Since 1979, the movement has been influenced by Salafism imported by United States from Saudi Arabia, particularly in Afghanistan and Pakistan.[3] From the early 1980s to the early 2000s, some Deobandis were heavily funded by the Saudi government.[13] The Pakistani government cultivated Deobandi militancy to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and India in Kashmir. The money and guns supplied later fuelled civil conflict.[14] The movement has spread from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh to the United Kingdom,[15] and has a presence in South Africa.[16] The Pakistani and Afghan branches and the original Indian seminaries have far less contact since the Partition of India, for political reasons related to the India–Pakistan border.[3] Followers of the Deobandi movement are extremely diverse; some advocate for non-violence and others are militant.[17]
Of the world's 1.8 billion Muslims, Deobandism is followed by roughly 20% or 300-400 Million of them. These are concentrated mainly in the Indian Subcontinent and in the United Kingdom. Deobandism's large following is due at least partially to its ideological similarities to Salafism and Hanafi Fiqh.
Of Pakistan's estimated 230 million Muslims, some 15-30% or 40-80 million Pakistani Muslims consider themselves Deobandi, forming majority in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. It is the most followed Movement among Pashtuns and Balochs[26][27] According to Heritage Online, nearly 65% of the total seminaries (Madrasah) in Pakistan are run by Deobandis, whereas 25% are run by Barelvis, 6% by Ahl-i Hadith and 3% by various Shia organizations. The Deobandi movement in Pakistan was a major recipient of funding from Saudi Arabia from the early 1980s up until the early 2000s, whereafter this funding was diverted to the rival Ahl al-Hadith movement.[13] Having seen Deoband as a counterbalance to Iranian influence in the region, Saudi funding is now strictly reserved for the Ahl al-Hadith.[13]
As with the rest of the Indian subcontinent, the majority of Muslims in Bangladesh are traditional Sunni, who mainly follow the Hanafi school of jurisprudence (madh'hab) and consequently the Maturidi school of theology.[29][30] The majority of them are Deobandi along with Tablighi (51%)[citation needed] Or 80 Million Muslims and Barelvi or Sufi (26%); the Deobandi, in the form of Qawmi institutions, own the vast majority of private Islamic seminaries and produce the majority of the ulema in Bangladesh. Among Sunnis who are not traditional Hanafi, the Salafi-influenced Ahle Hadith and the Jamaat e Islami (19%) have a substantial following.
Afghanistan
Deobandi Islam is the most popular form of pedagogy in the Pashtun belt on both sides of the Durand Line that separates Afghanistan and Pakistan. Moreover, prominent Afghan and PakistaniTaliban leaders have studied in Deobandi seminaries.[31]
In the 1970s, Deobandis opened the first British-based Muslim religious seminaries (Darul-Ulooms), educating imams and religious scholars.[32] Deobandis "have been quietly meeting the religious and spiritual needs of a significant proportion of British Muslims, and are perhaps the most influential British Muslim group."[32] In 2015 Ofsted highlighted the Deobandi seminary in Holcombe as a good example of a school "promoting British values, preventing radicalisation and protecting children".[33] The journalist, Andrew Norfolk, did not agree with this assessment.[34]
According to a 2007 report by Andrew Norfolk, published in The Times, about 600 of Britain's nearly 1,500 mosques were under the control of "a hardline sect", whose leading preacher loathed Western values, called on Muslims to "shed blood" for Allah and preached contempt for Jews, Christians and Hindus. The same investigative report further said that 17 of the country's 26 Islamic seminaries follow the ultra-conservative Deobandi teachings which The Times said had given birth to the Taliban. According to The Times, almost 80% of all domestically trained Ulema were being trained in these hardline seminaries.[35] An opinion column in The Guardian described this report as "a toxic mixture of fact, exaggeration and outright nonsense."[36]
In 2014 it was reported that 45 per cent of Britain's mosques and nearly all the UK-based training of Islamic scholars are controlled by the Deobandi, the largest single Islamic group.[37]
Most Muslim prison chaplaincies in Britain are Deobandi, and in 2016 Michael Spurr (chief executive of the National Offender Management Service) wrote to Britain's prison governors bringing to their attention that Ofsted had said that "the UK’s most influential Deobandi seminary promotes 'fundamental British values such as democracy, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance for those of different faiths'."[34]
