A ''mujaddid'' ( ar, مجدد), is an Islamic term for one who brings "renewal" ( ar, تجديد, translit=
tajdid
''Tajdīd'' ( ar, تجديد) is the Arabic word for ''renewal''. In an Islamic context, ''tajdīd'' refers to the revival of Islam, in order to purify and reform society, to move it toward greater equity and justice. One who practices ''tajdīd' ...
, label=none) to the religion.
According to the popular Muslim tradition, it refers to a person who appears at the turn of every
century
A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c.
A centennial or ...
of the
Islamic calendar
The Hijri calendar ( ar, ٱلتَّقْوِيم ٱلْهِجْرِيّ, translit=al-taqwīm al-hijrī), also known in English as the Muslim calendar and Islamic calendar, is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or ...
to revive
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
, cleansing it of extraneous elements and restoring it to its pristine purity. In contemporary times, a mujaddid is looked upon as the greatest Muslim of a century.
The concept is based on a ''
hadith
Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approval ...
'' (a saying of
Islamic prophet Muhammad),
[Neal Robinson (2013), Islam: A Concise Introduction, Routledge, , Chapter 7, pp. 85–89] recorded by
Abu Dawood
Abū Dāwūd (Dā’ūd) Sulaymān ibn al-Ash‘ath ibn Isḥāq al-Azdī al-Sijistānī ( ar, أبو داود سليمان بن الأشعث الأزدي السجستاني), commonly known simply as Abū Dāwūd al-Sijistānī, was a scholar o ...
, narrated by
Abu Hurairah
Abu Hurayra ( ar, أبو هريرة, translit=Abū Hurayra; –681) was one of the companions of Islamic prophet Muhammad and, according to Sunni Islam, the most prolific narrator of hadith.
He was known by the ''kunyah'' Abu Hurayrah "Fathe ...
who mentioned that Muhammad said:
Ikhtilaf
Ikhtilāf ( ar, اختلاف, lit=disagreement, difference) is an Islamic scholarly religious disagreement, and is hence the opposite of ijma. Direction in Quran
After Muhammad's death, the Verse of Obedience stipulates that disagreements or I ...
(disagreements) exist among different hadith viewers. Scholars such as
Al-Dhahabi
Shams ad-Dīn adh-Dhahabī (), also known as Shams ad-Dīn Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Qāymāẓ ibn ʿAbdillāh at-Turkumānī al-Fāriqī ad-Dimashqī (5 October 1274 – 3 February 1348) was an Islamic historia ...
and
Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani
Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī or ''Ibn Ḥajar'' ( ar, ابن حجر العسقلاني, full name: ''Shihābud-Dīn Abul-Faḍl Aḥmad ibn Nūrud-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī al-Kināni'') (18 February 1372 – 2 Febru ...
have interpreted that the term mujaddid can also be understood as plural, thus referring to a group of people.
''Mujaddids'' can include prominent scholars, pious rulers and military commanders.
List of claimants and potential ''mujaddids''
While there is no formal mechanism for designating a ''mujaddid'' in
Sunni Islam
Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagre ...
, there is often a popular consensus. The
Shia
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...
and
Ahmadiyya
Ahmadiyya (, ), officially the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community or the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at (AMJ, ar, الجماعة الإسلامية الأحمدية, al-Jamāʿah al-Islāmīyah al-Aḥmadīyah; ur, , translit=Jamā'at Aḥmadiyyah Musl ...
[Jesudas M. Athyal, Religion in Southeast Asia: An Encyclopedia of Faiths and Cultures, (ABC-CLIO, LLC 2015), p 1. .] have their own list of mujaddids.
First century (after the prophetic period) (August 3, 718)
*
Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz
Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz ( ar, عمر بن عبد العزيز, ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz; 2 November 680 – ), commonly known as Umar II (), was the eighth Umayyad caliph. He made various significant contributions and reforms to the society, and ...
(682–720)
[Josef W. Meri, Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia, (Routledge 1 Dec 2005), p 678. .]
Second century (August 10, 815)
*
Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi`i
Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī ( ar, أَبُو عَبْدِ ٱللهِ مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ إِدْرِيسَ ٱلشَّافِعِيُّ, 767–19 January 820 CE) was an Arab Muslim theologian, writer, and schola ...
(767–820)
*
Ahmad ibn Hanbal
Ahmad ibn Hanbal al-Dhuhli ( ar, أَحْمَد بْن حَنْبَل الذهلي, translit=Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal al-Dhuhlī; November 780 – 2 August 855 CE/164–241 AH), was a Muslim jurist, theologian, ascetic, hadith traditionist, and ...
