Syed Ahmad Shaheed (1786-1881) Syed Ahmad Shaheed was born on 29 November, 1786, at Rai Bareily (UP). He made a poor progress at Maktab and took more interest in sports, games and outdoor _ activities. In his childhood he used to say that he would wage a Jihad against the * atheists.“ At the age of eighteen, he came to Delhi and became the disciple of Shah Abdul aziz. After nearly two years of-study under Shah Abdul Aziz he left Delhi for his hcme. . During his stay at Delhi he had acquired the essential knowledge of the Quran and . the Hadith and picked up Persian.™ That was the first phase of his education, ‘Then he joined the army of Nawab Amir Khan of Tong in 1812. The Nawab was one - of the powerful chieftains of Rajputana and was always at.war with one Hindu chief. Scanned with CamScanneror another in his neighbourhood. He was religious-minded and devoted to ulema and sufis. Syed Ahmad remained with the Nawab for seven years and left him only when the Nawab had established friendly relations with the British. During these seven years he got ample experience both in actual warfare and practical politics. That was the second phase of his education. In 1821, Syed Ahmad Barelvi went to Makkah with 400 persons to perform Hajj and stayed there for two years, During his stay in Arabia he came into contact with many scholars and acquired a knowledge of the various movements of the world ef Islam. He was inspired with new thoughts and ideas. On his return to Indo-Pakistan, on 6 August, 1823, he devoted himself to the religious and social reforms and preparation of Jihad. The teachings of Syed Ahmad Shaheed may be classified into four heads: 1. Fight against corrupt practices and innovation. 2. Attitude towards taglid (conformity) and ijtihad (individual judgement). 3. « Reforms of sufism. - 4. Political aims and objects. Syed Ahmad Shaheed was a sufi. But unlike most sufis of the subcontinent he did not exclusively belong to one or the other of the well-known schools—Chishtiyah, Shorwardhiyah, Qadiriyah and Nagshbendiyah. He had the initiative in all these schools and was glad to admit followers into any one or all of them. In addition to these, he was the founder of a movement called Mujahideen. Political Object of His Movement: ‘the movement, of Syed Ahmad Shuheed aimed at the renaissance. of Islam in Indo-Pakistan in the religious as well as Political spheres. This movement was led against the Sikhs who nad forbidden the i nce of Shah Abdul Aziz decided to wage a holy war (Jihad) against the Sikhs. He made necessary preparations for the Jihad. In order to popularise the movement he, with his party, proceeded to the scene of action from Rai Baréily via Tong, Ajmer, Sindh, Balochistan, Afghanistan, Khyber Pass, Peshawar and finally arrived in Nowshera and made it his headquarters in December, 1826. In a word, his journey from Rai Bareily to the Nowshera (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) ivas meant to enllet the support of the people of these places for his cause. Velayet Ali, Inayat Ali and Kiam Aliin the Central Provinces and Shah Ismail Shaheed and Abdul Hai in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa _jeined his party and strengthened his hands.®* ‘There were numberof following factors which were favourable to this movement 1. The leader possessed high spiritual, m was sincerely devoted to the cause. 2, His companions were sincere, faithful and brave, 3. He had with him some very good schola: public and win their sympathies, ‘oral and physical qualities and above all rs and speakers who could convince the Scanned with CamScanner™ Te a ao y \ ae: , ‘VEVESOAH \ 7 rebueg jo Aeg ¥ x: ~ JeX fs ANN c oh sigh VION! é oN kag vemely Lk vaune ¢ Val aa ‘or 2 uy ps 4 } Ayaseg rey if we. : (4 ELE ee Se os “Fonve wave ne a wea (086+) VMHANN.LHYWd YEAHH & v eon NI G3HSITEVLS3 ALVLS WIISNW . Uh ONY VYSHSMON OL ATIauva Ive 1 Ca WOUs GVWHV GAAS 4O 3LNOY Scanned with CamScanner4. Shah Waliullal i i Sieme pe and his family had already prepared the ground for such a work. hota mes a sympathy for him and his movement. When Gaweliae cutis Journey for Jikad even sume of the Hindus, like the Raja of offered the Mujahi other presents. Many Muslim Chiefs and rulers hima the ore das! substantial help in cash and kind and promised to join (ii)Capture . Mujahids ee of _omewan In December 1826, Syed Ahmad Shaheed and the ad ee ene the Sikh forces stationed at Akora which were led by a atioeen jenusincot Ranjit Singh. Budh Singh was defeated and a large number ine. Patliane |. The Mujahids attained a series of success in the beginning. But wae, Pathans were unsure of the Syed’s success. Moreover they could not like his oP aa vas why they kept their relations secretly with the Ranjit Singh so taae even aft at collapse of Syed’s mission, their headship of the tribe may be ae anjit Singh also made secret approaches to some of the influential tribal chiefs supporting the Syed, including Yar Mohammad Khan, the Chief of Peshawar, asking them to withdraw their support on promise of concessions. He even warned them that the Syed’s victory in the area would mean the domination of the Indian Muslims over the Pathans. _ The next battle was at Saidu Sharif, fought in 1827. While the Mujahideen were busy in preparation for ihe battle, the Syed was poisoned by the servants of Yar Mohammad. The Syed, on the exposure of the conspiracy, forgave the culprits. Budh Singh was already in contact with the tribal chiefs and persuaded them to leave the Syed’s party. As a result of this, Yar Mohammad Khan decided to desert the Syed and the victory turned into defeat. In the general slaughter, by the Sikh soldiers, six thousand Muslims were killed. Syed Ahmad fell unconscious in the battlefield, because of the poison effect. He was put out from the battlefield after a lot of difficulties.” This revealed the organizational weaknesses among the Mujahideen. The top leaders of the force resolved to enforce more rigid disciplisie amorg the ranks, who were to be Controlled by a central authority responsible for enforcing the Shariat rule among them. Syed Ahmad was selected as Ameer. The hostilities of some of the tribal chiefs ed to several encounters with the Mujahideen, in which Yar Mohammad Khan, the Chief of Peshawar, and Khade Khan, the Chief of Hund, were killed. The Mujahideen occupied Peshawar in 1830. : ‘After Yar Mohammad’s death, Syed Ahmad, in an effort to reconcile the family, recognized his brother Sultan Mohammad Khan as the ruler of Peshawar, but he was under pressure from his family to avenge the death of his brother.” He organized the mass killing of Mujahideen. On e night, when Mujahideen were staying at Ismailia, they were surrounded by the Pathans and till the rising of the sun, most of them were killed treacherously. 