Shah Ismail Shaheed
At a time when the general milieu in the subcontinent of India was overwhelmed by the powersof darkness, and the soundness of Faith was reeling under the potentially threatening squalls andthe blinding forages of superstitions and paganism, Allah the Almighty, by dint of His specialblessing, sent a personality, who, by the strength of his Faith, knowledge and rhetoric, dissipatedthe redoubtable forces of depravity and smashed the self-made idols of Shirk (polytheism) andBid’ah (innovations in religion) and established the base of pure Tauhid (Islamic Monotheism).This great personality was Shah Ismail Muhaddith Dehlawi {May Allah have mercy on him},who was the grandson of Shah Waliullah Dehlawi, a man of profound knowledge and great nameto be reckoned with in terms of his authentic scholarship among the most qualified and famouscelebrities of his time. The services which he has rendered for the reformation of Ummah and hisundertaking the task of Da’wah (the mission of propagating Islam); especially after the previousworks of Shaikhul-Islam Imam Ibn Taimiyah and Muhammad bin AbdulWahhab, are absolutelyunforgettable and shall always be cherished in our minds. His status is specially far moreprominent and elevated due to the fact that he not only carried on with his struggle on the strengthof his pen and tongue, but he practically joined Tahreek-ul-Mujahidin (the first Islamic Mujahidmovement) under the inspiring leadership of Saiyid Ahmad Shaheed and achieved martyrdom inhis armed struggle against the Sikhs at Balakot and hence set an ideal example for the weak,incapacitated and oppressed Muslims of India.The age of Shah Ismail Shaheed was infested and contaminated with the poisonous atmosphere ofShirk and innovations. The Indian Muslims, under the influence of the Hindu mythological faith,had entered such rituals and beliefs in Islam that they even surpassed the ones observed duringthe pre-Islamic period (in terms of their polytheistic rituals).
