Syed Ahmad Barelvi

Sayyid Ahmad bin Muhammad Irfan Al-Hasani Al-Barelvi
Sayyid Ahmad bin Muhammad Irfan Al-Hasani Al-Barelvi
	Grave of Syed Ahmad in 2023
Personal
Born	29 November 1786; Rae Bareli, Kingdom of Oudh
Died	6 May 1831 (aged 44); Balakot, Sikh Empire
Religion	Sunni Islam
Jurisprudence	Hanafi; Independent
Main interest(s)	Islamic fundamentalism, Anti-Shi'ism, Hadith, Jihad
Known for	Islamic revivalism
Other names	Shaheed-e-Balakot, Imam-ul-Mujahidin,
Senior posting
	Influenced by Ahmed Sirhindi, Shah Waliullah, Shah Abdul Aziz;
	Influenced Siddiq Hasan Khan, Syed Nazeer Husain, Karamat Ali Jaunpuri, Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, Abul A'la Maududi, Titumir; virtually every subsequent Indian Jihadist movement;

Syed Ahmad Barelvi, also known as Sayyid Ahmad Shahid,^[2] (1786–1831)^[3]^[4] was an Indian Islamic revivalist, scholar, and military commander from Raebareli, a part of the historical United Provinces of Agra and Oudh (now called Uttar Pradesh). He launched the Indian jihad movement that waged a decades-long Islamic revolt against colonial rule across various provinces of British India.^[5]^[2] Sayyid Ahmad is revered as a major scholarly authority in the Ahl-i Hadith and Deobandi movements.^[6] The epithet 'Barelvi' is derived from Raebareli, his place of origin.

His ancestors migrated to India in the early 13th century.^[7] Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwi wrote Seerat-i-Sayyid Ahmad Shaheed, the first historical biography of Syed Ahmad Barelvi.^[8]

^ Hedayetullah, Muhammad (1968). Sayyid Ahmad: a Study of the Religious Reform Movement of Sayyid Ahmad of Ra'e Bareli. Montreal, Canada: Mcgill University. pp. 113, 115, 158. second feature of 'tarÎqah~i Muhammadiyah' is its insistence on t he right of ijtihad (independent reasoning ) and rejection of taqlid.. Sayyid Ahmad condemned the muqallidin and urged the Muslims to turn to the authority of the Qur'an and the Sunnah for guidance... he rejected all authority of the four orthodox schools of Muslim jurisprudence , which meant , positively, that he declared himself a ghayr muqallid(non-conformist).
^ ^a ^b Guhathakurta, van Schendel, Meghna, Willem (2013). "Wage Holy War-Or Leave!". The Bangladesh Reader: History, Culture, Politics. London, United Kingdom: Duke University Press. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-8223-5304-1. Sayyid Ahmad Shahid{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Adamec 2009, p. 54.
^ Jalal 2009, pp. 307–308.
^ Ayesha Jalal (30 June 2009). Partisans of Allah: Jihad in South Asia. Harvard University Press. p. 71. ISBN 9780674039070.
^ Ahmad, M. (1975). Saiyid Ahmad barevali: His Life and Mission (No. 93). Lucknow: Academy of Islamic Research and Publications. Page 27.
^ Altaf Qadir 2014, p. 28.
^ Zubair Zafar, Khan (2010). A critical study of Moulana Abdul Hasan Ali nadwis islamic thought (Thesis). India: Department of Islamic Studies, Aligarh Muslim University. p. 146. hdl:10603/60854.