Beliefs
The Deobandi movement sees itself as a scholastic tradition that grew out of the Islamic scholastic traditions of Medieval Transoxania and Mughal India, and it considers its visionary forefather to be Shah Waliullah Dehlawi (1703-1762). Dehlawi was a contemporary of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703 - 1792), a great scholer, and they studied in Medina under some of the same teachers.[38]
Deobandis are strong proponents of the doctrine of Taqlid. In other words, they believe that a Deobandi must adhere to one of the four schools (madhhabs) of Sunni Islamic Law and generally discourage inter-school eclecticism.[43] They themselves claims the followers of the Hanafi school.[39][44] Students at madrasas affiliated with the Deobandi movement study the classic books of Hanafi Law such as Nur al-Idah, Mukhtasar al-Quduri, Sharh al-Wiqayah, and Kanz al-Daqa’iq, culminating their study of the madhhab with the Hidayah of al-Marghinani.[45]
With regard to views on Taqlid, one of their main opposing reformist groups are the Ahl-i-Hadith, also known as the Ghair Muqallid, the nonconformists, because they eschewed taqlid in favor of the direct use of Quran and Hadith.[46] They often accuse those who adhere to the rulings of one scholar or legal school of blind imitation, and frequently demand scriptural evidence for every argument and legal ruling.[47] Almost since the very beginnings of the movement, Deobandi scholars have generated a copious amount of scholarly output in an attempt to defend their adherence to a madhhab in general. In particular, Deobandis have penned much literature in defense of their argument that the Hanafi madhhab is in complete accordance with the Quran and Hadith.[48]
In response to this need to defend their madhhab in the light of scripture, Deobandis became particularly distinguished for their unprecedented salience to the study of Hadith in their madrasas. Their madrasa curriculum incorporates a feature unique among the global arena of Islamic scholarship, the Daura-e Hadis, the capstone year of a student's advanced madrasa training, in which all six canonical collections of the Sunni Hadith (the Sihah Sittah) are reviewed.[49]
In a Deobandi madrasa, the position of Shaykh al-Hadith, or the resident professor of Sahih Bukhari, is held in much reverence. Their views were widely shared by a broad range of Islamic reform movements of the colonial period.[50]
Arshad Madani, principal of Darul Uloom Deoband and an influential Deobandi scholar and leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, on the other hand rejected Sufism and said, "Sufism is no sect of Islam. It is not found in the Quran or Hadith. .... So what is Sufism in itself? This is a thing for those who don't know Quran and Hadith." He also said, "Sufism is nothing."[55]
Founders of the Deobandi school, Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi and Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, were inspired by the religio-political doctrine of Shah Waliullah and also by Wahhabi ideology,[4] amongst other sources of inspiration. Gangohi studied under the Sufi shaykh Haji Imdadullah Muhajir Makki, although he differed with his views in many ways.[56] Gangohi's Fatawa-yi Rashidiyya opposed traditional Sufi practices such as loud dhikr, visiting the tombs of Sufi saints, celebrating Urs, visualizing or contemplating on a Sufi master (tasawwur-e-shaykh), reciting the Fatihah on special occasions, and engaging in Sema.[53]
Darul Uloom Deoband's conservatism and fundamentalist theology has latterly led to a de facto fusion of its teachings with Wahhabism in Pakistan, which "has all but shattered the mystical Sufi presence" there.[25]Muhammad Zakariyya Kandhlawi, noted hadith scholar and Sufi Shaykh of Deobandis, says that,
The reality of "tasawwuf" is merely correction of intention. It begins with "actions are only according to intentions" and ends with "that you worship Him (Allah) as if you see Him."[57]
Positions
According to Brannon D. Ingram, Deobandis differ from Barelvis on three theological positions.[58] Gangohi stated that God has the ability to lie.[59] This doctrine is called Imkan-i Kizb.[58][59] According to this doctrine, because God is omnipotent, God is capable of lying.[58] Gangohi also supported the doctrine that God has the ability to make additional prophets after Muhammad (Imkan-i Nazir) and other prophets equal to Muhammad.[58][59] Gangohi clarifies that although God has the ability to make prophets on "par" with Muhammad, he "would never do so."[58] This goes against traditional Sufi beliefs which see Prophet Muhammad as the apex of creation. Gangohi opposed the Sufi doctrine that Muhammad has knowledge of the unseen (ilm e ghaib).[59][58] This belief of the Deobandis conflicts with traditional Sufi views of Muhammad having unparalleled and unequal knowledge that encompasses the unseen realm.[59][58] Gangohi also issued multiple fatwas against the Mawlid and stated it is an innovation (bidah),[60] opposed the practice of standing up in honour of Muhammad during Mawlid.[60]
