Islamic Reform

Askia Muhammad I (c. 1443-1538 CE) was the most important ruler of the Songhai Empire. He transformed Songhai into the largest empire in African history, implemented Islamic reforms, and promoted Islamic scholarship in Timbuktu.

Taqi al-Din Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah (1263–1328 CE) was a Hanbali jurist and theologian in Mamluk Damascus and Cairo. He critiqued speculative theology and practices such as tomb visitation, issued influential fatwas, and was imprisoned repeatedly. His writings shaped later Islamic reform movements.

Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (1838-1897 CE) was a revolutionary Islamic thinker and Pan-Islamist who advocated for Islamic unity, anti-colonialism, and reform. His ideas profoundly influenced modern Islamic political thought and inspired generations of reformers.

Muhammad Abduh (1849-1905 CE) was an Egyptian Islamic scholar and reformer who pioneered Islamic modernism. As Grand Mufti of Egypt, he reconciled Islamic teachings with modern thought and influenced generations of Muslim intellectuals.

The Indian scholar who founded the Tablighi Jamaat in the Mewat region during the 1920s. Trained at Darul Uloom Deoband under Mahmud Hasan, he built a movement of lay religious preaching that later spread across the Muslim world.

Nana Asma'u bint Usman dan Fodio was a 19th-century West African scholar, poet, and educator in the Sokoto Caliphate. Daughter of Usman dan Fodio, she wrote prolifically in Arabic, Fulfulde, and Hausa, and established an innovative women's education network across West Africa.

Nyai Ahmad Dahlan (born Siti Walidah, 1872-1946) was an Indonesian Islamic reformer who founded Aisyiyah, the women's wing of Muhammadiyah, pioneering girls' education and literacy programs across early twentieth-century Java and earning recognition as a National Hero of Indonesia.

Shah Waliullah Dehlawi (1703-1762 CE), pioneering Indian Islamic scholar and reformer who revitalized Islamic thought through synthesis of Islamic sciences, emphasis on ijtihad, and efforts to bridge sectarian divisions.

Sir Syed Ahmed Khan (1817-1898) was an Indian Muslim reformer and educator who founded the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh in 1875, which became Aligarh Muslim University. His Aligarh Movement sought to reconcile Islamic faith with Western scientific education.

A nineteenth-century Indian Sunni movement that set aside the authority of the historic schools of law in favour of direct recourse to the Qur'an and hadith. Led by scholars at Delhi and Bhopal, it was marked by its manner of prayer and an austere standard of interpretation.

A school of Sunni thought and practice that grew from the seminary founded at Deoband in northern India in 1866 or 1867. Its scholars combined the roles of jurist and Sufi guide, built a madrasa funded by public subscription, and made hadith the centre of religious education.

A movement of lay religious preaching founded by Muhammad Ilyas Kandhlawi in the Mewat region of northern India in the 1920s. Built on short preaching tours undertaken by ordinary Muslims, it grew from one rural district into a presence across much of the Muslim world.