(780-855)
Third century (August 17, 912)
*
Muhammad al-Bukhari
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
(810–870)
*
Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari
Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī (; full name: ''Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Isḥāq al-Ashʿarī''; c. 874–936 CE/260–324 AH), often reverently referred to as Imām al-Ashʿarī by Sunnī Muslims, was an Arab Muslim scholar ...
(874–936)
[Josef W. Meri, Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia, (Routledge 1 Dec 2005), p 678. ]
Fourth Century (August 24, 1009)
*
Hakim al-Nishaburi
Abu Abd-Allah Muhammad ibn Abd-Allah al-Hakim al-Nishapuri ( fa, أبو عبدالله محمد بن عبدالله الحاكم النيسابوري; 933 - 1014 CE), also known as ''Ibn al-Bayyiʿ'', was a Persian Sunni scholar and the leadi ...
(933–1012)
*
Abu Bakr Al-Baqillani
Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn aṭ-Ṭayyib al-Bāqillānī ( ar, أبو بكر محمد بن الطيب الباقلاني; c. 950 - 5 June 1013), often known as al-Bāqillānī for short, or reverentially as Imām al-Bāqillānī by adherents to the ...
(950–1013)
Fifth century (September 1, 1106)
*
Ibn Hazm
Abū Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd ibn Ḥazm ( ar, أبو محمد علي بن احمد بن سعيد بن حزم; also sometimes known as al-Andalusī aẓ-Ẓāhirī; 7 November 994 – 15 August 1064Ibn Hazm. ' (Preface). Tr ...
(994–1064)
[The Legal Thought of Jalāl Al-Din Al-Suyūṭī: Authority and Legacy, Page 133 Rebecca Skreslet Hernandez]
*
Abu Hamid al-Ghazali
Al-Ghazali ( – 19 December 1111; ), full name (), and known in Persian-speaking countries as Imam Muhammad-i Ghazali (Persian: امام محمد غزالی) or in Medieval Europe by the Latinized as Algazelus or Algazel, was a Persian polymat ...
(1058–1111)
*
Abdul Qadir Jilani
ʿAbdul Qādir Gīlānī, ( ar, عبدالقادر الجيلاني, ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī; fa, ) known by admirers as Muḥyī l-Dīn Abū Muḥammad b. Abū Sāliḥ ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī al-Baḡdādī al-Ḥasanī al-Ḥusayn ...
(1078-1166)
Sixth century (September 9, 1203)
*
Salauddin Ayyubi (1137–1193)
[Advocate of Dialogue: Fethullah Gulen by Ali Unal and Alphonse Williams, 10 June 2000; ]
*
Ibn Qudamah
Ibn Qudāmah al-Maqdisī Muwaffaq al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad ( ar, ابن قدامة المقدسي موفق الدين ابو محمد عبد الله بن احمد بن محمد ; 1147 - 7 July 1223), often re ...
(1147-1223)
*
Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji (1148-1206)
*
Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (1149–1210)
Seventh century (September 5, 1300)
*
Ibn Daqiq al-'Id
Ibn Daqiq al-'Id (; 1228–1302), born in Yanbu into the Arab tribe of Banu Qushayr. He is accounted as one of Islam's great scholars in the fundamentals of Islamic law and belief, and was an authority in the Shafi'i legal school. Although Ibn ...
(1228–1302)
*
Ibn Taymiyyah
Ibn Taymiyyah (January 22, 1263 – September 26, 1328; ar, ابن تيمية), birth name Taqī ad-Dīn ʾAḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm ibn ʿAbd al-Salām al-Numayrī al-Ḥarrānī ( ar, تقي الدين أحمد بن عبد الحليم ...
(1263–1328)
*
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya
Shams al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Ayyūb al-Zurʿī l-Dimashqī l-Ḥanbalī (29 January 1292–15 September 1350 CE / 691 AH–751 AH), commonly known as Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya ("The son of the principal of he school ...
(1292–1350)
Eighth century (September 23, 1397)
*
Siraj al-Din al-Bulqini
Abū Hafs Sirāj al-Dīn al-Bulqīnī( ar, ابو حفص سراج الدين البلقيني الشافعي ; 1324–1403 CE); aka Sirajuddin was an Egyptian scholar of Islamic Jurisprudence. Regarded as the leading Shafi'i faqih and mujtahid o ...
(1324–1403)
*
Tamerlane
Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kür ...