Jamiat Ulema-I-Hind is one of the leading Deobandi organizations in India. It was founded in British India in 1919 by Abdul Mohasim Sajjad, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Ahmed Saeed Dehlvi, and Mufti Muhammad Naeem Ludhianvi and the most importantly Kifayatullah Dehlawi who was elected the first president of Jamiat and remained in this post for 20 years.[61] The Jamiat has propounded a theological basis for its nationalistic philosophy. Their thesis is that Muslims and non-Muslims have entered upon a mutual contract in India since independence, to establish a secular state. The Constitution of India represents this contract.[62]
Tablighi Jamaat, a non-political Deobandi missionary organisation, began as an offshoot of the Deobandi movement.[68] Its inception is believed to be a response to Hindu reform movements, which were considered a threat to vulnerable and non-practising Deobandi Muslims. It gradually expanded from a local to a national organisation, and finally to a transnational movement with followers in over 200 countries. Although its beginnings were from the Deobandi movement, it has now established an independent identity though it still maintains close ties with Deobandi ulema in many countries with large South Asian Muslim populations such as the UK.[69]
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) (Army of Jhangvi) was a Deobandi militant organization. Formed in 1996, it operated in Pakistan as an offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba (SSP). Riaz Basra broke away from the SSP over differences with his seniors.[70] The group, now practically defunct since the unsuccessful Operation Zarb-e-Azab, is considered a terrorist group by Pakistan and the United States,[71] It was involved in attacks on civilians and protectors of them.[72][73] Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is predominantly Punjabi.[74] The group has been labelled by intelligence officials in Pakistan as a major security threat.[75]
Taliban
The Taliban ("students"), alternative spelling Taleban,[76] is an Islamic fundamentalistpolitical and militant movement in Afghanistan. It spread into Afghanistan and formed a government, ruling as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from September 1996 until December 2001, with Kandahar as the capital.
While in power, it enforced its strict interpretation of Sharia law.[77] While many leading Muslims and Islamic scholars have been highly critical of the Taliban's interpretations of Islamic law,[78] the Darul Uloom Deoband has consistently supported the Taliban in Afghanistan, including their 2001 destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan,[25] and the majority of the Taliban's leaders were influenced by Deobandi fundamentalism.[79]Pashtunwali, the Pashtun tribal code, also played a significant role in the Taliban's legislation.[80] The Taliban were condemned internationally for their brutal treatment of women.[81][82]
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (the TTP), alternatively referred to as the Pakistani Taliban, is an umbrella organization of various Islamist militant groups based in the northwestern Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border in Pakistan. In December 2007 about 13 groups united under the leadership of Baitullah Mehsud to form the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan.[83][84] Among the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan's stated objectives are resistance against the Pakistani state, enforcement of their interpretation of sharia and a plan to unite against NATO-led forces in Afghanistan.[83][84][85]
The TTP is not directly affiliated with the Afghan Taliban movement led by Mullah Omar, with both groups differing greatly in their histories, strategic goals and interests although they both share a primarily Deobandi interpretation of Islam and are predominantly Pashtun.[85][86]
Khalid Mahmood (1925–2020) – UK. He was the founder and Director of The Islamic Academy of Manchester.[112] which was established in 1974. He served formerly as a Professor at Murray College Sialkot and also at MAO College Lahore. He obtained a PhD in Comparative Religion from University of Birmingham in 1970. He has authored over 50 books, and has served as the Justice of Supreme court of Pakistan (Shariat Appellate Bench).[113]
Muhammad Yunus Jownpuri (1937-2017) - Senior hadith scholar and former Shaykh al-Hadith of Mazahir Uloom, Saharanpur. He was among the senior students and disciples of Muhammad Zakariyya Kandhlawi.
