This article examines the discussion of core Islamic rituals in the writings of the influential eighteenth-century Sufi, hadith scholar, and jurist Shah Wali Allah of Delhi (d. 1762). It brings out the implications of Wali Allah's sustained concern with demonstrating how divinely mandated rituals serve human interests, not just at the individual but also at the societal and political levels. This aspect of Wali Allah's thought has parallels with how many modernists and Islamists in colonial and post-colonial South Asia have sought to explain Islamic rituals in terms of their social ramifications. But there are some significant differences between them, too, and these help shed further light on Wali Allah's distinctive theory of ritual.

本文考察了十八世纪颇具影响力的苏菲派、圣训学者和德里法学家沙瓦利·阿拉（Shah Wali Allah，卒于 1762 年）的著作中对核心伊斯兰仪式的讨论。它揭示了瓦利安拉持续关注的含义，即展示神圣授权的仪式如何服务于人类利益，不仅在个人层面，而且在社会和政治层面。瓦利阿拉思想的这一方面与殖民地和后殖民南亚的许多现代主义者和伊斯兰主义者试图从其社会影响方面解释伊斯兰仪式有相似之处。但它们之间也存在一些显着差异，这些差异有助于进一步阐明瓦利真主独特的仪式理论。