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In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Merciful.
Allah Himself bears witness, and so do the angels and those who are firmly established in knowledge: There is no god but Allah, the Just, there is no god but Him, the Mighty, the Wise. (3:18)
Introductory words
Few scholars in recent times have had a greater impact on the development of legal and spiritual Islam than Imam Ahmad Raza Khan Qadri Barelwi (1856 – 1921). In the Muslim world, he is known as A’lahazrat or his holiness. Imam Ahmad Raza Khan Barelwi (may Allah be pleased with him) was born on Monday, June 14, 1856, in a city in India called Bareli. Hence the name of the Imam; Imam Ahmad Raza Khan Barelwi. The Imam was born into a family that had a long tradition of ancestors who were devoted scholars of Islam. He was born at a time when the Islamic world was in dire need of a reformer (mujaddid), someone who could cleanse the religion of unfortunate rituals and traditions that had crept into the religion or social system that Muslims like to define Islam.
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) has announced in a famous hadith that at the beginning of every century there will come a person who will renew Islam. There is a near consensus among Muslims that Imam Ahmad Raza Khan Barelwi was such a person to whom the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) referred in the tradition.
Throughout his relatively long life, A’lahazrat gained many students and spiritual followers. About 35 of his 75 foremost students, who themselves became great scholars, are buried in India and Pakistan. Many of Imam Ahmad Raza Khan Barelwi’s students have had a great influence on the development of Islamic culture and philosophy.
The Imam’s works are today read and referenced throughout the Muslim world, regardless of the school of law and direction. The Imam is a special authority within the Hanafi school of law, on the same level as the great reformer and collector of legal works Ibn Abidin who reached heights (as a mujtahid). Something that most Islamic jurists (fuqaha) do not even dare to talk about. A mujtahid is a legal scholar who can deduce laws and solutions to problems directly from the sacred texts, without referring to other scholars.
To return to the family of the Imam. His father, Hadhrat Mawlana Naqi Ali Khan (may Allah be pleased with him) was the author of 50 books, among which “Suror al-Qulub fi dhikr Mawlud al-Mahbob” has earned a place among the classics of Islamic literature. The masterpiece deals with both the internal and external characteristics of the opponents of Islam. The grandfather of Imam Ahmad Raza Khan Barelwi – a great Sufi and a freedom fighter – was named Mawlana Raza Ali Khan. He is a renowned scholar who fought with General Bakht Khan against the British forces of innovation in 1834.
Imam Ahmad Raza Khan Barelwi displayed great piety and righteousness at an early age. A particularly famous episode is when Mawlana Naqi Ali – the father of Imam Ahmad Raza Khan Barelwi – took his son to a room full of food and delicacies. Despite his young age and even though fasting was not obligatory for him, he fasted.
The father closed the door and told him to help himself to whatever he wanted because no one could see him now. Children can also break their fast whenever they want. For most young boys of that age, it would have been a dream come true. But the answer the young boy gave to his father was so strong and striking that it brought tears to his father’s eyes. The Imam said, “By His command that I fast, He sees me.”
The life of Imam Ahmad Raza Khan
A’lahazrat gave his first lecture at the age of just 6. The topic was the love and importance of devotion to the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) and the lecture lasted for a full two hours. The theme later became the Imam’s calling throughout his life, and it is also the love for the Prophet (peace be upon him) that the Imam and his followers are associated with today.
The Imam was only 4 years old when he completed the Quranic school. At the age of 8, he wrote his first treatise which dealt with the obligatory acts (faraid) that every Muslim must perform.
When Imam Ahmad Raza Khan Barelwi was 10 years old, he studied Ilm al-Thubot under his father. Ilm al-Thubot is considered a high-level work of Islamic literature. Imam Ahmad Raza Khan Barelwi wrote such detailed annotations to the book that when his father read them, he exclaimed in excitement that he was not the young boy’s teacher, but rather that he should be his son’s student. The Imam went on to complete his formal education in Islam at the age of 13.