Yusuf Motala (1946–2019) – UK; Founder and senior lecturer at Dar al-Ulum Bury, one of the oldest Deobandi Madrasas in the West; "He is a scholar's scholar – many of the United Kingdom's young Deobandi scholars have studied under his patronage."[114]
Muhammad Taqi Usmani, Pakistan – Vice-president of Dar al-Ulum Karachi, Former judge on the Shariah Appellate Bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Deputy Chairman of the Islamic Fiqh Academy of the OIC, leading scholar of Islamic Finance,[120] and often considered to be a leading scholar and figurehead of the Deobandi movement.[121]
^
Commins, David (2016) [2006], The Mission and the Kingdom: Wahhabi Power behind the Saudi throne, I.B.Tauris, p. 144, ISBN9781838609528, That tendency [of reviving the community of believers] emerged in a town north of Delhi called Deoband and it is therefore known as the Deobandi movement. While they shared the Wahhabis' dedication to ritual correctness, their scrupulous adherence to the Hanafi legal school clearly set them apart from the Arabian Hanbalis.
^
L. Esposito, John (1995). The Oxford encyclopedia of the modern Islamic world Volume 1. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 362. ISBN0-19-509612-6. DEOBANDIS... It was a pioneer effort to transmit the religious sciences, specifically the dars-i-nizami identified with the Lucknow-based 'ulama' of Farangi Mahal.. The goal of the school was to preserve the teachings of the faith in a period of non-Muslim rule and considerable social change...
^Barbhuiya, Atiqur Rahman (2020). Indigenous People of Barak Valley. Notion Press. ISBN978-1-64678-800-2. Muslim politics in India opened a new chapter after the formation of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind in 1919 A.D. under the initiative of Ulema of Deoband. It was founded by the dedicated freedom figher Sheikh-Ul-Hindi Maulana Mahmudul Hasan of Darul-Uloom, Deoband. Jamiat played a very active role in India's freedom struggle.
^ abcdeAli, Asghar (9 April 2011). "Islamic identity in secular India". The Milli Gazette. The Ulama of Deoband opposed partition and stood by united nationalism. Maulana Husain Ahmad Madani, then chief of Jami’at-ul-Ulama-i-Hind, wrote a tract Muttahida Qaumiyyat aur Islam i.e., the Composite Nationalism and Islam justifying composite nationalism in the light of Qur’an and hadith and opposing Muslim League’s separate nationalism. While the educated elite were aspiring for power and hence wanted their exclusive domain; the Ulama’s priority was an independent India where they could practice Islam without fear or hindrance.
^Metcalf, Barbara Daly (2002). Islamic revival in British India: Deoband, 1860–1900 (3rd impression. ed.). New Delhi: Oxford Univ. Press. p. 141. ISBN0-19-566049-8.
^Pike, John (5 July 2011). "Barelvi Islam". GlobalSecurity.org. Archived from the original on 8 December 2003. Retrieved 25 September 2020. By one estimate, in Pakistan, the Shias are 18%, Ismailis 2%, Ahmediyas 2%, Barelvis 50%, Deobandis 20%, Ahle Hadith 4%, and other minorities 4%. [...] By another estimate some 15% of Pakistan's Sunni Muslims would consider themselves Deobandi, and some 60% are of the Barelvi tradition based mostly in the province of Punjab. But some 64% of the total seminaries are run by Deobandis, 25% by the Barelvis, 6% by the Ahle Hadith and 3% by various Shiite organisations.
