The Fatwās of ʿAbd al-Ḥayy of Farangī Maḥall and the Formation of Sunnī Identity in British India

Abstract

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In the second half of the nineteenth century in British India, a rapidly-evolving political and cultural landscape drove Muslims to re-evaluate their relationships with other groups in the Subcontinent. Questions regarding proper clothing, inter-sect marriages, the status of the legal system, and even requirements of eating beef were posed to scholars in an attempt to define the contours of Sunnī identity. This article investigates the questions and answers provided to these and other questions in the fatwā collection of Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Ḥayy (1848-1886), the preeminent scholar of the Farangī Maḥall seminary in Lucknow, British India. It focuses on the fatwās issued regarding the interaction with the three largest non-Sunnī Muslim groups in the Subcontinent during this period: Shīʿa Muslims, the Hindus, and the British government. By analyzing the questions posed to ʿAbd al-Ḥayy and his answers, the article argues that he applied a methodology of negotiated adherence to the Ḥanafī School in order to emphasize the differences between the Subcontinent’s diverse communities, while simultaneously encouraging communal cohesion. Through his fatwās ʿAbd al-Ḥayy both moderated and catalyzed the shaping of Sunnī identity, giving religious legitimacy to those who emphasized Muslim difference while at the same time left room for cooperation with other communities. These fatwās would form the backdrop for Muslim political involvement in the Indian independence movement and eventually form the foundations of both India’s unique religious-secular national fabric and calls for Muslim independence as British colonialism came to an end in the twentieth century.

Keywords: Abd al-Hayy, Islamic law, British India, Sunnī identity, Communalism