Islam Without Europe by Dallal Ahmad S.;

Author:Dallal, Ahmad S.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Published: 2018-04-30T04:00:00+00:00

Hadith in India

The name of the seventeenth-century scholar ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq al-Dihlawī (d. 1052/1642) is closely associated with the introduction of hadith studies to India. Prior to ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq, Indian Ḥanafī scholars did not expend much energy in the study of hadith and related disciplines. Indian scholars were so occupied in jurisprudence that they opposed any attempt to judge their derived laws on the basis of their conformity with the Sunna.92 These scholars seldom studied hadith, and even when they did, their purpose was to “gain God’s blessings” rather than to derive laws from it.93 In addition to basic illiteracy in hadith and great interest in the rational sciences, the primary reason for this neglect was a perception, common among Indian Ḥanafīs, that the compilations of ṣaḥīḥ traditions94 are, for the most part, opposed to the rulings of Ḥanafī law.95 This perception was reinforced by the unease that characterized the historical relationships between jurists (fuqahāʾ) and traditionalists (muḥaddithūn). Shortly before the time of ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq al-Dihlawī, several Indian scholars traveled to the Hejaz, where they studied hadith with the local scholars of Mecca and Medina, and brought the discipline of hadith studies back with them upon their return to India. The efforts of these scholars, however, were particularly concentrated in the region of Gujarat, while elsewhere in India the earlier patterns of education persisted.96 In contrast to these Gujarati scholars, ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq al-Dihlawī managed to popularize hadith throughout India and to train several students who continued his efforts after him. His influence was such that he is often mistakenly considered to be the person who introduced hadith to India.97 ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq popularized the study of hadith in India through devoting his whole career to the teaching of hadith and to serious scholarly work on the subject. Moreover, in an effort to make this study accessible to a larger sector of the scholarly population, he used Arabic as well as Persian for both teaching and writing about hadith. He also overcame various obstacles facing the newly emerging discipline by devising a series of creative techniques that enabled him to recast the relationship between Ḥanafī law and hadith. A crucial factor that contributed to his success was his ability to use hadith to corroborate Ḥanafī law, as well as to authenticate the teachings of the Qādiriyya and Naqshbandiyya Sufi orders—two of the most popular orders in India at the time. ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq’s credibility was enhanced by his deliberate avoidance of contact and conflict with political authorities.98 His nonconfrontational attitude, however, was most effective in his approach to the study and application of hadith.

ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq al-Dihlawī often came across traditions that contradicted Ḥanafī legal practices. Although this contradiction did not prevent him from reporting the hadith, he tended to refrain from drawing the logical conclusions from it. As a rule, ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq did not criticize the Ḥanafī legal tradition, nor did he present himself as a reformer of the Ḥanafī school.99 In addition to the long duration of his teaching career (about fifty years), it is perhaps because of this ostensible conformity that his reforms were so effective.

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