^Bedi, Rohan (April 2006), Have Pakistanis Forgotten Their Sufi Traditions?(PDF), Singapore: International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Nanyang Technological University, p. 3, archived from the original(PDF) on 2 November 2013. This estimates that 15% of Pakistani Muslims are Deobandi and 20% Shia, which equates to about 19% of Pakistan's Sunni Muslims being Deobandi.
^David Emmanuel Singh, Islamization in Modern South Asia: Deobandi Reform and the Gujjar Response, p 167.
^ibnummabd on 19 February 2009 at 6:04 pm (19 February 2009). "About". Deoband.org. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
^Martin van Bruinessen, Stefano Allievi, Producing Islamic Knowledge: Transmission and Dissemination in Western Europe, p 100. ISBN1136932860
^Martin Van Bruinessen, Julia Day Howell, Sufism and the 'Modern' in Islam, p 130, ISBN1850438544
^Haque, Ziaul (1975). "Muslim Religious Education in Indo-Pakistan". Islamic Studies. Islamic Research Institute, International Islamic University, Islamabad. 14 (4): 284. The following books and subjects are studied ... Fiqh: Hidayah, Quduri, Nur al-Idah, Sharh-i Waqayah, Kanz al-Daqa'iq
^Metcalf, Barbara Daly (2002). Islamic revival in British India : Deoband, 1860–1900 (3rd impression. ed.). New Delhi: Oxford Univ. Press. p. 141. ISBN0-19-566049-8.
^Khan, Fareeha (2008). Traditionalist Approaches to Shari'ah Reform: Mawlana Ashraf 'Ali Thanawi's Fatwa on Women's Right to Divorce (Thesis). University of Michigan. p. 59. Polemicists from among the Ahl-i Hadith were especially being targeted in Thanawi's explanation, since they accused those who adhered to the rulings of one scholar or legal school of "blind imitation." It was the practice of the Ahl-i Hadith to demand and provide proofs for every argument and legal ruling.
^Zaman, Muhammad Qasim (2002). The Ulama in Contemporary Islam: Custodians of Change. Princeton University Press. p. 24. The Deobandi sensitivity to the Ahl-i Hadith challenge is indicated by the polemics they engaged in with the Ahl-i Hadith and by the large commentaries on classical works of hadith written specifically to refute them
^Zaman, Muhammad Qasim (2002). The Ulama in Contemporary Islam: Custodians of Change. Princeton University Press. p. 39. ...gave a new and, in the Indian context, unprecedented salience to the study of hadith in their madrasas. Hadith had, of course, been studied in precolonial Indian madrasas, but the Deobandis instituted the practice of studying (or, more exactly, "reviewing") all six of the Sunni canonical collections of hadith in the course of a single year; this practice has come to serve in Indian and Pakistani madrasas as the capstone of a student’s advanced madrasa
^Amir Bashir (December 2015). Muhammad Anwar Khan Qasmi (ed.). "Deobandi Sūfi Doctrine: Towards a Comprehensive Understanding of Tasawwuf within the Context of Tawhīd and Sunnah". Islamic Literature Review. Deoband: Deoband Institute of Islamic Thought. 2 (2): 2. ISSN2349-1795.
^"Pakistan Shias killed in Gilgit sectarian attack". BBC News. 16 August 2012. A predominantly Punjabi group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is linked with the 2002 murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl and other militant attacks, particularly in the southern city of Karachi.
^Abrams, Dennis (2007). Hamid Karzai. Infobase Publishing. p. 14. ISBN978-0-7910-9267-5. As soon as it took power though, the Taliban imposed its strict interpretation of Islamic law on the country
^Skain, Rosemarie (2002). The women of Afghanistan under the Taliban. McFarland. p. 41. ISBN978-0-7864-1090-3.
^Maley, William (2001). Fundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban. C Hurst & Co. p. 14. ISBN978-1-85065-360-8.
