Shah Waliullah’s Hujjatullah al-Baligha Intensive

Date: Sunday 13, February 2022
Time: 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

Since the fall of the Moghuls in India, one of the most important and influential Muslim scholars in the Islamic revival in India was Shah Waliullah Muhaddith Dehlavi (rh) whose work continues to influence most Muslim groups and schools of thought, like Deobandi, Ahle-Hadith, Barelwi, Jamaat-Islami, Shias and others. His magnum opus was the Hujjatullahil Baligha, a two-volume Arabic manuscript covering the principles of Islamic revival, which is more pertinent today.

This course will cover: Brief overview of Shah Waliullah’s life; Establishment of hadith scholarship in India, Shah Waliullah’s role as a reformer, Shah Waliullah’s writings, Hujjatullah al-Balighah: an exposition of the rationale of Shari`ah and an intellectual interpretation of hadith, comparison of this work with earlier writings on the subject, Irtifaq (sociability) and Siyasat al-madinah (issues related to the civil society), concept of sa`adah (the success), creeds and devotion, comprehensive prophethood, ways and method of discussing the meanings of hadith, and Shah Waliullah’s legacy.

Students: $30
General Admission: $50
Livestream: $40

Shaykh Akram Nadwi studied and taught Shari’a at the Nadwatul ‘Ulama (India). He is a muhaddith specialising in ‘Ilm al-Rijal (the study of the narrators of Hadith) and has ijaza (licenses) from many mashayakh, including Abul Hasan Ali Al-Nadwi, Abdul-Fattah Abu Ghuddah, Ramadan Buti, AbdurRahman Kittani and Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Over the course of three decades he has authored, translated and conducted research on many titles related to fiqh, Qur’an, hadith and sufi orders. He has published widely in Urdu, Persian, Arabic, and English on Shah Wali Allah, a critical edition of Usūl al-Shāshī in Ḥanafī jurisprudence, original monographs on Islamic law, Quran and hadith sciences, and figures such as Abū Ḥanīfah, including his monumental 43 volume work on Al-Muhaddithaat –The Women Scholars in Islam. He was a research fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, Oxford University, and is recipient of the ‘Allāmah Iqbāl prize for contribution to Islamic thought and is the Principal and Co-Founder of Al-Salam Institute. As co-founder of Al-Salam Institute, he continues to teach advanced levels of Islamic Scholarship Program.

Dr. Marcia Hermansen is Director of the Islamic World Studies Program and Professor in the Theology Department at Loyola University Chicago where she teaches courses in Islamic Studies and the academic study of religion. She received her Ph. D. from the University of Chicago in Arabic and Islamic Studies.

Among her recent co-edited books are Varieties of American Sufism: Islam, Sufi Orders and Authority in a Time of Transition (SUNY, 2020) and Muslima Theology: The Voices of Muslim Women Theologians (2013). Her monographs include Shah Wali Allah’s Treatises on Islamic Law (2010) and The Conclusive Argument from God, a study and translation (from Arabic) of Shah Wali Allah of Delhi’s Hujjat Allah al-Baligha (Brill).

Dr. Hermansen has also contributed numerous academic articles in the fields of Islamic Thought, Sufism, Islam and Muslims in South Asia, Muslims in America, and Women in Islam.

Ebrahim E.I. Moosa is Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Notre Dame with appointments in the Keough School of Global Affairs, the Kroc Institute for International Peace and the Department of History. He is co-director of the Contending Modernities program, a global research and education program that fosters intellectual exchange between Catholic, Islamic and secular perspectives on science, politics and society. His interests span both classical and modern Islamic thought with a special focus on Islamic law, history, ethics and theology. His latest book, What is a Madrasa? was published in April 2015. World Religions Demystified, co-authored with Matt Cleary was published in 2014. Dr Moosa is the author of Ghazali and the Poetics of Imagination, winner of the American Academy of Religion’s Best First Book in the History of Religions (2006) and editor of the last manuscript of the late Professor Fazlur Rahman, Revival and Reform in Islam: A Study of Islamic Fundamentalism. With Jeffrey Kenney he co-edited Islam and the Modern World and with Shamil Jeppie and Richard Roberts he co-edited Muslim Family Law in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Jonathan Brown is the Alwaleed bin Talal Chair of Islamic Civilization in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and he is the Director of the Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim Christian Understanding. He received his BA in History from Georgetown University in 2000 and his doctorate in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago in 2006. Dr. Brown has studied and conducted research in countries such as Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, South Africa, India, Indonesia and Iran. His book publications include “The Canonization of al-Bukhari and Muslim: The Formation and Function of the Sunni Hadith Canon” (Brill, 2007), “Hadith: Muhammad’s Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World” (Oneworld, 2009) and “Muhammad: A Very Short Introduction” (Oxford University Press, 2011), which was selected for the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Bridging Cultures Muslim Journeys Bookshelf. His most recent book, “Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenges and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet’s Legacy” (Oneworld, 2014), was named one of the top books on religion in 2014 by the Independent. He has published articles in the fields of Hadith, Islamic law, Salafism, Sufism, Arabic lexical theory and Pre-Islamic poetry and is the editor in chief of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Law. Dr. Brown’s current research interests include Islamic legal reform and a translation of Sahih al-Bukhari.

Open to the general public and intermediate and advanced students of Islamic Sciences, Islamic Studies, post-graduates and academics.

A basic requisite of Islamic Thought and the history of Islamic Thought in India, as well as Islamic Movements in the region is recommended but not essential.