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Sayyid Ahmad Barelvi (1786-1831) was a native of Rae Bareli and founder of the "The Way of the Prophet Muhammad" (Tariqah-i Muhhamdiyah), a revolutionary Islamist movement. He called himself a Commander of the Believers (amir al-Mu'minin) and proclaimed a jihad against the Sikhs in the Punjab,. He was defeated and killed, and this ended the dream of establishing an Islamic state in Peshawar, now Pakistan. His followers upheld the doctrine of the unity of God (tawhid) and called themselves Ahle Hadith, while others called them Wahhabis. They rejected innovation (bid'ah) but unlike true Wahhabis accepted Sufism and features of popular Islam such as the belief in the intercession of the spirits of dead saints for help and the use of amulets.[1] He is thought by some to have anticipated modern Islamists in his waging of jihad and attempt to create an Islamic state with strict enforcement of Islamic law. [2]
[edit] Sources
- Adamec, Ludwig, Historical Dictionary of Islam, Scarecrow Press, 2001
[edit] Works cited
- ^ Adamec, Historical Dictionary (2001), p.61
- ^ Mortimer, Faith and Power, (1982), p.68-70
