author
Cherágh Ali
1844–1895
A bold 19th-century Muslim modernist, he argued for reading Islam through the Qur'an and reason rather than inherited assumptions. His best-known work challenged popular ideas about jihad and helped shape reform debates in colonial India.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in 1844, Cherágh Ali was an Indian Muslim scholar and writer associated with Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan and the wider current of Muslim modernism. He is remembered for urging a reformist reading of Islam and for questioning the authority traditionally given to later religious reports when they conflicted with the Qur'an.
His most widely known book is A Critical Exposition of the Popular 'Jihád', in which he argued that the wars of Muhammad were defensive and that forced conversion was not supported by the Qur'an. He also wrote The Proposed Political, Legal, and Social Reforms in the Ottoman Empire and Other Mohammedan States, showing his interest in how Islamic thought and public life might respond to modern political change.
Cherágh Ali died in 1895. Though not as famous today as some of his contemporaries, his work remains part of the history of modern Islamic reform, especially in discussions about Qur'anic interpretation, law, and the meaning of jihad.