In this groundbreaking study, SherAli Tareen offers the most comprehensive account of the longest running dispute in modern Islam: the Barelvi–Deobandi polemic. The Barelvi and Deobandi groups are two normative orientations with beginnings in colonial South Asia two hundred years ago, yet their differences haunt the religious sensibilities of South Asian Muslims today.

Tareen challenges those who see intra-Muslim contest through the prism of liberal-secular binaries like legal/mystical, moderate/extremist, and reformist/traditionalist. He argues that the Barelvi–Deobandi polemic was animated by “competing political theologies” – contrasting visions of the normative relationship between divine sovereignty, prophetic charisma, and the practice of everyday life. Based on a close reading of unexplored print and manuscript sources in Arabic, Persian, and Urdu, his book intervenes in Islamic studies, South Asian studies, and political theology.