Ahmed Raza Khan Barelvi

Ahmed Raza Khan Barelvi (14 June 1856–28 October 1921), known reverentially as A'la Hazrat, was an Indian Islamic scholar and poet who is considered as the founder of the Barelvi movement.
Born in Bareilly, British India, Khan wrote on law, religion, philosophy and the sciences, and because he mastered many subjects in both rational and religious sciences he has been called a polymath by Francis Robinson, a leading Western historian and academic who specializes in the history of South Asia and Islam.
He was an Islamic scholar who wrote extensively in defense of the status of Muhammad in Islam and popular Sufi practices. He influenced millions of people, and today the Barelvi movement has around 200 million followers in the region. Khan is viewed as a Mujaddid, or reviver of Islam by his followers.
Khan was born on 10 Shawwal 1272 Hijri corresponds to 14 June 1856 to an Indian Muslim family in the Mohallah of Jasoli in Bareilly district, North-Western Provinces, British India.
The family belonged to the Barech tribe of Pashtuns, his ancestor Muhammad Saeedullah Khan, a warrior who accompanied Nader Shah, having migrated from Kandahar (current-day Afghanistan) to Lahore (current-day Pakistan) while the family later settled down in Bareilly.
His father, Naqi Ali Khan, was an Islamic scholar.
The name corresponding to the year of his birth was al-Mukhtar. His birth name was Muhammad. Khan used the appellation "Abd-ul-Mustafa" ("servant of the chosen one") prior to signing his name in correspondence.
According to Hayat-e-Aala Hazrat written by Malik Zafaruddin Bihari, some of his famous teachers included:
In the year 1294 A.H. (1877), at the age of 22 years, Ahmed Raza became the Mureed (disciple) of Shah Aale Rasool Marehrawi. His Murshid bestowed him with Khilafat in several Sufi Silsilas. Some Islamic scholars received permission from him to work under his guidance.
Imam Ahmed Raza wrote extensively in defense of his views, countered Wahhabism and the Deobandi movement, and by his writing and activity became the founder of the Barelvi movement. The movement has spread across the globe with followers in Pakistan, India, South Africa and Bangladesh. The movement now has over 200 million followers globally. The movement was largely a rural phenomenon when began but is currently popular among urban, educated Pakistanis and Indians as well as the South Asian diaspora throughout the world.
The efforts of Khan and his associate scholars to establish a movement to counter the Deobandi and Ahl-i Hadith movements resulted to in the institutionalization of diverse Sufi movements and their allies in various parts of the world.
Khan founded an organization Jamat Raza E Mustafa, on 17 December 1920 with the aim of progress, unity and religious education of the Ahl-E-Sunnat wal Jamat.
Ahmed Raza Khan died on 28 October 1921 (25 Safar 1340 AH) at the age of 65. He is buried in Bareilly Sharif Dargah. Urs-e-Razavi is a 3 day long annual event commemorating his death anniversary.
Imam Ahmed Raza Khan wrote several hundred books in Arabic, Persian, and Urdu, including the thirty-volume fatwa compilation Fatawa Razawiyya, and Kanz ul-Iman (Translation & Explanation of the Qur'an). Several of his books have been translated into European and South Asian languages.
He also wrote many books on science and physics. In one of his famous books, Fauze Mubeen Dar Radde Harkate Zameen, using the Holy Qur'an as its guideline, he provided more than 100 arguments that the earth is not rotating but is stationary. In his arguments he has also discussed at length why he believed some of the Newton's arguments were false.
Kanz ul-Iman (Urdu and Arabic: کنزالایمان) is a 1910 Urdu paraphrase translation of the Qur'an by Khan. It is associated with the Hanafi jurisprudence within Sunni Islam, and is a widely read version of the translation in the Indian Subcontinent. It has been translated into English, Hindi, Bengali, Dutch, Turkish, Sindhi, Gujarati, and Pashto, and also recently translated into Gojri language by Mufti Nazir Ahmed Qadri.
Husam ul-Haramain or Husam al-Harmain Ala Munhir Kufr wal-Mayn (The Sword of the Haramayn at the throat of disbelief and falsehood) 1906, is a treatise which declared infidels the founders of the Deobandi, Ahl-i Hadith and Ahmadiyya movements on the basis that they did not have the proper veneration of Muhammad and finality of prophethood in their writings. In defense of his verdict he obtained confirmatory signatures from 268 scholars in South Asia, and some from scholars in Mecca and Medina. The treatise is published in Arabic, Urdu, English, Turkish and Hindi.
Fatawa Razawiyya or the full name al-Ataya fi-Nabaviah Fatawa-i Razawiyya (translates to Verdicts of Imam Ahmed Raza by the blessings of the Prophet) is the main fatwa (Islamic verdicts on various issues) book of his movement. It has been published in 30 volumes and in approx. 22,000 pages. It contains solutions to daily problems from religion to business and from war to marriage.
He reached judgments with regard to certain practices and faith in his book Fatawa-i Razawiyya, including:
He wrote na'at (devotional poetry in praise of Muhammad) and always discussed him in the present tense. His main book of poetry is Hadaiq-e-Bakhshish.
His poems, which deal for the most part with the qualities of Muhammad, often have a simplicity and directness.
His Urdu couplets, entitled Mustafa Jaane Rahmat pe Lakhon Salaam (Hundreds of Thousands of Salutations upon Mustafa, the Paragon of Mercy), are recited in mosques globally. They contain praise of Muhammad, his physical appearance (verses 33 to 80), his life and times, praise of his family and companions, praise of the Awliya and Salihin (the saints and the pious).
