Naqshbandi Order

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.

Four Sufi orders shaped religious life in the Indian subcontinent: the Chishti, Naqshbandi, Qadiri and Suhrawardi. This article traces how they functioned there in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and how initiation into several orders at once weakened the identity of each.