An Analysis Of The Effects And Implications Of Syed Aḥmad Shahīd’s Movement Of Jihād: A Continuous Struggle In Its Different Forms

Abstract

In the first half of the nineteenth century, in the British India Syed Aḥmad Shahīd’s movement of Jihād was initiated to revive the political dominance of Islam. His movement was an amalgamation of Sufism and Sharī‘ah to revive the spirit of Jihād. Despite its failure, this movement remained alive in different forms in different parts of the subcontinent. A portion of its affiliates turned towards Madrassah religious education and came back into action only when the democratic political platform was set by the British government. At this point, the movement split into two man groups: the Jamī‘at ‘Ulamā’-e-Hind sided with the Indian National Congress, while the Jamī‘at ‘Ulamā’-e-Islam joined the All India Muslim League. JUH demanded freedom from the British rule and favoured multiethnic common nationalism and secularism to coexists with the majority Hindu population by sharing power with them; while the JUI favoured the demand of a separate Muslim land, Pakistan, for the Muslims majority areas of the subcontinent to establish political Islam, a close replica of the state of Madīna, this was an outlook closer to Syed Aḥmad Shahīd’s ideology.

In this research paper the author presents a critical analysis of the armed struggle of Syed Aḥmad and his ideology