Huzaifa Ansari is a student at Darul Qasim College, currently in the second year of the Advanced Islamic Studies Program. In this article he discusses how the Kholwadian Methodology illuminates the universal truths of the sunna, showing how Prophetic guidance shapes individuals, families, and communities.
Shaykh Amin’s methodology for uncovering the realities of Prophetic wisdom is comprehensive in its intake but piercing in its insight. The Kholwadian methodology revolves around four elements: 1) the sanad; 2) the fahm of the Rasūl; 3) the fahm of the Companions; 4) the explanation of later scholars. Of these four elements, the foundational pivot is the second and third elements, in relation to which the first and fourth elements are supplementary. From the sanad, the pathway of the hadith through the luminaries of the umma can be observed. Undoubtedly, recognition of the carriers of Prophetic knowledge affords insight into the knowledge itself. The explanation of the scholarly tradition that blossomed in the later generations dedicates itself to the technical intricacies of the sanad and matn, replete with productive debate and dialectic. These conversations resulted in the development of a thorough intellectual literature surrounding Hadith.
The value of these two elements notwithstanding, the elements wherein the complete Islamic philosophy — the Divinely inspired synthesis of the ontological and ethical that manifests the Divine — is found in the second and third elements. The Prophet ﷺ maintains the unique ontological position of being the summative locus of the Divine’s Names and Attributes (asmāʾ & ṣifāt), a reality that warrants his status of being the insān kāmil. His comprehensiveness in manifesting the Divine pre-exists any differentiated specificity (tafṣīl) of those attributes; he is the ijmāl before the tafṣīl, the locus from which all other manifestations emanate.[1] The Prophets, who are the elite of humanity, look up to and draw from the kāmil reality that is Muḥammad ﷺ. al-Būṣīrī writes:
| غرفا من البحر أو رشفا من الديم | وكلهم من رسول الله ملتمس | |
| من نقطة العلم أو من شكلة الحكم | ووافـقـون لـديه عند حدهـم و | |
| ثـم اصطـفاه حبـيـبا بارئ النـسـم | فهو الذي تـم معناه وصـورتــه |
“All of them seek from the Messenger of God a draught from his boundless ocean, or a drop from his descending rain. Each has reached, in his own measure, the limit of his station, drawing from a point of his knowledge or a glimmer of his wisdom. For he is he whose meaning and form were perfected, then the Creator of souls chose him as His beloved.”[2]
The Rasūl ﷺ is thus the culmination of human perfection. “I am the master of the children of Ādam, and I do not boast.”[3]
Therefore, the understanding of reality via hadith cannot be divorced from the shakhṣiyya of the Rasūl ﷺ. Any attempt to do so is not just a betrayal of the sunna, it is a betrayal of reality as a whole. This would then necessitate a thorough investigation of Prophetic intent, context, and precedent when attempting to arrive at reality through hadith. Shaykh Amin, the inheritor of the masters of generations past — Akbarī, Waliyullāhi, Qāsimī — and understanding the realistic underpinnings of the Prophetic station, centralizes the focus of any quest for Prophetic guidance in the person of the Rasūl ﷺ. The murād rasūlī takes utmost precedence in the Kholwadian methodology, due to his being the concise locus of all knowledge, and thus the only true source of knowledge of reality as a whole, and especially his own blessed dictums. What did the Rasūl mean when he said what he said? A simple question, yet one of immense consequence — a question whose answer would reveal realities painted in the cosmic canvas. Thus, the fahm of the Rasūl is the fundamental pivot of meaningful interaction with waḥy and wujūd.
As for the Companions, they too maintain a significant ontological station; the generation (jīl) of the Companions took in the nūr of the Prophet ﷺ horizontally. As such, no individual person from the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them all) is the sole inheritor of the sunna, but rather the sunna in its totality is distributed across that generation, rendering each member of that generation a carrier of a part of that light — Prophetic nūr was diffused throughout the generation. It is not unlike the prior relationship of the Prophets to the Rasūl ﷺ. In his Āftāb-i-Nubuwwat, Qārī Muḥammad Ṭayyib likens the Prophets of generations past in comparison to the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ to the stars of twilight that herald the coming of the sun. The same analogy is found with al-Būṣīrī:
| يظهرن أنوارها للناس في الظلم | فإنه شمس فضل هم كواكبها |
“For he is the sun of divine bounty, and they are its stars.
