In this sweeping and meditative essay, Saaleh Baseer traces the intellectual and spiritual legacy of Shah Wali Allah of Delhi, the 18th-century scholar who became the axis of Islamic thought in South Asia, and follows its reverberations through the centuries to Shaykh Amin Kholwadia, founder of Darul Qasim College.

Through poetic language, historical narrative, and philosophical reflection, Baseer illuminates how Shah Wali Allah’s synthesis of Hadith, philosophy, and Sufi metaphysics shaped not only the Deoband movement but also the contours of Islamic scholarship that would later take root in the West. The essay moves fluidly from Mughal Delhi to modern Chicago, exploring how one scholar’s intellectual vows of reconciling reason and revelation, the sacred and the social, found a living continuation in America through Shaykh Amin’s teaching and vision.

A rare blend of memoir, history, and metaphysical inquiry, How an Anglo-Gujrati Mufti Kept the Vows of Shah Wali Allah in America invites readers to rediscover the luminous continuity of Muslim thought, spanning from the sepulchers of Delhi to the classrooms of Glendale Heights.