Later, the Imam studied under various scholars and shaykhs. Among them are Mawlana Abdul Ali Rampuri, al-Shaykh al-Kabeer Hadhrat Allama Sayyid Shah Abul Hassan Ahmad Noori, Shaykh al-Tariqah Allama Shah Ale Rasool Marharwi, Shaykh Ahmad bin Zaini Dahlan Makki, Shaykh Abdur Rahman Makki and Shaykh Hussain bin Salih Makki.
Hazrat Allama Shah Aale Rasool has a famous saying about the Imam: On the Day of Judgment, when the Almighty will ask me to recount my life’s work, I will refer to Imam Ahmad Raza Khan Barelwi.
Imam Ahmad Raza Khan Barelwi married when he was 18 years old. He had 7 children, two sons and five daughters. Both sons eventually became famous scholars. The youngest son had 10 million disciples at the end of his life, and like his father, he is also considered a reformer (mujaddid) of his time.
The Imam was the author of many books, and it is said that the total production was 1000 books. The masterpiece of the Imam is the translation of the Quran into Urdu, namely Kanz-ul-Iman. Few translators are as thorough as the Imam does in Kanz-ul-Iman. The language is so unique that some scholars have believed that the translation of the Imam has not lost any of the original message that is found in Arabic. This is despite the fact that the Imam never managed to complete the work of the translation.
It is said that a person can be judged by what other people who know the person say about him. This is especially true in the Muslim tradition, where scholars are measured by what other scholars say and think about them. Countless scholars have praised and acknowledged the sincerity and knowledge of Imam Ahmad Raza Khan Barelwi, including the great poet and philosopher Allamah Muhammad Iqbal and one of the strongest voices in the Deoband movement, Mawlana Ashraf Ali Thanwi. Furthermore, there are Mawlana Muinuddin, Allamah Ali Hussain, Sayyed Shah Abul Hussain Ahmad Noori and Sayyiduna Shah Aale Rasool.
The Imam became well-versed and skilled in more fields than just Islamic theology and jurisprudence, including logic, Arabic, knowledge of dialects, language and metaphors, philosophy and politics, physics, mathematics and engineering physics. Imam Ahmad Raza Khan Barelwi spent much of his time in scholarly discussions, and in defending the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) rank and honor in Islam. It is this in particular, along with his 30-volume masterpiece of Islamic jurisprudence, namely, Fatawa Rizwiyya and the translation of the Quran, for which he is best known in later times.
The Imam’s passing
Imam Ahmad Raza Khan Barelwi passed away at the age of 65, exactly when the call to prayer for Friday prayers was being called. Just before the Imam’s passing, a saint (wali) saw in a dream while he was in the Holy Mosque in Jerusalem the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) himself along with his disciples. It seemed that everyone was waiting for someone. The saint asked the Prophet (peace be upon him) whose arrival everyone was waiting for. The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) then briefly replied “Ahmad Raza Khan”. The saint asked who Ahmad Raza Khan was, and the answer he got from the Prophet (peace be upon him) was that he was a scholar (alim) from Bareli. After this dream, the saint hurried to Bareli, but to his great dismay, he arrived too late.
The tomb of the Imam is in Bareli, India. And out of respect for the city, which was given the honor of being both the birthplace of the Imam and the city where the Imam now rests, the city is called Bareli Sharif (Holy Bareli). Every year, in the Muslim month of Safar – the month in which the Imam passed away – hundreds of thousands of Muslims from all over the world gather to participate in the celebration of the day the Imam met his Creator, the day the lover met his Beloved (Urs Sharif).
Some good websites that have more about the Imam:
Most of his works can be read and/or downloaded from:
http://www.alahazratnetwork.org/
A detailed biography of the Imama:
http://www.sunnah.org/articles/Imam_raza_ahmed_khan.htm