Through them his lights are shown to humankind in the darkness.”[4]
Upon reflection, it is evident that the station of ṣuḥba (companionship) is a comparable extension of prophethood. Interestingly, the same comparison to stars is made for the companions by the Prophet ﷺ himself: “My Companions are like the stars; whomever of them you follow, you will be guided.” A more explicit comparison is also found from the Prophet ﷺ: “The scholars of my umma are like the Prophets of Banī Isrāʾīl.” The scholars in the life of the Prophet ﷺ were none other than the Companions. From this, it can be deduced that just as the Prophets of generations past were existential manifestations of nūr, the comprehensive collection of which is found in the Rasūl ﷺ, the Companions occupy a similar role of being existential, or tafṣīlī, manifestations of the summative ijmālī nūr that was found in the Prophet ﷺ. In light of this, the citation of fahm al-ṣaḥāba as a hermeneutic source is essential and corresponds with ontological orientation, as it serves as the tafṣīl of the ijmāl.
An instance of the Kholwadian rabṭ between hadith and the Prophetic intent manifests in his ﷺ declaring: “The love of the Anṣār is from Īmān.” A textual reading of the hadith would focus on the rank of the Anṣār, the love Muslims owe them, and the relationship of that love with the quiddity of faith. Scholars will then discuss how the hadith impacts the classical debate of whether Īmān is constituted of affirmation alone, or affirmation and action. However, Shaykh Amin’s piercing insight into the being that is the Rasūl ﷺ reveals the ḥaqīqī layer of meaning that encapsulates Prophetic intent: this hadith is a fundamental cornerstone of city-building. Following the ontological and hermeneutic imperative of contextualizing hadith-based realities to the shakhṣiyya nabawiyya, Shaykh Amin explains that this declaration is the Rasūl ﷺ’s treatment of classist antipathy, an underlying obstacle to the construction of a faith-based community, a vice that disturbs the Prophetic society. To glean a principle of city-building embedded within this hadith is no inventive feat or interpretive projection from the Shaykh; such practice is unacceptable with the speech of the Rasūl. It is instead a meaningful and contextual reading of the hadith in the Prophetic siyāq.
As Shaykh Amin explains, the Rasūl ﷺ was acutely aware of the contrasting socio-economic backgrounds of the muḍarī Muhājirūn and the yamānī Anṣār. The former were aristocrats, businessmen, and leaders of sophisticated backgrounds, while the latter were farmers and shepherds who retained a much simpler lifestyle. Naturally, when the Muhājirūn migrated to Madīna, there were inklings of antipathy and estrangement that began to take hold, as they had no prior experience integrating into a society of individuals from a lower economic class. The Prophet ﷺ recognized this and promptly treated this potential malady by declaring the love of the Anṣār to be an instantiation of Īmān. A society reflective of the Divine cannot harbor socio-economic or classist tensions. Shaykh Amin often reiterates: “A Prophetic community is built on ḥubb.” Ḥubb is the bedrock of Prophetic civilization — it fuels every layer of individual, familial, and communal interplay. The human being requires an object to love, just as he requires one to despise. The Prophetic manhaj of community building is not to eliminate these energies, but to channel them to be in accordance with the Real. Love Allah and His Rasūl ﷺ, love what they love, and despise what they despise. The companions had completely submitted to Allah and His messenger, and so when they learned that the Anṣār were to be loved, they immediately adopted this reality into their worldviews and, according to their understanding of Prophetic teaching, acted upon it.
This is where the second major element of the Kholwadian methodology manifests; the Companions’ practice of Prophetic teaching is indicative of their fahm, which is in turn indicative of the sunna, specifically, and the universal mode of the peak of human existence, generally. Shaykh Amin ties in the civilizational praxis of the Companions to the existing Prophetic wisdom to complete the holistic hermeneutic process. He explains that the Companions’ fahm of this declaration took form in the institution of marriage. If any hesitation was present in the Muhājirūn concerning the prospect of marrying Anṣārī women — women of a lower economic class, it was subsequently eliminated by their embracing this hadith.
As Shaykh Amin constantly reminds, context is crucial. Many of the Muhājirūn arriving in Madīna were presently unmarried. At the same time, there was a need to integrate the Muhājirūn and Anṣār into a cohesive city that represented the Divine. Such an integration would not be possible if marriage were not facilitated. This is because applied moral philosophy (ḥikma ʿamaliyya) is organized into a tripartite schema, where each tier is a microcosm and prerequisite of the tier above it, and a macrocosm and amalgamation of the one below. The first and lowest tier concerns the moral orientation of the individual (fard) and is accordingly termed tahdhīb al-akhlāq (reformation of character). The middle tier ascends from the individual to the domestic, focusing on the family unit. The sound organization and orientation of the family is termed tadbīr al-manzil. The third and highest tier ascends beyond the domestic level to the level of polity — siyāsat al-madīna (city governance).[5] The human being is a microcosm of the family, which in turn is a microcosm of the city. Thus, the individual, insofar as his sound orientation is concerned, is a distant microcosm of the city, which is a macrocosm of both the individual and family. al-Ghazālī makes this comparison in his al-Maqṣad al-Asnā when explaining the human’s role in manifesting the Divine Name al-Malik. He explains that the steps to govern the human being effectively are, in essence, the very same needed to govern a city.[6] Just as a governor must balance, control, and utilize the various branches under his jurisdiction, namely the ministry, the treasury, and the military, the individual must also orient his respective branches: his intellect is his vizier, his caprice his treasury, and his anger his military. Finally, the political tier is not the ultimate form that is to be reflected by the lower tiers; to achieve success, all forms must reflect the Divine. Thus, even the orientation of governance must reflect the Divine system of order in the cosmos.
