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He argued that the Qur’an (4:3) permits polygamy only under the strict condition of absolute justice between wives. Since perfect justice is impossible for any human (cf. Qur’an 4:129: “You will never be able to be perfectly just between wives”), he concluded that polygamy is effectively forbidden in Islam. This contradicted the consensus of 1400 years of Islamic scholarship.
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He applied a hyper-rigorous standard for Hadith authenticity, rejecting many narrations accepted even by other Ahl-i-Hadith scholars. abdullah chakralawi
Chakralawi’s views generated fierce opposition from nearly all quarters of the Muslim community:
A Critical Analysis of Abū Rayyah's Perspectives on Ḥadīth Recording He argued that the Qur’an (4:3) permits polygamy
To understand Chakralawi, one must understand the Ahl-i-Hadith movement, which emerged in 19th-century India as a reaction against:
: He began his religious career immersed in the standard Hanafi jurisprudence and local Sufi traditions. This contradicted the consensus of 1400 years of
After facing severe backlash, social ostracization, and being forced out of his hometown by orthodox opponents, Chakralawi fled to Lahore. It was there that he established an association explicitly named (The People of the Quran).
remains a fascinating, if marginal, figure in modern Islamic thought. He pushed the Ahl-i-Hadith rejection of taqlid to its logical extreme by also rejecting Ijma , thereby attempting to return to what he saw as the purest, most rational form of Islam based solely on the Qur’an and rigorously authenticated Hadith. His controversial rulings on polygamy and apostasy demonstrate the radical potential of his method.
Chakralawi authored several books, mostly in Arabic and Urdu, to propagate his views. Key works include: