Maulana Taqiuddin expressed thanks to Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, ruler of Abu Dhabi for his steady support to a massive project of research on Sahih al-Bukhari, the most important text of Hadith. Shah Waliullah was the original source of inspiration, he said. He also lavished praise on the IOS for the singular honour conferred on him.

The founding Chairman of Institute of Objective Studies (IOS) Dr Mohamamd Manzoor Alam observed that Shah Waliullah was a watershed in the history of Islam and Islamic community in India. “Shah Waliullah clarified and canonised the Islamic heritage and its key concepts, beliefs and practices in an entirely new context, the context of decline of Muslim society and Muslim dispensation, the growing dominance of British colonial power and attendant missionary assault”, Dr Alam said.

The IOS instituted the award to sustain the Muslim religio-cultural heritage as best exemplified by Shah Waliullah in the not very distant past, Dr Alam explained. “Today is the logical and temporal continuation of yesterday, and tomorrow is the next step for today. IOS deems this perspective vital for our survival and prosperity. Hence, the emphasis on Shah Waliullah’s ideas and the institution of this award”.

He announced the next year’s essay topic would be “Sociology and Social Anthropology in Islamic Perspective.”

All India Milli Council president Maulana Abdullah Mughaisi said there were people who held that Islam came to India during the Prophet’s (PBUH) life. However, the most confirmed report says it came during Omar’s caliphate in the 15th year of Hijrah. Hadith studies came to India with that, he added. Hadith learning had begun in the 7th century AD itself. “There were generations of Hadith scholars before Shah Waliullah, but his period was the peak.”

In his presidential address the rector of Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulema, Lucknow, Maulana Rabey Hasani Nadwi, said that the centuries after the advent of Islam had been marked by a relentless expansion of knowledge. In the present times the rate of that expansion had accelerated. The work of Maulana Taqiuddin was part of that growth of knowledge. He had great appreciation for the work done by the IOS in the promotion of knowledge and support to Islamic scholarship along with its regular work in social sciences.