A Political Analysis of The Saur Revolution
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Date
1986
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AREA STUDY CENTRE (CENTRAL ASIA), UNIVERSITY OF PESHAWR
Abstract
In Afghanistan, a Muslim State with a majority
of Hanafite Sunnis and a Major minority of Shias
besides a few thousands of Hindus and Sikhs, the
religion of Islam plays an important role in the
life of the people. A few hundred Jews lived in
Kabul and other cities but a majority of them mi -
grated to Israel in 1970s. The official Telipion,
declared or undeclared, was Sunni Hanafite Islam.
All the Abdali rulers adhered to this doctrine .The
Hanafite doctrine is, somewhat, flexible and lib -
eral. But the main cause is the pride that Afghans
take in the ancestry of Abu Hanifa al-Numan. His
grand father, Yauti, was taken from Kabul to Kufa
as a prisoner of war. He settled there permanent-
1y.! The Afghan State could maintain religious
harmony and tolerance for more than 230 years. The
Shariat courts established in urban centres usually
left Sectarian problems to be solved by traditional
means when services of the Sufi orders of involved
parties were invoked with political favours. The
State was almost closed to other ideas and doctrines.
‘Timur shah (1773-93) established an office
in his court to combat the Wahhabi doctrine ,“founded
by Mohammad bin Abdul Wahab (1703-91) as a
reform movement aimed at purification of Islam.
The Afghan Ulema considered it apostasy .? So much
so that even Syed Jamal-ud-Din Afghani did not
conceal his dislike for it. Referring to Syed
Ahmad Brelvi, the celebrated Syed says; "He
(Akhund Abdul Ghafoor alias Da Swat Akhun Sahib)
called the people for Jihad. Thousands of people
gathered around him. He was supported and aided
by the Indian Wahhabis of the party of Syed Ahmad
Wahabi, who had migrated due to fear of Indian
Sunnis and settled in Swat and Bunir."amir Abdur
Rahman (1880-1901) directed Ulema to combat Wah -
habism which he considered dangerous to his ideological
use of Islam.? The Amir banned the entry
of people from Arabia, even, of those who claimed
descent from the Holy Frophet, considering them
beggars or European agents.® Likewise propagation
of gadianism was also checked. Mian Abdur Rahman,
a qgadiani, was executed by suffocationnis orders.
Amir Habibullah ordered stoning of another gadiani
Mohammad Abdul Latif of khost to death in 1903.7
Maulvi Niamatullah Panjsheri, professing the same
belief, was stoned to death under the orders of
Amanullah Khan.