makki, although he differed in his views in many ways. Rashid Ahmad Gangohi's Fatawa-yi Rashidiyya opposed traditional Sufi practices such as loud dhikr, visiting the tombs of Sufi saints, celebrating Urs, visualizing a Sufi leader, reciting the Fatihah on special occasions, and engaging in Sema.
Darul Uloom Deoband's conservatism and fundamentalist theology has latterly led to a de facto fusion of its teachings with Wahhabism in Pakistan, which "has all but shattered the mystical Sufi presence" there.

Positions

According to Brannon D. Ingram, Deobandis differ from Barelvis on three theological positions.
Other positions of the Deobandis, include:

Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind

is one of the leading Deobandi organizations in India. It was founded in British India in 1919 by Abdul Mohasim Sajjad, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Ahmed Saeed Dehlvi, and Mufti Muhammad Naeem Ludhianvi and the most importantly Kifayatullah Dehlawi who was elected the first president of Jamiat and remained in this post for 20 years. The Jamiat has propounded a theological basis for its nationalistic philosophy. Their thesis is that Muslims and non-Muslims have entered upon a mutual contract in India since independence, to establish a secular state. The Constitution of India represents this contract.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam

is a Deobandi organization, part of the Deobandi movement. The JUI formed when members broke from the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind in 1945 after that organization backed the Indian National Congress against the Muslim League's lobby for a separate Pakistan. The first president of the JUI was Shabbir Ahmad Usmani.

Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-Islam

, also known in short as Ahrar, was a conservative Deobandi political party in the Indian subcontinent during the British Raj founded December 29, 1929 at Lahore. Chaudhry Afzal Haq, Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari, Habib-ur-Rehman Ludhianvi, Mazhar Ali Azhar, Zafar Ali Khan and Dawood Ghaznavi were the founders of the party. The Ahrar was composed of Indian Muslims disillusioned by the Khilafat Movement, which cleaved closer to the Congress Party. The party was associated with opposition to Muhammad Ali Jinnah and against establishment of an independent Pakistan as well as criticism of the Ahmadiyya movement. After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, Majlis-e-Ahrar divided in two parts. Now, Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-Islam is working for the sake of Muhammad, nifaaz Hakomat-e-illahiyya and Khidmat-e-Khalq. In Pakistan, Ahrar secretariat is in Lahore and in India it is based in Ludhiana.

Tablighi Jamaat

, a non political Deobandi missionary organisation, began as an offshoot of the Deobandi movement. Its inception is believed to be a response to Hindu reform movements, which were considered a threat to vulnerable and non-practicing Deobandi Muslims. It gradually expanded from a local to a national organisation, and finally to a transnational movement with followers in over 200 countries. Although its beginnings were from the Deobandi movement, it has now established an independent identity though it still maintains close ties with Deobandi ulema in many countries with large South Asian Muslim populations such as the UK.

Associated political organizations

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi

was a Deobandi militant organization. Formed in 1996, it operated in Pakistan as an offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba. Riaz Basra broke away from the SSP over differences with his seniors. The group, now practically defunct since the successful Operation Zarb-e-Azab, is considered a terrorist group by Pakistan and the United States., It was involved in attacks on civilians and protectors of them. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is predominantly Punjabi. The group has been labelled by intelligence officials in Pakistan as a major security threat.

Taliban

The Taliban, alternative spelling Taleban, is an Islamic fundamentalist political and militant movement in Afghanistan. It spread into Afghanistan and formed a government, ruling as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from September 1996 until December 2001, with Kandahar as the capital.
While in power, it enforced its strict interpretation of Sharia law. While many leading Muslims and Islamic scholars have been highly critical of the Taliban's interpretations of Islamic law, the Darul Uloom Deoband has consistently supported the Taliban in Afghanistan, including their 2001 destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan, and the majority of the Taliban's leaders were influenced by Deobandi fundamentalism. Pashtunwali, the Pashtun tribal code, also played a significant role in the Taliban's legislation. The Taliban were condemned internationally for their brutal treatment of women.

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan

, alternatively referred to as the Pakistani Taliban, is an umbrella organization of various Islamist militant groups based in the northwestern Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border in Pakistan. In December 2007 about 13 groups united under the leadership of Baitullah Mehsud to form the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. Among the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan's stated objectives are resistance against the Pakistani state, enforcement of their interpretation of sharia and a plan to unite against NATO-led forces in Afghanistan.
The TTP is not directly affiliated with the Afghan Taliban movement led by Mullah Omar, with both groups differing greatly in their histories, strategic goals and interests although they both share a primarily Deobandi interpretation of Islam and are predominantly Pashtun.

Sipah-e-Sahaba

is a banned Pakistani militant organization, and a formerly registered Pakistani political party. Established in the early 1980s in Jhang by the militant leader Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, its stated goal is primarily to deter major Shiite influence in Pakistan in the wake of the Iranian Revolution. The organization was banned by President Pervez Musharraf in 2002 as being a terrorist group under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997.
In October 2000 Masood Azhar, another militant leader, and founder of Jaish-e-Mohammed, was quoted as saying that "Sipah-e-Sahaba stands shoulder to shoulder with Jaish-e-Muhammad in Jehad." A leaked U.S. diplomatic cable described JeM as "another SSP breakaway Deobandi organization."

Notable institutions

Right after Darul Uloom Deoband, the main center of Deobandism throughout the world, Mazahir Uloom, Saharanpur is the second known Deobandi madrassa in India, which produced the scholars like Muhammad Zakariyya Kandhlawi. Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi's established Madrasa Shahi, Moradabad, the alma of scholars like Mufti Mahmud and Saeed Ahmad Akbarabadi has its position. Darul Uloom Karachi, founded by Mufti Shafi Usmani, Jamia Binoria and Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia in Pakistani are top Deobandi institutions there. Darul Uloom Bury, Holcombe, established by Yusuf Motala during 1970s is the first Deobandi madrasssa of the West In South Africa, Darul Ulum Newcastle, was founded in 1971 by Cassim Mohammed Sema and Dar al-Ulum Zakariyya in Lenasia, Madrasah In'aamiyyah, Camperdown is known for its Dar al-Iftaa which runs the popular online fatwa service, Askimam.org. Al-Rashid Islamic Institute, Ontario, Canada, Darul Uloom Al-Madania in Buffalo, New York, Jamiah Darul Uloom Zahedan in Iran and Darul Uloom Raheemiyyah are some top Deobandi institutions.

Scholars