Furthermore, he was a historian and an Ash'ari theologian. He was known for his harsh criticism of Wahhabism, being one of their main adversaries,[7] and his recognition of Sufi principles.[8] A leader of the conservative faction among the Shafi'is, he was particularly important in Asia, where his influence grew with his many disciples.[9]
He was born in Mecca in 1816 or 1817.[22] He was from a Sayyid family, and was a direct descendent of Muhammad in the 38th generation via Hasan ibn Ali. His father was called Zayni and his grandfather Othman Dahlan, hence his name.[23]
He also taught to Sayyid Fadl, while he was in Mecca before departing for Constantinople.[37][38]
Dahlan issued numerous fatwas, including one approving the use of radiophonic devices for religious means or one approving the use of drums and music during religious days, which was an important concern for Muslims in Indonesia, considering that "it was acceptable if nothing unlawful happened".[39]
Joseph Schacht described him as the "solitary representative of historical writing in Mecca in the XIXth century".[42]
Conservatism
Ahmad Zayni Dahlan was a leader for the conservative faction of the Shafi'i of his time. Because of his conservatism and traditional views, he had an echo in the Muslim world beyond the Shafi'is.[9]
Dahlan considered that Wahhabism would destroy the Ummah.[46] Moreover, he called Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab "malevolent" and compared his followers to the Kharijites.[47] For Dahlan, he was a "deceiver" when he called himself an Hanbali. He also said that he was trying to divide the madhhabs by saying that one another were opposed between themselves.[48]
The opposition to the Wahhabi movement seems to have been the opinion of the majority of Hedjazi scholars and jurists of that time.[26]
Opposition to Shia Islam
He wrote against Shia Islam and how to debate Shias.[25] Similar to his vehement criticism of Wahhabism, he also targeted the Qarmatians, a radical Shiite movement that operated in the 10th century and attacked pilgrims traveling to Mecca for Hajj.[41]
He played a crucial role through his student, Ahmad Raza Khan Barelvi in the establishment of the Barelvi movement in Pakistan and Afghanistan, exerting significant influence and contributing to their staunch opposition to Wahhabism.[20]
His fatwas were recognized after his death and are particularly important in the shaping of Indonesian Islam.[58] The Horn of Africa was also quite influenced by him, especially via the preaches of al-Zayla'i, in Somalia.[9] His influence was also central for the Swahili Muslims.[59]
Since he attacked Wahhabism and clashed violently with them, some of his books are banned in Saudi Arabia.[60]
Works
His works are collectively known as the "Dahlaniya".[61]
He wrote and taught in an era when the first printing press came to Mecca, one of the concerns of Ahmad Zayni Dahlan was to be able to explain the text of the Quran in more simple ways, to be understood by everyone.[62]
To fulfill this goal, he also wrote rhetoric manuals for young learners based on the Quran and treaties of mantiq.[63][64] He was very interested in the metaphors used in the Quran.[62][63]
Additionally, this helped Dahlan to disseminate his challenges to Salafism through his devoted students with more impact. He wrote, for instance, a booklet outlining the suffering Wahhabis brought to Mecca during their rule in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, Fitnat al-Wahhabiyyah (Arabic: فتنة الوهابية, lit. 'The Wahhabi Fitna'), and also a study refuting the entire Wahhabi doctrine and practices, Al-Durar al-Saniyyah fi al-Radd 'ala al-Wahhabiyyah (Arabic: الدرر السَنِيَّة فى الرد على الوهابية, lit. 'The Pure Pearls in Answering the Wahhabis').[65]
Following is a list of some of his published works:[66]
^ abcIn the shadow of conquest : Islam in colonial Northeast Africa. Said S. Samatar. Trenton, N.J.: Red Sea Press. 1992. ISBN0-932415-69-5. OCLC27485824. Ahmad ibn Zayni Dahlan, the Shafi'i Mufti of Mecca, appears in at least two managib in this book. He is often mentioned because he seemed to be (during the last third of the nineteenth century) a kind of chef d'ecole for conservative Shafi'is and those opposed to the ideas of Ibn Taymiya and the Wahhabis or neo-Wahhabis at the time. This antiradical personality was the author of a history of Mecca, and a book refuting Wahhabism and Wahhabi ideas, the Durar al-Saniya fil-Radd 'ala'l-Wahhabiya, a book still banned in Saudi Arabia because of its vituperative polemic attacks and cutting criticism of the Wahhabis. Dahlan was also on the side of those who used saintly mediation in prayer, like Zayla'i, Shaykh Uways, Hajj Sufi, and a majority of Muslim conservatives of this time and later.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
^"Ahmad Zayni Dahlan's al-Futuhat al-Islamiyya: A contemporary view of the Sudanese Mahdi". sudanile.com (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 23 October 2023. كان السيد أحمد بن زيني دحلان (1817 – 1886م) هو كبير فقهاء ومفتي المذهب الشافعي في مكة، وأمام المسجد المكي في أخريات سنوات العهد العثماني. ولهذا الشيخ (وهو من حفدة الشيخ عبد القادر الجيلاني. المترجم) مؤلفات كثيرة في مواضيع متعددة شملت الشريعة واللغة العربية والتاريخ وغير ذلك.
