Hyderabadi Muslims - Religion

Religion

The majority of Hyderabadi Muslims are Sunni. Sunni Muslims mostly follow the Hanafi school of Islamic Jurisprudence, although the Chaush community follows the Shafi'i school of thought and mainly reside in areas close to Barkas, the former Military Barracks of the Nizam, an area where the residents are mainly of Hadhrami Arab descent from Yemen. Islam in Hyderabad, with historical patronizing by the rulers, has a strong Sufi influence, the Tablighi Jamaat has also been active since at least the 1950s, with its headquarter at jama masjid mallepally. Salafis and Mahdavis also exist in small pockets. Bismillah ceremony a Islam initiation ceremony, held for children between the age 3 – 5.

Religious knowledge and its propagation flourished under the Nizam with institutions like the world famous Jamia Nizamia (Jami'ah Nizamiyyah) of Hyderabad. The largest Mosque of Hyderabad, the Makkah Masjid gathers congregations of two hundred thousand and more on special occasions of Eid prayers and especially of Jumu'at-al Wida' ( the last Friday of Ramadan )

Hyderabad has also produced many renowned religious scholars of representing different Islamic sects and trends, including Jamaat-e-Islami founder Abul Ala Maududi, Tablighi jamaat key player maulana abid khan sahab, Sunni Barelvi scholar Turab-ul-Haq Qadri, and Shia scholar Allamah Rasheed Turabi.