[2nd Biography] Al-ʿAllāmah Shaykh Badīʿ al-Dīn Shāh al-Rāshidī al-Sindhī (d.1416/1996)

Compiled, Translated & Annotated

Abu Khuzaimah Ansari

[Taken from the Introduction of, The Distinctive Jurisprudence of Ahl al-Ḥadīth; Prayer & Purification Shaykh Badīʿ al-Dīn Shāh al-Rāshidī al-Sindhī]

I have already compiled a biography of Shaykh Badīʿ al-Dīn which was first published online around 2001 and it was the first ever biography of the Shaykh[1] in English. One may refer to it for a basic background of the Shaykh, his teachers, students and writings. This biography has since been used by others with modifications and at the same time some new biographies have been published online, however all of them use the same generic sources and thus without any new information. What follows, I hope, In-Shāʾ-Allāh are brief snippets from the life of the Shaykh that are not in English.

Shaykh ʿAtā Allāh Thāqib lauded him with the following titles;

Nāṣir al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah, Nāṣir al-ʿAqīdah al-Salafiyyah, Qāṭeʿ al-Bidʿah, al-Mujāhid, Lā ʿElā Kalimatallāhi, al-Ṣalb Fi al-Sunnah, al-Malāzim lil-ʿIbādah, al-ʿĀlim al-Fāḍhil, al-Muḥaddith, al-Faqīh, Raʾis al-Muḥaqqiqīn, al-ʿAllāmah, al-Shaykh, the defender of the Prophetic Sunnah and Salafī ʿAqīdah, the destroyer of innovations, the Mujāhid, the upholder of the word of Allāh, firm in the Sunnah, inherent in worship, the virtuous scholar, the scholar of hadith, the jurist, the leader of the researchers, the savant, the learned.[2]

He was a formidable scholar who spread Islam throught the lands he travelled to. He travelled from town to town, village to village and city to city spreading the message of Tawḥīd and Sunnah and reprimanded Shirk and Bidʿah.

Once a person upon Tawḥīd called Shaykh Badīʿ to his village to deliver a lecture. When the Shaykh arrived at the Masjid the adminstrators stopped him from delivering his lecture. He then proceded to his house and delivered his lecture on his roof. So, in the middle of the silent night, on the roof with only one listener the Shaykh began his lecture, and with his powerful voice and stature, his words echoed and resonated across the whole village, and when he recited the Qurʿān in his uniqe melodious manner and expounded Tawḥīd, the people started to come out of their houses, slowly by slowly until a huge crowd had assembled in the bazzar. Then they started listening attentively until many of them adopted the dawʿah of Tawḥīd.[3]

This relentless effort in calling to Tawḥīd in remote parts of Sindh and in Pakistan led to everyone knowing the daʿwah of the Ahl al-Ḥadīth and the call of the Messengers. So much so that when the Shaykh began his daʿwah in Sindh there was not a single Masjid of the Ahl al-Ḥadīth there and when he died there were over eight hundred (800) Ahl al-Ḥadīth Masājids in Sindh and its interior. Shaykh Zubayr ʿAlī Zaʾī said:

The Shaykh despite being busy in writing and researching, especially the Tafsīr of the Qurʾān, he would diligently take time out for his students. Whenever he would teach, it would seem that he had prepared his notes but in reality this was the phenomenon of his remarkable memory. Some of the most difficult quotes and passages would flow off his tongue without any difficulty. He vehemently opposed the Khawārij and the Takfirīs and was firm on the methodology of Ahl al-Sunnah wa Ahl al-Ḥadīth. His every prayer was engrossed in intense servitude and worship that one would sense it was his last prayer.[4]

The Shaykh was intelligent, incisive and perceptive, which was evident from many incidences. Once he was abruptly asked by a muqallid to prove the Ṣalāh from Bukhārī and Muslim and the Shaykh obliged him.[5] Shaykh ʿAbdul ʿAzīz al-Sadḥān said:

Some of the scholars informed me that the Imām of Ḥaram, Shaykh Muḥammad Subayyal would attend the lessons of Shaykh Badīʿ al-Dīn in the Ḥaram of Makkah. I was informed that once he was asked a question and he replied by quoting approximately Fourty (40) Ayāt and Thirty (30) Aḥadīth.[6]

His Remarkable Memory

Some of the elders who spent time with Shaykh Badīʿ would say he had memorised voluminous books. They included the works of the Salaf, Imām Shawkāni and the works of Imām ibn Ḥazm. They say he knew al-Muḥallā of Ibn Ḥazm by heart.

Once the Shaykh memorised a whole Sūrah while travelling on a camel, either Sūrah al-Nūr or Sūrah al-Anfāl and the journey was approximately only 30-40 minutes.[7] He memorised the whole Qurʾān in Three to Four (3-4) months when he was approximately Thirteen (13) years old.[8]

Another scholar mentions that once Shaykh Badīʿ came to their institute and delivered a lecture in which he opened all the doors of the sciences of Islam. During the lecture the Shaykh quoted from Ḥāfiẓ ibn Ḥajr’s Fatḥ al-Bārī numerous times and also quoted the volume and page numbers. The scholar mentions that he noted all of the references and quotes. When he returned home after a few days he checked each and every reference and he said:

‘By Allāh, every single quote, the volume and page number were unequivocally accurate and I did not find a single difference in the wording of the quotes, they were verbatim.’[9]

Praised by the ʿUlamāʾ

A teacher in a Salafī University in Pakistan was advising his students of the knowledge and status of Shaykh Badīʿ al-Dīn and he mentioned an incident. Once a student who wanted to study the Islamic sciences asked Shaykh ʿAbd ʿAzīz ibn Bāz which scholar has taqwa and is strong and firmly grounded in knowledge who I can go to to seek knowledge. Shaykh Ibn Bāz replied:

Go to such and such place in Pakistan and there will be a man there called Badīʿ al-Dīn, go to him and seek knowledge from him.

So, the student travelled to Pakistan to Shaykh Badīʿ and told him why he had come to seek knowledge and how Shaykh Ibn Bāz had advised him. Upon hearing this Shaykh Badīʿ al-Dīn started to cry and then said to the student:

What a strange thing you say, you leave an ocean of knowledge and come to a small river, return to Ibn Bāz and seek knowledge and spend time with him.

The great scholar and Muḥaddith, Shaykh ʿAtā Allāh Ḥanīf Bhuwjiyānī wrote in the introduction to one of Shaykh Badīʿ al-Dīn’s book:

The learned researcher of our jamāʿah, belonging to the well known Rāshidī family.[10]

And his well known student and the notable scholar of Ḥadith, Shaykh Zubayr ʿAlī Zaʾī mentions:

If someone were to me ask while I was standing between Rukn al-Yamānī and Maqām Ibrāhīm about this Shaykh (i.e Badīʿ al-Dīn) I would say; I swear by Allāh I have never seen anyone of the likes of Shaykh Badīʿ al-Dīn in terms of knowledge and his comprehension.[11]

Shaykh Zubayr further said:

Shaykh Muḥammad Ṣiddīq bin ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sarghodwī said: ‘The researcher scholar’ and I heard Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Ḥadī al-Madkhalī say in his house; ‘We do not hear anything about him, except good.’[12]

Shaykh Ṣalāh al-Dīn Yūsuf described him as: