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Barelvism - a new definition of Sunnism or a new sect?

Allah, In the name of the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Peace and Blessings be upon our Holy Prophet Muhammad, his blessed companions, his family members & his followers till the Day of Judgment

Amma B'ad

I have been asked many times a very simple question - what is Barelvism and who are Barelvis?

Yet, it is a very logical question. And there is a very logical & simple answer to it for those who wish to understand.

Allah the Almighty has chosen Islam as His preferred religion. He mentions in the Holy Quran, 'Verily, the (accepted) religion near Allah is Islam' (Surah Aal Imran: Verse 19). And those who follow Islam are called Muslims. In the early period of Islam, there were either Muslims or Non-Muslims. No third group. But slowly, when Islam started to spread, some people who had filth in their hearts, started to create diversions in it, even in the period of the Blessed Prophet and his loyal companions(Peace and Blessings be upon them). So, the righteous people saw that in the name of Islam & Muslims, these deviants were spreading false. Hypocrisy began to rise. Hence, the term Muslim started to become vague.

To define the true Muslims, the rightly guided Scholars used the term Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama'ah or Sunni as their true identity as it was proven from a saying of the Holy Prophet (Peace and Blessings be upon him) i.e we are those Muslims who define themselves with Sunnism. In this way, the true Muslims were able to differentiate between themselves and those who were using the term Muslim in a wrong way, in those times, like the Shias (shiites), the Mu'tazilah etc.

Now for many centuries, various deviant sects had come up who also called themselves as Muslims, but as our Scholars had guided the Muslim masses long before, to differentiate between them & the true Muslims, Sunni Muslims was the ultimate sign of righteousness. It was necessary to create a small term for the masses, for them to recognize the true Muslims, as all of them did not have the capability of going into the details. So, the ultimate question in that time was, 'Are you a Sunni Muslim or not'? Just aking, 'Are you a Muslim'?,would not satisfy the true Muslims.

Now, since a couple of centuries back, a new dilemma arose within the Sunni world. Some people who called themselves Sunnis, started to deviate from the teachings of Ahle Sunnat wal Jamaat yet they kept on using the term Sunni so that people do not become suspicious of their activities. The arising of the deviant sects like the Wahabies(salafis), the deobandies, the jamaat e Islami, the tableeghi jamaat etc. caused a lot of confusion amongst the people because they thought that Sunnis are true and even they call themselves as Sunnis, so they must be true & so, they too became deviated.

Imam Ahmad Raza Khan(May Allah the Almighty be pleased with him)saw this as the biggest threat of his time. He saw that just as the term Muslim was hijacked long time ago, the term Sunni is now being hijacked. So, he forcefully & vehemently refuted those who were spreading false in the name of Sunnism. Because, he was from Bareilly, a city in the state of U.P.,India, he became known as Imam Ahmad Raza Khan Barelvi i.e. Imam Ahmad Raza Khan of Bareilly. He started to attract the masses for his outrightness & for helping them to understand the reality of these deviated sects. He had a huge following in no time.People too would define themselves as followers of him, followers of the Imam of Bareilly. And so, many people started using the term Barelvi to define themselves i.e. we are those Sunni Muslims who adhere to the teachings of our Imam of Bareilly.This whole ideology of true Islam & Sunnism was given the identity of Barelvism.This was just redefining & elaborating the term Sunnism in the Indian sub-continent, not changing it.

IT IS JUST AS SUFISM IS USED ELSEWHERE IN THE WORLD TO DIFFERENTIATE FROM OTHER DEVIATED SECTS WHO HAVE HIJACKED THE TERM SUNNISM.