^Mahmood, Hamid (2012). The Dars-e-Nizami and the Transnational Traditionalist Madaris in Britain(PDF). pp. 7, 17. In the UK the Dār al-'Ulūm al-'Arabiyyah al-Islāmiyyah (Bury madrasa) and Jāmi’at ta’līm al-Islām (Dewsbury madrasa) are considered the 'Oxbridge' of the traditional madrasa world....The need for leadership and imams increased alongside the increasing number of Mosques and in 1975 the first madrasa was established in a village called Holcombe situated near Bury – known as Dār al-'Ulūm Bury or Bury Madrasa.
^Mohamed, Yasien (2002). "Islamic Education in South Africa"(PDF). ISIM Newsletter. 9: 30. opportunities for studies were created locally when in 1971 the first Darul-Ulum was established in Newcastle, Kwazulu Natal. This Darul-Ulum was based on the Darsi-Nizami course from Deoband, India.
^Abdulkader Tayob; et al., eds. (2011). Muslim schools and education in Europe and South Africa(PDF). Münster ; München [u.a.]: Waxmann. pp. 85, 101. ISBN978-3-8309-2554-5. It became clear through field research by the author that Deobandi schools in several countries increasingly rely on graduates from Azaadville and Lenasia. The two schools and their graduates are functioning as network multiplicators between Deobandi schools worldwide.
^Abdulkader Tayob; et al., eds. (2011). Muslim schools and education in Europe and South Africa(PDF). Münster ; München [u.a.]: Waxmann. pp. 85, 101. ISBN978-3-8309-2554-5. The Islamic schools in Lenasia and Azaadville in South Africa represent prominent examples of schools that provide religious education in a format which is firmly rooted in traditions and interpretations of Islam originating outside South Africa. Established by the Muslim minority community of the country, the schools follow the Deobandi interpretation of Islam from South Asia.
^Abdulkader Tayob; et al., eds. (2011). Muslim schools and education in Europe and South Africa(PDF). Münster ; München [u.a.]: Waxmann. pp. 85, 101. ISBN978-3-8309-2554-5. For the Tablighi Jama’at, the two schools are important switchboards for their preaching activities in South Africa, in Africa proper and around the world.
^Ahmed, Shoayb (2006). Muslim Scholars of the 20th Century. Al-Kawthar Publications. pp. 35–37. He began teaching the basic subjects and was regularly promoted until he became the head-teacher and the Shaykh al-Hadith. He served the Darul Uloom until 1914 (1333)...The Shaykh was very active politically as well. A movement known as Reshmi Roomal was formed in India to remove the British. He played a major role in advancing this movement.
^Abu Ghuddah, Abd al-Fattah (1997). تراجم ستة من فقهاء العالم الإسلامي في القرن الرابع عشر وآشارهم الفقهية (in Arabic). Beirut: Dar al-Basha'ir al-Islamiyyah. p. 15. وكان أكبر كبارها وشيخ شيوخها الشيخ محمود حسن الديوبندي الملقب بشيخ العالم، والمعروف بشيخ الهند، وكان في الحديث الشريف مسند الوقت ورحلة الأقطار الهندية. (Trans. And the greatest of its [Dar al-Ulum Deoband's] great ones, and the shaykh of its shaykhs was Shaykh Mahmud Hasan al-Deobandi, who is entitled (al-mulaqqab) Shaykh al-'Aalam, and popularly known (al-ma'ruf bi) as Shaykh al-Hind. In regards to the noble Hadith, he was the authority of his time (musnid al-waqt), whom students traveled from all parts of India [to study with].
^Ahmed, Shoayb (2006). Muslim Scholars of the 20th Century. Al-Kawthar Publications. pp. 68–70. This great Hafiz of Hadith, excellent Hanafi jurist, legist, historian, linguist, poet, researcher and critic, Muhammad Anwar Shah Kashmiri...He went to the biggest Islamic University inIndia, the Darul Uloom al-Islamiyah in Deoband...He contributed greatly to the Hanafi Madhab...He wrote many books, approximately 40...Many renowned and erudite scholars praised him and acknowledged his brilliance...Many accomplished scholars benefited from his vast knowledge.
