Shah Abdul Aziz Dehlavi

Shah Abdul Aziz Muhaddith Dehlavi (11 October 1746 – 5 June 1824; شاہ عبد العزیز دھلوی) was Muhaddith (scholar of Hadith) and Mujadid Sufi and reformer from India. He was of the Naqshbandi Sufi order which emerged from a tradition of violent backlash against the modernization of Sunni culture. This tradition inspired later Sunni scholarship, including Aziz's father Shah Waliullah. Aziz was the to declare Hindustan to be Darul Harb. Most of the Indian schools of Hadith learning which exist to the present day have the name of Shah ʿAbd-al-ʿAzīz at the head of their educational pedigree.

Quotes

• May God revenge the atrocities of the Sikhs and the Marathās, A painful revenge and very soon They (both) have killed a large number of people, And have committed atrocities even against the illiterate shepherds.
  • Letter to his uncle Shāh Ahl-Allāh quoted in Tariq Rahman - Interpretations of Jihad in South Asia_ An Intellectual History-de Gruyter (2018)

About

• ‘Abdul ‘Azīz did write an exegesis of the Qur’an in Persian but the part of it which survives does not cover the crucial verses about jihad. His religious edicts (fatāwā) do, however, constitute a landmark development in the way discourses about jihad shaped up in South Asia till independence. Moreover, his letters, like those of his father’s, also provide insights into how he reacted to the loss of Muslim political power in the colonial era. ... His work represents a compromise between confrontation and accommodation of British power in India.
  • Tariq Rahman - Interpretations of Jihad in South Asia_ An Intellectual History-de Gruyter (2018)