With this system in mind, it becomes clear how an interruption in the moral constitution of the individual jeopardizes that of the family, and an interruption in the family corrupts the polity. It is to this interplay of societal tiers that the Prophet ﷺ is indicating through this hadith. Detecting an obstacle to the creation of the family unit, the Prophet ﷺ, through his ingenious socio-political savvy, masterfully eliminates the obstacle by leveraging the ḥubb that he instilled as the bedrock of his city. Here, we can see all three tiers of ḥikma ʿamaliyya being applied: the elimination of classist antipathy is a manifestation of tahdhīb al-akhlāq; the subsequent practice of marrying Anṣārī women by the Companions is in the tier of tadbīr al-manzil; and these two layers facilitate the development of the Muḥammadan community — the perfect form of siyāsat al-madīna.[7]
A ẓāhir bīn (to use Qārī Muḥammad Ṭayyib’s words in al-Tashabbuh) reading of the hadith would not have revealed these multi-faceted layers of Prophetic guidance. The Kholwadian methodology, insofar as it is premised on the nūrānī shakhṣiyya of the Rasūl ﷺ and the generation-wide intake of that nūr found in the Companions, opens the door to the universal and timeless wisdoms of Prophethood and waḥy.
When the four elements of the Kholwadian hermeneutic methodology are gracefully intertwined to present the universal reading of Prophetic wisdom, one that is rooted in ḥaqāʾiq kulliya (universal realities) and then framed through maẓāhir juzʾiyya (existential manifestations) in a manner concordant with ontology, a fifth element emerges, one that is a result (natīja) of the former four. This element is the modern contextualization and framing (or, in the Shaykh’s words, re-presenting) of those realities. Existential forms are nothing more than a particular manifestation of a universal truth, which is why a direct adoption of juzʾiyyāt without appreciation and comprehension of the kulliyāt is hermeneutically unsound and disloyal — a phenomenon unfortunately all too common in the modern age. With the prevalence of unsound hermeneutics in the current setting, Shaykh Amin’s methodology revives the rūḥ of waḥy, through which he can address the modern setting and loyally apply waḥy in the variant contexts we find ourselves in.
May Allah preserve him and allow us to benefit from him. Āmīn.
[1] In the non-material stages of existence that are revealed to the Ṣūfīs in their traversal of the path, the Muḥammadan reality is the first tanazzul of the Divine, the stage of waḥda that succeeds aḥadiyya and precedes wāḥidiyya. The waḥda epitomizes the jāmiʿiyya of this reality, which is accordingly termed the kawn jāmiʿ. From this stage of waḥda — a stage of ijmāl —, all other aʿyān emanate, signifying the tafṣīl that follows the ijmāl—wāḥidiyya.
[2] See: Shihāb al-Dīn al-Qasṭallānī, Mashāriq al-Anwār al-Muḍiyya (Dār al-Taqwā, Damascus, 2020) 206-209.
[3] Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Yazīd Ibn Mājah, Sunan Ibn Mājah (Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Kutub al-ʿArabiyya, Cairo) 2:1440.
[4] al-Qasṭallānī, Mashāriq al-Anwār, 228.
[5] See: Saʿīd Aḥmad al-Pālanpūrī, Muʿīn al-Falsafa (Maktaba al-Bushrā, Karachi, 2010) 28.
[6] Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, al-Maq̣ṣad al-Asnā fī Sharḥ Asmāʾ Allāh al-Ḥusnā (Dār Ibn Ḥazm, Beirut, 2003) 67. See also: al-Ghazālī, Mīzān al-ʿAmal (Dār al-Minhāj, Jeddah, 2023) 33-49.
[7] Ḥakīm al-Umma Mawlāna Ashraf ʿAlī al-Thānwī introduces ḥikma ʿamaliyya in his seminal work on kalām-i-jadīd, al-Intibāhāt al-Mufīda, after which he explains that the Islāmic ḥikma ʿamaliyya is found totally in the sunna of the Prophet ﷺ, leaving no need to resort to Greco-Roman philosophies. Shaykh Amin echoed this idea in his lectures: the sunna and waḥy are sufficient. Don’t go to Aristotle! See: Thānwī, al-Intibāhāt al-Mufīda ʿan al-Ishtibāhāt al-Jadīda (Maktaba al-Bushrā, Karachi, 2010) 13.