^"A Brief Biography of Ahmad Zayni Dahlan". alhejaz.org (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 23 October 2023. نسبه: أحمد بن زيني بن أحمد بن عثمان بن نعمه الله بن عبد الرَّحمن بن محمّد بن عبد الله بن عثمان بن عطايا بن فارس بن مصطفى بن محمّد بن أحمد بن زيني بن قادر بن عبد الوهّاب بن محمّد بن عبد الرّزاق بن أحمد بن أحمد بن محمّد بن زكريّا بن يحيى بن محمّد بن عبد القادر الجيلاني بن موسى بن عبد الله بن يحيى الزاهد بن محمّد بن داؤد بن موسى بن عبد الله المحض بن الحسن المثنى بن الحسن السّبط بن سيّدنا الإمام علي بن أبي طالب بن عبد المطلب والسَّيدة فاطمة الزَّهراء بنت سيّدنا محمّد بن عبد الله ابن عبد المطلب بن هاشم بن عبد مناف بن قصي بن كلاب بن مرّة بن كعب ابن لؤي بن غالب بن فهر بن مالك بن النّضر بن كنانة بن خزيمة بن مدركة بن إلياس بن مضر بن نزار بن معد بن عدنان.
^ abNiḍāl Dāwūd al-Mūminī (1996). الشريف الحسين بن علي والخلافة / ash-Sharīf al-Ḥusayn ibn 'Alī wa-al-khilāfah (in Arabic). ‘Ammān: al-Maṭba‘ah aṣ-Ṣafadī.
^ abKhayr ad-Dīn az-Ziriklī (1923). ما رأيت وما سمعت / Mā ra'aytu wa-mā sami't (in Arabic). al-Qāhirah [Cairo]: al-Maṭba‘ah al-‘Arabīyah wa-Maktabatuhā.
^الشيخ عبدالقادر الكيلاني رؤية تاريخية معاصرة د/جمال الدين فالح الكيلاني،مؤسسة مصر ،بغداد،2011.
^كتاب: إمتاع الفضلاء بتراجم القراء فيما بعد القرن الثامن الهجري، تأليف: إلياس بن أحمد حسين بن سليمان البرماوي، الجزء الثاني، الناشر: دار الندوة العالمية للطباعة والنشر والتوزيع، الطبعة الأولى: 2000م، ص: 24–26.
