مُرشد دا پیار
(آنحضور قبلہ صوفی محمد اصغر سائیں آف جہلم والوں کی یاد میں جب آپ نے ہیڈ جالوالہ پر مور پالے ہوئے تھے )
موراں والیا سائیاں وے
تیتھوں جند کراں قربان
ہر دم تیریاں لوڑاں وے
توں ایں میرا مان تران
تیرے باہجھوں چین نہ آئوندا
ہر ویلے پیا دل گھبرائوندا
ویکھ لواں جے تینوں آئوندا
آوے میرے جثے جان
تیریاں راہواں پئی تکاواں
یاد کراں تے دل بہلاواں
بھلدیاں نہیں سجناں اوہ تھانواں
جتھے دلبر ملدے ہان
جس دم یار نے جھاتی پائی
میل دلے وچ رہی ناں کائی
بھاندے دل نوں بُوٹے کائی
جتھے وسدا بھٹی خان
تیرے موراں چال نیاری
ویکھو چلدے بنھ قطاری
جاندے نیں دل میرا ٹھاری
نالے دل میرا پرچان
موراں نوں میں چوگاں پاواں
نالے کر دی رہواں دعاواں
قادریؔ دی کرو معاف خطاواں
لکھ واری جاواں قربان
It is generally perceived in contemporary intellectual movements that canonical Traditionalists did not take hadth text into consideration as their scholarly efforts were limited to the evaluation of hadth chains. Aforementioned notion - in my opinion - originates from shallow study of methodology adopted by canonical hadth critics، as a deeper look into their scholarly works reveals that sciences of hadth includes the authentication and disparagement of traditions as well as comprehension and deduction from hadth content. The sole objective of early Traditionalists from transmission، collection of hadth، its evaluation، authentication and disparagement was to safeguard the true meaning of Sunnah and to transmit it in its pure form to the successors. In fact the peculiarity of their work is that they exert all efforts in order to deal with hadth as a single undivided whole، where examination of content was not irrelevant to the evaluation of chain، their conscientious efforts recorded in major works of hadth show how they evaluated content of hadth to determine that it was not contradictory to Shari‘ah، or with another sound tradition، as there was a possibility that a certain reliable reporter made mistake or speculated in transmitting the meaning of hadth. Therefore we witness them disparaging a certain transmitter for his negligence and errors whereas his hadth is forsaken، moreover they would not consider him a Traditionalists or muhaddithn if excessive speculations were found in his report. This research paper aims at investigating the aforementioned hypothesis.
Orientalism is an ancient tradition of Western scholarship which portrays Islam, Muslim societies and
Arabs in negative manner. Orientalist tradition was extended to Islamic legal scholarship during colonial
era. Ground breaking publication of a Hungarian orientalist Ignac Goldziher (d.1921) `Introduction to
Islamic Theology and Law' (1910) became the basis of all future writings on this subject. Joseph Schacht
(d.1969) a German orientalist carried his work in Goldziher's footsteps and published `Origins of
Mohammadan Jurisprudence' (1950) and 'An Introduction to Islamic law' (1964) which laid the
foundations of Islamic legal orientalism in academic writings of the Western world.
With the advent of orientalist tradition in USA during the Cold War era, leading American universities
established Oriental Studies, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures and Middle Eastern Studies
departments which worked closely with U.S. State department and Foreign Affairs department to
facilitate the goverhment to establish political hegemony over the Middle East and the Muslim world.
Two major assumptions put forward in the academic debate by the West on 'Origins' of Islamic law were
inauthenticity of hadith literature and influence of pre-Islamic non-Arab laws on the development of
Islamic law. This dissertation carries out critical analysis of writings of Western scholars during cold war
era through post 9/11 era to date, on these two issues.
The objective of this research is to study the shift in paradigms, trends, approaches and methodology
adopted by Western scholars of 21' century in their writings on Origins of Islamic law and to see how this
scholarship is related to European and American political hegemony over the Muslim world. Writings of
Harald Motzki, Jonathan Brown, Wael Hallaq and Patricia Crone and a few more are selected to analyze
21' century Western scholarship. Responses, rebuttals and critiques on the assumptions put forward by
Western scholars of 20th century are also part of this dissertation. A shift in trend and methodology is
observed in 2l' century Western scholarship on Islamic law but the essential paradigms for the study
remain the same thus putting forth similar results.
It is also observed that Western scholarship on Islam is strongly connected with its political hegemony
over the Muslim world. Methodologically Western scholarship has shifted from 20th century philological
zeitgeist to 21' century social science research but it remains within the orientalist problematique. Thus
Islamic law is portrayed as an essentially defective legal system and hadith literature the second primary
source of Islamic law remains inauthentic in Western scholarship. However there are scholars who are
aware of the fact that they are not to become hostage to biased paradigms and inadvertent commitments
to political agendas in order to promote academic honesty.