HISTORY OF WAHHĀBISM IN PUNJAB

Wahhābī Mawlawī Muĥammad Jaáfar Thānaysarī [1254-1322 AH / 1838-1905 CE] writes in Tawārīkh e Ájīb:

“During my time in India [1280 AH / 1864 CE], there were not even 10 Muslims in the whole of [undivided] Punjab that were of the Wahhābi creed,

and now [1302 AH / 1884 CE], I see that there is no village or city in which at least a quarter of Muslims are Wahhābī who follow the creed of Muĥammad Ismāýīl [Dihlawī].”

This shows that approximately 150 years ago, next to none were Wahhābī in the whole of undivided Punjab.

One would naturally wonder, what then was the creed of the vast majority of the inhabitants of Punjab?

Ahl e Ĥadīth Mawlawī Thanāullāh Amritsarī [1285-1367 AH / 1868-1948 CE] writes in Shamá e Tawĥīd:

“In Amritsar, the Muslim and non-Muslim populations are equal.

Eighty years ago nearly all Muslims were of the belief which is today called Ĥanafi Barelwi belief.”

Thanāullāh Amritsarī is one of the major figures of the so-called Ahl e Ĥadīth movement which is a Wahhābī Ghayr Muqallid movement.

He authored this book in 1937, which would mean eighty years prior would be 1857. This shows that approximately 150 years ago the vast majority of Muslims in Amritsar, Punjab were, what is today known as, Barelwi.

Those who were not of this belief, were either Shīáh or one of the handful of Wahhābīs who had begun to rear their heads in the subcontinent.

Until the 1800s Sunnis were united in India until Shāh Ismāýīl,

who dissented from the ways of common Muslims – and indeed from the tradition of his forefathers – and introduced Wahhābī beliefs and ideas in the subcontinent.

Influenced by writings of Muĥammad ibn Ábd al-Wahhāb Najdī, he wrote Taqwiyatu’l Īmān, a harsh and abusive book,

which caused a furore from the beginning and was the first major essay of Wahhābī thought in India.

From this we also learn that Barelwi is not a new sect nor are its beliefs and practices new, rather it is simply those who follow the traditional Sunni way prior to Wahhābism.

We are not a sect separate from Ahl as-Sunnah. Our enemies have pejoratively coined the term ‘Barelvi’ in their futile attempt to malign true Sunnis; but just like Ashárī or Māturīdī, Barelwi has now become an identifier of true Sunnis in the subcontinent.

In our age, the only group of Sunnis in the subcontinent, that is compatible with Sufis and Kalām scholars all over the world are either among the students of Alahazrat or his admirers and are therefore, known as Barelwis.

Even lay people use Sunni and Barelwi interchangeably
in the subcontinent.