Syed Ahmad Barelvi

Who was Syed Ahmad Barelvi?

Not to be confused with Ahmed Raza Khan Barelvi.

Syed Ahmad Shaheed, also called Syed Ahmed Barelvi, was a Muslim activist from Rae Bareli, India and founder of the "The Way of the Prophet Muhammad", a revolutionary Islamic movement. His supporters designated him an Amir al-Mu'minin and he proclaimed a jihad against the Sikhs in the Punjab.

Syed Ahmad was influenced by Shah Abdul Aziz, son of Shah Waliullah and toured Afghanistan and the areas occupied by the Sikhs raising the banner of jihad and rallying the Pashtun tribes to his banner. After Ranjit Singh's death in 1839 that the city of Peshawar came under the influence of Syed Ahmads movement.

Syed Ahmad was captured by some locals who opposed his movement, and was killed by the Sikhs along with hundreds of his troops and followers in Balakot, Mansehra District in 1831. His defeat ended the dream of establishing an Islamic state in Peshawar, now in Pakistan. His followers upheld the doctrine of tawhid. He is called as Syed Ahmad Barelvi because he used to live in rae bareli, They rejected bid'ah but unlike Saudi Wahhabis accepted Sufism and features of mystical Islam such as the belief in the intercession of the saints and the strict following of a school of jurisprudence. He is thought by some to have anticipated modern Islamists in his waging of jihad and attempt to create an Islamic state with strict enforcement of Islamic law. The Islamic challenge to an expanding Sikh empire gained momentum in late 1826 when Sayyid Ahmad Shah arrived in Peshawar valley. He was accompanied by numerous disciples and supported by a highly developed network of personal friends and partisans spread across northern India organized to recruit and despatch men and financial aid. Sayyid Ahmed was a direct spiritual descendant of the Delhi Sufi scholar Shah Walliullah,through his disciple Shah Abdul Aziz.Sayyid Ahmad successes and failures revealed the various conflicting interests and the contradiction that fragmented the anti-imperialist coalition. His story illustrated how in this era even popular religious idealism could not supersede Peshawar valley elite political networks linked to imperial patronage and able to appeal, across class and power divides, to customary social practices and ethnic ties.