Shah Wali Allah, also spelled Shah Waliullah, (b. February 21, 1703, Phulat, Muzaffarnagar, Mughal Empire [India] — d. August 20, 1762, Delhi, Mughal Empire [India]), was an Indian theologian and promulgator of modern Islamic thought who first attempted to reassess Islamic theology in the light of modern changes.
Quṭb-ud-Din Aḥmad Waliullah Ibn ʿAbd-ur-Raḥim Ibn Wajih-ud-Din Ibn Muʿaẓẓam Ibn Manṣur Al-ʿUmari Ad-Dehlawi commonly known as Shah Waliullah Dehlawi (also Shah Wali Allah) was an Islamic scholar seen by his followers as a renewer.
Shah Wali Allah was born on February 21, 1703, to Shah Abdur Rahim, a prominent Islamic scholar of Delhi. He was known as Shah Wali Allah because of his piety. He memorized the Qur'an by the age of seven. Soon thereafter, he mastered Arabic and Persian letters. He was married at fourteen. By sixteen, he had completed the standard curriculum of Hanafi law, theology, geometry, arithmetic and logic.
Wali Allah's father, Shah Abdur Rahim, was the founder of the Madrasah-i Rahimiyah. He was on the committee appointed by Aurangzeb for the compilation of the code of law, Fatawa-e-Alamgiri.
In 1732, Wali Allah made a pilgrimage to Mecca. Afterwards, he remained in the Hejaz (now in Saudi Arabia) to study religion with eminent theologians. He reached adulthood at a time of disillusionment following the death in 1707 of Aurangzeb, the last Mughal emperor of India. Because large areas of the empire had been lost to Hindu and Sikh rulers of the Deccan and the Punjab, Indian Muslims had to accept the rule of non-Muslims. This challenge occupied Wali Allah’s adult life.
Wali Allah believed that the Muslim polity could be restored to its former splendor by a policy of religious reform that would harmonize the religious ideals of Islam with the changing social and economic conditions of India. According to him, religious ideas were universal and eternal, but their application could meet different circumstances. The main tool of his policy was the doctrine of taṭbiq, whereby the principles of Islam were reconstructed and reapplied in accordance with the Qurʾan and the hadith (the spoken traditions attributed to Muhammad). He thereby allowed the practice of ijtihad (independent thinking by theologians in matters relating to Islamic law), which hitherto had been curtailed. As a corollary, Wali Allah reinterpreted the concept of taqdir (determinism) and condemned its popularization, qismat (narrow fatalism, or absolute predetermination). Wali Allah held that man could achieve his full potential by his own exertion in a universe that was determined by God. Theologically, Wali Allah opposed the veneration of saints or anything that compromised strict monotheism. He was jurisprudentially eclectic, holding that a Muslim could follow any of the four schools of Islamic law on any point of dogma or ritual.
The best known of Wali Allah’s voluminous writings is Hujjat Allah al-Balighah (The Conclusive Argument From God). Hujjat Allah al-Balighah (The Conclusive Argument From God) was written within the decade after his return from Mecca and Medina. This treatise was once part of the curriculum at al-Azhar University, the traditional center of Islamic learning in Cairo, Egypt. Today, it is still studied throughout the Middle East, South Asia and Southeast Asia. The treatise seeks to explain the inner mysteries of Islam. It also addresses many other subjects, such as philosophy, traditions, and Shah Wali Allah's four stage model for the ideal Muslim state.
Wali Allah took the title, Hujjat Allah al-Balighah (The Conclusive Argument From God), from Sura 6:149 of the Qur'an. Sura 6:149 states that "the conclusive argument is from God." Hujjat Allah al-Balighah (The Conclusive Argument From God) represents Wali Allah's to integrate many levels and layers of Islamic thought and practice, and it has found an enduring readership well beyond the South Asian subcontinent.
Wali Allah's wrote and annotated a Persian translation of the Qurʾan. Wali Allah's translation is still popular in India and Pakistan today.
Wali Allah died on Friday, the 29th of Muharram 1176 AH/August 20, 1762, at Zuhr prayer in Old Delhi. He was buried beside his father Shah Abdur Rahim at Mehdiyan (a graveyard to the left of Delhi Gate).
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Works by Shah Wali Allah
Hujjat Allah al-Balighah (The Conclusive Argument From God), Lahore: Shaikh Ghulam Ali and Sons, 1979.
Altaf al-quds fi ma'rifat lata'if al-nafs (The Sacred knowledge), ed. D. Pendlebury, trans. G. Jalbani, The Sacred Knowledge, London: Octagon, 1982.
Al-Khayr al-kathir (The Abundant Good), trans. G. Jalbani, Lahore: Ashraf, 1974.
Sata'at (Manifestations), trans. into Urdu by S.M. Hashimi, Lahore: Idarah Thaqafat Islamiyya, 1989; trans. into English by G. Jalbani, Sufism and the Islamic Tradition: the Lamahat and Sata'at of Shah Waliullah, London.
Lamahat (Flashes of Lightning), Hyderabad: Shah Wali Allah Academy, 1963; trans. G. Jalbani, Sufism and the Islamic Tradition: the Lamahat and Sata'at of Shah Waliullah, London, 1980.
Fuyud al-haramayn (Emanations or Spiritual Visions of Mecca and Medina).
Al-Tafhimat (Instructions or Clear Understanding), Dabhail, 1936, 2 vols.
Al-Budur al-bazighah (The Full Moons Rising in Splendor).
Ta’wil al-ahadith fi rumuz qisas al-anbiya (Symbolic Interpretation of the Events in the Mysteries of Prophetic Tales)
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Ahmed, K. J. (1987). Hundred Great Muslims, Library of Islam.
Esposito, John L. (2013). The Oxford Handbook of Islam and Politics. New York: Oxford University Press.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shah_Waliullah_Dehlawi
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Shah-Wali-Allah
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