5 .d came to know, h d darehenn ae e Sikhs in Hezara and Kashmi il, 1831, he set up his concentrate his efforts against th it istrict of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) on 18 Apri ao se cia for the Mujahideen. The Sikh General Headquarters there, considering it to be safe e\gave up his heart and decided to go northward and r. Arriving at Balakot Scanned with CamScanner04 Sher Singh followed him and here, too, the local Muslims spied for the Sikhs and led them through a secret route in close proximity of the Mujahideen’s camps. Here was fought the last decisive battle in the beginning of May, 1831. The Sikh army far superior in numbers and arms won the day.” The losses were severe, nearly six hundred Mujahideen lost their lives in the battlefield. The leader of the movement, Syed Ahmad, along with his chief lieutenant, Shah Ismail, died fighting till the end. Their death for the cause of the country inspired the Muslims to fight the battle of independence for many years to come. Gii)Causes of the Failure of the Movement: The main causes of the failure of the movement were as under:** 1. The movement failed due to the absence of cooperation between the Hindustani followers of the Syed and the local followers, lack of proper funds, poor war equipment and want of vroper military training, the sectarian propaganda against the reforms introduced by the followers of Syed Ahmad Shaheed and the difference created by Ranjit Singh among the Pathans. . The followers of Syed completely disregarded the economic side of life. Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) when enforced zakat, he defined zakat as a tax which is taken from wealthy to be given back to the poor. Shah Waliullah for the first time in the history of subcontinent had laid emphasis on the economic aspect of shariat, We see Syed Ahmad collecting ushr (one-tenth) and ‘zakat from the citizens of his state, but we do not find any attempt on his part to redistribute the same amongst the poor and the needy of the territory. The result was that the lower class of the society became depressed. Naturally they were embittered against the naw government and started an active campaign against it. 3. The newly-established government attempted to stop by force centuries-old socio- religious customs all at once. The attempt to end the un-Islamic custom of not marrying young or widowed girls took such an ugly turn that the official of Syed’s government appointed in different villages were all butchered like sheep on an appointed night. According to Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi: “The Indian companions of the Syed had started marrying Afghan girls forcibly under this plea”. A daughter of the Khan of Khaishgi was married to a Hindustani companion of the Syed by force. The Khan felt greatly insulted and humiliated. He aperoached his old bitter enemy, the Khan of Khattak, and asked for his help in the name of Afghan honour. The latter not only joined hands with him, but went a step further. He brought his own young daughter before an Afghan assembly, took off her head-dress in public and declared that she would remain bareheaded till the wrong done to the daughter of the Khan of Khaishgi was avenged. Then, thi started upon an anti-Syed campaign. They went from place to place addres, ee + secret night meetings, and the bare-headed girl accompanied them in this fa is Within a short time, the whole territory was aflame, pa other factor contributing towards the early failure of this mo: 4 ‘athe hareh attitude of Syed's government in smell aa ordinary mote women was awarded Punishment of lashes’ for misstatement, ‘The earns punishment was given ‘ose, who did not say their Prayers regularly. Scanned with CamScannerSurprisingly no such punishments were mentioned by the Holy Prophet. 5. The pathetic aspect of the movement was, that the Syed was opposed more by the Pathans than by the Sikhs and the Syed had to spend more energy, time and skill in facing the Muslim opposition, rivals and conspirators than the Sikhs.® 6. According to some, the Syed met this fate, because he and his right hand man, Shah Ismail, had used derogatory language for the Holy Prophet in their books Sirat-ul-Mustageem and Taqueeat-ul-Imam. Though the movement received a-great set-back at Balakot, the political work of the Syed was carried on by Velayet Ali of Patna. The subsequent extension of the British power over the Punjab brought the Mujahids into direct conflict with the British who . fought against the Muslims a number of battles and brought the movement to an end. W.W. Hunter and some other writers tries to link up this movement of Syed Ahmad with the Wahhabi movement in Arabia® started by Mohammad bin Abdul Wahhab of Najd in the later part of 18th and the first part of the 19th century in order to save the Muslims from moral and spiritual degradation. This argument is not justifiable _ in the face of facts. The teachings of Syed Ahmad Shaheed differed considerably from those of Mohammad bin Abdul Wahhab. Syed Ahmad Shaheed had already formulated his ideas of reform before his departure for Arabia. Moreover, the Wahhabis had been dislodged from Hijaz before his arrival in Makkah. He might have come across the Wahhabis and Wahhabism but the movement as a political force was at the lowest ebb while he was in Arabia. So it is wrong to say that he was influenced by the Wahhabism of Arabia. Over and above, there were many important points of differences between the two schools of thought. Syed’s moderate views on taglid and his attitude towards sufism may be cited as examples. The former followed muddle course regarding taglid and sufism while the latter rejected both absolutely. Scanned with CamScanner