(Timur) (1336–1405)
*
Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani
Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī or ''Ibn Ḥajar'' ( ar, ابن حجر العسقلاني, full name: ''Shihābud-Dīn Abul-Faḍl Aḥmad ibn Nūrud-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī al-Kināni'') (18 February 1372 – 2 Febru ...
(1372–1448)
Ninth century (October 1, 1494)
*
Shah Rukh
Shah Rukh or Shahrukh ( fa, شاهرخ, ''Šāhrokh'') (20 August 1377 – 13 March 1447) was the ruler of the Timurid Empire between 1405 and 1447.
He was the son of the Central Asian conqueror Timur (Tamerlane), who founded the Timurid dynas ...
(1377-1447)
[Hassan Ahmed Ibrahim, "An Overview of al-Sadiq al-Madhi's Islamic Discourse." Taken from ''The Blackwell Companion to Contemporary Islamic Thought'', p. 172. Ed. Ibrahim Abu-Rabi'. ]Hoboken
Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,69 ...
: Wiley-Blackwell
Wiley-Blackwell is an international scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons. It was formed by the merger of John Wiley & Sons Global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business with Blackwell Publish ...
, 2008.
*
Mehmet II
Mehmed II ( ota, محمد ثانى, translit=Meḥmed-i s̱ānī; tr, II. Mehmed, ; 30 March 14323 May 1481), commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror ( ota, ابو الفتح, Ebū'l-fetḥ, lit=the Father of Conquest, links=no; tr, Fâtih Su ...
(1432–1481)
[Advocate of Dialogue: Fethullah Gulen by Ali Unal and Alphonse Williams, 10 June 2000; ]
*
Jalaludin Al-Suyuti (1445–1505)
Tenth century (October 19, 1591)
*
Selim I
Selim I ( ota, سليم الأول; tr, I. Selim; 10 October 1470 – 22 September 1520), known as Selim the Grim or Selim the Resolute ( tr, links=no, Yavuz Sultan Selim), was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. Despite last ...
(1470–1520)
*
Suleiman the Magnificent
Suleiman I ( ota, سليمان اول, Süleyman-ı Evvel; tr, I. Süleyman; 6 November 14946 September 1566), commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the West and Suleiman the Lawgiver ( ota, قانونى سلطان سليمان, Ḳ ...
(1494-1566)
*
Ahmad Sirhindi
Aḥmad al-Fārūqī as-Sirhindī (1564-1624) was a South Asian Islamic scholar from Punjab, Hanafi jurist, and member of the Naqshbandī Sufi order. He has been described by some followers as a Mujaddid, meaning a “reviver", for his work in ...
(1564–1624)
Eleventh century (October 26, 1688)
*
Mulla Sadra Shirazi (1571–1640)
*
Khayr al-Din al-Ramli
Khayr al-Din ibn Ahmad ibn Nur al-Din Ali ibn Zayn al-Din ibn Abd al-Wahab al-Ayubi al-Farooqui (1585–1671), better known as Khayr al-Din al-Ramli ( ar, خير الدين الرملي), was a 17th-century Islamic jurist, teacher and writer in t ...
(1585–1671)
*
Mahiuddin Aurangzeb Alamgir (1618–1707)
*
Abdullah ibn Alawi al-Haddad
Imam Sayyid Abd Allah ibn Alawi al-Haddad ( ar-at, عبد الله ابن علوي الحدّاد, ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlawī al-Ḥaddād; ) (born in 1634 CE) was a Yemeni Islamic scholar. He lived his entire life in the town of Tarim in Yemen' ...
(1634–1720)
Twelfth century (November 4, 1785)
*
Shah Waliullah Dehlawi
Quṭb-ud-Dīn Aḥmad Walīullāh Ibn ʿAbd-ur-Raḥīm Ibn Wajīh-ud-Dīn Ibn Muʿaẓẓam Ibn Manṣūr Al-ʿUmarī Ad-Dehlawī ( ar, ; 1703–1762), commonly known as Shāh Walīullāh Dehlawī (also Shah Wali Allah), was an Islamic ...
(1703–1762)
*
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab
; "The Book of Monotheism")
, influences =
, influenced =
, children =
, module =
, title = Imam, Shaykh
, movement = Muwahhidun (Wahhabi)
, native_name = محمد بن ...
(1703–1792)
*
Murtaḍá al-Zabīdī (1732–1790)
*
Shah Abdul Aziz Delhwi (1745–1823)
*
Tipu Sultan
Tipu Sultan (born Sultan Fateh Ali Sahab Tipu, 1 December 1751 – 4 May 1799), also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore based in South India. He was a pioneer of rocket artillery.Dalrymple, p. 243 He int ...
