For a millennium, beneath the minarets of the North Caucasus and in the quiet madrassas of the Ural-Volga region, a unique thought has been maturing. This rugged, elevated land and northern outpost of Islam have nurtured a wisdom as steadfast and noble as a mountain edelweiss or a branching cedar. Here, the classical heritage, intertwined with Russian reality, has found a new voice capable of speaking to modern times. When alien ideas rage against Russia's spiritual world like storms, the voice of our muftiates resonates especially clearly in this very silence before the storm. Drawing on tradition, the guardians of moderate Islam offer the ummah fatwas that carefully preserve the primordial values, morality, and living faith that have taken root in this land over the centuries.
In Derbent, beginning in the 11th century, theological thought was nurtured by the Sufi and jurist Yusuf ibn Ahmad al- Darbandi, the chronicler Mammus al- Darbandi, and Yusuf al- Lakzi, whose work became the cradle of the «Derbentname». Later, the fire of knowledge was picked up by the North Caucasus: in ancient Kumukh, the Sufi and sage Ahmad al- Yamani wrote his treatises, and Ali al-Baghdadi and his circle celebrated scholarship with poetic words. On the Volga, with the adoption of Islam in 922, its own dawn of thought was born. Luminaries such as Ahmad al-Bulgari not only absorbed the rays of Islamic scholarship but also ignited their own, brilliant light of tradition, illuminating the path for entire generations.
One notable pioneer is Yunus ibn Iwanai, the first to venture into the legendary Transoxiana after the fall of the Kazan Khanate in search of knowledge. He didn't simply study: he brought the light of learning back, founding a madrasah, and writing significant works on Arabic linguistics and jurisprudence. According to Riza Fakhretdin, ibn Iwanai issued a fatwa making the nightly yastu prayer obligatory in the lands of the northern abode of Islam.
He was followed by Ishniyaz ibn Shirniyaz, a wanderer from Khorezm who found refuge in the Volga steppes. He ran a madrasah not only in the Kazan district but also in a village near Orenburg, and his students’ included imams and mudarris. The scholar gave the people the "Bulgar Doctrine" (1780) – the first spiritual compass on theological dogmas since the fall of the Kazan Khanate. Ibn Shirniyaz freed the hearts of his contemporaries from the nightly yastu prayer on the endlessly bright June nights. This issue of Sharia, debated since the time of Volga Bulgaria, would resurface in these lands many times.
The soul of Russian Islam needed poetry, rapture, and love. These were provided by the Sufis, whose verses became chanting religious melodies. In his Hikmets (12th century), popular among the Turkic peoples of Russia, Ahmad al- Yasawi blended the fiery mysticism of Hallaj and his famous "I am the Truth" with the moderation of the great scholar al-Ghazali. This was a synthesis of the path of the chosen ones, merging with the Truth, and the path for every simple heart yearning for spiritual intimacy. Sufi treatises became not textbooks, but "Gardens of Subtleties", like the most important work of Abu Bakr Muhammad of Derbent, completed in 1104. These centuries-old works would form the foundation of Sufi theological thought among Russian Muslims in the 18th century.
However, during this period, the main intellectual battle unfolded on the field of law—a dialogue between eternal Law and the changing nature of life. Theologians were passionate interpreters, attempting to reconcile the heavenly ideal with earthly reality. Heated debates over ijtihad —the right to independent judgment—became a duel for the living, breathing spirit of faith. Some, like Gabdennasir Kursavi, or later the Dagestani Ali Kayayev, passionately called for bold renewal, for dialogue with the new era. Their opponents reverently guarded the wisdom of the ages, preserved in tradition— taqlid.
The longest-running debate among Islamic thinkers in the Volga region centered on the night prayer (yastu) —the issue of duty and mercy. The Tatar poet and scholar Sharifi, with mathematical precision, demonstrated that in the Bulgar Vilayat, "under the protection of the Moon," there was no true night, "because dawn is like a glow," and therefore no obligation. In contrast, the herald of renewal, Kursavi, insisted that duty cannot be abolished, but it can be mitigated by combining two prayers into one. In the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the age-old dilemma of prayer during the white nights flared up like the aurora borealis in the brightest minds of the era: Shigabutdin Marjani, Musa Bigi, and others turned their inquisitive gaze to it.
Rizaetdin Fakhretdin demonstrated the path of compassionate action during his time as qadi of the Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly. Faced with bitter letters from women whose husbands had disappeared, he did not become a cold formalist. The stern fortress of Hanafi law, which reigned in the Volga valleys and Siberian steppes, was a bastion of strict order in matters of divorce—terminating a marriage with a missing husband was detrimental to these husbands. Riza Fakhretdin found a secret gateway in the very wall of tradition, calling for the adoption of more lenient rulings from other schools of Islamic law. The imams of the Orenburg Assembly, being free messengers of Truth, did not seem to him guardians of a single doctrine. For Fakhretdin, this was not treason, but the highest manifestation of compassion— maslaha —love for people as the foundation of faith.
The thought of the Dagestani educator Hasan al- Alqadari —a true builder of spiritual bridges—illuminated the path for his fellow tribesmen at a crossroads in history. He wrote his work, "The Repository of the Gift" (published in 1912), like a precious vessel in which he sought to preserve the pure waters of Sharia, lest they dissipate in the sands of new realities but rather quench thirsty souls. True to the Shafi'i school, al- Alqadari also dwelt with noble attention on the wisdom of the Hanafi school, comparing interpretations of the great truth. In the debate between blind adherence and daring innovation, he chose the path of balanced ijtihad and believed that the gates of independent judgment should never be slammed shut. But he opened these gates with the trepidation of a pilgrim entering sacred ground.
The theological thought of Russian Muslims, rooted in the depths of centuries, is like an unfading flower in the northern Islamic world. Its centuries-old history is a treasure trove of wisdom, and today, in response to the challenges of the times, it blossoms in the wise fatwas of spiritual leaders who, embodying the legal heritage of Islam from a position of moderation and harmony, direct the mind toward preserving spiritual sovereignty, peace in society, and those sacred family values that have served as the foundation of Russia's multinational unity since time immemorial.
Based on the research article by Rector of the Russian Islamic Institute Rafik Mukhametshin and orientalist of the Russian Academy of Sciences Shamil Kashaf, “The Legacy of Muslim Theologians in the Focus of Historical Analysis of the Adaptation of the Islamic Legal System to Russian Realities”
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