In 1323 Hijri (1905), Ahmad Raza went for his second Haj. Allamah Shaikh Saleh Kamal a Alim of Makkatul Mukarrama, he presented five questions to Ahmad Raza on behalf of the Ulema of Makkatul Mukarrama, this question was asked by Makkatul Mukarrama Wahhabi Ulema regarding Knowledge of the knowledge of Unseen (Ilm-e-Ghaib). At that time Ahmed Raza was suffering from a high fever, despite the illness he tried to answer all the questions, he answered in such detail that the answer took the form of a book, and this book was named Al Daulatul Makkiya Bil Madatul Ghaibiya.
Khan saw an intellectual and moral decline of Muslims in British India. His movement was a mass movement, defending popular Sufism, which grew in response to the influence of the Deobandi movement in South Asia and the Wahhabi movement elsewhere.
Imam Ahmed Raza Khan supported Tawassul, Mawlid, Prophet Muhammad's awareness of complete knowledge of the unseen, and other practices which were opposed by Wahhabis/Salafis and Deobandis.
In this contrast to the beliefs of the Wahhabis and Deobandis, Ahmed Raza Khan supported the following beliefs:
This concept was interpreted by Shah Abdul Aziz in Tafsir-e-Azizi in these words: The prophet is observing everybody, knows their good and bad deeds, and knows the strength of faith (Iman) of every individual Muslim and what has hindered his spiritual progress.
Raza Khan was emphatic in opposing the Hindu influences on Muslim identity. To differentiate between a Muslim and a Infidel he emphatically said:
In 1905, Khan, on the request of contemporaries from Hijaz, wrote a verdict on the permissibility of using paper as a form of currency, entitled Kifl-ul-Faqeehil fehim Fe Ahkam-e-Kirtas Drahim.
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian claimed to be the Messiah, Prophet, and Mahdi awaited by some Muslims as well as a Nabi Ummati, a subordinate prophet to Muhammad who came to restore Islam to the pristine form as practiced by Muhammad and early Sahaba. Khan declared Mirza Ghulam Ahmad a heretic and apostate and called him and his followers disbelievers (kuffar).
The theological difference with the Deobandi school began when Ahmed Raza Khan Barelvi objected in writing to some of the following beliefs of Deobandi scholars.
When Ahmed Raza Khan visited Mecca and Medina for pilgrimage in 1905, he prepared a draft document entitled Al Motamad Al Mustanad ("The Reliable Proofs"). In this work, Ahmad Raza branded Deobandi leaders such as Ashraf Ali Thanwi, Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, and Qasim Nanotwi and those who followed them as kuffar. Khan collected scholarly opinions in the Hejaz and compiled them in an Arabic language compendium with the title, Hussam al Harmain ("The Sword of Two Sanctuaries"), a work containing 34 verdicts from 33 ulama (20 Meccan and 13 Medinese). However, Deobandis claim the evidence provided to the scholars in Arabia were fabricated and that Ahmed Raza Khans takfir of them was unjust, and this initiated a reciprocal series of fatwas between Barelvis and Deobandis which has lasted to the present.
Ahmed Raza Khan wrote various books against the beliefs and faith of Shia Muslims and declared various practices of Shia as kufr. He considered most Shiites of his day apostates because, he believed, they repudiated necessities of religion.
Ahmed Raza Khan declared Wahhabis as disbelievers (kuffar) and collected many fatwas of various scholars against the Wahhabi movement founded by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, who was predominant in the Arabian peninsula, just as he had done with the Ahmadis and Deobandis. Until this day, Khan's followers remain opposed to the Wahhabi movement and their beliefs.
Unlike other Muslim leaders in the region at the time, Khan and his movement opposed the Indian independence movement due to its leadership under Mahatma Gandhi, who was not a Muslim.
Imam Ahmed Raza Khan declared that India was Dar al-Islam and that Muslims enjoyed religious freedom there. According to him, those arguing the contrary merely wanted to take advantage of the provisions allowing Muslims living under the non-Muslim rule to collect interest from commercial transactions and had no desire to fight Jihad or perform Hijra. Therefore, he opposed labeling British India to be Dar al-Harb ("abode of war"), which meant that waging holy war against and migrating from India were inadmissible as they would cause disaster to the community. This view of Khan's was similar to other reformers Syed Ahmed Khan and Ubaidullah Al Ubaidi Suhrawardy.
The Muslim League mobilized the Muslim masses to campaign for Pakistan, and many of Khan's followers played a significant and active role in the Pakistan Movement at educational and political fronts.
Many religious schools, organizations, and research institutions teach Khan's ideas, which emphasize the primacy of Islamic law along with the adherence to Sufi practices and personal devotion to Muhammad.
Imam Ahmed Raza Khan had two sons and five daughters. His sons Hamid Raza Khan and Mustafa Raza Khan Qadri are celebrated scholars of Islam. Hamid Raza Khan was his appointed successor. After him Mustafa Raza Khan succeeded his father, who then appointed Akhtar Raza Khan as his successor. His son, Mufti Asjad Raza Khan now succeeds him as the spiritual leader. He had many disciples and successors, including 30 in the Indian subcontinent and 35 elsewhere. The following scholars are his notable successors:
There are thousands of madrassas and Islamic seminaries dedicated to his school of thought across the Indian Subcontinent.