(1750–1799)
*
Usman Dan Fodio
Usman Ɗan Fodio ( ar, عثمان بن فودي, translit=ʿUthmān ibn Fodio; 15 December 1754 – 20 April 1817) was a Fulani scholar, Sunni Islamic religious teacher, revolutionary, and philosopher who founded the Sokoto Caliphate and ruled ...
(1754–1817)
*
Syed Ahmad Barelvi
Syed Ahmad Barelvi or Sayyid Ahmad Shaheed (1786–1831) was an Indian Islamic revivalist, scholar and military commander from Raebareli, a part of the historical United Provinces of Agra and Oudh (now called Uttar Pradesh). He is consider ...
(1786–1831)
*
Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi
Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi (1796/1797 – 19 August 1861) was a Hanafi jurist, rationalist scholar, Maturidi theologian, philosopher and poet. He was an activist of the Indian independence movement and campaigned against British occupation. He issue ...
(1796–1861)
Thirteenth century (November 14, 1882)
*
Syed Ahmad Khan
Sir Syed Ahmad Khan KCSI (17 October 1817 – 27 March 1898; also Sayyid Ahmad Khan) was an Indian Muslim reformer, philosopher, and educationist in nineteenth-century British India. Though initially espousing Hindu-Muslim unity, he ...
(1817–1898)
*
Muhammad Abduh
; "The Theology of Unity")
, alma_mater = Al-Azhar University
, office1 = Grand Mufti of Egypt
, term1 = 1899 – 1905
, Sufi_order = Shadhiliyya
, disciple_of =
, awards =
, infl ...
(1849–1905)
*
Mahmud Hasan Deobandi
Mahmud Hasan Deobandi (also known as Shaykh al-Hind; 1851–1920) was an Indian Muslim scholar and an activist of the Indian independence movement, who co-founded the Jamia Millia Islamia university and launched the Silk Letter Movement for t ...
(1851–1920)
*
Ahmad Raza Khan
Ahmed Raza Khan, commonly known as Aala Hazrat, Ahmed Raza Khan Barelvi, or Ahmed Rida Khan in Arabic, (14 June 1856 Common Era, CE or 10 Shawwal 1272 Islamic calendar, AH – 28 October 1921 Common Era, CE or 25 Safar 1340 Islamic calendar, ...
(1856–1925)
Fourteenth century (November 21, 1979)
*
Ashraf Ali Thanwi
Ashraf Ali Thanwi (often referred as Hakim al-Ummat and Mujaddid e Millet; 19 September 1863 – 20 July 1943) was a late-nineteenth and twentieth-century Sunni Islam, Sunni scholar, jurist, thinker, Mujaddid, reformist and the revival of classic ...
(1863–1943)
*
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
Mirzā Ghulām Ahmad (13 February 1835 – 26 May 1908) was an Indian religious leader and the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement in Islam. He claimed to have been divinely appointed as the promised Messiah and Mahdi—which is the metaphoric ...
(1835–1908)
*
Said Nursî (1878–1960)
*
Abdul-Rahman al-Sa'di
Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Nāṣir al-Siʿdī ( ar, الشيخ عبد الرحمن بن ناصر السعدي), also known as al-Siʿdī (1889-1957), was an Islamic Scholar from Saudi Arabia. He was a teacher and an author in Unaizah, Saudi ...
(1889-1957)
*
Abul A'la Maududi
Abul A'la al-Maududi ( ur, , translit=Abū al-Aʿlā al-Mawdūdī; – ) was an Islamic scholar, Islamist ideologue, Muslim philosopher, jurist, historian, journalist, activist and scholar active in British India and later, following the parti ...
(1903–1979)
*
Murabit al-Hajj (1913 - 2018)
*
Muhammad 'Alawi al-Maliki (1944-2004)
References
Further reading
* Alvi, Sajida S. "The Mujaddid and Tajdīd Traditions in the Indian Subcontinent: An Historical Overview" ("Hindistan’da Mucaddid ve Tacdîd geleneği: Tarihî bir bakış"). ''Journal of Turkish Studies'' 18 (1994): 1–15.
* Friedmann, Yohanan. ''Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi: An Outline of His Thought and a Study of His Image in the Eyes of Posterity''. Oxford India Paperbacks
External links
Islami Mehfil, Concept Of Revivalist (Mujaddid) In Islam
Brief Introduction to the Concept of Mujaddidiyyat in Islam
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mujaddid