Introduction
Shah Abdul Aziz; ‘The Sun of India’
the eldest son of Shah Waliullah was
only 17 years old when Shah Waliullah
died. After the death of Shah Waliullah,
his son, Shah Abdul Aziz gradually
became an outstanding figure among the
Indian Muslims. Shah Abdul Aziz, having
completed his necessary education
assumed the responsibility of the
principalship of the Madrash Rahimiya
(Delhi). Thereafter, Shah Abdul Aziz
devoted his life to teaching, to
spiritual guidance, to delivering
sermons and to writing books. Every
Tuesday and Friday, he used to give
public sermons on the premises of the
Madrasah which was attended by Muslims
and non-Muslims both. The Madrasah was a
centre of traditional Islamic learning.
As was the custom in those days, he
started his education at the age of five
with the study of Holy Quran. Every
biographer of Shah Abdul Aziz seems to
have agreed that he finished his
education in Tafsir, Hadith, sarf
(accidence), Nahw (Syntax), Fiqh,
Usul-i-Fiqh (Principles of
Jurisprudence), Mantiq (logic), Kalam
and Aqaid (theology), Astronomy and
Mathematics at the age of about fifteen
years. He was taught especially by his
father and by two of his father’s
disciples, Shah Muhammad Ashiq and
Khwajah Aminullah. His father held
authority (ijazah) in all four existing
mystic orders, the Naqshbandi, the
Qadiri, the Suhrawardi and the Chisthti.
Shah Abdul Aziz too obtained such Ijazah
in all these orders from his father. He
was also a poet of high merit and used
to write poems and Ghazals.
Apart from spiritual guidance and
teaching, Shah Abdul Aziz wrote and
dictated several books. Some of them
related to contemporary religious
issues, and some contained the biography
of the Muhaddithin, and of the grandsons
of the Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H) and his
other companions. He wrote a few books
on the subjects of logic and rhetoric.
Tafsir Fath al-Aziz or Tafsir-i-Aziz (in
Persian) and Tuhfah-i-Ithna ‘Ashariyah
are among his well-known books. Fatawa
Aziz, another famous book, is the
collection of Fatawa (questions and
answers on religious issue). The other
well-known and highly controversial book
written by him is the Tuhfah. In this
book, he has described the history,
belief and teachings of the Shia’s.
There was hardly any Suni house, he
says, in which some of its members had
not become Shia’s. They did not know
anything about their new faith, or even
concerning Sunnism. Therefore, the
author, as he says, compiled the book,
to provide information to people who
were really interested in such debates.
He became the leader of the movement
started by his father. Throughout his
life he was busy in propagating the
ideals and thought of his father. He
wrote several books which were based
upon Shah Waliullah’s ideas but were
written in a language more easily
intelligible to a man of average
education. For Sixty years, Shah Abdul
Aziz laboured at his mission until his
death in 1823.
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