^Ahmed, Shoayb (2006). Muslim Scholars of the 20th Century. Al-Kawthar Publications. pp. 215–216. After Shaykh al-Hind's demise, he was unanimously acknowledged as his successor. ..He was the President of the Jamiat Al-Ulama-Hind for about twenty years...He taught Sahih Al-Bukhari for about thirty years. During his deanship, the strength of the students academically impred...About 4483 students graduated and obtained a continuous chain of transmission (sanad) in Hadith during his period.
^Reetz, Dietrich (2004). "Keeping Busy on the Path of Allah: The Self-Organisation (Intizam) of the Tablighi Jama'at". Oriente Moderno. 84 (1): 295–305. doi:10.1163/22138617-08401018. In recent years, the Islamic missionary movement of the Tablighi Jama'at has attracted increasing attention, not only in South Asia, but around the globe...The Tablighi movement came into being in 1926 when Muhammad Ilyas (1885–1944) started preaching correct religious practices and observance of rituals...Starting with Ilyas' personal association with the Dar al-Ulum of Deoband, the movement has been supported by religious scholars, 'ulama', propagating the purist teachings of this seminary located in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
^Ahmed, Shoayb (2006). Muslim Scholars of the 20th Century. Al-Kawthar Publications. pp. 167–170. He completed his formal education [from Deoband] in 1907 (1325) with specialization in Hadith. Thereafter he taught for some time at the Dar al-Uloom Deoband...He supported the resolution for the independence of Pakistan and assisted Muhammad Ali Jinnah...He was given the task of hoisting the flag of Pakistan...Due to his tremendous effort, the first constitution of Pakistan was based on the Quraan and Sunnah...Fath Al-Mulhim bi Sharh Sahih Muslim. Even though he passed away before being able to complete the book it was accepted and praised by many renowned scholars. These include Shaykh Muhammad Zahid al-Kawthari and Shaykh Anwar Shah Kashmiri.
^Usmani, Muhammad Taqi (December 2011). "Shaykh Mufti Muhammad Shafi': The Grand Mufti of Pakistan". Deoband.org. Translated by Rahman, Zameelur. Retrieved 6 November 2013. The scholar of great learning, Shaykh Mufti Muhammad Shafi' (Allah Almighty have mercy on him), is counted amongst the leading 'ulama of India and Pakistan...He completed his studies in the year 1325 H, and because he was from the advanced students in the period of his studies, the teachers of the Dar al-'Ulum selected him to become a teacher there...the teachers appointed him as the head of the Fatwa Department at Dar al-'Ulum...Ma‘arif al-Qur’an. This is a valuable exegesis of the Noble Qur’an which Shaykh [Muhammad Shafi'] compiled in the Urdu language in 8 large volumes.
^S. Abdallah Schleifer, ed. (2012). The Muslim 500: The World's 500 Most Influential Muslims. Amman: The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre. p. 69. Leader of the Pakistan chapter of the Tablighi Jamaat [...] Hajji Abd al-Wahhab is a prominent Pakistani scholar with a significant following in South Asia and the United Kingdom...Abd al-Wahhab's work[...] stems from the prominent Islamic institution Darul Uloom Deoband, in India, where the latter studied before establishing a following in Pakistan.
^S. Abdallah Schleifer, ed. (2012). The Muslim 500: The World's 500 Most Influential Muslims. Amman: The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre. p. 114.
^Rahman, Azizur-. (Translated by Muhammad Shameem) (ed.). Introducing Darul-'Uloom Karachi(PDF). Public Information Department: Darul Uloom Karachi. p. 21. Archived from the original(PDF) on 24 January 2014.
^S. Abdallah Schleifer, ed. (2012). The Muslim 500: The World's 500 Most Influential Muslims. Amman: The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre. p. 89. Leading scholar for the Deobandis...Usmani is very important as a figurehead in the Deobandi movement
^S. Abdallah Schleifer, ed. (2012). The Muslim 500: The World's 500 Most Influential Muslims. Amman: The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre. p. 134. He has been very effective in influencing all types of the communities ranging from businessmen and landlords to ministers and sports celebrities.
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