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Wahdat al-Shuhud An Islamic concept conceived by Alaud-Daula Simnani (d. 1336), an Iranian SUFI who rejected the WAHDAT AL-WUJUD concept. Whereas IBN AL-ARABI identified all existence with God, Simnani said that it was an attribute of God. The highest stage was not union with the divine but ubudiyya or servantship of God. This was later known as Wahdat al-Shuhud or Wahdatus-Shuhud, or Unity of Appearance.

Wahdat al-Wujud An Islamic concept that dates back to the twelfth century and was formulated by the SUFI saint IBN AL-ARABI, who used existing Sufi ideas to present a coherent doctrine. It has been translated as the Unity of Being, a belief in the nature of primordial unity, in which only God exists, similar to the ADVAITA of VEDANTA. The doctrine has been interpreted by Western scholars, alternatively as monism or as Islamic pantheism.

In Islam the relationship between God and creation has been interpreted in different ways. Ibn al-Arabi states that the One and the Many are two aspects of the One. Absolute reality is both passive and active, male and female. He said, ‘The one and same reality variously determines and delimits itself, and appears immediately in the forms of different things.’ He introduced the concept of the Perfect Man, who reflected God and the Absolute, and embodied all the attributes of the universe. As in Advaita, he stated that mystical union was the realization of an already existing state. Inherent in this concept was that the same divinity existed in all religions.

This idea is also expressed by nirguna BHAKTI saints such as KABIR. The WAHDAT AL-SHUHUD doctrine was opposed to this concept.

Wahhabi A Muslim puritan revival movement founded in Najd, Central Arabia, in the eighteenth century by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703–92). Wahhab’s ideas were conveyed in the Kitab-al-Tauhid (Book of Unity). He believed the only sources of Islamic law were the original doctrines of the Prophet MUHAMMAD as revealed in the QURAN and early HADIS, and rejected the four schools of SUNNI law. He was against SUFIS, saints and intermediaries between God and the people. From 1744 Wahhabi ideas dominated the Saudi dynasty, which later founded Saudi Arabia.

Wahhabi ideas were introduced in India in the early nineteenth century, but the person closely linked with Wahhabi thought was Sayyed AHMAD BARELVI. Recent scholars however, believe his somewhat similar ideas were developed independently. After returning from Mecca in 1822, Sayyed Ahmad resolved to reclaim north India and bring it under true Islam. Some of the Muslims in India looked up to him as the MAHDI, and he gained thousands of followers. In 1826 he started a war against the Sikhs of the north-west, hoping to unite Muslims from Central Asia under his banner. However, his attempts failed and Sayyed Ahmad was killed in 1831. His followers settled across the border but were suppressed by the British in 1863, though a small group continued to exist even after this. The AHL-E-HADIS are considered a Wahhabi group, as they are successors of the Tariqa-i-Muhammadiya, founded by Sayyed Ahmad Barelvi. Wahhabis call themselves Muwahhid or Unitarians.

Wajihuddin Ahmad, Shaikh A SUFI saint of the SHATTARI order who lived in the sixteenth century in Gujarat. Born in 1496–97, he was initially a noted Islamic scholar, in religious, literary and philosophical subjects, who kept apart from the world, teaching his disciples in his own house. At the age of thirty-eight he became the disciple of MUHAMMAD GHAUS and popularized the Shattari order in Gujarat and central India. He died in 1589 at Ahmadabad.

Waliullah, Shah An Islamic reformer who lived in the eighteenth century. Born in 1703, in the last years of the reign of the Mughal emperor AURANGZEB, his father was a teacher in a MADRASA. Waliullah knew the whole QURAN by the age of seven, and after his father’s death in 1717, became a teacher himself. Later he went to Mecca and studied further. Returning to DELHI in 1731, he gave speeches and sermons, and wrote books on different aspects of Islam. Among his books are Hujjat, Al-Badrul Bazigah, Al-Khairul Kathir, Tafhimat and others. He combined both SUFI and KALAM traditions in his writings, differentiating between esoteric and exoteric Islam, and believed Islam should be reinterpreted in the light of reason. He translated the Quran into Persian and encouraged the study of the HADIS.

His sons, Shah Abdul Aziz, Shah Rafiuddin and Shah Abdul Qadir, carried on his work.

Shah Waliullah died in 1762, but his ideas had a profound influence on Islam in India.

Waris Shah A SUFI saint of the CHISTI order who lived in the eighteenth century. He is known for his Punjabi verse retelling of the story of Hir and Ranjha, an earlier folk tale on doomed love. The work was completed in 1766, and in it Waris Shah also philosophized on love, and described yogic practices as well as the PANCH PIRS. Born in village Jandyala Sher Khan near Gujranwala in Punjab, Waris Shah fell in love with a village girl of Pak Patan, but because he was a Saiyyid, a superior class, he was driven out of his village. He settled in another village and wrote this story, which to some extent reflected his own feelings.