The Conclusive Argument from God: Shah Wali Allah of Delhi’s Hujjat Allah al-Baligha

The Conclusive Argument from God is one of the master works of Shah Wali Allah of Delhi, an important Muslim thinker of pre-modern South Asia. It represents a synthesis of the Islamic intellectual disciplines prevalent in the 18th century. In order to argue for the rational, ethical and spiritual basis for the implementation of the hadith injunctions of the prophet Muhammad, Shah Wali Allah developed a cohesive schema of the metaphysical, psychological and social knowledge of his time. This work provides an extensive and detailed picture of Muslim theology and interpretive strategies on the eve of the modern period and is still evoked by numerous contemporary Islamic movements.