Sayyid Ahmad Shahīd's Role in Islamic Revivalism: A Critique

The emergence of Sayyid A+mad Shahīd on the political horizon of Muslim India in the early 19th century synchronized with the loss of Muslim political power. This loss led to departure of the Muslim community from Islam in its pristine purity. Sayyid A+mad Shahīd embarked upon the gigantic task of reviving Muslim enthusiasm toward the pristine Islam. The overbearing theme of what Sayyid A+mad Shahīd stood for amounted to the saying ‘back to the Qur‘an and ‘back to the traditions of the Prophet (s.a.w.)’. By that time the Mughal rulers were too weak to effect any meaningful change. Muslim religious scholars like Sayyid A+mad rose to the occasion. Sayyid A+mad, like other scholars, devoted his energy to diagnose the malaise of the Indian Muslims, on the one hand and tried to identify solution to the problems in Islam, on the other. He came to conclusion that changes could be brought about if Muslims reformed their ways. For that matter he preferred social Jihād, which was originally intended to purify or purge Islam of accretions from without. However, very soon the social Jihād assumed a military nature, targetting first the Sikhs and later the British. The Jihād movement of Sayyid A+mad was not a success during his life time but its theoretical and practical impact could be seen in later period.