Respect for Sunni Scholars

The Nawab of Rāmpūr had once invited[1] Alahazrat and was very impressed by the young man.

He advised him to study logic and philosophy from Ábd al-Ĥaqq Khayrābādī.[2] Incidentally, Shaykh Khayrābādī arrived at the scene. After introductions, he asked a young Alahazrat: “How far have you studied logic?” Alahazrat replied: “Qāzī Mubārak.” Khayrābādī sneeringly asked: “Have you read Tahdhīb?” Alahazrat shot back: “So you teach Tahdhīb after Qāzī Mubārak?”[3] Khayrābādi said: “What do you do in Bareilly?” Alahazrat replied: “I teach, write fatāwā and refute the Wahābīs.” Khayrābādī said: “Oh! We have a lunatic[4] here too, who is always raving about refuting Wahābīs.” Alahazrat replied: “Your father[5] was the first person [in India] to refute Wahābīs.” Khayrābādī was piqued and said: “If you keep countering every statement of mine, I cannot teach you.” Alahazrat replied: “I have already decided that I will not study with a person who does not respect Sunni scholars”.

[1] Alahazrat was very young and he was invited by his father in law, who took him to the Nawab Kalb Álī Khān [1834-1887 CE] who was himself a Sunni, even though other nawabs of Rampur had Shīáh leanings and many have been outright Rāfiđīs.

[2] He was the son of the famous Imām Fađl al-Ĥaqq Khayrābādī, who was exiled to Andaman Islands – kālā pānī – for his prominent role in the First War of Indian Independence and was hanged thereafter accused of sedition.

[3] Tahdhīb is a beginner’s guide and Qāzi Mubārak is a fairly advanced book. It is a lengthy conversation where Alahazrat keeps answering him, and Khayrābādī is piqued.

[4] Khayrābādī was referring to Shaykh Ábd al-Qādir Badāyūnī, who was very close to Alahazrat and was his friend, in spite of being 20 years senior to Alahazrat.

[5] Mawlānā Fađl al-Ĥaqq Khayrābādī [1212-1278/1797-1861] was the first to refute Ismāýīl Dihlawī [1193-1246/1779-1831]; Ismāýīl introduced Wahābī ideas in the country through his utterly burnable and profane book Tafwiyatu’l Īmān.