^Reese, Scott (2022). MANUSCRIPT AND PRINT IN THE ISLAMIC TRADITION. [Place of publication not identified]. ISBN978-3-11-077648-5. OCLC1341997606. The scion of an old scholarly family, Sayyid Abu Bakr (often referred to as al-Bakri) had the good fortune to be the protégé of Sayyid Ahmad Zayni Dahlan, probably the most prominent Mufti of Mecca in the nineteenth century.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ abJUNG, DIETRICH (2010). ""Islam as a Problem": Dutch Religious Politics in the East Indies". Review of Religious Research. 51 (3): 288–301. ISSN0034-673X. JSTOR20697346. In Mecca, Hurgronje presented himself as a Muslim student and joined the circle of disciples of Sheikh Ahmad Zayni Dahlan (1817–1886), the highest representative of the religious scholars, the ulama, of Mecca
^Ali, Haider (2022). The Wahhabi Political Doctrines in the Middle Eastern Westphalian System: The Evolution of the Concept of Jihad in the Three Saudi-Wahhabi States. Royal Military College of Canada. In the context of Wahhabi expansion between the 18th and 20th centuries, for example, the Grand Mufti of Mecca, Shaykh al-Islam Ahmad Zanyi Dahlan (1816–1866) wrote a book called Fitnat al-Wahhabiya [The Wahhabi Fitna] where he launched a polemic attack against the Wahhabi sect and accused them of wandering off the true path. He called the founder malevolent and accused the followers of the movement of creating dissent in the ranks of Muslims, comparting them to the Kharijites.
^Salafismus auf der Suche nach dem wahren Islam. Behnam T. Said (Sonderausg ed.). Bonn. 2014. ISBN978-3-8389-0454-2. OCLC884406372. In dieser Ablehnung der Wahhabiten folgt er seinem Lehrer Ahmad Zaini Dahlan (gest. 1886), dem damaligen schafiitischen Mufti Mekkas, der sich ausdrücklich dagegen wehrte, Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab zu den Hanbaliten zu zählen. Dahlan beschuldigte ihn vielmehr den Rechtsschulen eine Absage mit der Begründung zu erteilen, dass diese zu einer illegitimen Spaltung beitrügen. Laut Dahlan sei es sogar so gewesen, dass Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab die Menschen zunächst zu täuschen versuchte, indem erversicherte, Hanbalit zu sein.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
^Sharkey, Heather (2012). Jihads and crusades in Sudan from 1881 to the present. In S. H. Hashmi (Eds.), Just wars, holy wars, and jihads: Christian, Jewish, and Muslim encounters and exchanges (263–282). Oxford University Press. Watching from the distance of Mecca as the Mahdist revolution unfolded, a Shafi'i Muslim scholar named Ahmad Zayni Dahlan (d. 1886)-a man who was neither Sudanese nor a believer in the Mahdi-voiced support for its battles. DabIan expressed hope that the Mahdi and his supporters would strike Western, Christian forces that were beginning to exert themselves in the region and thereby help to bolster the Ottoman empire. But Dahlan was misinformed about the movement. Opposition to an incipient Western imperialism was one source of Mahdist activism but only one: at least in the early years of the movement (1881–85), opposition to Turco-Egyptian imperialism was far more important in triggering and sustaining jihad.
^LaViolette, Adria; Wynne-Jones, Stephanie (2018). The Swahili world. The Routledge worlds. Abindgon, Oxon New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN978-1-138-91346-2. Central in this latter chain of authority was the Shāfiʿī mufṭī of Mecca, Aḥmad Zaynī Daḥlān (on him, see Schacht 1978; Sharkey 1994; Freitag 2003; Bang 2014a).
^In the shadow of conquest : Islam in colonial Northeast Africa. Said S. Samatar. Trenton, N.J.: Red Sea Press. 1992. ISBN0-932415-69-5. OCLC27485824. This antiradical personality was the author of a history of Mecca, and a book refuting Wahhabism and Wahhabi ideas, the Durar al-Saniya fil-Radd 'ala'l-Wahhabiya, a book still banned in Saudi Arabia because of its vituperative polemic attacks and cutting criticism of the Wahhabis.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
^In the shadow of conquest : Islam in colonial Northeast Africa. Said S. Samatar. Trenton, N.J.: Red Sea Press. 1992. ISBN0-932415-69-5. OCLC27485824. The poems and books written by him are known collectively as the Dahlaniya, especially when they are cited to reinforce conservative theological attitudes, as exemplified by Zayla'i and his followers, who particularly favored tawassul, which was anathema to their opponents of the Salihi/Wahhabi school.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)