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The Sunni Hanafi
school of law is divided into Deobandis
and Barelvis
school of law in South Asia. Deobandis
and Barelvis are the two major groups
of Muslims apart from the Shia
Ithna Ashari
in South Asia. The Deobandi school
argues that the reason Islamic societies
have fallen behind the West in all
spheres of endeavor is because they
have been seduced by the amoral and
material accoutrements of Westernization,
and have deviated from the original
pristine teachings of the Prophet.
Deoband is a small town nearly 130 Kilometers
north-east of New Delhi in India where
the first Deobandi learning center,
Dar-ul-Uloom ("House of Knowledge")
was started in 1866. Darul Uloom was
founded by Maulana Mohamed Qasim Nanotyi.
In 1857, Muslims had joined Hindus
in the Sepoy mutiny against the British.
The British responded by deposing
the last Mughal
emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar ending
five hundred years of Muslim rule
on the South Asia. In its place the
British made South Asia part of British
empire. They also shut down Muslim
schools and seminaries.
Darul Uloom is the world's second largest
center of Islamic study, the largest
being the Al Azhar University located
Cairo, Egypt. By 2001, Darul Uloom
had graduated 65,000 Muslim scholars
from the Asian Muslim world, from
Saudi Arabia to Malaysia in the south
and China to the north. These graduates
operated thousands of madrassas (seminaries
or religious schools) in Pakistan
and Afghanistan.
The 'Deobandi Tradition' itself is much
older than the eponymous Dar-Ul-Ulum
at Deoband. The Deoband Madrasa brought
together Muslims who were hostile
to British colonial rule and committed
to a literal and austere interpretation
of Islam.
For the last 200 years, Sunnis often
have looked to the example of the
Deoband madrassa (religious school)
near Delhi. The Deoband school has
long sought to purify Islam by discarding
supposedly un-Islamic accretions to
the faith and reemphasizing the models
established in the Koran and the customary
practices of the Prophet Mohammed.
Additionally, Deobandi scholars often
have opposed what they perceive as
Western influences.
The tack of Darul Uloom Deoband is in
accordance with the Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah,
Hanafiate practical method (Mazhab)
and the disposition (Mashrab) of its
founders, Maulana Mohammad Qasim Nanautavi
and Hazrat Maulana Rasheed Ahmed Gangohi.
The Deobandi interpretation holds that
a Muslim's first loyalty is to his
religion and only then to the country
of which he is a citizen or a resident;
secondly, that Muslims recognise only
the religious frontiers of their Ummah
and not the national frontiers; thirdly,
that they have a sacred right and
obligation to go to any country to
wage holy war to protect the Muslims
of that country.
The Deobandi interpretation of Islamic
teachings is widely practiced in Pakistan.
The Deobandi movement in Sunni Islam,
was founded in response to British
colonial rule in South Asia and later
hardened in Pakistan into bitter opposition
to what its members views as the country's
neo-colonial elite.
Page last updated:
Friday, November 25, 2005 22:04:51 -0500 |
